FMS Woodturners Zooming

A small group of members recently formed the "Wood Turners Cabal" - a Thursday morning Zoom session from 11 a.m. using the same login details as the Wednesday Zoom meetings. The aim is simply for a few like-minded members to chat mainly about woodturning and related topics. Last Thursday was the second such meeting and we are still settling, in talking about a variety of topics from wood types, fixings, inside out turning (a bit specialised!!), finishes, dust extraction etc.

A couple of members have years of experience, others of us are just starting out but had pieces to show. Three of us ‘newbies’ came into wood-turning very recently following ‘wood-turning intro’ classes led by Bob M way back in 2019. Alan and Barry are ‘old hands’ with a fair bit of experience to impart to us.

Due to the Covid Lockdowns there has been virtually no chance to use the two shed lathes. I bought a second hand Axminster Hobby lathe and some tools. It’s a start! (I already want a better one!).

We hope to be more focused in future meetings, perhaps concentrating on various topics – some examples could be:

• finishing and polishing
• sanding techniques
• bowl turning
• spindle turning
• dust extraction systems

We also intend to show what we’ve made – I’ll show you mine if you show me yours! Perhaps have guest speakers too!?

We have agreed to endeavour to make things to sell at fêtes and shows once restrictions are lifted and we can get back to some normality! Projects to be discussed.

If anybody would like to join us just watch this space or simply log into one of the Thursday Zooms!

See you then.

Author: Cliff Jones

Well done guys for starting something new. We are going to need some new gear, hopefully Stubbington Fayre will be on again this year and that has always been very popular and profitable. There's the chance of getting some other groups going along the same lines, how about a photography, book readers, macrame group or something similar?