Black Country Wood Turners

I kicked things off by showing a few of my finished segmented pieces so people could see the sort of results that can be achieved. Alongside those I had a set of templates on display, these help calculate the cutting angles needed to make the rings for different numbers of segments. The basic idea is you take 360°, divide it by however many segments you’re using, and then halve that result to get the angle for each piece. I use a custom cutting sled with adjustable sliders to make each cut accurate.

 

Once we’d looked at that, I moved on to the piece I’d prepared for the demonstration. I’d already glued up a segmented blank and mounted it on the chuck. The first job was to hollow out the inside of the bowl, and I blew the waste chips away with a balloon-inflating unit so we could all see what was going on inside. With the interior done, I shaped the outside of the bowl, tidying up any small gaps with a bit of CA glue. I was running the lathe at about 1590 rpm and sanded the outside surface progressively from 180 grit up through to 1200.

 

Next, I prepared the opening for a contrasting wood insert in the neck of the bowl. I’d turned the black wood insert separately beforehand and fixed it neatly into the main body with CA glue. Once it was secure, I brought it into the same profile as the rest of the piece and added a fine bead detail around the neck. I also refined the transition into the bowl so everything flowed smoothly.

 

A few people asked about tools, and I shared how I often make my own for smaller segmented work. I take Allen keys and modify them myself, they make handy custom tools and get interesting responses from the crowd.

 

Throughout the evening I answered questions from the audience, and my wife Beasy kindly helped me with that. Big thanks to everyone who helped with the setup, AV, refreshments, the raffle and all the behind-the-scenes bits that make an evening like that run smoothly.