Peter Downing did a great job of recording our members instructing at Walter Murray. Thanks Peter for sending this in. Thanks to Mel Genge for organizing this. Thanks to all the HCT members who showed up to help out.
On Wednesday March 24th I had the opportunity to join the Hub City Turners Flying Education Squad to Walter Murray Collegiate to partake in their “Introduction of Wood Turning”. We had 10 eager grade 10 students. The crew met at 9:30 to check the equipment set up their chucks and prep the blanks for the initiates. As time was limited to just one hour, Mel did a quick introduction and showed a sample of the project the youth would be creating and sent them to their respective lathes. Though some of the students were somewhat intimidated by a block of wood spinning an a seemingly great rate of speed, The HCT members were patient and supportive in their instruction. I often heard great praise from our members after a student finished a pass on the blank, thus boosting that student’s confidence and enthusiasm. It was very rewarding to see the students finish their projects. Our crew did two classes of 6 students. Wednesday, May 1st will be the last class for our turners instruct this year.
Watching our members pass on their knowledge was quite inspirational, and after observing, I might even try this project myself multiple times and volunteer next semester…Unless of course Mel changes the project!
Here’s our Flying Squad at work.
All lathes at work
Vic and Seth
Seth
Jim and Ashton
Ashton
Mark and Aden
Aden
Dave and Goudos
Goudos
Steve and Haadee
Haadee
Finishing before staining
All Turners with Vic and Milar on Lathe 1
Milar
Jim and Jawaad
Jawaad
Mark and Jawaad
Jordan
Steve and Mohammed
Mohammed
Our Intrepid Leader Mel, supervising and supporting our turners!
After the turnings, Vic and Mel helped the students stain their projects and the candles were installed into the candlesticks. I did remind some of the students that Mother’s Day was just a couple weeks away and I expect several moms will be getting these on the 12th of May.
Many thanks to all the turners that came out to Walter Murray throughout the year to introduce our craft to these young woodworkers and help make this semester a success.
Peter D
