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College roomates

When was the last time that you heard from your college roommates?

My best roommate just called earlier this evening. I realized that it has been a long while since we last spoke. At least a year and a half. Far too long for me. It’s been even longer since we saw each other.

So what has happened since our last visit? The dynamics of a good friendship are amazing. From the crazy antics of university life to careers and marriage and children. If someone would have said that to us fifteen years ago, I think we would have laughed ourselves into hysterics.

But still, the dynamics are still there. He called and it was like we had just talked yesterday. Almost. We did have a bit of catching up to do.

There’s certain comfort in hearing an old voice from our past. Especially when it is one that helped get you through times that you thought were the end of your world. And one that was there when you were having some the best times of your life, at that point in your life.

I hope that I have inspired you to track down that person or at least invoked some memories that had a little bit of dust on them. Don’t forget your youth, but don’t live in the past. Enjoy and appreciate what you have now, also.

Thanks for calling Rick, we’ll use my dime next time.

The Simcoe Woodturners’ Guild – Apr 07 meeting

Another great meeting this month.

I have to pat myself on the back for donating a few pieces of Russian Olive to the raffle table. Many members commented on the pieces. I found it useful to listen in and get ideas of how it turns, how it reacts and what safety measures need to be taken with it. One of our members has an allergy to the wood.

Thanks to Taylor Ledden for the presentation on turning footed bowls. His demonstration used Spalted Maple to make a 2-piece winged bowl. One piece was turned to be the upper bowl and a second piece was turned to be the foot. The upper bowl has a recess in it’s “bottom” and the lower piece has a tenon in it’s “top”. The two are then glued together giving the upper bowl it’s foot.

Taylor’s work can be viewed at www.turningsbyledden.ca

An enjoyable evening was had by all in attendance

The Simcoe Woodturners’ Guild – Mar 07 meeting…

Tonight’s meeting was really informative.

One of our members, Don McNiven, gave an interesting presentation on a method of making bowl sculptures. By slicing a bowl into strips and gluing them back together, he has produced some inspiring forms that take bowl making down an interesting road.

He has applied his skills of bowl making and engineering into rather uplifting art forms that are rugged in construction but delicate in appearance. He isn’t afraid to mix media either. Out of necessity and for contrast, he combines wood and bondo (who would have thought?) to get to a place that might otherwise be unachievable with just wood alone.

It really got the mind racing.

Some members brought some really great pieces of wood for the taking. I got a few burrs and a nice big bowl blank. I only hope that I can get it to fit on my lathe. The big lathe still eludes me.

I won a raffle again and got a piece of box elder and a piece of yellow birch. I still deciding what I want to make with all of these great pieces now.

Thanks to Don also for showing me how to grind the new tools. Now I can go wear them out again.

For those that are interested, feel free to send me an e-mail and I can provide some details.

Tried out some new tools…

Sunday was wonderful. After cleaning up the winter mess, I fired up the lathe and made a bunch of sawdust. My neighbor came over too. He likes to see what I’m up to.

I haven’t had the chance to turn anything since Christmas. It got too cold in the garage. If you don’t turn frequently, it is amazing have fast the skills can diminish.

There was a sale on Sorby tools at the local store. I scored a six piece set and a 1/2″ bowl gouge for a great price. I had to try them out. Add to that the 3″-four jaw chuck from the woodworking show a couple of weeks ago and viola! Wood chips!

Seriously though, I really liked the feel of the new tools. I just need to get back at it. With the weather warming up, I think I’ll be out there more often. There’s a pile of wood that still has my name on it. The saw mill down the road is looking promising also.

The only result of yesterday’s work is packed up right now doing some drying. I turned a 1/8″ thick dish or plate, depending on your definition from some green rock maple. I attribute the thinness to the new tools. The bowl gouge just had it’s way with it and went to town! I even impressed myself. Let’s hope that it doesn’t crack now. I will accept some distortion, that’s bond to happen.

The Simcoe Woodturners’ Guild – Feb 07 meeting

For those that braved the snow storm, it was a good meeting. A guest from the Woodturners’ Guild of Ontario demonstrated how quick and easy it is to do spindle turning for coffee table legs using a board template as the only means of repetition. Since he has been turning for over 60 years, some thing tells me that he didn’t even need that.

It was the first meeting that I attended and as beginner’s luck goes, I won a raffle. A nice piece of spalted maple and an issue of Woodturning, a magazine published in the U.K.

For those that are interested, feel free to send me an e-mail and I can provide some details.