May 10, 2025 Club Meeting
Visitors: Ton Anderson introduced the day’s visitors Doug and Amith
Deceased: The loss of member Roger Marvin was announced, whose service will be held May 31st. Additionally, the passing of Jerry Owens wife on May 7th was acknowledged.
Rogers Historical Museum Open House: This family day will be on June 7th and the club would like to have a demonstration to attract new members. Paul Moore volunteered to help coordinate that effort. Anyone willing to assist should contact Paul.
Club Facebook Page: Ray Taylor manages this presence (https://www.facebook.com/StatelineWoodturners/) and talked about this resource as another form of outreach. He posts club pictures there and noted that there were 1,066 followers. Everyone was encouraged to visit and promote the site.
Northwest Arkansas Woodturners Facebook Group: Steve Jeffcoat started this private group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/northwestarkansaswoodturners) which he promoted as a way of sharing your work and receiving input from others. He indicated an ID is required but that it was very easy to join and requires no use of other aspects of Facebook (friends). Some members are in Asia using pedal lathes doing amazing work.
Pauline Sutsman: Pauline has been busy. She developed a new format for the newsletter as reflected in the prior publication (everyone should have received it via email). She also had stickers made for the club ($5 each), has printed flyers for the club, developed a receipt form that can be provided for donations, and is handling the printing of club T-Shirts (this was the last day for placing an order).
Committees: Randy Wright thanked the volunteers in the following areas.
- Greeter: Tom Anderson
- Membership: Bill Pope and Bill Cliff
- Budget: Ron East, Jim Shank, and David Schumacher
- Public Affairs: Ray Taylor
- Interim Secretary: Ben Johnson with David Wimberly assisting
Financial Report: Joe Fernandez provided the Treasurer’s report via spreadsheets showing incomes and expenses. He also presented future estimates showing that our current path is not sustainable, and if action is not taken we will quickly be dipping into our $5,000 CD. The main reason is the increase in our rent, which over the past 5+ years has gone from $75/month to $300, $325, $350, and now $375. There was extensive discussion regarding how to address this issue.
- Raising the dues to $100/year starting October 2025.
- Immediately assess a $30 one time fee on all members to get us through this fiscal year.
Mark Palmer in October: Mark is scheduled as a guest for October and has traditionally refused to accept a fee for his presentation on finishing. He will also be available to aid anyone in adding a bottom to a piece on Sunday. There was discussion regarding how we could show our appreciation. The Saturday meeting will be an all-day event, and there was agreement that a fee should be assessed for members which would include lunch.
Beginner Woodturning Class: Thurman Hatch will begin a Thursday evening class May 15th for beginner turners. There will be a fee. Those interested needed to go ahead and sign up and indicate their preference for a starting time.
By-Laws Change: There was agreement that the club office of Secretary should be split from the Treasurer duty. David Morris agreed to draft that change to the by-laws, which will then be presented to the club for approval.
Show and Tell, Novice: Carl Hoffman brought in 4 bowls (spalted cherry, and two mystery wood); Patrick Mcmahon a pen turned from a rare wood for his new boss; and Jim a cherry bowl finished with Water-Lux. Carl won the award in this category.
Show and Tell, Advanced: Larry Copas brought a small urn as an example of a bowl in a bowl; Ben Johnson a small bowl from a cherry burl cutoff finished with spray lacquer; Ray Taylor a bowl turned from wet live edge walnut finished with wipe on poly; Frank Emetario a bowl from a live edge onion skin oak burl and another from kiln dried walnut made in the double Viking form; and Steve Jeffcoat a walnut rolling pen hollowed through the middle with lathe threaded in-laid handles. Steve won the award in this category.
Bring Back Raffle: There were a record 51 tickets sold. Verlie Coss won first pick and chose a beautiful platter Thurman had made (who will receive a free ticket next month). There were at least 15 different winners.
Larry Copas, Using a trim router on the lathe: This presentation was videoed and will be available on the club’s website.
- He started with what he called spindle turning 101, eyeballing the centers of a blank and using a cup center. He then roughed out a walnut spindle.
- He then talked about flutes and how he uses those on all the handles of his hollowing tools, to aid in orienting the tools since he can’t see inside.
- He then mounted, behind the chuck, a homemade index wheel he made from a piece of thin plywood with a printout of various index settings glued to the surface (4, 6, 8, 12, etc.). He also attached a horizontal support to the lathe bed underneath the index, which included a vertical leg. He clipped that to the index wheel at the quarter color coded setting.
- He had a homemade sled with a post that fit where the tool rest would go and set the height at the center of the spindle.
- He had an old trim router attached on its side to a plywood and high-density plastic plate so that it would slide along the sled.
- Using a cove cutter bit he routed a flute in the side of the spindle, sliding the router back and forth on the sled.
- He then loosened and rotated the spindle to the next index, and repeated the process until all four flutes were cut.
- He then showed knobs he makes with flutes around their perimeter to provide a better grip with 5 or 6 flutes.
- He mentioned John Lucas as a master at using a router on the lathe and his 5 page article that appeared in an AAW publication that remains available online.
- He went on to present and discuss flutes on bowls and lids and even talked about being able to flute the inside of large bowls.
- He then discussed techniques for doing inlays, where dyed veneers can be glued to square pieces and glued into a perfect V groove. For that he uses a 45-degree mounted trim router and a straight bit to cut the V (a regular V bit will not cut a clean V at the bottom, required for glueing in the inlays). He then turns away the protrusions. These cuts need to be exactly on center. Very nice for Christmas ornaments or box/bowl lids. He even talked of doing multiples of these where they cross.
In addition to his demonstration, Larry brought in many samples of his work using these techniques. Under his club profile he also has additional information (including a link to John Lucas’s article) and more pictures.
Attendance: Approximately 35 with 2 guests.