All content © West Suffolk Woodturning Club 2012 - 2025
We are a small and friendly club with a variety of members with very varied skills. Many of our members travel considerable distances to meet with us and most are very active turners.
We promote our club and woodturning at various events during the year.
Members can offer advice and tips and you can learn a lot from our demonstration evening, which showcase some of the top demonstrators available as well as our own members’ talents. We use a media projector to make sure that the action is viewed from several camera angles.
There is always a table for display of your latest creation at each meeting, also the occasional item turns up for sale. As part of your membership we can offer you a free personal gallery page on this website.
We also have a number of nights where traders may show their wares and demonstrate their products.
We hold a club competition annually where we award the Club’s “Malcolm Fox Memorial Trophy” to the entry voted most popular by the members.
See the calendar page for all this years events.
Quick Links
Upcoming meetings and events:
21st April 2025
Demonstration by Nathanael Griffiths
7:30pm start at the Village Hall
Most meetings are almost back to normal following the Covid19 pandemic, however we still have some remaining precautions: view here
Recently displayed
We encourage all members to bring items to meetings for display. See more in the main Gallery
About our club
Covid 19
The meeting hall and our events are now running as they were prior to the Covid outbreak. Although the memory of strict Covid 19 rules and precautions are now becoming a fading memory obviously we are very keen to ensure the safety of everyone who attends our meetings.
We have a number of older or vulnerable people who regularly attend our meetings and would ask members to apply the following conditions:
We would ask you not to attend if:
Some of our members still choose to wear a mask, and this is perfectly acceptable.
Thank you.
Change of meeting day
Please note our meeting day has changed to the third Monday of the month. This is so that our meetings do not coincide with another group that use the same venue.
The committee aims to meet several times a year to discuss new ideas, organise upcoming events and find ways to enhance the club.
We do however require further member help to achieve our events and goals, help is always appreciated at meetings to setup and clear down and at our special events.
If you have fresh ideas, organisational skills or are just enthusiastic about the club and woodturning in general then please feel free to ask any committee member for an informal chat, or better still just volunteer to join on the AGM night held annually in November.
Click here to view the 2024 AGM minutes.
The current Committee:
- You or your family members have tested positive for Covid within the last 14 days.
- You have Covid type symptoms
- There is a risk you may have been in contact with anyone showing signs of the illness
Committee news
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Stuart Clarke |
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Chairman |
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John Woods |
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Secretary |
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Pat Yates |
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Treasurer |
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Ian Cameron |
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Member |
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Martin Taylor |
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Member |
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Neil Robertson |
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Member, news & website |
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Tic Challis |
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Chairman Stuart Clarke presenting Mike Charnley with the trophy shield for coming first in the Malcolm Fox Memorial Trophy competition 2024.
This meeting features a demonstration by 21-year-old Nathanael Griffiths, from Chester. Nathanael was a contestant on the 3rd season of Britain's Best Woodworker on Channel 4, he specialises in segmented turning.
Take a look at his website - Click here
Next meeting - Monday 21st April 2025
Meeting - Monday 16th December 2024
As I am sure you are aware, the December meeting was something a little different.
We celebrated the clubs 25th anniversary and enjoyed a fantastic social evening, with refreshments and a lavish buffet.
We had a well supported raffle with some very exciting prizes, including gift vouchers, tools, finishes, wine and of course wood. All kindly donated from a number of retailers. Other prizes where kindly donated from our own members. It raised £280 and proceeds will go to East Anglian Children’s Hospice and St Elizabeth’s Hospice.
The catering was expertly planned and prepared by our chairman's mum, Steff who kindly helped throughout the and provided a delicious and very varied range of finger food. Tic was on the 'bar' and was very proficient opening bottles of alcohol free but very nice fizzy wine amongst a range of other soft drinks.
Stuart introduced an illustrated presentation slide show that covered some of the founding members, demonstrators and supporting members who have unfortunately passed away over the years. He included examples of members work and it was well-received by all.
Our Treasurer, Pat Yates, received a standing ovation and applause in honour for holding the office since the first meeting in 1999 and a presentation was made.
Recognition and thanks were made to our volunteer tea and coffee makers, Malcolm Keer and Christine Bugg, who have provided us with refreshment during our meetings. They were presented with some Christmas goodies.
Rapturous applause was also made when Stuart’s mum, Steff, was thanks and presented with a flowering plant as a gesture for her hard work volunteering to supply and prepare the evenings buffet and drinks
The generous raffle prizes donated for the evening are listed below
in no particular order
Ashley Iles - All Rounder Gouge
Simon Hope - Medium Grub Screw Handle
Emma Cook - Chameleon Powder, Size and Brush
Lynn @ Jo Sonja - Paints and brush cleaner
Martin Pidgon Timber- Various Timber Blanks
Odies Oil UK - Jar of Odies oil and finishing pads
SK Krafts - £25 Voucher
Classic Hand Tools - £150 Voucher
Woodart Products - Handy Light
Nash Timbers - Various Timber Blanks
Chestnut Finishes - 6 Cans of Aerosol Finishes
GMC Publications - Mark Baker Weekend Projects Book
Hampshire Sheen - 2 Cans of Hampshire Sheen Finishing Products
Crown Hand Tools UK - Set of 5 micro turning tools
Adrian From Axminster Tools - 2 pieces of turned fruit, made at the Harrogate Woodworking Show
Ian Cameron - Bottle of Wine
John French - Crown Hollowing Tool
Nigel & Christine Bugg - 2 Bottles of wine & 2 Mystery prizes
John Woods - 2 bottles of wine
It was a fabulous evening and the club is very pleased to extend a big thank you to all those woodturning and craft suppliers and members who donated the lovely prizes.
We give a big thank you to all those who helped and organised the evening, especially our Chairman, Stuart, who made this a very successful and fitting celebration - here's to the next 25 years!
Read more in the december newsletter - click here
This months meeting was billed to be a demonstration by Eric Harvey, however Eric was unfortunately unavailable and we were pleased that Mick Favager was able to offer an enjoyable demonstration, at short notice, of how to make pepper grinders using two different mechanisms.
We hope that Eric may be able to give us a demonstration at a later date.
New year meeting - Monday 20th January 2025
Mick decided to make salt and pepper mills using two different grinder mechanisms; an Axminster kit and a Crush Grind kit.
Read the full report in the January 2025 newsletter - click here
This month's meeting featured a demonstration of resin casting methods and subsequent turning of a cured cast by Geoff Bachrach who is a member of the of Suffolk Mid-Suffolk Turners club.
Geoff gave us a jovial and very entertaining demonstration of resin casting methods and subsequent turning of a cured cast to make a sphere.
He created a mould using three pieces, a chuck mounted boss, a drainpipe and an end cap. He showed how interesting timber that is not suitable for turning can be decorated and enclosed with resin to make quite a spectacular effect.
Geoff also used a sphere cutting jig that allows a precise sphere to be created, he finished the item using several different polishing methods .It was a really great talk.
Read all about the techniques and methods needed to make such items in the February newsletter - Click here
Meeting - Monday 17th February 2025
Multi-turn meeting - Monday 17th March 2025
We had a very strong turnout for our first Multi turn of 2025. As ever it is a social evening for people to chat, discuss ideas and solve problems.
Full detail in this months newsletter - Click here
