Please follow the link to see a collection of the Show and Tell items that were displayed at the 2021 AGM

Sue Harker
Live Interactive Demo

The highly accredited Sue Harker RPT Joined us on Thursday 4th March 2021 for a live IRD. Sue was giving us a live demonstration of Involuted Turning (or inside out turning) on the ZOOM Platform. Club members then had a month to try and perfect their techniques for the show & tell on 15th April.

November 2020 Activities

The November Show and Tell Project is to be a toy. As always the decision as to what you do is entirely up to you and what you think your ability will allow (please be ambitious). As Colwin Way will be giving the club a live Zoom Demo on 29th October there may be some ideas at this meeting. One of Colwin’s projects is a Party Popper Cannon, this was shown in two parts on the Axminster YouTube Channel and Colwin has given permission for us to make the plans available to club members for this project so please click on the link

Live Zoom Demo by Colwin Way

Please join us for a live Zoom Meeting by Axminster’s Turning Pro Colwin Way.
The meeting will be on Thursday 29th October 2020 and members will receive a link to the meeting either on the day or the day before the event. The meeting will last for between an hour and a half and two hours. Please contact Jim for further details.

Autumn Events

As the Club will be closed until at least January it has been decided to meet on a Bi-Weekly basis via Zoom (if you can read this then you can join in).
The new programme of events has been posted on the Events Page
If you would like to join in but are having difficulty then please contact Jim for help.

July 2020 CrowValley News Letter

Our thanks go to Walter and the team for their efforts in producing the first news letter for a while now. Please read and enjoy it and if you can make a contribution for the next edition then why not contact Jim or Walter (their contact details are on the website) and let them know what you have. It could be just a few pictures with comments or a full blow article but content is required otherwise it won’t happen.
Please click this link to open the July Covid News Letter

Oz Awards 2019

The annual OZ Awards evening was held last night (14th Nov 2019) with a large number of exhibits from our beginners right through to our more experienced turners. We would like to thank everyone that took part and submitted an entry this year and to congratulate the winners of this event. Our congratulations also go to Richard Bowman for winning the Gordon’s Cup as the most improved turner for 2019.

Future Events at the Nest

We have several events planned for the 2020 season at the nest, please make a point of viewing our events page for the latest dates for your diary

All Day Demo with Gary Rance

Well, a brilliant day was had at the nest on Saturday with Gary Rance. Lots of new ideas and techniques to try at home

Crow Valley at the Axminster Challenge, Cardiff

Thank you to those of you who supported the club last Saturday at the Axminster Woodturning Competition either by taking part, supplying items for the gallery or being there on the day.

We are pleased to say our gallery won first prize ( £30 voucher), Rob Williams won the clock competition ( £20 voucher) and a special thank you to Glyn for representing the club in the nerve racking ‘turning competition’ and came away with a well earned prize.

The vouchers will be used to buy equipment for the club.

A good day for the club – thank you.

Lets Teach Turning

The AWGB have designed and written the “Lets Teach Turning” course to give turners who give tuition some assistance in teaching the basics of woodturning at training workshops, club events such as hands on evenings or other events. This course will vary between each person, but you should expect it to take between 2-3 hours which can be split amongst multiple sessions. By allowing cookies on this website, your progress will be saved.

COVID19 Activity

Walter and Jim have been putting together all the photos of the club activity over the last few months, you can see the results here Covid-19 Pictures
The members have been extremely busy since March and have produced some impressive items.

Finishing Fact Sheet

We all have issues when finishing our projects. Those last few tool marks, what type of finish should I use ? we usually spend a couple of hours turning a piece and then five minutes on the finishing, well here is a Fact Sheet that has been drawn up by Jim to give us all a little help to make our projects stand out a bit from the rest. Jim’s Finishing Fact Sheet

Lockdown Newsletter

Nick Arnull Visit

A few of us went up to Hereford Woodturners on Saturday to see Nick Arnull in Demonstration and had a good day out. The Hereford Club looked after us well and I am sure we will be going back there another time. Many Thanks to Hereford Woodturners.

Training Day with Gary Rance

Member Training Workshop Spindle/Faceplate Techniques-Candle Stick

Mark Douglas

I’d like to share my experience of the Spindle / Faceplate techniques day held at are our local club Crow Valley Woodturners.

The Tutor for the day was Gary Rance assisted by our club chairman Peter Bradwick.

The day started with a quick chat to get to know each other. Five of us where on the course, three members of our club and two that had travelled, one from Wiltshire and the other all the way from Yorkshire.

Gary started the day demonstrating spindle work using the roughing gouge on some square stock, then showing us cove and bead techniques using the spindle gouge and the skew. All the time sharing with us the methods and nuances he’s perfected through his entire working life as a professional turner. Like watching any craftsman at the top of their game Gary managed to make the work look effortless and with his easy-going teaching style eased us into trying his methods. With each one of us on a separate lathe Gary worked around us individually helping with our technique and showing us how to get the best from the tools. I definitely benefitted from this, just by small adjustments to the way I held the chisels and my stance at the lathe, I was finding cuts took a lot less effort and the finish I achieved was far better than my usual attempts.

After a short tea break Gary was back at the lathe demonstrating his face plate techniques. The standout part of this demonstration for me was watching Gary turn a series of beads using a spindle gouge, each bead perfectly spaced and identical to all the others, achieved with what appeared to be a simple technique. There was obviously a lot more to this than met the eye because what appeared to be simple I can’t even begin to describe, let alone copy!

After lunch we were each given a dimensioned drawing of a candle holder, and with the mornings practice under our belts it was then on with applying all we had learned. With the added concentration required of using newly acquired techniques and reproducing the parts from a dimensioned drawing this was probably the most challenging part of the day. Continually on hand with help and guidance Gary and Peter ensured we all had a very rewarding day.

If you’ve never been on one of these training courses before I can thoroughly recommend it, I think what makes turning so interesting is there always more to be learned. I would like to thank Gary and Peter and the AWGB for an excellent day.

Show & Tell Task for June

The June Show & Tell task is the two part hollow form and will be on 20th June 2019, if you haven’t finished yours yet (or even started) there is still time.

Show & Tell July Task

The Show and Tell task for July will be the making of an Animal, The Demo for this task will be on 6th June 2019 by Walter and Rob. Any kind on animal can be made and as always your imagination is encouraged to run wild like a Tiger. Walter has given you a head start by providing a couple of plans for a Love Bird and a Cat if you get stuck, please click on the links to view or download the plans.

All Day Demo by Gary Rance

Gary Rance will be returning to the Nest on Saturday 20th July.
as always we will be starting at about 10am and going through till 4pm.

visitors are always welcome

Walters Dachshund Dog

During the April Task Show and Tell of a Three Legged Stool there was quite a lot of interest in the little Dachshund Dog that he had made so here is the drawing of the parts and a photo of the finished article. The drawing is a PDF and when printed it should be an exact size of the original.

Axminster Woodturning Competition

Axminster Woodturning Competition