Kansas City Woodturners-KCWT

If you go to 8900 NE Flintlock Kansas City, MO 64157 you will find the Mid-Continent Public Library. In the library in the Woodneath Library Center you will find a display of ten turned items by members of The Kansas City Woodturners. They will be there for a few months so there is no hurry. While you are there, the library is worth walking around. Browse the stacks, they have a bunch of books there and you might find something interesting.

There is always something interesting happening at the Kansas City Woodturners. For the past three weeks, on Sunday, Anthony Harris taught a bowl turning class. It was full and everyone came away with a couple bowls. The tools were provided but you could bring your own if you had them. Wood was provided and great individual instruction was provided. What more could you want? There will be more classes in the future. If you are interested in something specific, let the KCWT leadership know.

EXOTIC WOOD SALE - $2 per Pound Sale to be held on Saturday February 27th, 2021, 9:00am to 2:00pm at the Clubhouse located at 3189 Mercier St, Kansas City MO 64111 The KC Woodturners Association announces the sale of approximately 3000 pounds of mostly Australian exotic wood. This is fantastic wood in dozens of different species. This wood is from the estate of a world famous wooden flute maker and any profits will be shared with the estate. The KC Woodworkers Guild had... a wood sale a few weeks ago and sold only 600 pounds of this wood and there is still about 3000 pounds of wood remaining. There are three pallets and one large cart containing many boxes of wood, an enormous amount of wood. The wood was intended for wooden flutes so it is generally 1.5 x 1.5 in different lengths. Some of the wood is 2" x 2". Most of the wood is 24 long or 18 long and there are some shorter pieces. The wood was intended for wooden flutes so it ismostly straight grained, although some surprisingly grained wood was found in the boxes. There is also a box of Mountain Mahogany from the US west coast. I have never heard of this species and it is quite beautiful. This wood is rare because it costs so much to harvest and prepare. The flute maker was very proud of this wood. He spent a lot of time marking each and every piece with the species code and length as well as creating a paper legend for markings included in each box.

Last Saturday we had our annual picnic. It was less populated than previous years. It was expected but those who attended had a grand time. The food was great and the comraderie was better. We have opened the shop on Wednesday and Thursday evenings and Saturdays again. Sign up for time slots on the web site. You MUST sign up in advance. Remember to keep yourself and others safe.

With isolation making time available, spending time outside is a relief. Looking around the backyard is a library full of ideas for turning. We work with a living, or former living thing and the yard is full of living things that can provide inspiration for the turner. Why not challenge yourself to turn something suggested by something in your own yard? Go for it.

We continue to explore the advantages of Zoom. This past Monday we held a Zoom meeting for all the members of the club who wanted to attend: 48 of them did. It contained most of the elements of our regular meetings: a Demonstration, The Challenge, and Show and Tell. One of the Show and Tell items is contained in the video shown here. You can get more information about how it was done in two ways; the video of he meeting at https://youtu.be/LIonHBZbsZs and in the next edition of Woodchips coming out in a couple days. The video of the meeting includes on of the best video demonstrations you will ever see. Check it out.

When the rim on a large bowl cracks and can't be repaired, there still is swood that is usable. sSee whast you can do.

When we first started using Zoom, much of the conversation was about Zoom and how it works, what does what, how to raise a hand, how to know who's talking and on and on. That topic seemed to take up most of the time. Now we have gotten to the point where we are talking about turning, finishes, techniques, and even showing some of the things being worked on or completed. One of the beautiful things about KCWT is that no matter how long it has been since seeing someone, when we get together it's like no time has passed. things just seem to pick up where they left off. OK, we are seeing each other in a slightly different way but the fun and comradery seem to be there just the same.

The Kansas City Woodturners are making use of Zoom in many ways. For example, instead of Open Shop on Saturday’s we are using Zoom to get together and talk about woodturning. For those of you who have not taken advantage of the Zoom process here is something which may give you some information about it and, perhaps, make it less mysterious. We are looking forward to seeing you so join us any time on Saturday morning. You have received an invitation in your email.

Last night we were unable to have our monthly meeting because of well...you know what. We decided to try something new. Why not, we had the time. We contacted Larry Randolph from the Springfield, MO club and he agreed to do a Zoom meeting for us. We had 48 participants, did have a few technical glitches (first time stuff) but we learned about coloring wood, dyes, sandblasting, milk paint, and Zooming. Better or worse than a real demo? Not sure - different though. Saw things up closer than in a regular demo. This was our thrie computer demo. The first one was broadcast into our regular meeting space so members didn't need to sign on. This was a tad different but a good learning experience.

Talk about "firsts:" Never sheltered in place; never cancelled KCWT meetings; never spent so much time in my shop because KCWT's shop is closed; there's a lot more but one really stands out. Last night KCWT held its first Board Meeting via Zoom. We were not even hacked and didn't have to worry about inappropriate content. It went swimmingly and we got everything accomplished. So go ahead world, throw your best at us cause we are learning we can handle quite a lot and d...o it well. BTW world, that is not a challenge. But this process sure applies to woodturning: new woods, new ideas, new tools, new finishes, new processes, new teachers, new challenges; it just never seems to end. We are all, hopefully, learning that we can do much more than we thought we could and that helping one another - something woodturners have always done - is a lot of fun and just feels really good. Stay safe, have fun with your additional free time, help one another, and look forward to when KCWT is fully functioning again. See more

Now we have the time. OK, it is sort of forced, but we don’t have to finish something fast in between working and running errands; don’t have to fit it in when we find the time. We have time to think a project through; do a little experimenting; take our time. It doesn’t matter what the project is, take it slow and enjoy every aspect of the task. For our next meeting you’ll have something really special to talk about.

Ok, no meetings and no open turning going on. Bummer. So focus on pushing yourself and having fun with it. Look through your shop and/or the burn pile and pull out some scraps and make something of of it. If you blow it up you really haven’t lost anything but you have practiced and had some fun. Spend some time cleaning that corner of your shop you haven’t looked at in years. Sharpen ALL your tools. Clean the windows if you are lucky to have some. Give yourself permission to have a grand time. Music makes cleaning fun. OK, it makes everything fun.

When turning a hollow form, most of us probably move the tail stock as far away as possible or just remove it. Then we lean over the ways and manipulate the tool(s) standing awkwardly at the side of the lathe.The other day I was in the shop and one of our fantastic turners was setting up to do that and was using a Powermatic. Instead of doing either of the aforementioned strategies he removed the tailstock, slid the tool rest to the end of the bed and then slid the headsto...ck to the middle of the ways. He was able to do the hollowing standing comfortably at the end of the lathe. I'm not saying that you need to have a Powermatic to hollow. We have a couple at KC Woodturners. We also have the members who can show you the techniques and the proper tools to use. Our April meeting is cancelled. We will, hopefully, be meeting again in May. Or June if the virus continues to control things. In the meantime, you can check us outt and learn some things at www.kcwoodturners.org. See more

At our monthly meeting the Challenge was to make a couple tops which will be donated to the Ronald McDonald Houses of KC. We had tremendous participation and collected 222 tops. The other part of the meeting is Show and Tell and there are four examples of the incredible items being turned by our members