Hands on

[TONY MALIN]

Hands on meetings should in many ways be the lifeblood of wood turning, but they tend to be the least well supported in both low attendance and reluctance to take part. In fact I heard recently that at a neighbouring club they sat around chatting and drinking as no one had come prepared to do anything.
As treasurer I don't mind the low attendance as we usually still cover our costs and make a profit, whereas with visiting demonstrators we usually make a loss despite better attendance.
The difficulty is getting people motivated.

[Paul Hannaby]

Hi Tony,
At my local club, the hands on evenings are always well received and those attending are keen to participate but we do go prepared with something to do. There's not much point having a hands on session if nobody does anything!

A while back, we had a free month on the calendar and gave the members a choice of a hands on evening or a demonstration by a pro turner. They voted almost unanimously for a hands on evening.

[andersonec]

As Paul says, the evening must be structured, it's pointless going to a 'hands on' with nothing planned because all that will happen is sitting and talking.
Personally I would rename it a 'Workshop.' where work is carried out. There must a designated subject to be worked on that evening, who will be 'instructing' (for want of a better word) There are a whole bunch of things and I would start at the beginning,,,,TOOLS!!! this could be broken down even further, gouges one week, scrapers skews the next week, sharpening the following week then when they are mastered then get onto proper turning, spindle, bowls etc. etc.

After all, this is what a club is about, to advance the skills, it's fine watching demonstrators every month but perfecting your own skills means practice and doing that on your own at home only promotes bad habits, practicing with other members present allows criticism and bad practice to be put right and it encourages rapid advancement of those skills.

Well that's what I think anyway....

Andy

[Bryan Milham]

At bothBristol & Burnham clubs, hands on is structured. It means small demos by club members and several areas setup so attendee's can move around the different stands.

I must admit, Bristol being the bigger club, can put on 5 or 6 demos. But Burnham always has a problem lathe, where members can bring in something they are struggling with and George goes though it and helps them. The advantage of a good chairman and turner who's willing to put himself out.

[Ollie]

Hi

I went to a club last week where they tried to get people to be 'hands on'. I think part of the issue there was that they only had one lathe available so if you wanted to have a go you had to get up in front of everyone! A lot of people aren't happy to do that.

I would definitely suggest having something structured that people no about in advance and trying to get more than one lathe available on the evening.

Ollie (new to forum)

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

At my club when we have a hands on night we usually end up with maybe 4 lathes set up. Some one brings sharpening equipment and we end up with small groups gathered around watching and giving advice and most importantly in my book..........talking to each other. To me this is what woodturning clubs are all about, the interaction between members, the fellowship for want of a better word. Its the odd throwaway comment, something like.."I have a longer grind than that on my spindle gouges" that will spark discussion and debate amongst the members.

[TONY MALIN]

Many thanks for your comments gentlemen.
We have all the facilities and have tried many formats. It's still hard to decide how to get more involvement, so we'll have to go on trying.
As regards "workshop" we do that separately with an extra meeting OCT-MAR. It takes the form of tuition for beginners (not many now) and those who are looking for specific help like thread cutting, or skewing or as recently using a newly acquired specialist tool.
When we first started it was pretty chaotic with 2 to a lathe. We now manage to provide one to one assistance, and just about cover the costs.

[andersonec]

and just about cover the costs.

As long as the costs are covered is all that matters as far as money is involved, the important thing is that members are learning and the more interesting it is for club members and the more they learn then the more the word will spread and what follows is more members and the cash they bring with them.

Andy

[bodrighywood]

I am fortunate in belonging to an good club but I suspect that a lot of clubs are struggling because the members simply want to go along and not get involved. Sad but apparently clubs are having to close because of this. Not just wood turning though, true of a lot of clubs

pete

[John D Smith]

Hi everyone,
                  We also at our club had difficulty in getting members involved in hands on evenings we only used to have 2 Lathes so it was difficult to get many on the lathes when you have about 40 members attending anyway 2 hours seems to fly bye,our last few hands on we have had 5 or 6 lathes on the go and all of these are brought in by members as we cannot store anything at our venue 2 of these are club lathes and this has been a success there are members who still like to have a chat but that's ok because most times they are asking other members how to do certain things we also have a table of members work and people are always interested in asking questions of who turned this piece and how they did it.We also tried something different at one meeting a member who made his own Pole Lathe brought that in it was so popular everyone wanted a go.also occasionally we have members bring in some of their unwanted tools to sell.We have had an all day hands on/clinic we run this from 10:00am till 4:00pm and members can drop in and spend a couple of hours or all day if they wish and bring their problems with them.

               Try something different and enjoy Regards John
 
   

[Bryan Milham]

Hands on does not only mean work on the lathe.

I've also seen carving, pyrography, use of a spray gun, CAD software etc.

One I did was making/adapting you own tools from screwdrivers and chisels for hollowing.

[Graham]

I am fortunate in belonging to an good club but I suspect that a lot of clubs are struggling because the members simply want to go along and not get involved. Sad but apparently clubs are having to close because of this. Not just wood turning though, true of a lot of clubs

pete

In the words of the pointy eared guy. 'To not get involved to the point of extinction is not logical Captain'

[bodrighywood]

True Graham. One meeting we had at our club recently had a pyrographer demonstrating and those of us with the equipment were encouraged to bring it in. Half the time at least was spent with us having a go under her supervision. gave those that have never done it a chance to try it out.

I wonder how many are a bit like me, I am happy to join in and get involved where I am able but am terrible at volunteering, ask me to do something and usually I will say yes though.

Pete

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

True Graham. One meeting we had at our club recently had a pyrographer demonstrating and those of us with the equipment were encouraged to bring it in. Half the time at least was spent with us having a go under her supervision. gave those that have never done it a chance to try it out.

I wonder how many are a bit like me, I am happy to join in and get involved where I am able but am terrible at volunteering, ask me to do something and usually I will say yes though.

Pete

Glad you said that Pete, I want you to take over as chairman/vice chairman/secretary/treasurer/tea boy/ general dos body/(delete those not applicable)

[bodrighywood]

True Graham. One meeting we had at our club recently had a pyrographer demonstrating and those of us with the equipment were encouraged to bring it in. Half the time at least was spent with us having a go under her supervision. gave those that have never done it a chance to try it out.

I wonder how many are a bit like me, I am happy to join in and get involved where I am able but am terrible at volunteering, ask me to do something and usually I will say yes though.

Pete

Glad you said that Pete, I want you to take over as chairman/vice chairman/secretary/treasurer/tea boy/ general dogs body/(delete those not applicable)

That OK John? LOL I am as disorganised as it is possible to be so the deleted ones would cause more problems than they are worth.

Pete