 Northcoast Woodturners Volume 9 Issue 4 April 2002 |
Calendar: April 6th May4th & 5thJudy Ditmer- 2 daysIn place of reg. meeting May 11thTurning Exhibition & contest at Woodcraft in Bedford May 25&26Soren Berger visit to Akron June 1stRegular Meeting
|
CONTACTS: Pres- King Heiple 216-464-2083 kingheiple@ameritech.net VP- Jim Pugh 440-458-6224 jpugh@eriecoast.com Secy.- Tom Heffernan 216-464-5383 theff7@att.net Treas- Jim Bohmer (330) 867-2482 gigibone@aol.com Editor: Thad Badowski 440-498-9636 tbadowsk@en.com
|
April Program
May: 2 day Demo by Judy Ditmer
Our regular May meeting will be a two-day demonstration by Judy Ditmer, from southern Ohio. Look for more details in next month.
May 11th- Turning Exhibition & contest
Mike Novak of the Rockside Woodcraft store is sponsoring a Turning Exhibition on Saturday, May 11, 2002. He wants to have people turning in the store shop all day, and it will be a good opportunity for both Buckeye and NCWT to show off their work and recruit members.To encourage a display of our best work, he is offering a Jet Mini-lathe and more prizes for the best turning(s) on show that day. You can bring in a turning early that day and then pick it up before closing or just get it in by 3 PM as judging will be at 4 PM, and you could take it home after that.
The demonstration this meeting will be on how to make Lathe Turned “Treen” for the Kitchen and Table by King Heiple. If you have thought that spindle turning was only about furniture spindles, candlesticks and maybe a lidded box now and then, here is another venture into slightly tricky spindle turning. It makes some very handsome and useful items. The projects combine a very thin spindle task with an extreme example of interrupted turning. The complete process will be demonstrated and a handout with technique and designs will be available.
The Club Challenge is a Lidded Box. Members can refer to the notes from George Raeder’s demo earlier this year, or do one of their own choosing.
Their will be two special raffles for Oneway Fundraising- see below:
Meet the New Addition from Canada and a special Raffle
The Northcoast Woodturner’s newest addition isn’t another member- it is our very own Oneway 2436 Mega-Lathe. Delivery was scheduled for last thursday, so the lathe should be ready for unveiling at this month’s meeting. We were able to get the lathe quicker because the Hartville True Value store had one in stock, saving us on shipping accross the border. Some additional accessories and options have been ordered, and are due soon.
The aqcusition of the lathe was made possible by a challenge gift from member Irving Olson, covering 1/2 of the lathe purchase. As detailed on page 4, the items turned by Bob Rosand during his demo will be raffled off to club members who donate towards the lathe.
Our regular raffle will be enhanced with some premium items (I hear the word ebony...) to also help raise funds for the lathe.
MEMBERSHIP SURVEY RESULTS
We had 62 members fill out the questionnaire, many incompletely. This probably represents 2/3 of our “hard core” membership. Outstanding! As you might expect, many did not answer all questions, so many times the totals under each question do not equal 62. You can usually find the number responding by adding up the numbers. In a few of cases I have inserted a comment after the question results. These are in italics, and are my opinion only.King Heiple
1. Years involved turning:
Less than 213
2 - 514
More than 535
our core membership is very stable with lots of long timers!
2. Principle activity in turning:
make shavings: 18
items for home:42
make gifts:41
craft shows: 22
semi-pro:3
3. Meetings attended in past year:
New member:7
1-3:4
4-6:7
7+:44
4. Self estimated skill level:
Beginner: 15
Intermediate: 30Advanced: 9
Semi-pro+: 9
5. What type lathe?
Don’t own:3
Full size:50
Mini:22
More than 1:26
Bandsaw:48
Grinder:49
6. Other hobbies:
Furniture: 25
Photography:21
Metal working: 10
Toys:7
Carving:6 Collecting woodturnings:6
Maybe another session on photographing your work would be worthwhile? Or “turning for furniture”?
7. Work with what woods?
Self obtained:52
Mid-west purchased:30
Other USA33
Exotics33
8. Average hrs./month woodturning :
less than 10:20
10-20:21
20-40:12
more than 40:9
I.e.: nobody really turns full time & 1/3 very little.
9. Most significant interests in turning: [listed in order of popularity]
Bowls:51
Boxes/lidded:40
Platters:36
Small proj.:32
Hollow/closed forms:31Miniatures:13
Turnings&Carving:12
Segmented:11
Sculptural/art:6
Gives us some idea of subject distribution for demos.
10: I would like to be more involved in club activities:
Yes18, [ 2 without a name!]
No:16
Their names and interests will be given separately to the Bd. of Directors.
11. Showing my work (show table):
Reluctant to bring14Bring at least 1x: 40
Bring 2-4x/yr15
Bring 8-10x/yr9
(Club challenge)
Bring 1x/year23
Bring 2-4x/yr13
Bring 8-10x3
12. Don’t bring to Challenge because:
Projects uninteresting:3
Not enough time:27
Too challenging:6
Intimidated by other work:16.
Don’t have wood / tools:2
The format and purpose of the Club Challenge needs to be examined. Most of this work would be seen on the show table. Do we have better use for this time. Probably uses about 15-20 minutes a meeting. How about picking from the show table, without regard to a specific topic?
13. Other activities I would like to see:
Club member reports: 22 Discuss shown work: 34 Sources for wood, etc. 31
Some real interest here. Either of first two would use at least 30 min. of meeting when done. Members would have to be active in taking slide photos at seminars, etc.
14. How often should we have an outside professional demonstrator?
Once a year:2Twice a year: 27Three x a year: 33
15. An outside demonstrator program should be:
Saturday only:19Sat/Sun:39 add a “hands on” day:19
It would appear that we strongly like the outside demonstrators for at least 2x and maybe 3x per year. Mostly for a two day program, but there is sufficient interest to support a third day for hands on once or twice a year.
16. Continue Saturday PM “fundamentals / beginners” sessions?
No: 1 [! ]
Yes: 53
1x/yr: 4
2x/yr: 28
3x/yr: 17
Obviously the club would like to see these continued at least 2x/yr. If several mini-lathes were brought in we could increase the number of people who could be accommodated.
17. How well do our present demos serve my interests: [1-10];
By club members: Aver. Score: 8.4
(with only 1 below 6!)By professionals: Aver. Score: 9.1
(with only 6 scores below 8.)
Apparently one of the most consistently liked parts of our meeting programs.
18. What I would like in future demos: (1st # is by a club by professional, 2nd by a member demonstrator)
Pro: Mem Topic
34 15 Basic tool skills
31 18 Faceplate, bowl and chuck turning
30 8 Spindle turning
25 24 Hollow turning and closed vessels
21 28 Design and aesthetic considerations
14 25 Sculptural, art oriented and multi-media turnings.
36 24 Project oriented: how to make-bowl, platter, lidded box, jewelry, pen, etc.
31 14 Wood selection, storage, preparation, etc.
33 17 Finishing, sanding, buffing, etc.
32 18 Equipment and accessory selection and use.
34 20 Making your own tools, jigs and fixtures.
Also mentioned: Multi-axis turning,
sharpening,
wood technology.
We like everything! But several seem at odds. Only the pros are allowed teach us about “art”,and we don’t want the pros to waste too much time on wood selection, finishing, etc when club members can do that and a surprising interest in homemade tools, jigs, etc.
19. Group activities you would like to see occur:
Charitable donations 20Club projects 20Club organized tours 24Also mentioned: Habitat for Humanity, Ohio VWT symposium, training youngsters.
Only 20 of our 62 responded to these. But since these do not use up much time of those not interested there would seem to be no reason not to include these in our future program activities.
20. Should we work to host a Regional Symposium.
Yes , with their name.8Yes , happy to see one occur, would attend, wouldn’t work on the project.18No, we are busy enough9
I am not sure I see a mandate here for the club to do this. It would take over a year to plan and bring off and more than 8 involved workers.
21. Selected General Comments:
• Doing just fine. Everything’s great, keep up what we are doing, etc 8 responses.
• Keep conversations down when pro is working
• Reposition video equipment for demos. Currently all we get are end on views. Plus members up front who then stand up is a MAJOR COMPLAINT.
• Limit membership to a size where all members can observe activities and be able to also hear all comments. Really not possible or desirable. Other solutions better.
• Start meeting earlier and run it longer. Could have some merit, problem getting store open earlier, longer would be no problem.
• Current officers don’t get respect from members at meeting. It may be helpful to be a little more in control but include members more in decisions. [but didn’t volunteer to work!]
• -Club trips: Arrowmont, Smithsonian
• More question and answer time.
• Turn-a-thon: get together and each turn something to be donated to a worth cause.
• Promotion of woodturning in the community. Sun Press, etc.
• Maintain a permanent collection to use for public display.
• Reach out to galleries, member participation.
• Way too much talking during demo’s and meeting. Very distructive to those who want to learn.
• Integrate demos & activities to the growing divergence of skill levels & project interests.Jim Duxbury has visited a club where they meet in three groups of three different skill levels! His question: how does anyone improve without being exposed to a higher standard. Would the 18 responders who consider themselves “advanced or better”, want to go off by themselves?
• Plus one scurrilous note asking the president to shut up [and didn’t volunteer to work]!
I would love to see us get is “state of art” mini video camera with remote zoom control on it and a mono-pod stand that could be put in the ideal position for watching most of each demo. And maybe even a second monitor. Nothing like thinking big!
Thank you all for responding and George Raeder for working up the questionnaire.
King Heiple
OPEN INVITATION for NCWT MEMBERS
On April 13th & 14 the Louisville Area Woodturners will have Clay Foster demonstrating at one of our club members shops. We would like to invite your club to come and spend a single day or both days if you like. Each day is $25.00. The times are from 9am to 4pm each day. Please let us know ASAP so we can reserve a your seat. We have room for about 40 more people. If you would like to sign up please send check to Louisville Area Woodturners (LAW) C/O CHOICE WOODS 451 Baxter Ave. Louisville, KY 40204. If paying buy charge card please call 888/895-7779 (CHOICE WOODS) toll free and you can give me you card number over the phone. Clay will be demonstrating different techniques of decorating the out side of bowls along with other techniques that he has learned over the past few years. Sign up early to reserve your spot. If you decide to come we can send a map.
Thanks, Clay Johnson, President, LAW
President’s Page- by King Heiple
Our Oneway lathe has been purchased!
If you were at the Bob Rosand demo you know we were ordering it. For the rest, due to the generosity and commitment of senior member Irving Olson and the good offices of Jim Bohmer, we have now been able to purchase our club’s full size Oneway 2436 lathe. We’ve also arranged for a wheel set, remote on/off and Stronghold chuck. We will have it in place before our May demonstrator, Judy Ditmer, and possibly even at this April meeting.Irv’s commitment is a dollar matching gift, to be matched by the club members with little if any coming from our present treasury balance. The total cost with shipping and installation will run just about $6,000! This announcement was greeted with enthusiasm and applause by the membership. We look forward to thanking Irv personally at the first meeting he attends when back from Arizona. During the next 10 minutes after our announcement, we got pledges of $100 apiece from at least 8-9 members and $50 from another 18+. Almost $1,900. At the next meeting we will continue to ask for contributions to the Oneway Fund, in amounts of $100/50/25, to attempt to complete the clubs $3,000 portion of this matching grant.Raffle for Bob Rosand items
Bob Rosand made 7-8 very lovely small items during his two day demo which he donated to our club for our raffle. We will have two raffles at the meeting. One, our regular wood, etc. raffle table with $2 tickets.The other raffle will have one ticket put in it for every $25 a member has pledged to the fund. [i.e. $100 = 4 tickets] and the first raffle will be for all the items by Bob Rosand, your pick. So be sure to come and get your checks, cash or pledges in before the raffle starts. Bring them to Jim BohmerThe members present on Sat AM at the Rosand demo were asked to fill out a club questionnaire to help in planning our future directions. 62 members did so, which a extraordinary response for our club, over 50%, certainly most of the “regulars”. The results are tabulated on pages 2&3 of this newsletter. Some as expected, a few surprises and hopefully helpful data. A bit much to mail out, hope to see you on Saturday. King Heiple, President
Road Trip: Members visit Southern Ohio mini symposiumby Marc Schreiber
Last month you saw a few of the pictures I took on the trip. It is now time for a more detailed description and critique of the seminar. I have attended only one AAW National convention, the one in Akron and this OVWG seminar was of the same caliber as that national. There were demonstrators from the Guild as well as internationally known turners such as Bob Rosand, David Ellis, Jacques Vesery, Lyle Jameson, and Mike Hosulak. I’m sorry if I left anyone out. There were about 8 attendees from our club.
The facility for the seminar was one huge room with a demonstrator in each corner and one in the middle. Dividers were present which isolated each area from the others. They were far enough apart so that each turner had privacy from all the others. There were two demos before lunch and two after lunch. If you attended each day you would have been able to see each turner once plus some of the OVWG members who gave demos. There were even demos on film and digital photography and lighting. Manufacturers and suppliers had tables set up throughout the room. Turning tools, exotic woods, tool rests, Oneway lathes and chucks, Jameson boring bars, Rockler’s, and Beall were a few of the items and suppliers available for browsing and purchase.
The instant gallery was setup in a separate room. Not a judged gallery. The only problem was that the gallery room was only opened for a limited period of time because the curator wanted to attend the demos and the room was kept locked when she wasn’t there.
Two types of living arrangements were available; private rooms which could sleep up to two couples or dormitory/open bay type of rooms with 4 double bunks with bathing facilities down the hall Dinner was served Thursday night before the event started, three meals were served on Friday and Saturday with a banquet Saturday evening. The banquet consisted of a prime rib dinner, auction, comments and slide shows by each of the presenters. A question and answer session followed each turner’s talk/slide show. Sunday the last day two meals were served. For institutional food it was very well prepared and presented. Each meal except the banquet was served buffet style, all you care to eat.
It is understandable why OVWG only puts this on every other year. A lot of work goes into an event like this which compares well with the national convention. It would be too much to expect this same group to conduct such an event each year. The facility they use is like a community unto itself. It is something that NCWT could think about doing in conjunction with other area turning groups in OVWG’s off years. I would definitely recommend attending the next one to all member of our group as a place to Meet new friends and learn some new techniques.