Midland Chapter - May 2023
The Midlands Chapter Meeting was held on the 8th May 2023 at the Carpentry Store in Naas, Co Kildare. We had another great turnout with new people attending on the night which is very promising for the Chapter. It was a very productive meeting with a demonstration from one of our own members Paddy O’Connor. Paddy is a skilled craftsman with thirty plus years’ experience at woodturning who showcased many of his talents on the night. Paddy turned a mahogany walking cane with a triple barley twist, an off-set knob handle and a ferrule.
The total length of the cane with the handle was 36 inches. The cane length was 32 inches with 4 inches for an off-set knob handle. The diameter was 25mm with a 1-inch collar ring shaft. Paddy used a steady rest to tame the erratic motion and give support while taper turning. He showed us how to make a metal ferrule which strengthens and prevents the wood from splitting and supports the cane.
His advice is to adapt the lathe and tools to the job you are doing and to always move the tool to suit the speed of the lathe. For safety it is important to wear the correct clothing, footwear and face shield before commencing woodturning.
To create the twist, he used a handsaw to cut a kerf along the length of the twist while turning the wood one revolution. The length of the twist was three times the diameter of the cane. He used a rasp and a standard hacksaw with rasp to shape the twist. He sanded it by hand and then on the lathe. He used the spindle gouge to shape the top of the handle and drilled a hole to insert the handle into the cane with the ferrule attached. Once the finish was complete the result was a beautiful walking cane to add to his many other beautiful canes he had on display at the meeting.
It was a very informative and entertaining evening and we would like to thank Paddy for sharing his knowledge with us. Paddy was kind enough to pose with his top hat, scarf and cane, our very own Fred Astaire.
Our May competition was to make a box within the dimensions of 100mm cubed. The entries were from Martin McNamara, Mick Lyons, George Pouch, Sean Quinn, Diarmuid Ging and Patricia Berns. Congratulations to the winner of the Novice Category, George Pouch and the winner of the Experienced Category, Mick Lyons. A big thank you to Majella Smith for organising the competition.
There was a special raffle for members who have paid their membership fees. The winners were as follows.
Dermot Honan €50 voucher, Alex Warren 30euro voucher and Joe Rafferty €20 voucher.
We would like to thank the Carpentry Store in Naas for sponsoring the raffle and for the use of their premises for our monthly meetings. We look forward to meeting again in June.
