About Me
Joined Club: October 2017
Position in Club: Treasurer (since January 2020)
Started Woodturning: 2016
I spent all my working life with Lloyds Bank, having joined straight from university in 1982. I was due to retire in January 2020 but grabbed an opportunity for early retirement in July 2017.
Despite the desk job I have always been very practical, and for much of my life I have yearned to ‘make things’. One of my grandfathers and an uncle were engineers up in Chesterfield so there must be something in my genes.
I had always fancied having a go with a lathe and at Christmas 2015 my wife bought me a fantastic book – “Woodturning: A Foundation Course” by Keith Rowley. This includes a DVD and starts at the very beginning, working through all the basic skills, tools and techniques clearly and logically. I was hooked. Having found Yandles on-line, we visited for my birthday the following January…..
So, armed with the book, an entry level lathe, a chuck and a basic set of Robert Sorby tools, I started to teach myself.
Then I found WWTC on-line and decided to join when I retired. Here I met Peter Davis (Life Member and all round great chap) who is an old friend of my neighbour. Peter immediately took me under his wing and provided some really helpful coaching. Since then I have learned huge amounts from our demo’s and from our members, plus YouTube of course. That book turned out to be quite an expensive present!
When Derek decided to step back from the Treasurer role he thought of me, recalling a previous conversation about banking/payments. I was delighted to be asked and very much look forward to us all being able to reconvene as soon as possible.
My Workshop
My ‘workshop’ is actually half a double garage which is shared with the BBQ. My wife’s car is on the other side and strangely is often covered in dust!
My Work
Here are some of the pieces I have made – just click on the images to enlarge.
