January 2025 Newsletter

Our January 2025 MAWT meeting was conducted totally online based on the preference of our demonstrator.  I thought it went very well and Lyle Jamieson delivered some valuable woodturning wisdom accumulated over his many years of turning.  See additional information from Lyle on turning green wood below.

Many thanks to Tony Rozendaal for his years of service to MAWT as our president.  Tony will continue to make major contributions to the club as a board member, workshop leader,  and webmaster.

MAWT member Jay Guiliani is offering to use the Glowforge Aura laser engraver and cutter available at his library for MAWT members.  You would be responsible for the cost of the materials.  They also have a 3D scanner and several 3D printers he is willing to help with.  Talk to Jay directly if you are interested

Board News

George Wawrzyniak is investigating Directors and Officers insurance for the board.  Ken Thrun has an interesting idea on MAWT members sharing equipment that you will hear more about at the February meeting.

Meetings

Leigh White will be demonstrating the turning of a weeble bowl at our February meeting.  Not sure what that is, come to the meeting and find out. The March meeting will be Setting Up And Organizing Your Shop with Mark Trenier and Jay Guiliani.  There will be a Saturday field trip on March 29 with Mike Wendt demonstrating proper tree felling.  MAWT members will have the option to take some of the felled tree home to turn.

AAW Symposium

We want our woodturning chapter members to be able to send as many people as they can to experience the biggest woodturning event of the year. That’s why we are offering a $40 discount to each member of a group of five or more. Pull together at least five of your local chapter friends and submit the form below to get your discount code. Then, share the discount code with those chapter members and you can each register for a full registration at $40 off.

Chapter Discounts must be requested from November 18, 2024 to June 11, 2025.  Contact Kevin if you are willing to commit to attending the symposium in St. Paul.  We have to commit to at least five attendees to get the discount.

See you in February.

Kevin Seigworth,

MAWT President

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Additional information from Lyle Jamieson

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for the feedback.

These are the kind of questions that the group should have made live.  I am sure the answers will be of benefit to the club but especially to those that attended the IRD.  Please pass these on to your members.

I forgot to mention I am offering a Personal IRD on Bowl ABCs, Saturday, 1-18-25. This will cover many of the tool control methods not done in the Hollowing Demo. See this link for registration sigh up: https://lylejamieson.com/product-category/live-interactive-remote-demonstrations/

Follow-up questions.

I covered green wood handling for about a half hour in my Bowl Basics DVD, but let me try to give you an outline of it.

Good observation I left the bottom thick. I left the bottom thick because I was running out of time.  With the laser I was in control to make the button as thin as I want. All my work has a uniform wall thickness to allow movement when dried. So without the pith it, and a relatively thin bottom, it will not crack.

I always turn everything I do with green wood and take it down to my desired thin wall and that shape is the finished shape. The key to doing any turning with wet wood it to have a uniform wall thickness.  When I do thin walled vessels, like the demo piece, I have no worries of cracking when drying. If I was doing a thick walled vessel for some reason, I would have to take precautions to slow the drying process. Three things to prevent cracks. 1) no cracks in the tree before turning, 2)No pith in it, 3) uniform wall thickness.

I treasure the character wood has from the drying process.  I often sand the wet piece so that I can see the surface texture after drying.  So I seek out crotches and burls to produce some striking effects.

So, You are correct my vessels are not round anymore.  (So, I don’t do lidded boxes, or the lid would not fit) Most of my work has natural edges or voids so the warping is not visible.  You are correct too that side grain hollow forms will distort more than end grain vessels.  To me warping is just Mother Nature doing her thing, celebrate it. If you want something perfectly round you must use dry wood—with the possibility of cracks in it before you start.

Great questions, thanks Kevin.  Please pass this info out to your club members.

Regards,

Lyle