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Another good Saturday morning.

An interesting meeting this month…last Saturday young Kieran was at my workshop forging two brackets for the Tyme Avon lathe bench we use at club, and whilst having a bite to eat we discussed club projects.  I like to think we are pretty good at thinking up ideas, but it became apparent that we weren’t catering for everybody….namely Kieran, Thomas and Jordan, there were projects available but not really challenging enough for these busy lads……so I suggested as they like the hot melt glue guns that perhaps they would each like to build a tall tower out of 10mm x 4mm x 2m long sticks, well Kieran ran with that idea…..the night before the meeting I spoke to him on the phone, he had obviously put a lot of thought into the idea and had written the rules for the challenge.

The Rules were very precise…… points for height, as in so many points for each cm over 36 inches (don’t ask!), design and how much weight it could stand. So in the morning a very excited Kieran arrived early, his first job was to polish and fix the brackets to the bench, with that done he laid out three tables each with guns, vinyl covers on the tables and a piece of ply on the floor, a pre cut tower base board and top and spare glue sticks.

I welcomed everybody and did the usual chat and handed over to Kieran, who very confidently read out his idea and rules, and away we went, the 3 lads set to with totally different designs, I did suggest to Kieran at the outset that on seeing each others towers perhaps they may well choose a similar design, quite understandably, but it was decided it was to hard separating the 3 all morning, Bill and Keith kept a watchful eye on proceedings with only the briefest of suggestions on design.

The time was up and the judging started, everybody had a slip of paper (designed and printed by young James) to vote on best design…Jordan’s got the most, at this point Id like to apologise to the lads, thinking about the designs later that day it became very clear to me that I should have gone through each design with the gathered crowd before they decided, the reason was there was some excellent features added that I don’t think got fully appreciated in the heat of the moment, Jordan’s was plain, simple and pleasing to the eye and immediately caught most members attention.  Kieran had put a Crafty Turners flag on his and a name board across the uprights, and Thomas had used string as diagonals and fancy bits half way up the legs, I’m really annoyed with myself for missing that opportunity, most things we do here are one offs and you don’t get the experience till after but its still a shame…….

Jordan's tower	Kieran's tower	Thomas's tower being loaded with bricks

The height of each was recorded and straws drawn as to whom gets to do the weight test first, Thomas drew the shortest and the test began…..sadly it wasn’t long before his tower was flat pack as Jordan so delicately put it, Jordan was next…his took an amazing amount of weight, 1 dense concrete block and 9 bricks, when I put the 10^th brick on it started to buckle so I caught the top 6 bricks and saved it from total destruction, then it was Kieran’s turn….slowly I added bricks…lots of suggestions from a now quite vocal crowd….the tension grew at 7 bricks and one concrete block, 8 bricks and starting to lean slightly…..9 bricks and still holding…10 bricks and holding….11^th brick tried but it was obvious it wasn’t going to take it so I put it back on the floor, so we had a winner by 1 brick, great applause from the gathered crowd and lots of excited chat about the event.

Click here for pictures of the three towers with bricks on top.

The scores were put on the notice board during the proceedings, as we all went back to what we were doing.  Bill got the lads together and helped them agree on a final score, good thinking that from Bill, the lads agreeing the score between them, its only a bit of fun but never the less they all were in it to win it as they say.     

Meanwhile down on the lathes Mike started to make a 280mm diameter Ash bowl.  The idea was to make a bowl that every member including the helpers had worked on.  It was bit wobbly…..probably the worst piece to use as it was very much out of balance, but it added a bit of excitement to the event and was handled very well by the very experienced Mike Haseldon.  I think everybody here today stood at the lathe and did their bit. The 3 lads were there by the end of the morning helping with the power sanding.  There will be more on that project next time.

Bill, Barbara and Grant (click on Grant to see the bud vase he created) did Bud vases, Barbara with me and Dave sorted the other two. Dave H was here earlier to help set up the blanks but had to go as he had other commitments. Then there’s Kayleigh, the only member on the craft table this morning, sitting there quietly sewing the soft toy she’s making.  She did take some pictures of the bowl turning for me but other than that she was quite happy sewing, Sue (a helper) was busy cutting round a picture, probably something to do with card making, I did see Kieran there talking to her during the morning.

Midway through all this excitement we had our break.  Last months break was busy as my wife had secretly smuggled in 2 cakes and happy birthday to myself and happy first birthday for crafty Turners took over the proceedings.  This meant that I forgot to do happy birthday for Jordan, so this month we remembered but re-wrote the words, it went….. Happy birthday last month etc, so there you go……..gone but not forgotten.

Well what a busy morning that was, sadly all over far to quick, and with the usual army of helpers the van and cars are loaded and the hall nice and clean again, and there goes another brilliant Crafty Turners meeting…..

Mick August 2010

Ps

This Ps is getting to be a habit……Kieran and Jordan came back to my workshop to do some more work on the land yacht, we had our lunch and unloaded the van and put the workshop straight, then my wife said she was taking the dog for a walk and blackberry picking….and the rest is history….the boys picked loads, found fish on the shore line and Kieran got covered in blackberry juice, no surprises there, what a brilliant end to a very busy day.

Mick