Review: Club Member Demos – February 18th, 2024

At our February meeting we were treated to demonstrations by three of our club members.

German Smoker – Neil

Neil highlighted the need for PPE even for small projects. Neil wore an inexpensive set of protective glasses available from Amazon.

Neil followed the instructions from Colwin Way’s excellent book on turning German Smokers. Nots that Colwin has made several demonstration videos on making smokers on the Axminster Tools YouTube channel where you can also find a simple plan.

The smoker is made from individual parts: head, shoulder, knees and toes; or rather head, body, legs and feet, plus some arms.

Base

For the base Neil used a small piece of mahogany, cut to nearly round on a bandsaw, and held in large chuck jaws. The face is flattened using a bowl gouge. A recess is marked using callipers and created with a parting tool: Neil used a very nice Woodpecker parting tool. The recess is then hollowed out and flattened with a negative rake scraper.

A decorative bead pattern is made in the centre of the recess, and burnt in with a Formica piece or a wooden wedge. Now sand and finish: 400g max if painting, higher if using stains. Apply a sanding sealer, then melamine lacquer. Then apply Yorkshire Grit regular and fine to to increase the shine. Finally, apply microcrystaline wax (Renaissance, others available).

Next hold the base by a chuck jaws using the recess. True up the face and edge. Sand and finish as before. Drill two 6mm blind holes for the legs.

Feet

Neil used small pieces of wood with a 6mm through hole, which are sanded into shape using a template. Apply a slope to the front of the foot. Hand sand. Cut some short 6mm dowels. Tap the dowel through the holes and into the holes in the base.

Legs

The legs are turned from short lengths of square wood with a 6mm through hole. The small blank is held between a light pull drive and a tail cone drive. Taper the leg. Tap onto the dowels on the feet/base.

Body Base

The blank is similar to the base blank. Neil showed us an alternative holding method. A large dowel (taken from a rolling pin) with a glued circle of router matting pad is held in a chuck. The blank is then pressed against the dowel and supported with a centre in the tailstock. The edge of the base is rounded. Create a tenon using a parting tool. Hold in a chuck using the tenon. Turn a recess (for connecting the body) and drill four vent holes (for the incense burner) and two holes for the legs. Reverse the blank and hole in chuck jaws using the recess and remove the tenon.

Body

The body is held between steb centres. Round using a roughing gouge. Create a tenon. Shape the round for the shoulders of the body. Hollow out.

The head and arms are made in a similar way.

Live Edge Greenwood Bowl – Ray

Ray held a green cherry bowl blank between a steb centre and a cone drive held in the tailstock. Note that the steb drive needs to be supported by a flat surface which can be cut using a chisel or drill (see the picture below when the bowl is reversed)! The blank still had some pith which gets removed when the tenon is formed.

The blank is rounded. A tenon is formed with a dovetail, and a clean shoulder is made for the chuck jaws to rest against. Then Ray turned the actual foot of the bowl. The tenon will be removed later. Finish the bowl shape. To get a nice surface, use a push cut with the bevel rubbing. Try to do this in one go.

Reverse the blank in the chuck and hold by the tenon. if necessary, support by the tailstock using the hole made by the steb centre. In the picture you can see the flat surface cut away in the blank (to support the steb centre). Start to hollow out. Leave some mass in the centre. At some point you will need to remove the tailstock.

Turn to the final wall thickness near to the edge and gradually reduce the thickness towards the middle. Ray pointed out that green wood moves so you can’t easily go back and thin more later. Now remove the bulk of the waste. Keep the gouge clean as green wood will stick to it. Finish the inside using a shallow grind gouge with the heel ground away.

Sand using a rotary sander or a sanding pad in a drill. The tenon can be removed by mounting between a block with router matting and the tailstock.

Utility Project Pieces – John

The project kits used by John can be obtained from Prokraft.

Cheese knife with a turned handle

A small spindle blank is turned between centres. After rounding, John added a tenon suitable for small chuck jaws. The blank in held in a chuck and a hole is drilled to accommodate the cheese knife blade. Use the smallest hole that will fit the blade. John drilled a 6.5mm hole. Apply tailstock support. A second tenon is created. The blank is reversed and held in a chuck. The kit has a metal decorative plug so a small hole is drilled to fit this: this hides the mark made by the tailstock.

Now hold the piece using a light pull drive with tail cone support. Turn a spigot for the decorative ferrule. Now turn the handle shape. Burn in a decorative line. Sand. Finish with a food safe oil or a melamine lacquer. Tip: fit the blade the by placing it between pieces of cardboard, securing in a vice, and tapping in gently.

Sorry, I didn’t get a photo of the finished piece.

Resin handled letter opener

John used a resin pen blank.

Hand drill small centre holes at each end and mount in a chuck with tailstock support. Round using a mini spindle roughing gouge. Drill a hole for the blade. With resin don’t use a hole too small otherwise it will crack. Always use a low speed when drill as resin doesn’t tolerate heat. Check for a good fit. Shape the handle. Turn a recess at the chuck end with a parting tool. Round the end into the recess space. Taper towards the tailstock (blade) end. Add a groove feature. Apply a final finishing cut using a skew. Sand, starting with 400g on a slow speed.

Gradually enlarge the recess and refine the handle rounding.

After 600g you can sand using wet and dry or special abrasives up to 4000g equivalent. Always keep the abrasives moving to avoid heat. Finish with a specialist acrylic polish or use burnishing cream. John used a car polish. Use a hacksaw to part off and hand finish.

John didn’t part off the piece because he wanted to refine the finish.