WSWT Newsletter – June 2008

Meeting Report

Announcements

By the time the meeting was called to order, judges Charlie Martyn and David Blythe were already working through the vase entries. Chair Ted Hickford welcomed Denys Dollin back after surgery and his introduction continued with a distinctly medical theme! While libel laws preclude printing his amusing tale, we can report that surgeons have been very busy on three of our members. Our best wishes for swift recoveries go to Peter Coxall (knee), Dave Newson (back) and Tom Garner (hip).

Jim Young reported that, while facilities were OK, poor weather at Wakehurst Place over the bank holiday weekend meant sales were well down. Let us hope for better in August and October. Contact Jim for space.

Main events of the morning

While the judges continued their work Ted H. talked to us about safety, in particular about lung protection in the workshop. He stressed that we should be aware that not only exotic woods such as padauk are very nasty but also fine dust of any wood is harmful. He uses a simple ‘Microclene’ system to continuously remove very fine particles from the workshop and a helmet fed with filtered air for personal protection when sanding.

Ted then went on to describe the results of his research into spalting. He admitted that, despite having spent time researching the bacteria and fungi that cause the wood to degrade, he has been unable control spalting consistently. However, temperature and humidity dominate the speed of the process; in the summer months, he gets good results with birch in just 4 weeks. Thanks Ted, for the advice, even if some of the details of lung damage were a bit scary!

Competition Results
First Second Third
Beginners Dave Deadman Dave Newson Jim Harris
Intermediates Stan Coombes Ron Wicks Peter Stokes
Advanced Jim Young Colin Willets Charlie Longhurst

Our thanks are due to Charlie and David for their analysis/comments and to Caroline Dorling for the setting up and record keeping. David found the experience of working alongside the expert Charlie very rewarding, and it is proposed that this balance will continue. Well done all!

Next Meeting

Is on Sunday, July 6th when Dave Dean will demonstrate his slant on composite turning and his methods of (re)mounting pieces on the lathe.

For Sale

Details of vendor(s) are available by email from the webmaster.

A well maintained Axminster band saw (200mm ht, 300mm w), BS140-05CE, on offer at £225 ono.