Central Ohio Woodturners meeting, April 12, 2011

Walt Betley, my neighbor across the street, is the turner who first encouraged me to try my hand at woodturning.  He's going to be 90 in just a few months and is still actively turning.  Mostly he is doing small projects these days (e.g., pen turning).

He was to do a demonstration for the February 2011 meeting of the Central Ohio Woodturners, but Mother Nature decided to dump a bunch of snow on Columbus that day and so the meeting was canceled.  He was rescheduled for this month.

I've had a really difficult time getting to the club meetings this past year.  Mostly that is because I have band practice that night with Aisling, the Irish band I've been in since 1997.  However, I made sure that I was able to make it to the meeting for Walt's demonstration. 

Walt always seems to have a great time at the club meetings.  I'm not sure what he was laughing about here, but it must have been good.

Walt took a few minutes during the business meeting to pitch a project in support of our troops overseas. 

During the break between the business meeting and the main program, everyone takes a look at the show and tell tables.

This month there was also a President's challenge on turning eggs.  There were some interesting ideas presented.









Some of the show and tell session is informal; just a few people taking a close look at a project.

Walt's topic for his demo was inside-out turning.  He did some explaining before he started the evening's project.

He had a few finished pieces and some works in various stages to show the layout, the use of a story board, and his process of measuring.

There was a pretty good crowd gathered to watch the demo.

There were also a lot of questions from the group.

One of the most important tools for this kind of spindle turning is a good caliper.

We use a LCD projector to show the action so that everyone can see what's going on.

Standing room only.

While Walt was doing the main demo, there was a beginner's corner demonstration on methods of sharpening.

We're using a couple of technical labs over in the Ag-Engineering building.  They are well-equipped and I bet the students who work there enjoy that environment.

 Close-up of one of the tools Walt uses.

Working the camera angles.

OK - now it's time to do the turning.

More Q & A

The fun thing about inverse turning is that you have to be able to visualize what the final product will be as you are doing the turning.  The blank is four square pieces glued at the ends.  The design turned on the exterior surface ends up being a silhouette on the interior surface.

After the turning demo, Walt passed around some completed projects and the demo piece.  It was an interesting demo, and I enjoyed watching Walt turn.