1

2016

Cambium

June

Publication of the © Guild of Woodworkers, Wellington Inc.C/- John Spittal, 2 Waterford Drive, Johnsonville, Wellington

www.gww.org.nz

ISSN 2463-3755 Issue no. 186

1

Contents

Meetings & Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Jim on Manawatu Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Manawatu 2016 Open Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Ornamental Turning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Lynn Woodwork Museum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Round up - of Guild groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Meetings & Events

7 Jun Stone Carving - Sam Hillis and Archie Kerr

5 Jul Wood finishing. Lew Skinner

25 Jul - 7 Aug Woodcraft 2016, Odlin Gallery.

2 Aug Maori Carving TBA

6 Sep TBA

29 Sep - 2 Oct Woodturning International Symposium.

4 Oct Workshops and Insurance

Oct Workshop insurance.

Nov Apprenticeship talks.

Dec Christmas Party.

2

Jim on Manawatu Day

The editor, no, The Editor is onto me again. Time for another offering toCambium. I really am racking my brains this time for a topic. I haven’t hadmuch time in the shed recently. There has been a lot of work, some sickness,some helping out a son with University industrial design projects but notmuch construction or creation. The thing of recent impact was our attendance at Manawatu Open Day. I hadonly been once before some 6 or 8 years ago. Maybe longer. Time is trickylike that. And this time I seemed to be vaguely leading things. Despite animpoverished show on the table last Guild evening, a lot of folk rallied roundto finish and offer pieces for our table competition. The result was an excessand we made some quick executive decisions on the day whilst designing thetable display. The result was a fairly impressive variety of eclectic piecesarranged on the plinths and highlighted with greenery. We didn't manage topersuade the judges a fourth time and Manawatu won the cup this year. Theirtable stood out, as ours used to, because they had something different, namelya tailored black table cloth which hung in neat pleats to the ground and whichlooked quite elegant when simply adorned with some red maple leaves. Thisgives me some ideas for next year.

Michael H did cover himself in glory by winning the best non turned piecewith his model theatre. Eric also shone by winning the mystery competitionfor us, using his extensive botanical knowledge to correctly identify 11 of 12leaf / twig combinations. Very impressive - and the competition was good funI thought. The turning team put up a good effort but the challenge to make3 identical, 5 part plate stands was won by Stratford, I think. We had a goodtime nonetheless. Jim H very kindly brought along a huge bacon and egg pie for communalsharing amongst the Wellington crowd at lunchtime, which was delicious andgratefully received by all who managed to get their hands on a piece. A greatgesture on his part. There was a decent sized bunch of Wellingtonians thereon the day and I had the impression most were enjoying themselves. Tradestalls were doing good business and I, naturally, succumbed to more toolpurchases. But I did resist the timber. All in all, a decent day. Despite the 4 hours in the car [I don’t like driving

3

much these days], I enjoyed the day and would hope most others from ourGuild did as well. It lead me to think that we could gain a few ideas fromManawatu. We don’t want to copy them but there are things we could maybeadd to a Woodcraft type day. If anyone out there has ideas as well, pleasecome forward. Richard Holt is desperate to run Woodcraft this year so itwould be good to rejuvenate Woodcraft and maybe add something new. Talking of something new I was interested in peoples thoughts on the idea ofsome premises for the Guild. A venue. A workshop come meeting room.Somewhere we can put a lathe or two, a workbench, hold a demonstration,meet of an evening or weekend, store timber, have a cup of tea with fellowmembers, host an interest group - etc etc. I think it would be good for theGuild but it would be a lot of work and wouldn't happen quickly. Findingpremises and money may both be slow. Anyway, I put the idea out there andfolk can ponder. Please feed back if you so wish. With that parting thought,I will close. As always, happy woodworking. PS. Please be getting some pieces together for the Odlins exhibition in July.JRA

Manawatu 2016 Open Day

Jim has well described ourouting to Manawatu; herebelow are the results thatwe gleaned from the localGuild. They seem to haveomitted (could it bemodesty) that they took thebest table of items this year.... good to see the hometeam take the honours.Herewith is a picture of ourown table on the day.

Scroll off - cutting out a pattern against the clock, was won by Stratford. The 5 Minute Competition - Manawatu seem to shroud this event in mysteryuntil you come to take part. In this instance, 8 boxes covered sample twigs &

4

leaves from a range of trees, that were to be identified. Wellington took thisevent after a tie-breaker .... this was perhaps largely due to Eric, rather thanthe rest of us.Colt Lathe Competition, award wastaken by Stratford. This attracted a smallcrowd of onlookers behind the safetycordon; keen to find out what wasreally going on. On this occasion,woodturners needed to form a platesupport stand making a series ofintersecting dowels. As this their way inthis event, those making smaller dowelsin the second stage, were not given theparts form the 1st stage to marry upcomponents.

The Wellington Cup for Best NonTurned item, came home to Wellingtonthanks Michael Harrison, with histheatre model.

Judges Choice:Mike Walker (jnr) with a winged platter, Manawatu. Runner up, Bruce Cowley, screw lidded box, Stratford. Overall winner, Roy Miers, kauri platter from kapiti.

Driving up the Kapiti coast on the way to Palmerston North as the sun rises,and then seeing the sun setting on the way back, all seems to be a worthwhileand full use of the day.

Ornamental Turning

The Screw Lidded box with a tuned pierced lid by Bruce Cowley (mentionedabove) drew a fair bit of interest; for instance, ‘how do you do that’To help answer such a question, Tony has revived a previous article to helpexplain the methodology.

5

The Eccentric Cutting Frame is a toolthat rotates and the circle path inwhich the cutter takes can increasefrom a centre point to approximately2” in diameter.

The cutter comes in many sizes,Shapes, radii, Taper points, and Chiselshaped, from .010”to .250” wide.

This article describes how to use theEccentric Cutting Frame to cut a simpleEccentric pattern. (See fig.)

After selecting the piece of wood orsimilar material you want to cut thepattern on you place it in the lathe andturn the Surface flat.

Now set the Eccentric Cutting Frameparallel to the surface, this is importantbecause when the cutter completes acircle cut the cut must be the samedepth all the way around.

Next you find the centre of the piece tobe machined, Place a piece of paperonto the surface and rotate the chuck,using a pencil to mark the centre.Now rotate the Eccentric CuttingFrame and adjust the cutter to rotate oncentre and adjust the height of thecutter until it rotates on the centre marked on the paper.

6

Determine the size of the circle youwant to cut and set the Eccentric cutterto the radius and have the cut passingthrough the centre of the piece to becut. (Marked on the piece of paper.)Remove the piece of paper.Now set the cutter onto the surface ofthe piece and set a stop on the lathebed using a .010” shim, so when thecutter comes to the stop you will cut adepth of .010” into the surface.Make sure your cutter is clear fromyour work at all times unless you aretaking a cut, because one small mark orcut can ruin your pattern.

Now set up your Indexing plate (asseen in these 2 pictures)

(1) Decide how many circles in thepattern you want e.g. 10.(2) Pick the number of holes in witch10 will divide into e.g.120(3) Set indexing pin into zero hole ona 120 hole plate.By moving the indexing pin 12 holesat a time you will create a pattern of10 circles around your piece.

Start your first cut by setting indexingpin on zero, start the cutter rotatingand feed it slowly into the surface untilyou reach the stop and back out again.

Move the indexing pin 12 poles and repeat process until all the circles are cut.

7

Make sure you have cut all the circles in the pattern. This might sound sillybut when you get to complicated patterns it is very easy to miss out one cutand after you take the work piece out of the lathe you will not get it back inline to cut again. Tony Pemberton

Lynn Woodwork Museum

If you are down south and nearAsburton I strongly recommend avisit to the Lynn WoodworkMuseum. The Museum wasestablished by Bob Lynn, who spenta lifetime working with wood. Bobdeveloped a special interest inpreserving the ancient crafts of RoseEngine, Swash and OrnamentalTurning, as well as preserving theearly tools used by woodworkersbefore the industrial revolutionmechanised woodworking.

It contains an amazing collection of over5000 woodworking tools, dating back tothe 1600’s. You name a tool and theywill have interesting examples. Iparticularly enjoyed the displays ofhistoric planes.

For turners, There are wonderful andrare examples of lathes - for example anHoltzapffel Lathe. Holtzappfel was a pre-eminent maker ofhigh quality lathes and an extensiverange of tools, This is typical exampleof a treadle powered lathe.

8

This head-stock belongs to the Bower Rose Engine Lathe built about 1824.The head on a Rose Engine Lathe is not fixed but can move creating a wavepattern on the work. As well there are many examples of work turned onthese amazing lathes.

For more information see http://lynnwoodworkmuseum.org

And if that is not enough ...t he re a r e o v e r 5 000woodworking books to peruse atyour leisure. Lew

Round up - of Guild groups

Wood carvers

We had another good turnout atthe Guild carving session thisTuesday evening. Seven keenchisellers including some tryingout at an early stage in theircareer. Some were doing theirown thing and Trevor wasconned into working on thepole for the Otari Reserve. Thefirst one is almost finished andwe have emphasised thecarvings by painting them in a traditional brown. Though I say it myself, itis looking pretty good and I'm sure they will be pleased with it.

9

The next pole has been prepared by removing the bark. Being a metre longerit will take even more imagination to cover in images. Archie

Wood-turners Group

Denis reports that the past Saturday morning sessions have haddemonstrations to turn some plates and a number of eggs. He has also shown the use of Jam chucks and Cole jaws, being used holdtimber to turn spheres.

Some of the next sessions, are perhaps likely to look into the varying formsof mouldings used for Spindle turning.This is just a ‘maybe’ .... this all depends on what members would like toexplore - Denis is looking for some feedback or suggestions of ideas ortopics on what you would like .....

MENZ Shed, Monday afternoons

The Guild’s session at the MENZ Shed on Monday afternoons has now beengoing for over a year. The door is open at 1.00 pm and when two people arepresent work commences. The number of Guild members present varies between three and five and hasbeen known to be up to seven, some coming and going during the afternoon.Michael

Recent Bodging news In mid March we welcomed Sean Genter and James Kay for a green woodworking session at Mangaroa Valley. James has experience working in Britainwith Mike Abbot and Sean, who works as a builder, is keen to find outeverything that we do. At the Manawatu Open day on 15 May we took a couple of chairs and trugs

10

along, and these generated some interest. A Windsor chair may start out withgreen wood components but the joints are assembled dry, and are glued, sothe construction technique is quite different to that used for the post and rungchairs where shrinkage and clever design holds everything together. Our next event will be blacksmithing at Cairns, 178 Mangaroa Valley Road,Sunday 12 July, 9am start. Self catered, so please bring lunch etc. For safetyreasons and relatively confined space, this will be limited to 8 people. Please, no lead or zinc near the coals as not only are the fumes toxic, it alsoaffects the properties of the forged steel. Bookings to Eric on 04-5267929 or email cairnse@paradise.net.nz

On 10 July we will be trug making, at a venue to be decided. Eric

11

Guild ContactsSUB-GROUPSCARVERS - Coordinator: Sam Hillis, 529 7105Meeting at Naenae Mens’ Shed - (3rd Tuesday 7-9pm)

HUTT TURNERS - Coordinator: Denis Newton 977 5650Meet Naenae Mens’ Shed, 1st Saturday after Guild meeting 10am –12 noonGREEN WOODWORKERS - Coordinator: Eric Cairns 526 7929FURNITURE GROUP - Coordinator: Lew Skinner (2nd Tuesday) 475 7613

Remember that these groups are for you and are open to anyone in theGuild. They provide you with an opportunity for more fellowship and achance to further develop the skills that you already possess.

Guild CommitteePresident Jim Armstrong 562 8554Secretary John Spittal 478 3164Vice President Lew Skinner 475 7613Membership Sec Warwick Smith 233 8042Treasurer Peter Johnston 476 7942

Peter Whitehead 476 7227Michael Harrison 479 9302Brian Cropp 938 8020

Library Pierre Kunz 934 1027Webmaster Graham Weir 569 2635Cambium Editor Nick Crocker 479 0404

Life Members : Denis Newton, Neil Gandy, Ken Cox, John Spittal, HughMill, Archie Kerr, George Brown

Address for Editorial Correspondence :- 34a Govind Grove, Ngaio, Wellington. alopex@actrix.gen.nz

Articles even covered by legal ‘Copyright’ may be used by other woodworkers’Guilds, Clubs or groups, but please acknowledge the source.

© Guild of Woodworkers, Wellington Inc.