I Missed the Derek Weidman Demo!

Re: I Missed the Derek Weidman Demo!

Peter Hyde

Charlie you are making it too complicated😄

The way Derek works is by visualization and checking the new axis is not going to remove wood from the wrong places. I successfully did a couple of Weidman like pieces earlier this year and once you get your head around a few basic principles you can really make progress

Re: I Missed the Derek Weidman Demo!

Peter Hyde



Here's what I managed to do. A bit crude but as you can see I managed to achieve reasonable results just by simply having a drawing of what I wanted to do and then moving the blank around between centres to find out where wood was going to be removed. Use a cup centre to drive so that the piece stops if you get a catch. A steb centre doesn't work too well.

Cup center

Dick Coers

I watched Derek do a demo at SOFA. If he tightened the tail stock once, he tightened it a hundred times. It got to the point of distraction! I'd suggest a Steb center instead. In reference to learning and developing a technique, I'm not sure anyone can figure out enough parameters on paper (or work out exact designs) to ever figure out what is in Derek's head! That guy is in his own world!

Re: Cup center

Peter Hyde

Because of the extreme off centre a catch would cause the stebcentre to act as a drill bit and leave a really deep mark on the wood. Derek uses a cup centre for a drive because it relies just on friction to grip, hence the constant tightening. I didn't find I needed to tighten as much as he does, just immediately after a catch.

You get used to the catch problem pretty quickly and it can be used to check progress without stopping the lathe. Puts some wear on your belt but it allows you to do a very quick visual check on your progress. I also found there's a natural speed to make decent cuts and catches were mainly caused when the rpm was too low.

Lots of things to learn doing this sort of carving, bevel rubbing is almost impossible and you get used to big tool overhangs pretty quickly so big bowl gouge is necessary.

Watching Derek work is like ..........

JamieDonaldson

....watching a magician create tricks, but with a running commentary!