SMC Turner Interview - Bill Wyko

Name: Bill Wyko

How young are you? 38ish --- better known as 43

Physical description: 6'3" 220lbs

Where is home?
Tucson AZ. Been here 18 years and off and on about another 10 years. Born in Los Angeles and lived in San Diego for about 8 years

Family information:
LOML – been with her 9 years. I have a 16-year-old daughter who is a great kid, straight "A", goes to church 2 to 3 times a week; basically every parents dream. Unfortunately I only see her a couple times a week.

Do you have a website? If so, what’s the URL?
www.audio2000az.com you really should take a look at our site. Soon I'll have a site made for my woodworking.

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Vocation:
I'm the president of Audio 2000. We do mobile electronics at it's finest. We've been named one of the top installation shops in the nation 7 times.

Shop Overview:
My name is Bill and I'm a Tool-A-Holic. I have 2 shops. The one at home is almost done. It'll have a Powermatic Table Saw, a JET22-44 drum sander, a Porter Cable router system, A Rikon 14" band saw, Dewalt surface planer, of course the JET 1442vs lathe, a Dewalt surface planer, 12" Compound sliding miter saw, Incra top of the line router system, Incra 1000se w/ sliding table. JET dust filtration system, and JET mini lathe. Right now all this is crammed in my garage waiting the completion of the new shop

How many lathes do you own?
I own 2 lathes, a JET mini and a JET1442vs. I walked into WoodWorkers Source only to see a guy turning a little candleholder. Then I'm told it's on sale for 199.99. I figured a good cheap hobby..........BOY WAS I WRONG. I bought the books by Ray Allan and Malcolm Tibbetts and immediately started segmented turning. The 1442 was on sale for 899.00 so I figured it was a good investment in my future of wood turning.

How many turning tools do you have? Store bought; home made; favorites?
Right now I think I have 10. About half are Crown and the other half is from a Shopsmith I acquired a while back.

How long have you been turning, and what got you started in the first place?
Since mid December 2006 and as I said before, a guy giving a demo on a JET mini.

What's your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Rocky Road

What do you enjoy most about turning?
There's something about watching a roughed out piece of lumber turning into a work of art right before your eyes. Also the challenge of segmenting something into a beautiful design.

What do you enjoy the least about turning?
Running out of wood.

No kidding – especially when the piece is still on the lathe!

What was your first completed turned project? You get bonus points for a picture of it.
A curly Maple bowl. I couldn't find a pic of my first piece but here's a pic of my 3rd, 4th and 5th pieces ever. (I think that’s the numerical order)

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What’s your favorite individual piece that you have turned?
The ones with Turquoise are my favorite.

What’s your favorite form that you turn?
The individual one below is my favorite form but I'm working on one with over 2000 pieces that should take top spot very soon.

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What do you not turn now that you want to - or plan to - in the future?
I'm going to try to do the Chinese ball with one inside of another and I'm also going to turn one vessel inside of another

How do you take your Moxie? (Straight up? beer chaser? neat? with corn flakes?)
Not sure what Moxie is but I probably take it Straight up.

I see an opportunity here.

What’s your favorite form someone else turns?
Travis Stinson did a piece that looked like a Champagne glass with a natural edge and a lid with a finial. That was very elegant and done so tastefully.

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What’s your favorite individual piece someone else has turned, and why?
Malcolm Tibbetts or Ray Allan could both hold this place.

Malcolm’s work always pushes the envelope so it's hard to pick one but I'd say "Deception of the Cocabola" would have to be my favorite.

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Ray built one he could sit inside. (Scroll down the page)

What brought you to SMC?
I think I was googling for chat rooms on turning.

Do you recall the first thread you started?
I believe it was a thread on my first segmented piece.

Yup – You got it.

What was your first post about? Or don’t you remember?
I'm not sure

Talk about short attention span. This was just twelve minutes later.

How many shares of Titebond II stock do you own?
I should have bought the company

What’s your favorite old thread on SMC?
That's a tough one. Probably the one with the most pictures:) The one where members were asked to post their favorite pieces.

Have you met or hung out with any fellow Creekers? Tell us about it.
I did run into one member at woodworkers and I happened to have the vessel pictured above with me (the single one) and he recognized me by the piece in my hand.

No name? No pics? I’m not sure this even took place.

Got any nicknames? How'd you get them?
Yes. It’s SANDTAZAM. I used to do Sand Drag racing on a 125hp, 200lb Yamaha Banshee that ran on alcohol. I was everyone's worst nightmare hence the name Sandtazam like the old movie fantazam.

Now let's get a little deep... If you were a tree, what tree would you be and why?
Probably a giant Redwood. I would survive just about everything, even forest fires. (My business was arsoned and burnt to the ground on Sept 11th 2000. I was under insured by 65k) So, I guess I'm like the giant Redwood. Even I can survive a fire.

If you won the Irish Sweepstakes what part of your life would change? Bigger house for the wife, bigger shops for me and of course a couple of Robust American Beauties. I really have a passion for woodwork. No matter how much money I make I could never give up woodwork.

Thanks, Bill. Glad to get to know you a bit better.

Here are a few things I dug up for the rest of us to ponder.

There's this.

Here’s something scary to try – stick Bill’s name into Google images and submit. Page two is creepy!

And this might help explain that nickname.

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Thanks, Bill.

Great interview, Bill!!!!

Excellent interview Bill. Nice to know you more and What A Web Site!!!!!

Thanks for the interview Bill!! It's great to be able to get to know you a little better!

Great interview Bill!

You are a turning machine and you will be dangerous when the shop is fininshed.

Great interview, Bill - love those segmented pieces!

Very nice interview, Bill, and I really love your segmented pieces.

Nancy

Great interview, Bill! Glad you took the time to do it!

Great interview Bill. Glad to get to know you better.

Nice interview Bill. Nice to know more about you! You have taken to turning like a duck to water!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andy Hoyt

How do you take your Moxie? (Straight up? beer chaser? neat? with corn flakes?)
Not sure what Moxie is but I probably take it Straight up.

I see an opportunity here.

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RUN, BILL, RUN!!! Run as fast as your feet can go or your sand buggy can take you. That stuff will put hair where you don't want it and take it from places you do want it.

Great interview. Good to know more about you.

Karl

Great interview Bill! Sounds like you have a lot of irons in the fire. When do you find the time to glue all those little pieces of wood together?

A nice interview Bill sounds like you are good at managing your time, you'ld have to be with all your interests.

Great interview Bill. I think it's great what you've done in just a few short months. Hurry up and get that shop finished! :D

Real nice interview, good to know more about you. Looking forward to more shop photos!

Thanks so much everyone. All I can say is, you're all the best bunch of people I've ever come across. It's very rare that you'll find this many good people in one place. On top of that, everyone is so willing to help one another. If we could only make this kindness an infection so it would spread around the world. Maybe someday we can have a convention and all of us can get together in one place. Boy would that be an event! In addition, you are all so very talented. This site is full of inspiration everywhere you look. Thanks again everyone and God Bless you all.

Great interview! You sound like someone who MAKES things happen instead of WAITING for them to happen!

I guess you could say that. If I don't do it, who's gonna.:) Besides, the feeling of accomplisment is far better than the feeling of incompletion. It also gives me the excuse to buy new tools to do the jobs.:D(I'm a toolaholic with no cure in site.:rolleyes: )

One more thing. I know I'm relativly new at this but if I can ever help any of you with anything please feel free to contact me.

Great interview Bill ... Your seg work is impressive and inspiring, I gotta give it a try some day.

Happy Turning,
Shane Whitlock

It's been so long since I looked at this thread. I just hope everyone who replied is still here. You guys are the best bunch of woor workers in the business. This is like looking at a time capsule. Really enjoyable. Thank you all for such kind compliments. I was distracted for a while but now I'm back in the game. More to come soon.