Tells us about your Local Wood Turning Clubs

[Joe Meirhaeghe]

I'd like to see & here about other local Wood turning clubs.
Our Club recently moved into a New Location. We out grew our old one. Last count we had 94 members & seam to still be growing. Here's a couple of pic's. We have 2 main rooms one for the meeting & Demo's then another large room for our equiptment and hands on training & classes.
We will be installing a dust collection system within the next 3 to 4 weeks if everything goes well. with drops to all 8 of our mini lathes.

[Gary Herrmann]

Wish I could tell you, I keep meaning to go and something always gets in the way. Lately, it's been 3rd grade boys basketball. Some day...

[Jon Lanier]

I wish I could... they are all too far away.

[Richard Madison]

Very impressive facilities Joe! Assume that you are recruiting potential gang members into the wood turning "gang". Good work.

[Jeff Nicol]

Well a group just got started here in the Chippewa valley. We meet in Eau Claire WI at the old Uniroyal tire plant which is now called Banbury Place. So far there have been 3 meetings and 12 to 15 members. There will be some ads placed some how and a website is in the works. The board members got all the paperwork for AAW so that will be done. So if you are from west central Wisconsin and are looking to join a turners club we meet the first Wednesday of each month right across from HEARTLAND HARDWOODS in Banbury Place anlong the river. The name of the club is the "CHIPPEWA VALLEY WOODTURNERS GUILD"

Thats my story and I am sticking to it!

Jeff

[George Morris]

Our club is called DelVal Woodturners,We are located in Hadenfield N.J. Just over the bridge from Philadelphia. I belive we have about 40 members we get about 25 or 30 for meetings. We meet in the basement of a church, works O.K. one jet 16x42 lathe. Any one intrested check out our web site DelValTurners.com Always need more members, club is very active with a lot of very good turners who are glad to help anyone that asks. we get a lot of good demos during the year. Thanks George

[Peter Luch]

Our club is the West Hawaii Woodturners.
We have about 20-25 members but do not have a designated meeting place yet. We meet at a members house every 2 months.

No lathe yet but our club is only a year old and we are working on a more permanent location and getting a mini lathe.

Aloha, Pete

[Jason Clark2]

We're the Arizona Woodturners Association. We typically meet on the 3rd Saturday of the month from Noon - 4 PM. Our meeting location is normally at a community center in the City of Tempe which is in the Southeast area of the Phoenix Metro area. This location is provided to us free of charge by the City whenever there is an opening in the schedule. We also have 1 or 2 meetings a year on the Northwest side of the Valley and a joint meeting with the club up in Prescott held at Yavapai College up in Prescott.

If I remember correctly our club lathe is an older shortbed general. It's on a portable stand as we don't have a storage area at our meeting location.

At last count I think we had about 200 members, we had almost exactly 100 at our meeting on Saturday. Attendance varies over the year as about half of our membership consists of Snowbirds who are only in town from Mid September – Late March.
Jason

[Steve Schlumpf]

Our club, Superiorland Woodturners, Inc., was founded in February of 2007 and at this time we have 35 members. Meetings are held the first Tuesday of the month, 7 pm, in the basement of the Bell Forest Products warehouse, located in beautiful downtown Ishpeming, MI. If you check your maps – that is about 15 miles west of the largest city in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Marquette, located on the shore of Lake Superior.

We have 3 old, small swing lathes that work but are very limiting in what we can turn. So far we have had a few local folks come in and demo for us but no one with a national reputation. It seems like the club floundered for a long time, even lost some members before we came across a meeting agenda that works. We now split the meetings into club news, small show & tell presentations from the members and then we start up the lathes and demo different turnings/cuts to each other.

The club is in the process of putting together a monthly newsletter for the members. We hope, with the help of the members, that it will turn into something both educational and fun. We are a new club, still going through some growing pains, but we focus on turning and as such, enjoy the meetings and being able to talk with others with the same addiction!

[Tim Thomas]

I'm not a member of the local woodturners club, but they are closely affiliated with my woodworking guild and some of their members have done demonstrations for us. Even though I don't own a lathe, I think I might start going to their meetings. I just find woodturning to be fascinating. They have a good website, check it out:

http://www.alabamawoodturners.com/

They also have a useful page of links to dozens of other woodturning clubs. And of course you can browse through tons of pictures from past meetings and events.

[Jack Mincey]

Our club's called Western N.C. Woodturners. We have some where around 35 to 40 members, most meetings, we have from 15 to 25 members show up. Our meetings are a lot like what Steve talked about. Club business, show and tell by members, and a demo done by one of the members. We had John Jordan for a day demo in the fall and hope to have another pro turner this coming year. We meet in the high school shop that I teach at. The club and a community org. bought a 3520B last year for the school shop so we have one very good lathe now along with two old rockwell school lathes, one donated delta 1440, and a jet mini lathe. Being a member of the club has helped me become a better woodturner in the few years I've been attending the meetings. Here is the link to our web page. http://www.wncwoodturners.com/
Jack

[Chris Huybregts]

I went to the Central Texas Woodturners Association meeting on Tuesday for the first time. All I can say is WOW! there was easily more than 50 people there. The setup was awesome (2 big screen tvs, 2 cameras, a big ol' lathe) everyone could see what was going on.

I'm definitely joining up!

www.ctwa.org

Chris

[TYLER WOOD]

South Plains woodurners. Lubbock Texas. We are relatively new at two years old. 65-70 members. We have about a third of our members in the AAW so we have lots of options for demonstrators. You are actually reading from the newsletter editor right now. If that tells you the quality of the club!:confused: No really we have some very fine turners in our club, including a member who will be demonstating at the AAW symposium in Albaquerque or however you spell that town. We have had a couple of out turners also critiwued at the symposium the past couple of years. Some very valuable experience for the new turners. Our club is really the only reason I have stuck aroun and kept goig. When I visited, I was put in touch with someone in my town who would be willing to mentor me, and the rest is history.

Our club is currently looking to be in the market for anew lathe. So if any of you have ideas or bargains, let me know. Robust is probably where we are going, or in that vicinity.

[Dan Henry]

I am a member of two turning clubs the Dallas Area Woodturners with a round 90 members meeting on the 3rd Thursday of the month at a business in Richardson, TX and the Hunt County Woodturners that meets on the 2nd Thursday of the month in a church in Greenville, TX with a round 60 members. Both club meetings are about the same with a short business meeting, show and tell, a raffel with the club providing the prizes, and a demo that usually has chips flying. Both clubs have an open shop on Saturday following the meetings. Both clubs are great for newbies to learn all about turning as they both have several members that are willing to help them.

Dan

[Bob Bergstrom]

I, and 46 others belong to the Windy City Woodturners in the west suburbs of Chicago. We meet on the third Tuesday of the month. at 7 o'clock. The club just upgraded to a Jet 16 x42 lathe. We are working on a second video camera through an A.A.W. grant. The meeting place is a very nice meeting room in the Downers Grove Municipal Building. There two flat screen Tvs. available and vending machine. A very clean and pleasant environment to meet in. A lot of our members also belong to the Chicago Woodturners which meet in Palatine Il. It is farther north and meets in the basement of the Wood Craft Store.

[Frank Townend]

I'm a member of the Capital Area Woodturners (http://www.capwoodturners.org/). (Washington, DC, Northern Virginia, Maryland)

About the Capital Area Woodturners!

Purpose: To provide education on turning techniques, finishing wood, safe practices, tools and related equipment. To increase awareness and appreciation of design for wood having functional or aesthetic objectives. To provide information on educational and exhibit opportunities for turning wood in the United States. To facilitate networking, friendship, and cooperation among woodturners in the area.

Who We Are: The Capital Area Woodturners is a non-profit organization with approximately 250 members, most are hobbyists. Some make all or part of their living from the craft. Members' skill levels vary from novice to skilled professional. Their interests cover the entire spectrum of woodturning including faceplate turning, spindle turning, hollow ware, treen, miniature turning, and an interest in both personal and environmental safety.

Meetings: The Capital Area Woodturners meet on the second Saturday of each month. Other meetings may be scheduled throughout the year to take advantage of special opportunities. Our meetings concentrate on the how-to's of the craft, with hands-on demonstrations of faceplate, spindle, miniature, hollow vessel turning, and more. The technical aspects of the craft such as lathes, chucks and jigs, tool types and use, sharpening, and safety are covered. We also devote time to the design and artistic aspects of turning.

Here is a copy of our latest Newsletter (http://www.capwoodturners.org/newsletters/20091JANCAWNEWSLETTER.pdf).

[Rex Guinn]

We have just started Bluegrass Area Woodturners, our org meeting was November, Our first official meeting was Jan. We meet in the New WOODCRAFT store in Lexington, KY. This month we had 32 members at the meeting.
We will be a chapter of AAW once all the paper work is done.Meetings are the first Thursday of each month at 7:00pm, stop by if you are in the area.
Link to our web site: http://bluegrassareawoodturners.org (http://bluegrassareawoodturners.org/)

[Andy Hoyt]

The Maine Woodturners (http://www.mainewoodturners.org) here. We've been around since the mid-nineties and have ten meetings a year with two to four demos provided by folks from away (Hannes Michelsen (http://www.woodhat.com/) just last Saturday) with the balance given by the membership. When that balance includes names like Lancaster, Ray, and Vesery we consider ourselves pretty lucky. But we have the other end of the spectrum, too. Even I once gave a demo. It was posthumously titled, "Duck and Run".

There are about 100 members right now and we've spawned two new chapters (one still in the early stages of formation in the Portland area). I'm about as heavily invested and involved in a club as one can get and wouldn't trade the experience for anything. The people I've met, the experiences I've shared, and the turning confidence I've gained as a result makes the entire thing quite priceless.

[Rick Mills]

Joe you have an awesome set up in your wood turning club, I believe I read about you in a recent AAW journal or somewhere. When I first went to our club meeting "inland wood turners" in Southern California about 2 years ago I believe there were 30 or so attending regularly, now we are in need of moving to a larger location we have 50-100 attending each month.

[Joe Meirhaeghe]

Joe you have an awesome set up in your wood turning club, I believe I read about you in a recent AAW journal or somewhere. When I first went to our club meeting "inland wood turners" in Southern California about 2 years ago I believe there were 30 or so attending regularly, now we are in need of moving to a larger location we have 50-100 attending each month.
Rick
Yes that was our Club that was featured in the last AAW's magizne American Wood Turner. Thanks for noticing.:D

[Rusty Smith]

The Kansas Woodturners is a group of individuals sharing ideas and information relating to woodturning. Meetings are held in Topeka, Kansas on the second Saturday of each month at a location announced in the newsletter and/or prior meetings.

Currently there are 43 members. We do not have a perminant meeting place but meet at different members shops. Right now we do not have a web site, something I hope we can rectify soon.

I may also become a member of the Kansas City Woodturneres Club. Their web site is: http://www.kcwoodturners.org/

[john taliaferro]

we have one member, dr paul yep he is the only one that payed dues.we had 30 last year 15 aaw . 4 mini jet one larger,we have jeff so we have a tormack,thanks again jeff. johnt

[jason lambert]

I belong to NJ woodturners, I am not sure about hte membership numbers but we get about 50 people a meeting. They usally run a short meeting and then a demo, the demos are really good and informative covering everything you would want to know, the next meeting is sharpening.

Equipnment wise we have several small loner and demo lathes and for the club a bigger one way. We meet inthe essex county envirnmental center, seems to work ok.

[Thom Sturgill]

I'd have replied to this earlier, but I was busy creating a web site for our club - the Treasure Coast Woodturners Guild (http://tcwoodturners.org) in sunny Florida. We are a fairly new chapter of the AAW and meet at the local college once a month. Last month we had about 20 members show up, I don't know how many we have on the books, but we require members to also be members of the AAW.

Meetings are mostly business and show-and-tell. Demos are done the next weekend, usually at the president's shop but he has been tied up lately teaching a turning course at the college on Saturday mornings.

[Joe Meirhaeghe]

We just got our dust collection system installed at our club. We currently have 8 Jet Mini lathes. Now we have a 4" dust collection hose going to each lathe.:D

[Frank Kobilsek]

Joe,

Admit it you starte this thread as a gloat about your club. You guys in the Quad Cities have a lot to gloat about so go for it.

I have to plug the Central Illinois Woodturners. We meet in Bloomington and Peoria on alternating months. Every other year we bring in a professional demostrator, last fall was Trent Bosch, on odd numbered years we hold what we call Turning Saturday a one day sympoisuim featuring local and regional volunteer instructors. Meetings include Business, Demo, Show and Tell, raffle. We have pre-meeting hands on topic and a pre-meeting Critique group. We alternate President's Challenge and 'Bring Back' projects. We have club owned lathes at both meeting locations. Our membership ranges from a high school boy to several 'boys' in the thier 80's and skills level are equally broad and not nessecarily corellated to age.

This Saturday at Millworks in Bloomington we will hold a morning social turn. Loosely themed to Spindle work but anything goes. In April we are planning a Stabbing and Slabbing Party were we will slab out a pile of logs into bowl blanks etc.

SO there Joe, we got a little to gloat about too.
Frank

[Ron Ainge]

Well since I am the newly elected VP of the local club in Denver Colorado http://www.frontrangewoodturners.org/ I will tell you a little about it. We currently have about 240 members and a regular attendance of over 100 people. Our members range from the beginer to very skilled members that make a living from there turners. We meet on the first Tuesday of each month in the basement of the Rockler store. We currently have a full video system that is connected to 6 42 inch TV moniters with a full sound system. Each one of our demos are recorded and can be checked out of our library. Our library listing is one of the best I have seen with a good mixture of professional DVDs and club recorded works. We use a 3520a for a club lathe that we purchased two years ago at a fair price. Since I also set up the demos for each meeting I get to see the things that I am interested in. Next month Dennis Ligget will do a demo on spiral turning and they the next month Trent Bosch will be at our cllub to do some of his magic for us. I would invite anyone that visits our area to contact me or any of the club officers to see if we have something planned during your visit.

[Joe Meirhaeghe]

Joe,

Admit it you starte this thread as a gloat about your club. You guys in the Quad Cities have a lot to gloat about so go for it.

I have to plug the Central Illinois Woodturners. We meet in Bloomington and Peoria on alternating months. Every other year we bring in a professional demostrator, last fall was Trent Bosch, on odd numbered years we hold what we call Turning Saturday a one day sympoisuim featuring local and regional volunteer instructors. Meetings include Business, Demo, Show and Tell, raffle. We have pre-meeting hands on topic and a pre-meeting Critique group. We alternate President's Challenge and 'Bring Back' projects. We have club owned lathes at both meeting locations. Our membership ranges from a high school boy to several 'boys' in the thier 80's and skills level are equally broad and not nessecarily corellated to age.

This Saturday at Millworks in Bloomington we will hold a morning social turn. Loosely themed to Spindle work but anything goes. In April we are planning a Stabbing and Slabbing Party were we will slab out a pile of logs into bowl blanks etc.

SO there Joe, we got a little to gloat about too.
Frank
Franks right!! Were Guilty about the Gloat.:D & proud of our Club. Hope everyone else has as much fun with their Club as we do here in the Quad Cities.