December 2019 Meeting

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The December meeting of the CraobhEo 2019/20 year took place on the 12th December in the CraobhEo Centre in Aghamore.

Ambrose O’Halloran from the Galway Chapter was our demonstrator for the night.

Ambrose chose to turn a box with a lid. He started with a 4 inch square piece of ash which he rounded down and formed a tenon on the bottom. For the design to look good it needed to be in proportion – 1/3 for the lid, 2/3 for the box. He mounted tenon on the chuck and parted the box and lid. First he turned the lid – it’s best to turn end grain from centre out. Next he mounted the base for the box. He first made a taper for the lid to fit – this has to be tested regularly to ensure a tight fit. To remove the centre, he used a fostner bit, finishing the clean up with a chisel.

Both box and lid will be finished with Danish oil – 3 coats, rubbed down with 000 steel wool between coats. Ambrose uses Morel’s Danish Oil as this is nice and thin. He then put the lid on the box and used the tail stock to keep them together while he put a flair on the outside of the box. He then mounted the box on the chuck (not using a jam chuck) to clean up the bottom and decorate it with rings. Finally he used a Richard Joyner chuck (mainly used for jewellery making) to create a decorative piece to fit on the top of the lid. This looked very well when finished. He uses the box to hold cotton buds made from sustainable bamboo. This, as agreed by all, was a lovely project and as usual, well demonstrated by Ambrose. Thank you Ambrose.

 

 Monthly Chapter Competition Winners

Winner           –   Paddy Treacy

Second          –  Ian McDougall

Third (Joint)  –  Richard Barrett, Noel Grogan