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Beautiful day today, 67° and sunny. Tomorrow, winter weather advisory. Ahh, spring time in PA. Our Patriot Turners- @BillyJack asked our members for input on some turning tools. Several gave their recommendations on what he might consider. I hope he posts the tools he gets so we can all drool over his choices! @Gerald gave us a look at some of the turnings that were done at the last club meeting. Gerald posted several more images of turnings that were done during the demonstration. Gerald said their guest demonstrator was Matt Monaco. If you do Instagram, here's a link to Mr. Monaco's page- https://www.instagram.com/monaco_bowls/. Gerald also posted some images, in response to some thoughts from last week's "Wednesday's...", showing some of the embellishments he has done using various tools. See this post for more pictures- I appreciate Gerald's willingness to share his knowledge with all of our turners. What’s Coming Up- Click on the images for links and more information. From the AAW- From Lyle Jamieson From Cindy Drozda- Not sure if you need a Facebook account to view this presentation- For The Newbies- From the AAW, a short video on sharpening- Mike Peace continues his series on lathe drilling. This video discusses drill bit selection- Expand Your Horizons- Cindy Drozda is asking for input on IRD content. She has developed an anonymous online questionnaire. Maybe you could help her by responding. Here's the link- https://us18.list-manage.com/survey?u=4fd7472bedaf1b07e398a732a&id=73c2cb5054&attribution=false Cindy also uploaded a video of the equipment she uses to do her IRD's and training videos. If you have thought about getting into this area, maybe her experiences might be helpful- Alan Stratton finishes up his series on the eccentric chuck and turnings with a video on making his chuck. Carl Jacobson turns a vase with an off-centered lid- New Turning Items- From Ruth Niles' latest newsletter- Click on the image for ordering. From the folks at Woodturners Wonders- FREE Shipping! https://woodturnerswonders.com/collections/new-products/products/powermatic-3520c-lathe-100th-anniversary-edition Everything Else- Rick Turns list of YouTube woodturning videos from last week- No turning for me this week. As the old saying goes- "No good deed goes unpunished". One of those-"if we supply the lumber will you donate your time". A little Free Library for the local state park- Just getting to the roof when the spring pin, in the table saw trunnion worm gear, decided to fall out. Of course everything had to fall down into the dust collector hose. It's a wonderful day in the neighborhood... Safe turning

So I received an order of blanks today from Cook Woods. I'm being a bit crazy with this one here I've started on a purple heart blank. How ever I AM NOT using the face place to start it off. I off set the blank a bit and went with the live center option. I wanted to try for a bit of a different pattern with the way the grain looks in a finished product. I'm not sure if this was just down right risky or plain stupid of me to do. How ever the main issue I've been having is the fact that the live center wants to slip on occasion when I'm cutting into the wood so its been a slow going process. Yes I've made sure the tail stock was tight into the blank giving it support. It would still slip. I'm just hoping I can get a good cut on the tenon. Any suggestions on making this work?

This is my latest attempt at an off-center turning to produce an oval shaped tool handle. This was done out of ash. Be kind, I am still learning, as can plainly be seen.

This is the first try with the off center chuck. This is green bradford pear and for this did not do well, so will sand. And after some sanding is better but blurred some lines. It did not show a a three axis turning well until I centered and turned the bottom and top. More on this later.

Cold and windy today, a great day to be at the lathe. Unfortunately computer repair calls kept that from happening! Our Patriot Turners- @DAB and @Woodbutcherbynight added some really nice additions to last week's "Wednesday's..." DAB posted a sweet cherry bowl- And Woodbutcherbynight is preparing a nice looking hand wheel for a project- @Steve Krumanaker is preparing for a demonstration he will be giving to the woodturning club to which he belongs. One of the turning items he will show is a "Knitting Nancy". Steve describes his preparation and topics in his post- @Gerald continues to keep us up-to-date with his new off-center lathe chuck. Gerald talks about which lathe tools seem to give the best results in his post- What’s Coming Up- Woodturners Wonders has posted their 2019 Symposium schedule- Click on the above image for the link to their site and products. For The Newbies- We recently posted a video about keeping the lathe Morse Tapers clean. Mike Peace added another video with more information concerning various accessories that can be used in conjunction with the Morse tapers Expand Your Horizons- I know that @Steve Krumanaker turns some bird houses and even creates tiny birds to occupy them. Recently Mr. David Reed Smith made available a tutorial for making his version- Mr. Smith's approach to any project is always unique. You can read the tutorial at- http://davidreedsmith.com/Articles/Birds/Birds.html New Turning Items- Woodturners Wonders has a new, small, air powered sander- Check out the details at- https://woodturnerswonders.com/products/pro-mini-variable-speed-random-orbital-sander Everything Else- Rick Turns has the December YouTube woodturning videos summarized- The Woodturning OnLine newsletter arrived this past week. One of the articles had a simple little lathe project- The tutorial is here- http://www.stevefreemanonline.com/2017/01/tooth-pick-holder-shape-mushroom-wood-turning-projects-beginners/ The entire newsletter is at- https://www.woodturningonline.com/ I finished up a late Christmas present. It was the bowl I had been using as a test for the Wonder Weave sanding screens. It is finished with beeswax and mineral oil combination. I found that I need to make/buy better sanding devices for the inside of bowls. I have a 3" pad- but it doesn't do well on the inside of the bowls at the bottom corners. I've made some sanding balls (from Mr. David Reed Smith's tutorials) that use sandpaper but was thinking of something that I could test the Wonder Weave products. Need to think on it. Safe turning

Ran across this video of a young turner. Handled his tools well while turning a tea light.

I have only turned one off set center turning. I started by drilling a couple of holes that were off center line. I kept turning , routing and inventing as I went.. I finished it off with a yellow hart head and base. My daughter always admired it and I gave it to her for Christmas this year.