I just wanted everyone to know that pen turning is continuing to grow and in ways that make me proud. My local woodturning group in Cedar Rapids (Corridor Woodturners) is working with HACAP to help veterans down on their luck. Attached below is the article describing what they are up to. I'll be looking at some tool sets that I no longer use to help them along.
From the March 2016 newsletter (www.corridorwoodturners.org)
The veterans turning program has formally been kicked off. The Hawkeye Area Community Action Program (HACAP) has done a great job in setting up their shop which now has a handbook describing the parts of and safety parameters of all the pieces of equipment, 3 lathes, a couple of drill presses, a band saw, a table saw, an 8" grinder (thanks for the 8" white wheel Greg!), a dust collection system and a number workbenches. Sufficient electrical outlets and overhead lighting have been installed. They also have appropriate pen drilling and assembly fixtures, a lot of pen kits and other supplies needed for making pens. Dusty Noble of HACAP, also brought in his very impressive collection of pens to show the veterans examples of what they will be producing.
We had our kickoff meeting on Thursday, February 25 and met with the first two vets who will be participating in the program, Elvis (no relationship to Presley) and Nick Moore. We went over safety, and intro to each of the machines and a detailed description of the function of each part of the lathe. A discussion was then held on the various types of turning tools that they will use and then we drilled and glued pen blanks that will be used in the program. Bruce then made the first shavings by demonstrating a spindle turning.
Our second meeting was on Thursday, March 3 where we recapped what we did the previous week and demonstrated how to use various roughing and spindle gouges along with some carbide tools. Nick took over the lathe and began to make shavings on a spindle turning. He then learned to joy and necessity of sanding to get a good surface prior to applying boiled linseed oil/CA finish on it. Here is a picture of a proud Nick Moore with his
first turning still on Jet Mini!
We will start making pens at our next session and the only thing we really need are turning tools, specifically smaller gouges, skews and maybe parting tools as most of the ones being used are Dusty's and our volunteers personal property. If anyone would like to donate any old but serviceable tools, please bring them to the meeting and I'll get them to HACAP. Thanks for your consideration.
From the March 2016 newsletter (www.corridorwoodturners.org)
The veterans turning program has formally been kicked off. The Hawkeye Area Community Action Program (HACAP) has done a great job in setting up their shop which now has a handbook describing the parts of and safety parameters of all the pieces of equipment, 3 lathes, a couple of drill presses, a band saw, a table saw, an 8" grinder (thanks for the 8" white wheel Greg!), a dust collection system and a number workbenches. Sufficient electrical outlets and overhead lighting have been installed. They also have appropriate pen drilling and assembly fixtures, a lot of pen kits and other supplies needed for making pens. Dusty Noble of HACAP, also brought in his very impressive collection of pens to show the veterans examples of what they will be producing.
We had our kickoff meeting on Thursday, February 25 and met with the first two vets who will be participating in the program, Elvis (no relationship to Presley) and Nick Moore. We went over safety, and intro to each of the machines and a detailed description of the function of each part of the lathe. A discussion was then held on the various types of turning tools that they will use and then we drilled and glued pen blanks that will be used in the program. Bruce then made the first shavings by demonstrating a spindle turning.
Our second meeting was on Thursday, March 3 where we recapped what we did the previous week and demonstrated how to use various roughing and spindle gouges along with some carbide tools. Nick took over the lathe and began to make shavings on a spindle turning. He then learned to joy and necessity of sanding to get a good surface prior to applying boiled linseed oil/CA finish on it. Here is a picture of a proud Nick Moore with his
first turning still on Jet Mini!
We will start making pens at our next session and the only thing we really need are turning tools, specifically smaller gouges, skews and maybe parting tools as most of the ones being used are Dusty's and our volunteers personal property. If anyone would like to donate any old but serviceable tools, please bring them to the meeting and I'll get them to HACAP. Thanks for your consideration.