Club News

Joey started her demonstration by turning a piece of wet sycamore, shaping the outside first. Next Joey hollowed the inside to the correct thickness by shining a light through from the outside. When light shows orange-yellow on the inside the thickness is correct. This was the end the turning part of the demo.

Joey brought some pre-turned work pieces along to demo airbrushing using home made stencils and multiple colours. This was followed by piercing techniques using a dentist’s air driven drill and a high- speed electronic drill. And finally carving a mini jig saw & a piercing bit. With members being able to try their hand at all these during the coffee and lunch breaks.

This was an outstanding demonstration by a very talented & artistic lady.

This was our first meeting at Tollgate Hall, Stanway, Colchester.

The competition subject for the experienced turners was a natural edge bowl. In 1st place was David Babbs, 2nd place Alan Arnold and 3rd place Paul Howard,

First place in the novice section was Kevin Bell with 2 natural edged mushrooms.

We had 5 small lathes set up in the hall. The object was for new members, some who have not yet purchase a lathe and tools to gain some hands on experience, under the guidance of  an experienced member.

We also a Sorby Pro-edge sharpening machine was set up. An experienced member demonstrated how to set it up for sharping various tools.

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Tic gave us memorable demonstration on colouring using air brushing techniques. Starting with explaining the 2 types air brushes, one with the paint reservoir at the top and the other below the nozzle. A good compressor is need to supply the air with quality connectors, air leaks on poor quality connector can spoil consistency.

Once set up it's time to practice on paper or card, the button the air bush controls both the air and the paint. As the button is pressed it releases the air, as it pushed further, pressure increases and it sucks up the paint & spays it. The reverse happens when us e release the button. Either pressing the button or releasing to fast causes uncontrollable effects like runs and spatter. So practice before using on your wood turnings.

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Club member Nicholas Rowe gave a demo making a lidded box.

Firstly, trued up the blank cylinder the required diameter, then he parted of the part that would be used make the lid. Next Nicholas hollowed out the box, starting by using a spindle gauge to drill ha hole in the centre to the. required depth. Then using the spindle gauge to open out the hole,

Then Nicholas used a ring tool to remove most of the waste, not many turners use the ring tool these days. It was nice to see it used so well

Nicholas then trued the up the sides. The lid section was mounted in the chuck and a  tenon turned on the end fit into the box. The body of the box was re-mounted in the chuck and used as a jam chuck to complete turning the top of the lid.

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15 club members attended a hands on training section for members new to woodturning. 6 experienced members and 5 lathes were available for the 2 hour session. 

Basic spindle turning work using a Roughing Gauge to produce a cylinder, followed by the use of a Spindle Gouge to produce coves and beads. One member needed some help to over come problems he was experiencing with using a Skew Chisel.

After a break for coffee a second group had turn on the lathes including a chance to experience bowl turning for the first time.

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Everyone took something positive away from the session, the next one will be on the Monday 7th Augus 2023.

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Daren made small decorated box, he turned the outside of the box first. Then bored out the inside. Next, he made the lid to fit on the body. The fit was just tight enough so that it could be removed one handed, but tight enough for it to be decorated while on the body. The first stage of the decoration was to use a small Ashley Iles beading tool to cover both the top and bottom with beads. It was then air brushed with various colours.

Finally Darren demonstrated his laser engraver he he uses to put his trade mark on his woodturnings.

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The subject for the 2020 completion for experienced members was a vase with flowers, but due to Covid 19 it had been held over until December 2022. Graham Slaughter was the very worthy Winnner. 

The photo is a close up to give a better idea of the work involved. On the Members Gallery slide show is a full size picture.

Mike’s speciality is making kaleidoscopes, first he turned the barrel and

then drilled it out to hold the prism. Next, he made a holder for the

glass receptacle which holds the minute-coloured glass chips. The holder needs the needs to fit the end of the barrel, but must be just tight enough to be able to be rotated. Finally made the eye piece to fit the other end of the barrel.

After the coffee break Mike made a one-eyed Minion using yellow, blue  black inks to colour it. 

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Simon's demo was a black walnut bowl with a cast pewter rim. Simon first turned the outside of the bowl, with a spigot on the base to fit his chuck jaws. Then sanded it, reversed it on the chuck using the spigot. Simon then hollowed out the inside to a uniform thickness, leaving sufficient thickness to cut a recess in the rim, about 3mm wide and deep. Then sanded the inside of the bowl and remove the chuck & bowl from the lathe. Simon put another chuck on the lathe with a very dry piece plane on it, this was to form a mould to cast the pewter in. The inside & outside diameters of the turned bowl were measured and increased by about 3mm & a groove turned in the piece of plane to form the mould. The chuck & mould were removed from the lathe. The lead free pewter was heated in an old saucepan to a light orange colour and poured into the mould & left to set. The chuck & mould were remounted on the lathe, the face of the pewter was faced off, then a spigot was turned on it to fit the groove in the turned bowl rim. The pewter was parted off & glued into the rim of the bowl, remounted with the chuck to be finished off by turning, sanding, wire-wool & a coat of Lemon oil.

After a 2 year break due to Covid 19, the club once again had a stall in the Colchester Christmas market. The market opened at 9am, and by that time the 2 large tables were covered with a wonderful array of items donated by members. We had a steady stream of customers all day, as items were sold, we had plenty of other items to take their place. Among the top selling items were pens, mice, fruit, Christmas trees, snowmen and gonks. By the time the market closed at 5pm we had raised £1,050 to be shared between the Colchester Children's Charity Appeal and the Military Personnel Recovery Centre.

Club member Paul gave us another fine demonstration, this time on how to make a child's chair. Paul started by turning the seat to the correct diameter and thickness. Next Paul explaining how to mark out the position holes on the top and underside of the seat The top of the seat has 5 holes, drilled  at a slight angle, to to house the back stringers. The underside has 4 holes for legs, also at a slight angle so the legs are slightly splayed. Paul had brought the seat pre-drilled to the demo.

The next part to be made was the back top rail, this is made as a hoop which will make 2 top rails. Paul brought a pre-drilled disk with him, drilled half way through, with chucking points on both sides of the disk.  The disk was mounted on the chuck and the outside turned to the correct diameter, then Paul measured the distance from the centre of one of the hole to the outside of the disk. Then used the measurement mark the inside of the hoop from the centre of the same hole. The using a parting tool parted half way through the disk, re-chucked the disk from the other side and parted of the hoop, which was was cut in 2. Paul then  and 1 leg and 1 back stringer and then assembled the chair with other legs and stringer he brought with him.

Terry Smart from Chestnut Products came along to demonstrate finishing techniques using various products on some prepared items. Starting with some guidance on sanding, then on use of Cellulose & Acrylic sanding sealers & cutting back by applying Burnishing cream with the lathe stopped. Then switching the lathe, then moving the wet paper along the work to produce a gloss shine. When dry, a coat of Friction polish is applied to the work with the lathe switched off. 

Then switching the lathe, then moving the wet paper along the work to produce a high gloss finish. If a more durable finish is required, apply a coat of Microcrystalline polish, leave to dry for up to 15 minutes, the buff up to a high gloss finish, apply a second coat if required. 

Terry the demoed how to apply Ebonising coating using an aerosol spray on an Ash bowl, he then applied blue and green coloured waxes.

Then buffed up the wax to a fine finish.

Emma Cook, our second all-day demonstrator this year. To start with Emma turned a small walnut bowl, then she cut 2 grooves about 20mm apart on the outside. Then Emma carved the section between the 2 grooves, painted it with black gesso, when this was dry it was over painted with green & blue iridescent paint. Then leather bands were glued into the 2 grooves. Next Emma made a wood and resin pendant. Then Emma made a Gonk, the hat and body were made separately so that the beard could be held in place when they were fitted together. And of course, a nose was turned.

Emma demoed how to paint radial lines on a platter, spots of 'size acrylic adhesive' were put around the edge of the bowl part of the platter. the platter was spun briefly. The 'size' now has now formed radial lines out to the edge of the platter, while the 'size' wet it was sprinkled with coloured glitter. Once the 'size' has dried the surplus glitter was brushed off.

And finally, Emma made a snowman with the body made of a glass ball with LED lights in it. 

Emma gave us a first -class demonstration.

Ruth brought her Pole Lathe along to demo Tudor woodturning, including typical clothing and tools of the period. Ruth explained that. the wood only rotates towards the tool rest and the tool half the time. The other half it turns away from the rest The first item Ruth made was wooden plug for sink, no rubber ones then. Then Ruth showed us the 3-hand forged tools see uses, roughing gauge, skew chisel and a hook tool for hollowing. 

Then asked if members would like to have a go. Alan Essam and Sally Haine tried they hand, not as easy as Ruth made it look.

Finally, Ruth challenged Harold to make a tealight holder on an electric lathe while, Ruth one on the pole lathe. By the time Harold turn his blank to cylinder, Ruth turned the top of off of her blank to revile a small bottle of wine hidden in the blank and poured herself a glass. It was jolly ending to a very informative evening.

Peter Nicholls gave the first demo at our new venue. The demo covered the making of several items with tips and aids for each one. The first item was an oak dowel used to secure mortice & tenon joints in oak framed  buildings. The square section blank was held in a chuck. At the tailstock, a piece of MDF with the same cross section as the blank, with a hole at its centre was placed over the end of the live centre and the tailstock brought up. This little jig was lined up with blank and the live centre tighten into the blank automatically centring it. Then the chuck jaws were fully tighten. The blank was turned circular and the hole in the little jig used as gage by passing it along the dowel and trimming it to fit. The jig helps to speed up the production of multiple dowels.

The second item was a oval shaped handle for a bottle opener. This was turned between centres, the centres were marked at both end of the blank. Peter used a small brass jig with 3 holes drilled 6 mm apart the centre hole being used to true up and tapper the blank. The other 2 used in turn to produce the oval shaped handle.

Peter then demo how to make wrist bangles with and without offset widths. Using a tapered  MDF washer between a wooden chuck and the bangle to produce a bangle with a variable width. 

Gabor Lacko gave a PowerPoint Presentation on some of the the turned items he has mode over 60 years of woodturning. These included bowls with inlaid rims, hollow forms, segmented bowls, examples of which were passed around for members to look at. Gabor has also made a large number of small boxes, he likes to make the lids fit so they can be held and opened in one hand.

He also has made platters and bowls inlaid with semi-precious stones and brass wire and coloured rims.

Collaborations with Patricia Spero, see below. Gabor make the bowls, platters, bells and eggs with wall thickness of 1 to 2mm

Patricia Spero gave a PowerPoint Presentations on some of the the pierced and coloured decorations on bowls, platters and hollow "Egg" forms made by Gabor Lacko, see above. Patricia uses a dentists air driven drill for piercing the bowl rims bells and eggs, she explained the Dremel type  miniature drills have to lower speed to pierce accurately. The paint is applied with an air brush. Another collaboration with Gabor is the making multi section pierced and coloured candle holders.

Patricia's favourite items are bowls and platters thin turned by Gabor to 2-3mm thick, which she carves and pierces with leaf patterns  and then colours them. Another technique for decorating bowls is cut a groove in the bowl rim then thread coloured beads on a string which is fitted on groove in the rim.

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Stewart Furini gave one of the best demonstrations seen at the club. The morning session mainly concentrated on surface preparation and air brushing techniques, including the various types of air brushes and compressor available. Stewart used various colours of Chestnut Products spirit stain with the bowl rotating, changed colours to build up bands of colour.

Next Stewart turned off all the colour and the sprayed areas of of the bowl with different pale colours with the bowl stationary. Then masked off areas with tape, then sprayed on slightly darker colours and masked off some of those areas. Then finally sprayed on dark colours, then removed all the masking tape, the darker colours recede to the back giving a 3D effect.

After lunch Stewart demoed centrifugal effect of painting thin acrylic paint on the the lathe turning slowly, the increasing the lathe speed so the paint is then forced into radial lines. Then repeated the process with other colours.

By now there was a lot of very good banter between the members and Stewart, he was challenged to use a fish stencil he had brought with him. He rose to the challenge, the main problem was holding the stencil tight on the inside bottom of the bowl, he finished the challenge and presented the club with the bowl.

Harold Griffiths demonstrated multi centred spindle turning. The first item was a 50mm diameter tealight holder, turned on 3 parallel centres. the true centre and two others, 3mm either side of the central one. The item on the left of the photo shows the finished item. The item on the right shows the second second item shows what happens when the off set is increased to 10mm. 

Harold also showed other multi axis turned items and explained how they made including latticed and off-set pendants, candle holders, bowls and miniature birdhouse.

Tea Light Holder or Egg Cup pdf file at the top of the page, this is not the same as the demo one but similar. i will update the drawings and post that on the top of the page.

Alan Arnold gave us another lively demonstration, this time making a textured vase with the textured area being painted green. The vase had a long narrow neck with a flared rim. Rather than turning a flower for the vase Alan turned a poppy seed head. The photo on the left shows Alan using a 'dremmel' tool with a disc cutter to shape the crown of of the poppy seed head.

Paul Howard showed us how to make a bowl which appeared to be 3 bowls nested one inside the other on 3 different axes. Firstly Paul turned the inside of the bowl leaving a wide rim. Then Paul turned the underside of the bowl to a perfect hemisphere. This was to enable the underside of the bowl to be positioned in the vacuum chuck or a large cup chuck in various off set positions being held in position by a cone fitted to a revolving centre, As shown if the photo on the left. A new rim was cut into half of the wide rim. Then by repositioning the underside of the bowl in the cup chuck another rim was cut in the remaining half of the wide rim. Paul then made in incision between two off-set rims with the point of a skew chisel to make it appear the bowl were nested inside each other.   

Club members Alan Essam, Mark Wallington & Harold Griffiths supported club member the Rev. Don Smith at St. Mary's church Christmas bazaar in Frinton. We had a large number of items left over front previous Christmas bazaars, plus a good number of new items. For the first time we had an operational lathe an our stand, there was quite a lot of interest in our demos. We received requests for a number of items, including 'gonks' and a light pull, which we made. We also turned some xmas trees and a miniature bird house. A number of people showed an interested in joining the club & were given next years programme. .

We raised a total of £240.00 for the church funds

Club member Harold Griffiths gave us a demonstration on making Christmas decorations. Using a pen mandrill to turn the body of an icicle and a set of pin chuck jaws to turn the top and bottom finials. The ball shape on the top finial was turned with a spindle gouge and finished using a home made tool using a section of steel tube in a wooden handle. Harold also made a small bell and a candle.

Gary gave us an interesting and enjoyable day, seeing so many things made in a short space of time. Starting with things that those new to turning would appreciate made it worthwhile for all. With basic spindle technics to start with, then a small box with an inlaid 'eye', followed by an apple and an pear. Then a demo on how to make a pocket watch stand parts. Next how to make a 'idiot stick, much jollity as members tried to make it work! Finishing with a demo of making  pendant using on of his pendant jigs. 

Members of the Personnel Recovery team held a 2 day walk on the 3rd and 4th September, covering 52 miles in 19 hours, with an over night stop. This was a sponsored walk in aid of Cancer Research UK. The club members who have been teaching woodturning to recovering personnel at the centre, donated the items in the photo on the left. They were auctioned by O.C. and raised £325 for Cancer Research UK.

Finally we have had a club meeting. Tony gave us a demonstration on making tiny goblets. The cup part was made from a tiny slice of a burr glued to a block mounted in a scroll chuck. the stem and the base were made separately. Tony achieved such a high finish from his tool that he started sanding with 400 grit abrasive, followed by 600 grit, sanding sealer and carnuba wax.

For the second part of the demo explained how to make rings from rolled up veneer, soaked in super glue. when the glue has dried the blank ring is very strong, it can the be turned in a ring mandrill.

Happy New Year everyone! On Monday 6th January 2020, Colchester Woodturners Club was visited by our demonstrator for the evening, Andy Coates.

As a local(ish) turner, Andy had visited before. It was good that our first demo of 2020 attracted a good crowd. Andy had not mentioned in advance what he was doing, so everyone looked on in anticipation.

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A big thank you to Mark Wallington for a detailed write up of the evenings demonstration -

Thank you to all members that donated items for our Christmas stall and everyone that helped with the stall. We made a total of £950 for St. Helena Hospice. Well done to the winners of our annual competition, in both classes experienced and novice. 

We wish all our members & visitors a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thank you to all members that donated items for our Christmas stall and everyone that helped with the stall. We made a whopping £1250 for one of our charities we support St. Helena Hospice. Well done to the winners of our annual competition, in both classes experienced and novice, all of the entries were on top form as usual.

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Colchester Woodturners now has new committee members as well as changes to the committee. We welcome our new members to the committee and thank all of the committee members that have stood down especially Roy Clarke for all his years of service as Chairman and welcome Kelvin Bowles as the new Chairman. 

Thank you to all members that donated items for our Christmas stall and everyone that helped with the stall. We made a whopping £1250 for one of our charities we support St. Helena Hospice. Well done to the winners of our annual competition, in both classes experienced and novice, all of the entries were on top form as usual.

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Colchester Woodturners now has new committee members as well as changes to the committee. We welcome our new members to the committee and thank all of the committee members that have stood down especially Roy Clarke for all his years of service as Chairman and welcome Kelvin Bowles as the new Chairman. 

Once a year Colchester Woodturners club tries to get a demonstration that is not directly related to woodturning. Con Rendall is a luthier and we had a good questions and answers session on the making of instruments and the techniques and methods used to get to a finished article.

We were shown how a wood bending tool works with water and steam and the types of tools, finishes and glues used while making the instruments. Colchester Woodturners club would like to thank Con Rendall for an informative evening.

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Colchester Woodturners club definitely looked forward to seeing the experts in colouring wood in action, and they didn't disappoint. Most of the club members had questions to ask about techniques they use, products they have tried, what they recommend and finishes they use that are added to their woodturned items.

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Chris showed the club techniques on woodturning and Rita explained how to use colours and products to get the correct colour consistencies for realistic looking fruit. An enjoyable evening with a lot learned.

With a last minute change to our programme, one of our new members Ruth Murchie stepped in and provided the club with a great demonstration on pole lathes. We learned the history of the pole lathe, how they work and the tools and steps to using it. 

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A thoroughly enjoyable evening, with Ruth providing a bit of theatre in her demonstration and a couple of our members getting involved and having a go on the tools and lathe. The club would like to thank Ruth and congratulate her for providing a very good demonstration.

The annual competition for the club was judged at our last meeting. We had a great turnout of items and all of the entries were fantastic.

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The winning table lamp is impressive by any standards and the club members agreed it was a fun event. We had 1st, 2nd and 3rd place and also a novice award for our newer members. All pictures can be seen in our photo gallery.

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We also had our AGM meeting and would like to welcome our newest member voted into the committee. The club programme is now on the website and it should be a fun 2018. From all of us at the Colchester Woodturners have a good Christmas and happy new year.

The Help for Heroes Recovery Centre in Colchester has started offering their beneficiaries woodturning sessions.

The sessions are guided by members of the Colchester Woodturners Club; all giving up their time for free in order to teach interested veterans how to turn wood effectively. They even bring along their own lathes and other equipment to ensure the best experience possible.

Colchester Woodturners would like to thank Thoroughgood Timber near Colchester, Robert Sorby and DJ Evans of Bury-St-Edmunds who have all donated materials.

The club competition once again had a lot of very good entries, a big thank you to everyone who entered an item.  Check out the Gallery.

We had a clear 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

This year the club introduced the best woodturned item by our rookie wood turners, with up to 2 years experience.

It was an enjoyable evening with club members having a go on the lathes with information, tips, tricks and resolutions being provided by the more experienced and professional woodturners on hand.

A superb demonstration showing how to get more out of your woodturning by adding that little bit extra to a standard piece of wood. 

Jennie showed us a different side to woodturning if you let your creative side run wild. The tips and tricks that were demonstrated gave everyone something to think about and how they could adapt the different techniques to their woodturned items at home.

The Colchester Woodturners club committee would like to sincerely thank Jennie for her beautiful plaque that she made for the club and for adding a couple of prizes to the raffle that is held at each meeting.

Happy new year from Colchester Woodturners.

With Andy Coates unfortunate news, Colchester Woodturners chairman Roy Clarke stepped in to save the day. Roy demonstrated how to make a bird box with the sort of wood your friend or neighbour donates to you,

Roy went through the steps on turning a couple of planks of wood into a turnable object, to then creating a beautiful bird box for your garden.

It was a great turn out to the clubs first demonstration of 2017, we hope you all enjoyed the evening and our thoughts and wishes go to Andy Coates.

Colchester Woodturners annual competition for a turned box, maximum diameter 4", maximum height 6" including any finial again had a lot of fantastic entries this year.

Congratulations to our Winning club member, and thank you to everyone that participated.

The competition winner decided that next years annual competition will be: a table lamp, use your imagination!.

Good luck!

Colchester Woodturners annual Christmas stall had another great year at the Colchester Christmas Fair. The stall took a fantastic total of £1054.20 for St Helena Hospice, thank you to everyone involved.

Every penny goes to the charity. The standard of work donated is exceptional and the public of all ages are very happy to show their appreciation of the items made by buying lots of them.

Check our Gallery page for more photographs.

An entertaining and informative demonstration by Mark Baker, editor of the very popular Woodturning Magazine. A lot of good new and used tips and tricks of the woodturning trade were shown for the Colchester Woodturners to take away and try themselves.

Mark demonstrated woodturning of 2 lidded vessels and how to minimise wood grain tearing when turning bowls.

Click Here for the Woodturning Magazine Website.

Thank you to Ken for an interesting evening about woodcarving. The wood carvings that Ken brought to the demonstration were exceptional.

Please head over to our Gallery to see what we are talking about. 

The British Woodcarvers association exists to advance and promote the art and craft of wood carving and sculpture in all its forms, to encourage the exchange of ideas between members, promote best practice and to enable wood carvers and sculptors to promote their work to a wider audience.

First off,..........a big thankyou to all members that participated in the club competition, The wands that were created were fantastic in everyway and the level of craftmanship was very impressive, I think "Harry Potter" would have had a hard time choosing one!

Well done to the competition winner and all runners up.

The Colchester Woodturners club hands on evening was well attended with a good turn out of lathes, 5 in total. Thankyou to our demonstrators making this an enjoyable evening.

Good News!

Colchester Woodturners now have the ability for club members to sell any items they no longer use through our Colchester Woodturners website. Contact the club Treasurer for details or ask for information at the next club meeting - 6th June 2016.

The Colchester Woodturners club also welcomes our new joiners to the club, and hope they enjoy the events planned for the rest of the year.

Happy new year from Colchester Woodturners.

Colchester Woodturners chairman Roy Clarke demonstrated how to re-use an old bowls ball into a great woodturned mallet. In true Roy fashion he showed his tips and tricks for a fun evening of woodturning.

It was great to see all the new vistors to our first meet in 2016, and we hope you all enjoyed the evening and hope to see you again.

Colchester Woodturners annual competition for an inlaid platter had alot of fantastic entries this year, thanks to the members that participated. The competition winner decided that next years annual competition will be:: a turned box, maximum diameter 4", maximum height 6" including any finial.

All club members have until June to complete the additional club competition with the wood provided by the club to design a turned wand, no excuses! If you are a new member and require a piece of wood for the competition please speak to Roy Clarke.

Good luck!

Colchester Woodturners annual Christmas stall broke all previous records at the Colchester Christmas Fair this year. The stall took a fantastic total of £1650.00 for St Helena Hospice, thankyou to everyone involved.

Every penny goes to the charity. No deductions of any sort are made and the operators of the fair, do not no charge for the stall and provide free electricity.
The standard of work donated is exceptional and the public of all ages are very happy to show their appreciation of the items made by buying lots of them.

Check our Gallery page for more photographs.

We had the excellent Andy Coates come and demostrate at our club for an all day event on the 24th of October.

Andy produced 4 different items over the day, showing different ways and features that can be incorporated in to woodturning. It was great to see how fairly standard woodturned objects could be completely transformed with different ideas and products on the market.

Club member Alan Essam has kindly put together an overview of techniques shown on the day by woodturner Andy Coates. Click here to download.