Thanks for the kind words about the vacuum seals and the link to my web site. I have had many positive emails from various customers. One of particular interest was that they can be washed. This came from a customer who buffs all his turnings. He told me that he had to throw away the old handmade seals after buffing a piece and that these seals make things much easier – this turner is 84 years old!!

I have allot of new products forthcoming. Slated for September is a PVC Vacuum Kit that threads onto the spindle. If anyone has any questions about any of my products, please feel free to contact me.

I try to support AAW clubs with their fundraising – so please have someone from your club contact me if I can be of help.

Kindest regards,

Don Doyle
Rubber Chucky Products,LLC

For one thing, it was huge. There were 1700+ woodturners and others with an interest in woodturning (i.e. collectors, museum staff, gallery owners, etc.). While Utah put the emphasis on technique, the AAW added to that a lot of focus on the business and artistic side. Woodturning is a “big tent” as exemplified by the Instant Gallery. There was a large and amazingly diverse range of work shown which was both energizing and daunting at the same time. It was great to see some of the work I’d only seen in books or websites and to meet some of the people, like David Ellsworth, Jaques Vesery, Binh Pho and John Jordan who have helped shape the woodturning world and who have inspired me.

The demonstrations I was able to attend were great, especially, Michael Hosaluk and Malcolm Tibbetts, and John Jordan’s slide show on Inspirations and Ideas was, well, inspiring. The panels on the ArtistCollector and Woodturning Conventional to Art were eye-opening and showed that there was a lot of serious thought on how the gallery and museum world viewed wood art on both sides of the fence.

Then there was the candy store–the vendor area was huge and my credit card kept jumping out of my wallet. Beside the tools (which were almost all discounted) there was a ton of wood (well, probably more than a ton–let’s just call it a buttload). It’s a testament to ballistic nylon that I was able to get several good size chunks of ash burl, some spalted birch and sundry other blanks home in my suitcase.

The only disappointment was that the auction prices were pretty low. Some people got some great deals on some pieces but a lot of the turners were concerned that, even with collectors there, the bidding was pretty weak especially given that they had donated their work and that the funds raised were for the AAW Educational Opportunity Grants. Three of the people at the table where I sat had pieces in the auction and they all felt that their pieces should have raised a lot more money.

I ran into a lot of folks from the Northwest including SPSW President Dan Stromstad and a number of folks I’d met at the Utah Symposium. They were all very gracious to me and as one of the new guys I never felt excluded or that my contributions weren’t welcome. Both in Utah and St. Paul the open, welcoming and sharing nature nature of the woodturning community was on display, from the loftiest lathe superstar to the starstruck newbies like me. Did I feel I got my money’s worth? I had already gotten my money’s worth by the time they gave us the Handout Book at registration on the first day! Everything else was gravy.

PS–Next year the Symposium will be in San Jose. Given the closeness I hope that an even larger contingent of folks from Washington will be there–it’s a quick 2 hour flight or a nice two day drive from here on I-5 and an even nicer longer drive on the coast and through the redwoods. If your spouse is understanding (mine is, within limits) they may let you stop and buy burls along the way.

I would suggest that you contact Ron through his website at ronkent.com. My experience is that Ron responds pretty quickly and is happy to share information.

It also appears from the planning guide that Ron will be at the AAW Symposium next week, so if you are attending you might be able to ask him in person.

I tried your formula on Manzanita logs, and even after full emersion for over 24 hours the wood split badly. I used the 1 for 1 and the 6 to 1 formula’s and neither worked. I am putting in cut logs 15 to 18 inches long and from 4 to 8 inches in diameter. Do you have any recommendations?

I am also trying the 6 to 1 formula on Ash & Madron and hope to have better results. Have you worked withe either?

Any information would be appreciated.

John

And to think the club’s new Powermatic lathe was set up and ready to go and it didn’t even get turned on during the demo.