Stephen Kearvell

Club Demo Thursday 8th May 2025

Stephen started with a resin project using a cylinder of about 75mm diameter that he had caste himself. He uses epoxy resin as this more forgiving that the harder acrylic resin that can chip. He emphasised that resin should be stirred gently and not whisked or beaten thus avoiding air bubbles. For this project he used four colours made up in separate pots and put to one side. He then pours a clear resin into his mould and leaves it until the temperature gets to 95 c (this has thickened the mix) and the pours in his four colours without stirring. The chemical reaction swirls the colours through the clear without totally blending into one colour.

Resin can be cut with traditional tools or with carbide tips but the waste must be removed slowly. It is also important to wait until the casting is fully cured otherwise the fumes can be a serious irritant. Once cured it is only the dust nuisence that you have to avoid. Stephen used both types of tool to make an egg shape. Resin turning makes lots and lots of shavings as can be seen from the first picture and frequent stops to clear away the tool tip are advised. To refine the final shape, Stephen used a skew as a scraper.

Now for the sanding; starting with 180 grit to get any tooling marks out and then up to 600 grit on a rotary sanding tool. At each stage of sanding Stephen cross sands by hand to remove any radial marks (sand at right angles to the cutting direction). Next step was to reduce the lathe speed to only 500 rpm and use 1200 grit with water followed by 1500 grit and then Yorkshire Grit microfine wax to achieve a 2000 grit finish. Polishing was done with Chestnut burnishing polish using a safety cloth but being very careful to ensure the cloth does not grab (keep the cloth moist as soon as any ‘dragging’ is felt).

Stephen does not part off completely to avoid risk of damage and saws through the last bit. He then cleans up the base with a mini disk in a Jacobs chuck and then hand sands.

Stephen then did some basic bowl turning which was excellent for our beginners as he emphsised tool control using a bowl gouge. He showed both push and pull cuts to get the best possible finish from the tool. His motto is ‘Take your time and enjoy the turning.’