April 2025 Meeting

​

The April meeting of the CraobhEo 2024/25 year took place on Thursday the 10th April in the CraobhEo Centre in Aghamore.

Our demonstrator for the evening was Jim Stevens from the Crossborder Chapter. 

Jim started off with a safety reminder and had a little chart to illustrate his points. Good idea.

His project was a scoop turned from spalted beech.

Mount a 50 mm square by 250 mm blank between centres, round up with a spigot for chucking and remount in chuck.

First make the ball for the scoop. This will be 50 mm in diameter. True up the end, mark 50 mm in from this and cut in to give you the outline of the ball (still square). Mark the ball blank and cut off equal corners as a first step. This removes most of your stock. Turn off remaining corners now. He used a piece of steel tubing to test the roundness. You can use a hole saw with teeth ground off, sharpened straight across the face and held in a drill to get a perfect round shape. Jim had a special double grind on his chisel and explained that the tip bevel was all that was necessary to support the chisel. He also had a special sanding arbor with a recess in the middle for sanding the convex surface.

Next turn the handle which will be slightly offset. Mark out and reposition the blank in an 8 mm offset position with a cup tailstock live centre (Axminster) to hold the ball. Turn the stem of the handle with a continental gouge. Reposition and turn the end of the handle to a concave shape and part off.

Finally, hollow out the scoop.  Prepare a jam chuck to hold the ball just turned. Jim came with his own one which was mounted in the chuck and compressed around the ball when the chuck was tightened. Drill a 40 mm pilot hole and then hollow out the scoop with gouge and scrapers. Test the roundness of the scoop with a sanding disk or similar. Finish with round mini scraper. A lovely project.

Jim also explained how to turn a set of identical concave coasters using templates for base and top.

This was a brilliant demo from an excellent turner. Well thought out and within the reach of most members. Thank you Jim for making the long journey from Lisburn to be with us and hope you and your wife Honor enjoyed your stay in Mayo and of course the brilliant weather we are blessed with right now.

​