My first demo

[Steve K]

I've been asked to demo bird house ornaments at our next meeting.
Nervous but know I will learn from the experience. I made a few ornaments and tree to display them. Here are some of them.

[robo hippy]

Demos are as much of a learning experience as anything out there. Make a list and check it twice so you don't leave too many things at home. Make an outline of what you want to cover. If you forget some thing, some one will always ask about it. If the lathe is not one you are familiar with, make sure to get some time to play on it before you start. Nice ornaments as well.

robo hippy

[iclark]

As Robo said, it is a good learning opportunity.

Your turning skills are obviously good.

One of the big differences when doing a demo for a club is that you are working to get the demo done in the time allotted. If you let that bother you, it can mess with both your head and your turning skills.

To avoid that, I would suggest doing a dry run on your lathe of what you want to do and the order that you want to do it in. Time it and that will give you a feel for whether you need to stretch to fill time or whether you need to stick to the cap and body and leave the finial and perch turnings as something that can be left to a future demo.

As you do the dry run, make a list of every tool that you use (gouge, scraper, drill bit, vise, chuck, pencil, etc) as you go along. That is your checklist of things to take to the demo. Taking the time to write it down as you go will probably not take any more time than the questions that you will get from the audience. Remember to note trips to the sharpener and any jigs or rests that you use. The pieces that you make during this dry run are ones that you can hold up when you start that stage and then pass around the audience while you make them during the demo.

Other things to work out in advance is whether the demo lathe is the same spindle size as your lathe and whether your toolrests will work on the demo lathe. If you have to use the toolrest that lives with the demo lathe, consider taking along a mill smooth file and a block of wax to prep that toolrest before you have to use it. If your chucks won't fit on the demo lathe, then make sure that the chuck that you will be using has jaws that suit you or that you choose blanks that will work in them.

Demos are a distraction-rich environment. Remember to disengage the tool from the wood before looking up to answer a question.

You will do fine.

[Arlin Eastman]

Steve

I love your work and I would be most pleased to even watch you in your shop!!!!

Arlin

[mpax356]

The Chattahoochee Woodturners produced some great resources for demonstrators that you can get from the AAW site here:
http://www.woodturner.org/default.asp?pa...ngResPenta
You must be a registered AAW member and logged in to to get to this page.
Your ornaments look great and I know you will do a fine demonstration.

[Steve K]

Thanks to all for the replies and encouragement. Mpax, thanks for that heads up. I am a member and had completely forgotten about that resource. I will definitely check it out.

[Arlin Eastman]

mpax356 said:

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The Chattahoochee Woodturners produced some great resources for demonstrators that you can get from the AAW site here:
http://www.woodturner.org/default.asp?pa...ngResPenta
You must be a registered AAW member and logged in to to get to this page.
Your ornaments look great and I know you will do a fine demonstration.

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Max

I hope we can see you here more often and see what you are turning too.

Arlin