Here’s a collection of small boxes that I did over the summer. They vary in size from 2″ tall to 4 1/2″ tall and they feature pyrography and staining.

A pair of the boxes also feature a small glass bead accent in the center of the lid. They are all made from Ash and finished with wipe-on poly.

Here are some photos of the individual boxes. The first ones are of the largest box, that is approximately 4 1/2″ tall X 3 1/4″ at its widest. It features a black glass bead on the lid, matching the black stained band that was burned with ‘swirls’ and ‘dots’:

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Well, they hung from the rafters! There were over 60 members and guests in attendance for this three hour meeting which featured a fantastic presentation/demonstration by Sorby Tools Product Manager, Clive Brooks.
 

Clive once again finished his North American tour at his favourite stop – with the Nova Woodturners’ Guild at Busy Bee Tools! The ‘Sorby meeting’ has become sort of a fall tradition for us and those that have attended one in the past know that it is one of the most popular meetings of the season. It’s always a great time and tonight was no different.

Clive began with showing us the Patriot chuck and then moved through to the variety of Stebcenters available. He showed how they differed from the traditional centers that come equipped with our lathes, and its safety features. From here he showed us the Hollowmaster, how it worked as a combination spindle gouge and skew and the method for sharpening them. He turned and passed around an example of the smooth cut it can make on end grain, requiring little or no sanding when completed!
 
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Need an easy way to finish the bottom of your woodturnings? Tired of continually screwing in and unscrewing the screws of your Cole jaws? Hate having to heat the glue gun up again? If so, then you need to make a Longworth chuck!

The Longworth chuck was developed in the late 1980′s by Leslie Douglas Longworth of the Hunter Valley Woodturners in Australia. It features a self centering mechanism that easily and quickly adjusts to the size of your turning.

The concept is quite simple – a pair of disks rotate against each other drawing in, or out, eight rubber ‘jaws’ on a series of opposing arcs. Yep, it’s that simple.

Here, let me explain how I made mine and you’ll see how easy it is to make one.

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This month’s meeting of the Atlantic Woodworkers Association featured an informative session with Lee Valley’s Assistant Manager, Kevin Hurst, who spoke to us about hinges, all kinds of hinges.

Kevin, who used to be a professional cabinet maker before working with LV, focused his presentation on the most common questions regarding hinges that they are asked at Lee Valley. Since most of the questions they receive are about kitchen cabinet hinges his talk centered around these types of hinges.

He spoke on decorative butt hinges, European style hinges, lift-off hinges, overlay hinges and more. He also spoke on table hinges, pivot hinges, screen hinges, barrel hinges, SOSS hinges and strap hinges. Each of the hinges that he explained were attached to a cabinet sample which made it very easy to see how they would look in a real application. This also helped in understanding how the hinge worked, in particular the SOSS, table and screen hinges.

Continue reading 'The AWA Gets Unhinged At Lee Valley'