September 2025 Chairman's Report
Where has the summer gone? Baseball season is winding down, football season starts later this week, and hockey preseason starts in 3 weeks. Time to move back to the shop! We have a lot going on with the club in the next few months and I will try to cover it all in this newsletter.
Thanks are in Order to a Number Folks
First, I would like to thank all of those who helped move all of our equipment from storage to our new home. And for those who helped set up and clean the equipment. Next, I would like thank Woodcraft and their staff for putting up with us for the last 6 or so years. I want to acknowledge and thank Jim Donohoe for the donation of his lathe and equipment and supplies to the club. Thanks to Contemporary Craft for welcoming us back with open arms. Thanks for those who have committed to volunteering at the Fair in the Park later this week. Lastly, thanks to Rockler for their support of our club.
You Spoke - We listened
In the survey conducted last year, there were 3 main points identified that a majority thought should be addressed about our meeting place. 1) It was becoming too crowded, 2) It hard to see the projector / be more like symposium demos, and 3) the chairs suck. Well, our new meeting space in Contemporary Craft is about double the size of Woodcraft's shop and we purchased 2 televisions and retired the projector, taking care of 1 and 2. We haven't tried out chairs yet, so that problem may still exist. Like the old song goes: "two out of three ain't bad".
The main (original) Contemporary Craft building is located at 5645 Butler St, Pittsburgh, PA 15201. Actually, we will be meeting in the building across Butler Street in their new Timmons Studio. The address for that building is 5688 Butler Street. This building is on the corner of 57th and Butler streets. The entrance to the studio where we meet is on 57th Street. The building is handicap accessible and we are on the ground floor. There is plenty of on street parking available. Contact me if you need directions or a map.
Here are a few photos of our new digs:
Programming:Saturday, September 20th:
Kevin Dalton will be demonstrating a long-necked hollow form. Kevin is the former President of Buckeye Woodworkers and Turners in Ohio, and he has volunteered to demonstrate for us. 9 AM to noon at Contemporary Craft. Shown on the right is an example of the work he is demonstrating.
Summer Challenge at the September meeting:
Do not forget about this year's "Summer Challenge". It is all about embellishing, as our several demos featured various embellishing techniques, we want to see something you have turned and then embellished. Last year's challenge resulted in some very interesting pieces. We want to build on that success. As we did last year, the prize for the best piece will be one paid 2026 Turners Anonymous dues. The pieces will be judged by the members who did not have an entry, so hide your branding with a chunk of tape or something.
Saturday, October 25 and Sunday October 26: (NOTE, this is not our regular meeting date).
We have another guest demonstrator lined up. Pat Carroll from Ireland will do an all-day demo on Saturday and an all-day hands-on class on Sunday. Since this will be an all-day affair and Pat's demonstrations usually last only an hour and a half, he will actually be doing three different demos. After we tallied the results of our last survey, we picked the three with the most votes and the pictures here are examples of the three he will be demonstrating. The cost of the all-day demo will be $35.00 for members, $40.00 for non-members. The class will be for up to 10 people and will feature the pedestal bowl, which was the top vote getter. The cost of the Sunday class will be $135.00. Materials will be provided. If you are going to the upcoming Ohio Valley Woodturners Guild symposium in Cincinnati, you will get a preview of his demos. You can learn more about Pat at https://www.patcarrollwoodturning.com.
November 15th:
"Bowl Turning and Gouge Grinds with Nick Wolfgang". Nick Wolfgang will be demonstrating the process of turning a bowl, highlighting the different tools and techniques involved. The session will focus on using bowl gouges with various grinds, including the 40/40, Irish, traditional, and bottom bowl/bottom feeder. Along the way, Nick will share valuable tips and tricks to improve your turning skills and achieve the best results. Whether you're new to bowl turning or looking to refine your technique, this is a session you won’t want to miss!
December 13th:
Annual Christmas Ornament and Box exchange. Again, this is not our usual meeting Saturday, but the board decided to try moving the meeting date up to encourage more participation. Our normal date seems to be too close to the holidays, and life, and the weather seems to get in the way the closer to Christmas we get. We will be meeting at Contemporary Craft.
January and beyond: Other than our annual (short) business meeting, we haven't finalized our 2026 schedule. Stay tuned.
September Raffle:
Raffle tickets are only $5 for a strip of six tickets. We haven't raised the price in years. Come to think of it, a Turners Anonymous raffle ticket is probably the only woodturning-related item that you can still get for under a dollar. We have some great items this month. Our grand prize is a nice 1" skew chisel that was sold to the club at a deep discount by Carter & Son Toolworks. It is made in the USA from M-42 high speed steel, which holds an edge much longer than regular high speed steel. It is also thicker metal than most skews on the market, which makes it better at absorbing vibration and extending farther off the tool rest. It's retail price is $120. It is unhandled, but we give you a brass ferrule so you can make your own handle. We also have a 10" center finder disc (value $18), a activated carbon dust mask donated by Starbond (value $20), two part epoxy donated by System Three (value $15), a universal angle setting jig for your grinder, donated by Ron Brown's Best (value $35), a Wenge turning blank donated by Rockler, a Woodcraft $25 gift card, and a $10 gift card donated by Craft Supplies USA.
Future Events
We have been asked to share events external to Turners Anonymous.
The organizers of the Lancaster Symposium asked me to share this with you:
Registration for the annual Mid Atlantic Woodturning Symposium, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, September 19, 20, & 21 is now under way. We have a limited capacity, and registrations will be closed when we reach our limit. A block of discounted rooms is available in the host venue for the event, The Lancaster Marriott hotel.
Please register early to ensure your place and not be disappointed. A discounted registration fee is available until Saturday August 30. We will have a WIT, Women In Turning, meeting. There will be a vendor area for you to browse and pick up tools and supplies.
We have a great lineup of demonstrators; Greg Gallegos, Hans Weisflog, Steve Cook, Jacob Weisflog, Jim Williams, Helen Baily, and Eiko Tanaka. The program includes Meet the Demonstrators meeting Friday night. The demonstrations will be held in 4 rooms. We will have 20 demonstrations on Saturday and 8 demonstrations on Sunday morning. The Sunday luncheon will include a special activity to wrap up the event about 2:30 P.M.
Our website has much more information about the event registration, hotel registration, description of the demonstrators, and the vendors scheduled to be in attendance.
Website: www.mawts.com
Email: info@mawts.com
Phone call: 267-419-7457 to leave a voicemail
Woodcraft Gallery Show 2025. Saturday, September 27th. They are hosting a gallery style event to show their customer's works. Details are in their September's sales flyer. Enter for a chance to win a trophy and/or a prize.
Turn Pens for Troops Event
Woodcraft's annual pen turning event is scheduled for the last weekend in October. More details to come. Remember that Woodcraft has pen kits available to make in your shop for this event.
Help Needed
Your Board of Directors needs some new blood. I know, this sounds like a broken record, but we really need to fill some spots. Our executive board needs a new Treasurer. We also need someone to be our webmaster, and someone to moderate our forum. If you would like to attend one of our Board meetings to see what they are all about, let me know and I will get you on the zoom invite list. We meet once a month, at 6:30 pm, usually on the first Wednesday of the month.
I also could use help before and after our meetings start and end to set up and tear down our A/V equipment.
Fair in the Park is being held later this week in Shadyside's Mellon Park. We could use several more demonstrators on Saturday and Sunday. Looks like it's going to be a nice weekend.
Membership
As of August 13th, we have a total of 87 members: 78 regular, 4 family, and 5 lifetime members. We are sending an email to all of our 90 or so former members we have on record to consider rejoining the club now that we have moved. As a matter of fact, two of them have already done so.
Website
We have activated a mobile app that can be useful to us in the future. I know a lot of us are not mobile app people, but sometimes you have to go with the times. Our software provider, Club Express will be launching soon the ability to pay in person with a credit card membership renewals or event registrations. Not sure when they will launch this, but if you want to pay that way, you will need the app. Right now, the only thing you can do with the app is view our website. Let me know if interested and I will let you know how to get the app. Its free!
Miscellaneous
I know you are getting tired reading all this stuff, but a couple of more bullet points:
- Please utilize our DVD and book Library. There is a lot of good content there.
- Bring your projects to show at the instant gallery. They do not need to be from the lathe.
- We ask you to fill out a liability form. I will have blanks available at the meeting and a list of who have/have not signed in past. Only one is necessary.
- Please sign in so we know who's coming to the meetings.
- There is a way for us to create a photo gallery of your work and post it to our website. And it could be made for members only or for public to be able to see. Let me know if interested.
I think I have covered everything, thanks for your patience. Any questions, comments, or suggestions contact me.
See you September 20th,
Tom Shortall
Chairman