About WNTX

About Us...

The Woodturners of North Texas was organized in the spring of 1988 by Larry Roberts at the insistence of his brother from Austin, S. Gary Roberts. Six people attended the first meeting following a mailing to turners in the area. Among them was Clay Foster. The group met at Larry's house and then for a while in west Fort Worth. The first large influx of members came about following a woodworking show in Dallas where the small group turned twig pots all day on Larry's old Powermatic 90 lathe. After that show where the club signed up about thirty new members, the meetings moved to Paxton's Hardwood in 1989.

Woodturners of North Texas now has 100+ members, not counting spouses and kids. The monthly meetings routinely have 75 or more attendees. Past presidents of the club include Larry Roberts, Robert Weber, Clay Foster, Bruce May, Nick Silva, Stephen Smith, Gary Sanders, John Horn, Mike Wallace, and Paul Tiefel. The current president of Woodturners of North Texas is Stormy Boudreaux. Woodturners of North Texas invites turners from all around the globe as guest demonstrators and instructors.

A partial list of woodturners who have conducted demonstrations and taught classes at the club include Rude Osolnik, Richard Raffin, Ray Key, Michael Peterson, Bonnie Klein, Al Stirt, Clay Foster, Stoney Lamar, Frank Sudol, Melvin Firmager, Lyle Jamieson, Stuart Batty, Dick Sing, Liam O'Neill, S Gary Roberts, James Johnson, Christian Burchard, Alan Lacer, Ron Fleming, Jacques Vesery, Jimmy and Johnny Tolly, Judy Williams, Dave Hout, Joe Millsap, Uel Clanton, Gene Kircus, Chip Taute, Bill Berry, Paul Fennel, Steve Worcester, Stacy Hagar, Dave Spurlin, Larry Hancock, Raul Pena, Bob Larson, David Ellsworth, Jean-François Escoulan, Trent Bosch, Nick Cook and others including countless demos by WNT club members. Many of these demos were videotaped and the tapes are in our library and available to members for check out!

The club meets on the last Thursday evening of each month from 6:30 - 9:00 PM at the R. D. Evans Community Center at 3200 Lackland Road, Fort Worth, Texas 76116. Visitors and guests are always welcome to attend our meetings. The R. D. Evans Community Center is about 2 miles south of Ridgemar Mall. (Mapsco page 74, grid J)