Ozkaban
3rd March 2009, 11:32 AM
Hi,
As I'm new to wood turning, having only done pens to some satisfaction, I booked myself into a wood turning class at Trend Timber in Sydney's west. The instructor was John Ewart.
I mentioned to him that said to say hello. Being an excellent teacher, John is also an excellent narrator and a few of the yarns about were very interesting :; He did pay a nice compliment to though - 'The only civilised Victorian I've ever met' :D:D:D
The course was really worthwhile. Started at 7am and more than an hour's drive from my place was a little less than civilised, but considering how hot it gets in the afternoon on a lathe inside a shipping container/classroom, it was worth it. Saturday was spent learning the basics and then doing the rounding/planing/bead/cove and fillet exercise several times over. Seems such a simple thing but man it takes some concentration to master, no that I managed that but learning the technique from John was better than a book and now I've got something to practice.
On Sunday we did tool sharpening, both freehand and with a jig. I quite liked the unijig, but can't find anywhere that sells them. Lots of people seem to be making similar ones, so maybe I'll give that a go.
After that was bowl turning. We did a fairly simple bowl, but it was great to learn the techniques. Attached are some attrocious phone photos. It has pretty thik sides, but it was a learning experience and I'm quite happy with how it looks. Timber was 'Brazsillian Caramel Wood', whatever the heck that is - google doesn't seem to know either... Finish was with EEE/shellawax and came up pretty well. I also discovered that power sanding with the lathe running generates a helluva lot of dust!
All in all, very fun weekend. I'm now looking forward to making a bunch more bowls now that I've half a clue on how to make 'em :2tsup: Highly recommended way of learning to turn...
Cheers,
Dave
As I'm new to wood turning, having only done pens to some satisfaction, I booked myself into a wood turning class at Trend Timber in Sydney's west. The instructor was John Ewart.
I mentioned to him that said to say hello. Being an excellent teacher, John is also an excellent narrator and a few of the yarns about were very interesting :; He did pay a nice compliment to though - 'The only civilised Victorian I've ever met' :D:D:D
The course was really worthwhile. Started at 7am and more than an hour's drive from my place was a little less than civilised, but considering how hot it gets in the afternoon on a lathe inside a shipping container/classroom, it was worth it. Saturday was spent learning the basics and then doing the rounding/planing/bead/cove and fillet exercise several times over. Seems such a simple thing but man it takes some concentration to master, no that I managed that but learning the technique from John was better than a book and now I've got something to practice.
On Sunday we did tool sharpening, both freehand and with a jig. I quite liked the unijig, but can't find anywhere that sells them. Lots of people seem to be making similar ones, so maybe I'll give that a go.
After that was bowl turning. We did a fairly simple bowl, but it was great to learn the techniques. Attached are some attrocious phone photos. It has pretty thik sides, but it was a learning experience and I'm quite happy with how it looks. Timber was 'Brazsillian Caramel Wood', whatever the heck that is - google doesn't seem to know either... Finish was with EEE/shellawax and came up pretty well. I also discovered that power sanding with the lathe running generates a helluva lot of dust!
All in all, very fun weekend. I'm now looking forward to making a bunch more bowls now that I've half a clue on how to make 'em :2tsup: Highly recommended way of learning to turn...
Cheers,
Dave