Woodbury Woodturners Club

Bill Baxter

Thursday 14th March 2019

By Bob Merrifield

It is with great sadness that we must record the death last week of our long standing President, Bill Baxter. He died peacefully at the RD&E Hospital on Thursday 7th March following a battle with cancer.

Bill was one of the seven original founding members of the club back in 1997 and has worked tirelessly on our behalf over the years, right up to the time of his death.

Many of the current members were taught the basics of turning by Bill out at John Bradford's ranch near Ottery St Mary and it was his knowledgeable and friendly approach that encouraged those members to stay with the club and to contribute to its activities.

In his time he saw the membership rise from the original 20 at the first full meeting to over 130 in 2019.

He was originally drawn to the hobby of turning by its 'portability', which allowed him to move around the country serving in the Royal Marines and to take his lathe with him. Ironically, he was never moved again but remained in the Exeter area, close to the club he founded.

Bill served the club first as Chairman from 2002 until 2009, at which point he was elected as the club's first President, remaining in post until his death.

He will be sorely missed by all who knew, loved and respected him.

His funeral will be on Thursday 21st March 1:00 PM at the East Devon Crematorium.

Address: London Road, Strete Raleigh, Whimple  EX5 2PT.

February Club Night and Competition

Friday 1st March 2019

By Bob Merrifield

Well, what a night! An excellent turnout of members and a record breaking 43 entries in the ‘Open‘ competition across all three Classes. 

NOTE:

You can find full details of the competition results here and current rankings here, plus many other photos from the night in the gallery. Don't forget that you can track your own results and ranking on your own profile page.  Don't forget to look at forthcoming Events.

Stephen Long showed how to sharpen tools with or without jigs. He gave away some sheets of tool angles and settings and for further help advised us to go to YouTube, 'How to Sharpen Wood Turning Tools' on the 'Robbie the Woodturner' site.

A lot of people showed interest and about 10 people brought tools in for sharpening to the correct angle. Once he had shown them, they were able to continue the work themselves.

Peter Johnson took his audience through finishing, step by step, starting with choosing a desired finish for their project, then making a suitable wood choice, e.g. steering away from open grain timbers if a high gloss is desired.

He then went on to stress the importance of sharpening before taking finishing cuts.

There followed good sanding practices, both hand and power, buffing and final finishing, with extensive discussions on what finishes could be used together, the merits of sanding sealer etc.

Many turned examples were displayed showing various finishes and combinations used. 

Overall it went well with Peter fielding masses of questions and consequently not getting through all that he had planned to do.

George Webb ruined several perfectly acceptable chunks of wood by colouring them (Apologies from our deputy editor, Raunden Braun).

He actually showed how colour could be used to add interest to woodturning. The approach was low tech and aimed towards new members of the club and those new to woodturning.

The approach was to spray wood stain through a diffuser to blend colours in warm and cold colour schemes. George demonstrated how the wide range of Chestnut wood stains can be used in sequence and blended to flow through the external curve of a bowl.

As well as the demonstration pieces there was a very wide range of other colour applications for discussion and explanation ranging from airbrushing to marbling.

Tony Bennett's  task on his 'hands-on' lathe over by the kitchen was to turn a bowl and to get as many members as possible, old and new, to participate. The number who had a go at turning was unbelievable. The evening seemed to go too quickly as there were a few more members who would have liked to try using a turning gouge but didn't get the chance.

Michael Merrett ran the Raffle as efficiently as ever and made £78 towards Club funds. He did, however, express disappointment at the small number of prizes contributed by members, particularly given the good turnout for the evening.

Richard Pegler juggled collecting the last knockings of the 2019 subs with selling some of Bill Baxter's surplus wood and paying out the odd expenses claim.

John Lacey supervised the Library and Keith Wilson grabbed passing members in an attempt to sell them 'absolutely essential' abrasives.

Thanks go to all those who helped out on the night.

On the competition front, special thanks to Graham Drury and David Whitworth without whom the event could not have been staged.

Thanks as always to those who came early to set up the lathes and to those who stayed late to dismantle them again and clean up.

Tea/Coffee and biscuits were provided by John Guilfoyle and his team, with their usual good-humoured efficiency.

A good evening was enjoyed by all who attended - Well Done!

Pepper Mills at Dawn

Sunday 17th February 2019

By Aubrey Dean

Members from yesterday morning's spindle training show off the fruits of their labour.

New Website Launched

Saturday 16th February 2019

By Aubrey Dean

I am pleased to announce that the long awaited new website is live!

So what's changed...

It has been re-written completely, to produce a system that can be updated far more easily (and quickly) by non-technical staff, and even members can upload their own photos to create galleries of their work for public display.

At first glance, it may not look like the new site provides much more functionality than its predecessor, but don't be fooled; there is a great deal going on behind the scenes. I won't bore you with the details, but everything is integrated which makes the data much easier to manipulate. This means pages like the events list are dynamic and won't ever display events from the past, and a panel on the home page listing dates for the next Xyz... event will always be up to date. This also means members can be emailed timely reminders for upcoming events including a detailed, auto generated, diary with the reminder. 

The Sales page has been renamed to Adverts and members can include photos with their advert description. In addition, members are notified by email when a new advert appears. The Forum menu no longer links to an external website; the new site includes its own. As per the Adverts, members get email notifications when new forum posts are made, so it is likely that a member asking a question will receive responses more rapidly. 

Any members starting to get concerned about the number of emails they think they might get need not worry though. Members can specify on their preferences settings which types of emails they want to receive.   

As mentioned above, members can create their own galleries. A dedicated contact page for each gallery owner allows external communication from anyone interested in a member's work. If desired, prices can be displayed against items too. For example, Graham Drury has added a new gallery already which should illustrate what's capable, including a profile page.

There are still a number of features yet to complete and, of course, the remote possibility that you might find bugs - especially if you are an Internet Explorer user! Please bear with me, as even with the extensive testing that has been done by myself and my mini-team of of helpers, it is likely that issues will arise.