Home - Woodturners Guild of North Carolina

Monthly Show & Tell Session

May 15th, 2025
Zoom session opens about 6:30 PM
Meeting begins at 7:00 PM

May Show and Tell Session

Thanks to everyone who sat in on the April session, it was another fun and inspiring evening!

It never gets old, we truly look forward to seeing what all our members are making and there is really no better way to do so than by joining in a Show & Tell session.

It is important to be reminded that the Show & Tell sessions are intended for all levels of woodturners and designed to be a safe and respectful place to solicit supportive input and advice, regardless of a woodturners experience level. It’s an opportunity for turners to engage in an informal and beneficial exchange of ideas and to foster further growth in woodturning.

All WGNC members and their guests are welcome to spend an evening with fellow woodturners as we explore and share members projects, ideas, issues and yes, even those shop disasters.

Please also keep in mind, you do not have to have a completed project to participate. These sessions are designed for the exploration of ideas, techniques, problems, designs and any other subjects pertaining to your woodturning experience. So, whether you have a completed piece, a practice piece, simply "idea boards", or something that challenges you, all are welcome for sharing and discussing with other members. If you don't have anything mentioned above, join us anyway. We always have a lot of fun, you can meet folks and like most of us, you just might learn something or be inspired to try something new.

To read the entire article and submission guidelines click here.

Building a Homemade Eccentric Chuck with Jim Duxbury

Thursday June 12^th
Hybrid: Live at NCSU Crafts Center and by IRD Broadcast via Zoom
Zoom call opens a 6:15 for socializing
Meeting begins at 6:45 PM
Demonstration begins at 7 PM

Bet you're thinking this is a woodturner’s 35mm camera. Well, it may look a little like one but it's really a Duxbury eccentric wooden chuck. Why not? Duxbury has always been a little off center. And besides it can’t be a camera -- where wood you get a roll of wooden film?

There are many versions of eccentric chucks available for a wood lathe. Usually they are made of steel or aluminum and range in cost from under a hundred dollars to many hundreds of dollars. Each one has its advantages and the complex ones are almost a science in themselves to use. Generally they are not intuitive for most woodturners.

So, Jim created the Duxbury Wooden Chuck --- now nicknamed the Dux Chuck. It is totally intuitive to use, simple to make, stimulates creativity, and the price is right. In fact all of the material needed to make a real Duxbury Chuck could probably be resurrected from your scrap wood pile. What are we waiting for? Creativity abounds.

The material should be straight grained hardwood. Poplar was used for this chuck but maple, cherry, oak and other hardwoods would work fine also. Jim has designed this chuck to work with a Oneway Talon chuck using #2 jaws. Slight modifications may need to be made to accommodate other brands of chucks.

To find additional details and a drawing, click here.

Find the full article here.

Workshop Photo Recap - Finding Your Way to Hollowing

Sunday's workshop participants Bob Reuss, Clarke Limbert, Michael Earley (workshop leader #1), Fred Burke and Donald Heppner. Photo provided by Ted Ross (workshop leader #2).

On Friday April 11th and on Sunday April 13th Michael Earley and Ted Ross led partiocipating Members in a hollowing workshop. Members were shown and then practiced the hollowing skills and techniques needed to take their hollowing to the next level.

The workshop followed Trent Bosch’s Thursday demonstration on hollowing and reinforced his techniques. The workshop leaders demonstrated various skills and techniques and then coached participants in practicing what they learned. The goal was to have participants walk away with a thorough understanding of hollowing and to feel comfortable using hollowing tools.
Based on the photo above and the slide show below, it appears the workshops accomplished it's stated goals with much success.

For anyone interested in seeing Trent Bosch's Thursday demo, please click here to be taken to all past Demos and Show & Tell Videos .

And in other news:

New Videos:
The April Demonstration and Show & Tell videos are now available.
To view current and past videos click here

New Galleries:
The April Show and Tell Gallery photos are now available for viewing 04 - Apr 2025 - Show & Tell

Breakout: Let it burn!

The Saturday February 22nd breakout session was a sell out. This breakout, led by Lars Nyland, featured multiple ways a turner might add embellishments using "fire". Some of the hands on tools used were blow torches and burning units that use attached hand held pens to burn surface designs. While everyone had fun and were able to try their hand at burning, the best news of the day was our host, Ted Ross, still has an unscorched shop to work in!

Above is a slide show of some of the fun.

For additional reference material for this session see Burned Turnings

Breakout: Women in Turning

The WIT breakout sessions continued on Saturday, March 15th. This breakout, hosted by Ted Ross and featuring a wig stand project, had Eddie, Lydia, Tiffani and Ellen fully engaged for ther entire day.
Nice work ladies!

Breakout: Comments

Below are a few comments regarding the "Let it Burn!" breakout:

Lars Nyland:

Great day yesterday watching all of you burn your pieces! The transformations were amazing!

I was shocked at the end of the day how much carbon had accumulated in the rinse water; I've never seen anything like it.

Here is a link to the slides I made. If you care to, you can take some time to look into each artist and the techniques they use.

Stephan Moll:

Thank you very much for having hosted such a wonderful breakout session. Not only was Lars” presentation great and relevant, but opening your workshop for us, the setup outside, the cookies and donuts - it all made for an educational, worthwhile, well organized, fun and peaceful day. The great weather, of course, helped, too.

David Chapin:

Today was a great day. Lars, it was wonderful to get the benefit of your experience, combined with a chance to experiment for ourselves.

Thanks so much!!

Karl Koch:

Thank you for sharing with us today Lars! I have been thinking about all the new ideas that I was exposed to today. And thank you Ted for hosting us in your shop and yard!

It was a good day! Which is never something to be taken for granted.

Much appreciated,