Next Meeting -August 30th, 2018

 (Following meeting - September 27th)

MEETING LOCATION AND TIME

The chapter meets on the last Thursday evening of each month from 6:30 - 9:00 PM at the Handley-Meadowbrook Lions Club, 6013 Craig Street, Fort Worth, Texas 76112.

Visitors and guests are always welcome to attend our meetings. The Handley-Meadowbrook Lions Club is about 1.5 miles south of I-30 on I-820 S. exit Craig Street (Exit 30a).

July 2018 Topic

Ken Rodgers

worchest2 1worchest2 2I am from Lubbock but have lived in Richardson for the last 42 years. I started turning in ’91 and joined WNT almost immediately. This was in the Ft Worth Paxton Wood store days. Clay Foster and Larry Roberts were my main “go to” guys when I had questions. A few years later, in the 1st Mike Wallace shop days, we got our first camcorder, eventually spelling the doom for the 45-degree giant mirror (YEA)! I immediately got involved in the video operations. That effort migrated to the yearly meetings of the Texas Turn or Two (now SWAT). For several years I was the A/V manager for SWAT.

In ’96 a few of us started the Dallas club and for several years I was active in both WNT and DAW. I have done demos at all four area clubs and SWAT. You can see samples of my turnings in my gallery on the DAW Website: http://www.dallaswoodturners.com/Gallery/tabid/91/AlbumID/471-12/Default.aspx

 My other hobbies include Ham Radio and flying R/C model planes. My real airplane flying days are ancient history. I also enjoy golf (some days), building solid body electric steel guitars (one was turned between centers on my lathe), playing guitars and fiddles, and videoing airshows. Search YouTube “krodg41” for samples of my airshow videos at Addison and Alliance airports.

I enjoy turning natural-edge goblets from odd-shaped tree limbs, saving them from the landfill. John Horn challenged me to learn how to add interlaced loose rings to my goblets. That is what I will be demonstrating for WNT in July. I will cover the goblet turning basics but will focus mainly on the interlaced loose ring aspect.

 

 

Meeting Photos March 2017

Click on Image to see rest of photos. Image info is located on next photo.

MONTHLY PRESIDENT'S NOTES

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  After another round of knee problems and too long in the recliner with feet raised and an ice pack applied just to sleep, I got back to the shop. The first thing I did was to clean the area around the lathe, clean and lubricate all moving parts on the lathe and sharpen my most used tools.  I had promised friends two plates and had the blanks centered and cut into rounds.  Mounted on a screw chuck, I quickly had the plates roughly shaped and applied the finish cut. I put on my dust mask, turned on the exhaust fan and in no time the sanding was done and the plates were ready for a final finish.  Once done, I thought to myself, “Wow, that was easy!  How come?”.
  I had everything prepared, and was quickly  ‘in the zone’.  Usually I just push the clutter to one side and work amidst the mess.  And I only stop to sharpen the tools when they start to get dull.  It was great getting back to the shop and even better to have maybe learned something in all that down time:  Be prepared!
 
  Speaking of being prepared, are you ready for SWAT?  A great woodturning symposium and only two hours away!  Can’t afford the time or expense, think about a day pass @ $120/day.  Friday’s action starts at 10:30 and ends at 5:30.  Saturday‘s rotations starts at 8:00 and ends at 5:30.  Check out the website at www.SWATurners.org for registration info.
 
  Congratulations to the winners of the SWAT scholarships:
 
Scholarship provided by SWAT
Keith Adams
Scholarships provided by WNTX
Lewis Hill, Jr.
Jim McGregor
Damian Doubrava
Don York
 
I look forward to seeing you all there.
 
Closing words:  Challenge yourself.  During my down time, I watched numerous woodturning videos on utube.  A lot of them are titled something like “turned a high dollar vase from firewood” They challenged themselves and sometimes won and more than likely sometimes lost.  I’m lucky, I have a fireplace and a garden so pieces that don’t make can be burned and the chips make good compost after a while.  I am not a production turner so what I usually start with is far from kiln dried and lathe ready.  And I have learned a lot, like which woods are likely to make it and which are not.  But I enjoy pushing the odds and try to make something out of a loser.  Sometimes it works and sometimes not.  I have a lot of small bowls that started out as large pieces of wood.  Great lessons learned and lots of bowls for Empty Bowls.  Challenge yourself, turn something different, turn something thinner, turn something bigger, turn something taller than usual.
 
Keep turning and stay safe!


Be safe!

Bill Collins

MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of the Woodturners of North Texas is to advance the creative pursuit of woodturning through educational programs, practical demonstrations and community service projects. Personal achievement is encouraged through mentoring, design challenges and member participation.