The July 2020 meeting is set for Wednesday, July 22 2020 at 7 PM on Zoom. Jim Cerra will send out the Zoom link ahead of the meeting.
Category: Meetings/News/Events
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Pen Turning Demo
Hosted by NJ Woodturners on Zoom. Jun 27, 2020 at 10:00 AM. Check your email or contact Jim Cerra for the link.
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Steve Antonucci Bowl Demo
Steve Antonucci will demo “From Log to Bowl” via a NJ Woodturners hosted Zoom. Jun 22, 2020 07:00 PM. Check your email or contact Jim Cerra for the Zoom link.
Categories
Jim Cerra Arbortech Demo
Jim Cerra will be demonstrating his new Arbortech power carver in a NJ Woodturners-hosted Zoom meeting on Jun 20, 2020 at 10:00 AM. Check your email or contact Jim for the Zoom link.
A full video of Jim’s demo is available on YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2dXZSvKlg2g
Our June meeting had a surprise visitor: Graeme Priddle (tan shirt and flip flops) was in town to teach at Peters Valley over the weekend, and joined us a couple of days before his class began (as opposed to wild Peters Valley nightlife 😉Our group assembled on the second Wednesday of June. This is the final meeting that will occur outside the normal “first Wednesday” meeting rule. Our next meeting is going to be July 6th at 7PM and we will follow this schedule for the rest of the summer.
We welcomed Graeme to the meeting and he joined us at the Show and Tell, even displaying and passing around some of his work. Tony brought an interesting piece of pierced work that displayed great technical skills. Richard is seen here evaluating Tony’s sphere.Clearly, the wow factor was Mike’s piece of big leaf maple that was turned and carved. Mike described a process of using the lathe to hollow and then refine the shape with power carving and power sanding techniques. It is as big as it appears.
During the meeting, Ed brought up an opportunity to work with Grey Towers in two ways. Firstly, in contributing work from the black locust that Ed brought. If you took a piece (we know who you are…), you should be ready to bring a finished piece to the August meeting. One piece will be donated to Grey Towers for fundraising in exchange for the opportunity to work with this historic wood. Please do your best work.
In addition, we will be looking at staffing a day at the Grey Towers Festival of Wood event. More as that evolves, but in short, it is an opportunity to work in the public eye and recruit new members to join the Water Gap Woodturners. It looks like it could be a lot of fun.
Ed also had a bowl in a chuck with some cracking. We’re hoping he can save it by appealing to the turning gods.
Finally, the demo of the day was again given by Steve. Using a hook tool, Steve quickly cut a jamb chuck for a scoop and hollowed out the bowl with a gouge lent to him by Graeme. It was a team effort, and the scoop is an easy project that utilizes lots of different techniques. It would be fun to see how many scoops come from the demo, or if the techniques can be leveraged into other projects (hint, hint!)
In July, we will try to nominate a new Executive committee. Here is your chance to get a big fancy title. All of the roles are open for volunteers, and none of them pay particularly well, but you can put it on your resume and that’s good for something. Step up and volunteer!
Until July- be safe and have fun!
Once again, our photographer didn’t show up so we’ll have no pictures for this entry. Please feel free to volunteer for the unofficial title…
The Water Gap Woodturners pitched in to help the Peters Valley Wood Studio reorganize and get ready for the 2011 season. I’d like to thank the folks that lifted and tugged all of that heavy equipment around and repositioned into a more turning friendly shop. When we left, there were still a few kinks to work out, but I am sure that Jim Whitman appreciates all of the man power we brought to bear.
In addition, you will also notice that the big Vega Lathe is no longer in the way! YEAH!
We will be getting together in June on the 8th (not the first, as I have a prior commitment and the only key to the shop 🙂 The topic is TBD.
In the May meeting, we began by discussing the topic of the upcoming David Ellsworth lecture. It was agreed that we would fund it in the amount of $100. Ed had suggested that we contact Kristen with regards to holding a raffle to recover some of the costs, but Kristen informed me that Peters Valley doesn’t hold a gaming license. Instead, we will be silent auctioning off the bowl gouge donated by Doug Thompson of Thompson Lathe tools with a starting bid of $85. The retail cost of this gouge is $110 in the 16″ handle, and if it doesn’t get the minimum bid, we will take it back to the Water Gap Woodturners for another function.
On the topic of Doug’s tools, we did raffle off a nice Thompson Spindle gouge and the winner was… ME! After a fine celebratory dance worthy of Youtube fame (thankfully, no pictures taken), we took advantage of the new layout to practice making tops. Got to get everyone ready for the December meeting, so practice, practice, practice!
Until June 8…Safe spinning!
P.S. If you happen to be ANYWHERE in the Peters Valley area, check yourself for ticks…they are everywhere this year!
P.P.S. The correct term for the item Peter brought was a molinillo (I think I said molinaro).
The Water Gap Woodturners finally caught a break after the winter and got together in March at the Peters Valley Wood Studio. The road was “passible” and 8 hearty individuals came up for a deep dive on the ins and outs of hollow turning. After the discussion of business and the fact that there was an issue with the chimney and we couldn’t run the heat, we did our usual Show and Tell. Of course, there weren’t any pictures, so it never happened!
The topic for the day was hollowturning, lead by yours truly, Steven Antonucci. We defined the term hollowform as a vessel that the opening is less than 1/3 of the major diameter of the vessel, and then proceded to talk about how to make tools, measure, and the proper techniques for getting the insides out. The diagram at the right describes the cutting sequence and oddly resembles a set of Sorby Calipers?
With the shop heat only being provided by 2 small space heaters, we decided to make the day less hands on and more demonstrative. Unfortunately, the vessel didn’t make it off the lathe in one piece, but the viewers agreed that it was valuable to watch how the insides were cut without that little hole at the top. Substantially easier to clear shavings too…
In the end, we parted with a mission for all of the attendees to try hollowing at least one time. I can’t wait to see the next S&T.
In closing, we’ll be getting together one last Saturday before the Peters Valley season begins in May. We are looking for members to step up and demonstrate at the next meeting. Any and all topics are welcome and appreciated. Turning experience not necessary.
Then, you can have your demo picture posted in the blog like this little beauty:
See you in April.
Safe spinning.
Happy Holidays to and from the Water Gap Woodturners. On December 4th, a great group of people got together for a Holiday party and to make a bunch of toys for the Marine Corps Toys for Tots Program. Thanks to everyone that contributed and made the event the amazing success that it was!I was going to write a lot of gushy stuff about how much I appreciate the folks that stepped up, but I decided that I’ll just share some of the picture that Jim and I took (mostly Jim!)
Al works the spray booth.
Eyes and carrot noses pile up
Steve turns a cup…who is doing the assembly?
Dick makes some wheels for the trucks
It had better snow soon, cause we’ve got some snowman parts!
Our tops are tops, and our ball in cup toys are mesmerizing
Jim in the color finishing area…
Izzy busy? You know he is…
I never thought we’d get through all of this material…
And I never thought we’d get through all of this food!
Richard is focused, Joe is listening to Christmas songs, and Peter is ducking a photo op…
Tony is the final quality gate for assembly…
Wil and Harvey hard at work.
Santa’s elves form a production line…
Our next meeting will be in a similar format. I still have to get an OK from Jim Whitman at Peters Valley, but assuming that is not going to be a problem. We will meet at the shop around 1 PM on January 22nd until we are through (no lunch this time, so be prepared or eat first) and we will be back to our normal SHOW AND TELL followed by a hands on program (TBD). If you have any suggestions, send them my way…
Happy Holidays and safe spinning-
No pictures, so we can’t prove anything…
We gathered to a growing crowd of turners, and interested bystanders. As mentioned, anyone coming to a meeting and thinking about joining, here is your chance! Join now for 2011, and we will grandfather you in for the rest of 2010! The best deal in town just got better…
We kept our business and our show and tell to a minimum. The S&T was about 12 objects made from the cherry that Dick Plog had brought in 2 meetings back. Ed Brannon mentioned that we might want to do a similar event with the wood from Grey Towers as a potential fundraiser. Kristin Muller also sent me the following note about Grey Towers locust auction:
Subject: Historic Locust Trees from Grey Towers to be Auctioned
Hi: The attached press release has details about the US Forest Service auctioning off historic Locust trees from the grounds of Grey Towers National Historic Site, home of conservationist and PA Governor Gifford Pinchot, Milford PA. Perhaps your organization might be interested in bidding for use as a fundraiser, or you may have some craftsmen who would appreciate working with this material.
Feel free to contact us with any questions you might have….
Lori Danuff McKean, Assistant Director
Programs, Partnerships and Communication
USDA Forest Service
Grey Towers National Historic Site
P.O. Box 188
Milford, PA 18337
(570)296-9672
Please direct any questions to Lori at lmckean@fs.fed.us .
In addition, Kristin also invites us to the Sussex County Fall Harvest Festival:
Subject: FW: Revised Harvest Festival Registration form
Calling all Agritourism, Ecotourism and Heritage Tourism entities out
there! Sussex County is having a Harvest Festival on Saturday, October
23, 2010 at the Sussex County Fairgrounds and we’d like you to
participate. See the attached registration form. There is no charge for
this event. The Fairgrounds is providing us the use of the livestock
barns, so everyone will be under cover. This event will help get out the
word out about all the good work you do. There will also be fun
activities for the whole family and demonstrations by Peters Valley
craftspeople. This is Peters Valley’s 40th anniversary and they will be
celebrating with a separate dinner and auction (fee) that evening which
you can also register for. Feel free to pass this on to other relevant
organizations and individuals. Hope to see everyone there on October
23rd.
Donna Traylor
Sussex County Office of Farmland Preservation and Conservation
DTraylor@sussex.nj.us
Anyone interested in this event should contact Kristin (director@pvcrafts.org) and Donna about attending (I have a prior commitment.)
Our main topic of the evening was on how to build a lathe with matchsticks and ducktape. Since there were no pictures taken, you’ll have to take my word for it. Seriously, we need someone to be the official photographer or this blog will be pretty sad (although much easier for me, since I don’t have to edit pictures and layouts…).
Our main topic was finishing. Joe volunteered to lead session about finishing, since he had taken a workshop earlier this year and works at a cabinet shop. He walked us through a vairety of topics, including burning and wirebrushing to create texture, aniline dyes, and using scotchbrite pads to level the finishes. He also brought a “reject” from his days at Tiffany, and suffice it to say that we’d all want to be able to produce this quality work!
Our next meeting will be on November 3. As a reminder, it will include a show and tell as usual, but we are also going to be having a swap meet/tool sale/surplus inventory reduction. Bring in that stuff that you don’t use anymore and see if someone else might need it! Bartering, cash, trade- we’re all adults, and the rules are simple: if both parties are happy, it’s a deal.
Time permitting, there will be a short demo TBD on something… I reserve the right to make up something on the spot…
Safe spinning-
Steve
Water Gap Woodturners 