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Volume 30, No 03 October 2013 No. 301

Correspondence to

the Secretary, Trevor Lloyd

Woodgroup SA Inc web page:­ www.woodgroupsa.org.au

Opinions expressed in this Newsletter are not necessarily those of the Editor, the Board of Directors, or the Executive Committee of Woodgroup SA Inc.

WOODGROUP CONTACT DETAILS

Contact the Secretary (Trevor Lloyd)

Email—3lloyds@adam.com.au

Contact the Newsletter Editor (John Tillack)

Email—tillackfamily@hotmail .com

Phone 0407 790 334

What’s on 2­3 Nov—Northern Turners guest demonstrator—Theo Haralampou 15 Nov— Guest speaker John Pfitzner 16 Nov—Woodgroup SA Forum, AGM and Board Meeting—details to be advised shortly

Woodgroup SA— Member Clubs

Club Contact Phone

Northern Turners Inc Dale Starr 08 8289 0329

Western Woodworkers Inc Rena Hoare 08 8352 3207

Murrayland Turners Inc Malcolm Taylor 08 8532 2075

Sculptors & Carvers Inc Graham Jones 08 8260 2827

Whyalla Woodies Inc Maurice Hynds 08 8644 2232

Hills Woodworkers Inc Ed Horton 08 8389 7246

Copper Coast Woodworkers Inc Graham Nicolle 08 8821 4882

South Oz Scrollers Inc David Chaplin 08 8377 0529

Riverland Woodworkers Inc Brian Lock 08 8586 4916

Toymendous Inc Ron Crowhurst 08 8264 0034

Southern Turners Inc John Edyvean 08 8296 1992

President’s Report Most of the content of this report was included in the Memo to Delegates for­warded at the end of September. It is included here so that all Woodgroup mem­bers have access to the news. WOODGROUP SA INC. Now celebrating 30 years. The inaugural meeting was held in May 1983 with 20 interested people in attendance. The organisation was then known as South Australian Woodgroup which was changed to its current name in 1994. Brian Fraser was one of the members of that first meeting and I think is the only active member remaining.

RECENT EVOLUTION OF THE WOODGROUP The planning for the restructure largely took place during 2007, with a Special General Meeting to change the constitution held on Dec 8th 2007. Although change was seen as necessary for the security of all of the member clubs (then known as Special Interest Groups), I believe that during the past 6 years, we have been struggling to firmly establish the role of Woodgroup SA as a parent body and its relationships with the Member Clubs. During this period some evolution took place, in particular with

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Ron Allen

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the formation of the Executive Committee and the current Executive Committee believes that some more development is needed. The current Executive has felt that it has been stifled with long standing issues like the Strate­gic Plan, Changes to By Laws and the Constitu­tion instead of being able to be more proactive in the role of the Woodgroup and supporting mem­ber clubs. However these important aspects need to be attended to. The Executive currently only has three members and the load sometimes seems to be daunting. However we are still en­thused and have spent some time developing some changes which will be discussed and dealt with at the AGM. Following our discussions, John Tillack has been preparing draft documents regard­ing changes to the Constitution and the By Laws to be soon sent out to all Clubs for discussion. Amongst these changes is reference to members. Members of some clubs have raised these issues over recent times. We comfortably call ourselves members of a particular club as well as members of Woodgroup SA and many feel uncomfortable with the term affiliate as used in the constitution. May be the constitution should contain language that ordinary members use. Thus one of the recommended changes will refer to Members and to Member Clubs.

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Woodgroup SA Network Meeting, John Bennett

Woodgroup SA Network Meeting, Tuesday 10th September, 2013. Disease, sickness and travel took its toll of Woodgroup members attending, leaving a hard core attending San Georgio Community Centre, bolstered by three committee members Ron Allen, John Tillack and Trevor Lloyd, the latter two from the far south of the universe and Ron from the north. In spite of the low numbers, the evening was most convivial, humorous, and informative in the coffee lounge/bar in-stead of upstairs in our usual meeting room. With our usual photographer missing, there are no nice im-ages of the occasion, only approximate sketches of two of the offerings. Franco Lanfranchi brought along a circular perspex centre-finder (well, this could be construed as part of a circus ring)–about 40 cm in diameter, inscribed with concentric circles each about 1cm apart. He also showed an oilstone box with lid. The floor of the box was carved convex, to fit the some-what concave-worn oilstone coarse side, while the lid was assembled from bandsawn parts, and completed with a very nicely carved and appropriate inscription on its lid “Never a dull moment” –well , the font was perhaps old English or old German! And thirdly, he showed a piece of zebrano to illustrate a counter-point to one raised by Mike Donnelan in the August meeting who had difficulty cutting veneers with perpendicu-lar edges. Franco had managed to cut 0.7mm veneers with perpendicular edges without too much trouble –speak to him for guidance if that is your problem. John Edyvean got the triple-A rating and acclaim for being the only one attempting the theme “from the circus” with a small turned bowl (about 50 mm diameter) into which a high flyer from a balanced ladder was to plunge –sometime in the future. The ladder is yet to be made from bamboo, and the figure –wait and see! Any connexion between his in-tended result and the accompanying figure is purely coincidental! He also brought along a wood sample, fine grained, light brown with a pinkish tinge in part of the piece, for identification. Ron suggested an Asian timber, without further com-mitment. It was and is clear that having more information about the source country, and the tree from which wood comes, helps significantly with wood identification. So all you collectors, gather as much information as you can at the source site –especially images of tree form, fruit, buds, leaves, bark....Microscopic examination might sometimes help, but that is tricky without a detailed key for all the local and exotic woods that are now found in Australia, and no microscope. Is there anyone willing to become THE expert? Trevor Lloyd had survived the water bag trip from the Southern Vales with sufficient strength to show two out of three efforts at offset turning of a multifaceted candlestick –his second effort was missing, hav-ing disappeared off the lathe somewhere into another part of the galaxy, but he was happy that his third effort was according to design, following Michael O’Donnell’s approach for a vase given in the UK Woodturning magazine #243. The sketch maybe gives a general impression. A bit of discussion and com-ment followed on offset turning approaches, along with a reminder of Neil Scobie’s patterns for multiaxis turning of human figures. Ron Allen passed around his card showing one of his lidded, finialled, and decorated winged bowls. That produced some discussion on the care required when turning winged bowls, with advice to keep hands behind the tool-rest to avoid contact with the barely visible wings if they are turned without sacrificial pieces on the rim. The latter pieces minimise breakout on the trailing edges as well as blood loss. Cautions were expressed about using a glove as protection, owing to the risk of gloves catching on exposed wings.

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PO Box 1384, Murray Bridge SA 5253

Ph 08 8531 3440 Email—

ochjh@netconnect.com.au

Continued from page 3 John Edyvean expressed his and others’ disappointment with the handling of the removal of the Burnside red-gum –where prior to its removal, sentiments had been clearly expressed to retain good lengths of tim-ber for conversion to furniture. Instead, the longest pieces now available were about 1.5 m, most being much shorter, with many hacked every which-way by the tree fellers, making them unsuitable for large turned items. However some was retrievable. Discussions then ranged around the terms “significant trees”, “protected trees” and “regulated trees”, and legislation associated with removal –ably guided by John Tillack with his knowledge of such details. He recommended the website http://www.nationaltrust.org.au/sa/significant-trees as a useful starting place for information. Next meeting, the second TUESDAY of the month, 8th October 2013 at San Georgio Community Centre, enter off Henry St, Payneham, 7 for 7:30 pm start, until about 9 pm. Theme: One or more objects demonstrating high standards of surface finishing –with information about final grits used, and finishing coats applied. So come along and strut your stuff –whatever woodworking skills you are willing to share will always have an appreciative audience. And the weather is warming up! JB

From: christeen.schoepf@gmail.com

Date: 26 August 2013 8:06:48 AM

To: webadmin@woodgroupsa.org.au

I am a Phd candidate at UNE NSW and I am cur­rently researching a roll of Honour that was carved in South Australia by a Miss Blanche Francis in about 1920. I would like to research her further and seek out some more of her work for inclusion in my biography of the roll. Having done a small amount of research over the weekend, it appears she had a woodcarving school in Pirie St Adelaide. My query is whether you might know of, or have some sugges­tions as to where I might find further information on Miss Francis and her school. Regards Christeen Schoepf. PS I am in SA on field work until the end of the year so I am able to attend archives etc

Can you help Christeen?

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continued from page 2 One of the issues I raised when I spoke to my nomination at the AGM early this year was that of establishing a succession model. In order to do this we would like to increase the size of the Ex­ecutive Committee to six members, so that some might feel more confident about nominating and therefore become familiar with the operation of the Woodgroup.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING The AGM will be held on Saturday November 16th 2013. The Executive has been seeking another venue and added programmes which we hope will give country Delegates more purpose in attending. The programme will be in four parts:­ On Friday night we will be presenting a Guest Speaker. Our intention is to open up this meeting to all Woodgroup members and attempt to capture some of the interest from former Woodgroup meetings. Many of the longer standing members still rue the loss of that experience. The meet­ing will also contain a Show and Tell segment and Tea and Coffee. I have spoken with John Pfitzner from Pfitzner furniture and he is happy to talk to us about violin making ­ a passion of his. We may have to limit numbers to about 80, depending on our search for a venue.

Saturday morning will be an open forum discussing a number of issues relevant to our roles and wishes for our clubs and the Woodgroup. If you have any issues to raise please let me know so that they can be placed on an agenda.

Immediately after lunch will be the AGM. The final activity will be the November Board Meeting.

MERRY MONTH OF MAY ­ 2014 I have just received notification from Charles Andre that the Murrayland Turners will be hosting this event from Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th May. Put this on your club Calendar and think about giving it your support. PS ­ The South Oz Scrollers have confirmed that they will host the MMM in 2015. JUNIOR MEMBERSHIP FEES After an inquiry from a club regarding this, the Executive Committee decided that no capitation fees will be charged for this year and the matter will be an agenda item for the Forum. EXHIBITION Details of our major exhibition “Wood Exposed 2013” to be held at the Burnside Civic Centre from December 10th to January 31st 2014 have been forwarded to all Club Secretaries. If you have any ques­tions, please feel free to contact me. More information about the AGM will be forwarded soon. Regards, Ron Allen

Types of articles required for the Newsletter ... Club activities/developments Interesting projects Recognition of individual excellence/

achievements Member profiles Members and their sheds Woodworking processes/tips.

FOR SALE Triton Work Bench Mk3 $300 Carbatec Drum Sander 400mm with stand $400 GMC Thicknesser $50 Redeye Drill Press $50 GMC Bandsaw 250W 200 mm $40 Disc Sander with brake 12 inch $50 Ryobi Trimming & Routing Kit $60 Hegner Finger Jointer or comb joining machine $300

Please contact Pam Blythman at Curramulka on

08 88542050

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COPYRIGHT PROVISIONS

Other Wood Working Clubs may use written items by Woodgroup SA members without prior permission, conditional on acknowledging the article when published. No alterations shall be made and nothing used when the author indicated it shall

not be copied. Designs however may not be copied in any manner.

(John Tillack ­ Editor)

Vale Dick Pillar Dick Pillar passed away peacefully with his family on Sunday Sep-tember 8th. At his memorial service, some spoke of his involvement and com-mitment to various community groups. It is easy for many of us to relate similar stories about his commitment to Woodgroup SA. Until recently, Dick had an active involvement for most of the 30 years of the Woodgroup’s existence. He became a member of the Woodgroup’s management commit-tee in its first year of operation in 1983. In 1985 he became the Minute Secretary, in 1987 the Woodgroup Secretary and in 1988, the President. He returned to the committee in 1996 to fill the va-cant position of Treasurer. In 2000, he again took on a position with the management committee, this time to fill the vacant Vice Presidents role. During this time, Dick was involved with the Southern Turners and with the formative times of the new group making toys for charity. There is an evocative photo of Dick with a Father Christmas hat from the Advertiser of 24th December 1990, showing some toys for charity. In late 1992 he made an approach to use the Golden Grove High School for a new club. In February 1993 the Northern Turners was established. It was here especially, that Dick endeared himself to many. In the 20 years of the Northern Turners, Dick Pillar became an integral part of all of our activities, valued be-cause of his generous assistance to any request made of him. He will be sorely missed by us all.

Health and Safety in a Club Environment Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policies of Woodgroup SA. Introduction A prime object of all clubs should be that their members, guests, visitors and the public have a safe and enjoyable experience at all club functions whether they are conducted at their venue or off site eg at demonstrations etc. Work Health and Safety Act 2012 The Work Health and Safety Act 2012 and associated Regulations were promulgated in South Australia in 2012. I have heard many people ask whether these laws apply to clubs in general or only in the work place. The answer is maybe! If your club is administered by an honorary committee and no one is paid as an employee then the answer is ‘No’. However the rules change as soon as an individual or organisation is paid as an employee; in these circumstances the full impact of ‘persons conducting businesses or undertakings’ come into force. If this is the situation for your club you need professional advice to ensure you are aware of your legal responsibilities as every member of your committee has specific obliga­tions under the Act. continued on page 7

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Continued from page 6 Clubs in General OK so the Act doesn’t apply to your club. Other than our moral obligation to others why worry about health and safety at club level? Experience over the past ten or so years has seen insurance premiums rise significantly. One way to keep these costs in check is to be able to demonstrate to our insurers that our clubs have policies and procedures in place and that these are acted on (not just a document that sits on a shelf gathering dust as is the case for many organisations). Premiums will rise significantly if we fail to address safety satisfac­torily.

Policies, Procedures & Plans Your Health and Safety Policy should be the overarching document that demonstrates your commitment to health and safety. From the Policy will come a suite of documents which could include:

Health and Safety Plan Risk assessments Safe Work Methods Statements (SWMS) (previously referred to as Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) or Safe Work Procedures (SWP)).

Document Control However, whatever documents you do produce it is essential to have an effective document control system. If an incident occurs and you cannot prove what version of a document was current at the time you might as well not have a control in place. My preferred document control system is based on major and minor amendments to documents ie the first version of a document will be version 1.0 as it the initial document, a minor amendment would result in version 1.1 thus the initial document with four minor amendments results in version 1.4 whereas a major rewrite with two amendments becomes version 2.2 and so on. It is also es­sential that superseded versions of all documents are retained for future reference. Austra­lian law allows people to submit claims for injury or lost many years after an incident is al­leged to have occurred. Investigators and courts will want to know what controls were in place at the time of the incident, not what controls you currently have in place. Without ac­cess to superseded documents you will have difficulty in proving due care and may end up with an unfavourable judgement purely due to a lack of evidence.

Newsletter Contributions

Northern Turners— December Western Woodworkers—

December Murrayland Turners—February Sculptors & Carvers—February Whyalla Woodies ­ April Hills Woodworkers—April Copper Coast Woodworkers—

June South Oz Scrollers—June Riverland Woodworkers—

August Toymendous ­ August

Southern Turners—October

Deadline—20th of preceding month

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Networking Night—13th August 2013 Almost a full house, with 17 members gracing the evening with wit, humour, knowledge and skills. A pity all you others missed out! The theme was “something different”, which resulted in a wide variety of items being shown and discussed. Mike Donnellan was first off the blocks, with perhaps the most spectacular exhibit. He opened his large and somewhat nondescript box to reveal an immaculate miniature drawing room, complete with figures, all to 1:12 scale, with ornate and finely painted walls and fireplace, lit chandelier and lamps, a fire that flickered and glowed, period furniture, and evidence of many hundreds of hours of painstaking work throughout by Mike and Christine. His work on the diagonally patterned parquetry floor (of 1.5 mm Tassie oak) and the cutting of each small square and triangle provoked much discussion on ways to cut thin wood so the cut edges were perpendicu­lar to the plane of the veneer –not guillotines or scalpel blades that leave a bevelled edge. The display was part of a recent S.A Miniature Enthusiasts exhibition. His and Christine’s next effort is a Tudor house –if real house­building allows time to continue such fine work!

Alex Mühlhölzl showed a nicely turned candlestick, made from Brazilian mahogany, one of a set made or a con­firmation celebration at church.

Ray Hoare brought a compact set of four stacking egg­cups, all centred in a recess in a larger platter, and all made out of black­heart sassafras. A nicely turned and finished egg completed the set. Roger Humphris began by showing some

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Have you been there lately…?

www.woodgroupsa.org.au

Check it out—often!

delicate bobbins made to fit in weaving shuttles –some so delicate that they suffered in the drilling of a 4.5 mm hole down the not much larger shaft. His other item was an 18” folding pointing baton, for use in sheepdog trials by a relative. The three segments were held together with rubber shock cord threaded down the centre of each piece, with the joins being a tenon in one piece fitting into a stainless steel? socket in the next.

Fred Allen had everyone guessing with his first item –a double edged blade with curious and blunt wings on the flared end, and an offset handle socket, picked up at a farm clearance sale. Can anyone out there help? His next item was another mystery too –a pair of apparently unused wooden tongs, with a quite strong grip, and nicely tapered shafts. Suggestions ranged from thread puller, nose picker, to learner’s chopsticks. Again, help! And his third item was a nicely moving Russian bear that tapped away at a keyboard, the motion driven by a pendulum – Russian made, it seems.

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Mel Pearce extracted a tall “sewing companion” from his bag of goodies, one of a pair, that was originally requested to be in cedar, until the real cost was revealed. Stained pine became more attractive to the client Mel also showed a couple of largish spinning tops which ran truly for a long time. He called a halt on his invalided “referee’s whistle” (without a pea) made at the last Southern Turners meeting.

Roger Parker produced a figure carving of Nicky Winmar, one­time St Kilda football player, in the pose that became symbolic of the anti­racist movement in sport in Australia. The carving is in jelutong, and Roger intends to stain and seal it. Much discussion ensued on procedures that can be used to stain and seal such a surface – ranging from dark tan shoe­polish (that makes pale timber into purpleheart!), coffee at various strengths, iron/ vinegar solution, , and various commercial stains, stain varnishes and lacquers. Points were made about part sealing end­grain to limit stain absorption, avoiding buildup of varnish in the

carving details, and yellowing of wood by some products. Kaylon matt acrylic spray­on lacquer got a few ticks from those who had used it. John Edyvean’s work was a huon pine bowl in progress – having a profile of inward curving bowl and outward curv­ing and descending rim, somewhat characteristic of other recent bowls of his. This bowl however is to have square sides when finished –by removing the sacrificial pieces of pine currently used to prevent breakout on trailing edges, and that also protect fingers and hands while turning.

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John Bennett Networking Nights—all Woodgroup members welcome! Next meeting: Tuesday October 8th Venue: San Giorgio Community Centre (Henry St, Payneham) Time: 7.00pm

Franco Lanfranchi showed a small tool he had had made, with a hex bar shaft on the end of which was bolted a small 4­sided bit used in the construction of spiral buzzer blades. Flats had been ground on the shaft so the cutting forces on the bit limited the torque on the shaft.. The tool’s virtues were that it did many of the things that a handful of other tools do. He also brought along a pressure pack of Kaylon high gloss varnish, which while it took only a few minutes to dry, took months to lose its odour! Not to be confused with one of their matt varieties. Be warned –read the labels carefully. Keith Grote commented upon a couple of tool­rests, one of which he had modified, and the other, re­cently bought, did not have a well­recessed finger groove for slicing cuts along a spindle, and so re­quired a different tool­holding approach.

Graham Were showed he can adapt to anything with his latest venture into bead jewellery, using obeche offcuts, shaped and stained and varnished, with various jewellery fixings, prompted by his wife. Earrings, bangles, necklaces were passed around and tried on –but sorry, the latter images were censored.

For Sale ‘Record’ 1/2 inch hand router plane complete with three blades and guides in a wooden box $25 Drill grinding attachment $10 ‘Stanley’ 2 inch plane with box and instructions $25 Contact Mike on 0438 782 475

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continued from page 7 Health and Safety Plan Your Health and Safety Plan need not be complicated. It may include activities such as:

safety inspections – what and when mandatory training – who and when induction – new members induction – new equipment incident reporting, etc

Risk Assessments Risk assessments are not complicated. They are designed to assess the risks inherently present in an activity, identify what controls can be implemented to reduce those risks to an acceptable level. Life is full of risks, we cannot eliminate them all but we can determine what risks we are willing to live with. Assessing risk involves determining the likelihood of an inci­dent occurring together with the consequences if the incident does occur. Risk assessments must be tailored to your club situation. I am aware of one club that meets at a high school and the emergency evacuation lights lead you to an enclosed quadrangle – this is fine when there are teachers present to control where students go but hardly satisfactory for the club when the only assess/egress point is not a designated evacuation route. I will go into more detail in the next edition on the risk matrix and the hierarchy of controls if members believe it is worthwhile. Some clubs have adopted the risk assessments provided by their landlords but I would cau­tion against blanket acceptance of these documents without investigation. The South Aus­tralian Education Department’s (based on the Queensland documents) risk assessment for a wood lathe states ‘not applicable’ for the risk of entanglement. In my opinion the risk of en­tanglement on a wood lathe is high rather than nonexistent.

Safe Work Method Statements As for risk assessments some clubs have adopted the SWMS/SOP provided by their hosts. Most of these are adequate but still need to be considered for their application to your activ­ity. You may need to produce your own SWMS or to have an addendum to cover changes applicable to your operations. For example the SWMS for a band saw in schools states that round or irregular stock is not to be cut on the band saw. Turners particularly cut round and irregular stock when producing turning blanks so additional detail is required to identify how these can be produced safely. Conclusion I have attached an example Health and Safety Policy, Procedure and a couple of other docu­ments I have been working on for some time but please remember these are the draft gospel according to John T, not adopted policy. Adapt them for your use or ignore them as you see fit but please think safety in everything you do—your safety and that of your loved ones all depend on you. Also sharp tools are safer than blunt tools but they still bite if handled carelessly.

John T (Vice President—Woodgroup SA)

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Northern Turners Port Adelaide Exhibition October Long Weekend

Red Mallee Burl—George Pastuch Seed Pod—Henry Pamula

Coconut Bowl—Tony Davies Hollow Form—Anne Kerr

Bowl of Fruit—Brian Purcell Platter—Paul Beebee

Potpourri with Scrolled Lid—Graham Hawkins

Winged Bowl—Dale Starr Bowl of Fruit—Bill Elliott

OVERVIEW

That’s it for this edition—see you soon