Nick Cook lives in Marietta, Georgia, where he owns and operates the only full service woodturning studio in the metropolitan Atlanta area. He grew up around his father's woodworking equipment and became interested in the art of woodturning in the mid-70s after several years in furniture design and manufacture. A founding member of the American Association of Woodturners, Nick served six years on the board of directors, including one as vice president. In addition to creating one-of-a-kind pieces and his staple gift items, Nick teaches and lectures on various woodturning topics, has written articles for several woodworking magazines, and produced two woodturning videos.
Nick visited Australia early in 2003 and a demonstration was arranged at Southern Region's 'Cubby House' on March 6th. This was the first demonstration since the installation of a new video monitor system at the Cubby and it worked superbly. Hats off to Southern for the work that went into putting it together. Camera work was looked after by George Hatfield who managed to produce a tools eye view of the action.
Nick's demonstration focussed on thoroughly explaining the basics of woodturning techniques, these techniques being used during the production of a number of spindle and face turned items including;
- A garden dibber made entirely with a skew chisel
- A honey dipper using a roughing gouge, spindle gouge and spurred parting tool
- Snowman Xmas tree decoration in Rock Maple, augmented with fabric paint
- Spinning tops made entirely with a 1/4" bowl gouge
- Babies rattle from Rock Maple. The rattle is made from 2 pieces, hollowed with a router and glued together.
- Bottle stopper from Cocabolo. This item is Nick's base product, he estimates that he has made over 200,000. The cork dowel is inserted before turning and is held in a collet chuck to allow shaping of the decorative top. A saving in turning time is gained by bandsawing the blanks octagonal. rather than square.
- A lidded box
- Pencil, using the mechanism from a 'Pentel' pencil
- Platter using a 3/8" bowl gouge. When faceplate turning, nick uses a leather glove on his left hand to prevent the hot shaving from causing too much discomfort. Nick discussed the aesthetics and practicalities of platter design, especially the foot which needs to be relatively wide to prevent the platter becoming unstable if a lot of weight is placed at the rim. Nick prefers a swept-in foot shape which does not have a weak corner at the base which an undercut foot shape has.
- Deep bowl in Pin Oak (a Casurina).
During the hollowing of the platter, Nick introduced a grind he uses on the bowl gouge which allows the gouge to be held horizontal on the rest. A number of the audience were invited to try it.
Nick also explained the use of a minature spur drive on small between centre work. A large diameter spur needs to be driven into the workpiece and is usually too large for small spindles. The minature spur drive does not bite as deep and allows work to be mounted without stopping the lathe - a significant time saver in production turning.
Tool sharpening was discussed, including the use of jigs to obtain a good shape. Nick explained the use of his Wolverine jig.
Members lucky enough to secure seats were treated to an exhaustive discussion and demonstration of basic woodturning techniques. No one left the demonstration without learning something new.
For more information about Nick, visit his web site at http://www.nickcookwoodturner.com/
