Ryedale Woodturners
This website is being updated from August 2022. This is an archive page.
Sue Harker
Thursday 4 October 2018
Snainton Village Hall
Sue returned to the club just over a year since her last visit, and as always provided an interesting and informative demonstration, despite not feeling on top form.
Clam box
Sue started off the evening with a standard beech bowl blank, about 5" x 2". A little wider would not be amiss for this project.
She turned the blank to round, then cut it into two halves with a parting tool, one half held by a spigot. The centre mark at the other end was not too deep - as much material left as possible is desirable.
A rim was turned on the base, which was shaped and hollowed to around 3 or 4mm thickness. It was then sanded and polished to a finish: Sue usually takes parts to a finish as she progresses if she can.
With the base (or top, I don't think it matters) hollowed but still with its spigot on, a similar approach was made to the other half.
A tight fit on the rim was made so that the piece could be jammed on to the base for finishing. This would be loosened slightly later in the process, (as it turned out a little looser than intended!)
A second blank was then mounted to create a jam chuck for finishing the base. This would be turned into a bottle coaster later so as not to waste the wood.
The coaster was a fairly basic shape with a raised rim to hold a bottle. The bottom was given a little decoration with circlular grooves turned in.
Sue tries to avoid wasting wood wherever possible - this was a jam chuck, now it is a usable / saleable item.
With ten minutes left, and Christmas approaching, Sue turned a Christmas tree from a spindle blank. Turned conical first, with enough left at the base for a bucket to stand the tree in.
Sue marked out some lines in increasing width with her ever present trusty pencil, and then cut the branches to shape. She aims to follow the conical line on the inside as well as the outside of the shape.
She uses a spindle gouge with a double bevel ground on, to help get in to the narrow corners this shape requires.
All the items were left with the club to sell at its forthcoming November sale. The coaster and the tree were from the tool, so may need a little sanding and finish applying.
A few pictures of Sue Harker's exhibits
Finished clam box
Segmented items
Clam box lid
Involuted candlestick
Clam box lid and base
Floral design on a platter
Items by Sue Harker
Segmented vase