Woodworking Expo wrapup

Yesterday was the 3rd annual Woodworking Expo in the parking lot of the local Woodcraft.  Our club had a booth that we used to demonstrate woodturning, promote the club, recruit new members, and socialize.

Over the course of the day I turned 5 bowls: 2 Sissoo, 2 walnut (both square), 1 Birdseye maple, a small lidded box out of Olive, a 3 sided spindle with a  120 degree twist, and a set of 3 mini hollow forms in Maple burl.  A very productive day.

Desert Ironwood Hollow form

There were probably about 20 booths total, including the Arizona Fine Woodworkers, ArizonaWoodcarvers, Festool, Sawstop, Freud, Easy Wood Tools, and a wood vendor.  They also had a woodworking contest with entries divided into 4 categories: woodturning, wood carving, furniture, and other.  I opted to enter 4 pieces into the woodturning category.  3 prizes were awarded in each category.  The pictures on this page are of my 4 entries.

Oak burl nested set

After seeing all of the entries I thought I had a really good chance to place, if not take first place.  There was some nice work, including several very nice segmented pieces.  I took 3rd place in the woodturning category 2 years ago and took 2nd place last year.  This year I had my heart and sites set on 1st.

Sissoo (Indian Rosewood) hollow form with Macassar Ebony pedestal and finial.

This year the judges were noted turner and featured demonstrator Ernie Conover and Easy Wood Tools owner Craig Jackson.  Last year the judges were David Marks and Marc Spagnuolo of The Wood Whisperer.

The prizes in the Woodturning category were announced first and my name was the first one they called.  The judges has selected this Spalted/Quilted Maple hollow form with Ebony collar (this photo shows a Desert Ironwood collar, I replace it with Ebony after this photo was taken) as the best piece in the category.  My prize was a variable speed Rikon mini lathe, worth about $350.  Last year I won a Supernova2 chuck with insert (~$175) and the year before a close quarters angle drill (~$60).  I still have and still use both of my previous prizes.  Is it too early to start thinking about next year?

Woodworking expo

Saturday is the annual woodworkers expo at the local Woodcraft. Our club will have a booth and I'll be there all day demonstrating and promoting the club. In order to demonstrate I need some wood prepared so I cut up a chunk of Sissoo tonight. I got 6 blanks out of the log section, I'll probably take the 4 smaller pieces, leaving the 2 larger crotch pieces to work on at home as I think they're better quality than I'd normally use to demo.













I'm also planning to do a trio of mini hollow forms. I've chosen to use a small piece of Maple Burl for the blanks. This is actually a small cutoff from the giant Maple Burl I bought almost exactly a year ago.


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Day 333: Hands on

Today was the July meeting of the Arizona Woodturners Association.  We had a special hands on meeting at the local Woodcraft and it was a huge success.  We had 8 lathes going most of the day, with several turning pens, a couple of turning demonstrations by J Paul Fennell (http://www.jpaulfennell.com/) and Paul Porter (http://paulporterwoodturning.com/).  I also did a little demonstrating, doing a pair of small hollow forms, one with wire brush texture and the second with some wood burning.  In my opinion the best part of the day were the 2 contests we held.  The first was to challenge club members to turn a small cylinder and to get the best cut they could get on some small spindle blanks that I provided.  They were free to use any tool and any turning method they wanted, the only rule was that no sandpaper could be used.  Some of the results were very good and one club member walked away with a maple burl for his work.  The second contest was a group contest, a relay race actually.  We had club members signup for teams of 3.  Each team was provided an identical block of wood and the first member of each team turned for 15 minutes.  They then handed off to the second member of each team who also turned for 15 minutes.  The third team member then took over for the final 15 minutes.  The only rule was that team members were not allowed to talk to each other before or during the relay.  The finished pieces were then judged and the winning team declared and the winning team members won a small prize.  I initially planned to judge the contest but when the third team ended up with only 2 people when the relay was ready to start I jumped in to anchor their team.  Things went well until the last 90 seconds of my time when I had a monster catch that nearly ruined our bowl. The last 60 seconds was a frantic effort to save the bowl and trying to get it finished.  I ended up running out of time and wasn't able to get the bottom finished.  Had I gotten it finished I think we might have won.  I think the catch was a matter of 2 different factors, unfamiliar tools and a large check in the wood.  I'm not saying that it wouldn't have happend with my own tools or with a marginally better piece of wood - catches happen to everyone - but both of those factors together plus the fact that I was rushing was asking for disaster.

Day 332: Mystery project

I started working on a mystery project today.  No photos because they would give it away.  I will say that it took a trip to Sears, Home Depot, and Radio Shack to gather materials.  I'll also be picking up a few supplies at Woodcraft tomorrow but progress today was brisk.

Tonight I started to get ready for tomorrow's meeting.  It's a hands on event at Woodcraft and I'm planning to do a couple of short demonstrations.  I plan to hollow a pair of small hollow forms and then texture one and burn on the other.  I've roughed out the exterior of both forms and got most of my stuff packed up.