With the COVID19 panic still in full force in Illinois, pushed by a Governor who seems to like the power he has seized and a political machine that seems to think everywhere in the state is just like Chicago, the May meeting of our woodturning club was cancelled. Like the April meeting, my son and I decided to do another remote demonstration in place of our regular club meeting. This time, rather than do one from our dining room, we decided to go to the club meeting place in Bloomington and try to do something with a little more quality. Better sound, better lighting, and I could use the club’s lathe, which is also better than my Jet mini.
Being basically lazy, I figured if I was going to have to turn something anyway, I might as well turn something that also satisfies one of the president’s challenges. Kill two birds with one stone, as it were. I decided to show the club how I turn miniature bird houses, only instead of my usual design, I decided to meet the challenge of making a project with a finial at least 6″ long.
The demo started as I expected, with club members giving me a hard time about my self-quarantine hairdo. No, I haven’t shaved my head, yet, like Quintin did. I haven’t had hair that short since early grade school and I have no intention of going back to it. Instead, it’s gotten quite long, quite shaggy, and is easily the longest my hair has been since joining the club. One member asked if I “was getting ready to try out for the Passion Play”, comparing my hair style to that of Jesus. Another asked if I “was gonna put all that hair into a bun and start wearing skinny jeans”? No, that’s not going to happen. I took the light hearted kidding as a good sign that the club felt comfortable enough with me to take a swipe, knowing I wouldn’t be upset.
My biggest fear in doing a demo that actually involved me showing my skills at the lathe, people would find out I’m not the best turner out there. From a technical standpoint, I know that I don’t always have the proper technique and others in the club are far superior to me in that regard. I was pleasantly surprised when no one made comments, pointing out my obvious (to me, anyway) flaws. My other fear was that as I was turning, I’d make a mistake and the piece would simply shatter into a million pieces, filmed live for constant ridicule. Luckily, that didn’t happen, either. All in all, it was a good night!
Here’s the mini-birdhouse I made at the demo. It’s finished with an abrasive wax on the house part and blue spray paint on the roof to add some color. Because of the way I made the top of the finial, there was to way to attach an eyelet, so I twisted up some very thin copper wire to make a hanger.
Since I had made the pieces for another one, just in case this one blew up halfway through the demo, I ended up killing three birds with one stone. One of the other president’s challenges is to make something that was demo’d during a club meeting. Here’s my “spare”, also finished with a paste wax.
