Chippewa Valley Woodturners report strong turnout, hands-on classes and demos
Twenty-seven members showed up, 57 dues were paid, and the club doubled down on practical skills with a band-saw class and a small-parts duplication demo.
Strong turnout and practical shop work kept Chippewa Valley Woodturners moving through April, with 27 people at the April 20 meeting and 57 members already paid up for 2026 dues. That kind of number matters because it shows the club is not just filling seats, it is keeping members active between meetings, open houses, classes and challenge projects.
The most useful takeaways for turners were the club’s band-saw class and its April demo on manually duplicating small pieces. An advance course on band saw use in woodturning was held April 18, a timely move for a club that knows the bandsaw is one of the most useful tools in the shop. Used well, it helps prepare stock, cut logs into bowl blanks and turn rough material into more manageable rounds before anything ever touches the lathe. For woodturners who want cleaner blanks and less waste, that is not fluff, it is the kind of work that improves the final piece.
The club’s open house also brought in 11 attendees, and the public listing for the event put it at Eau Claire Insulation, 1125 Starr Ave. in Eau Claire, from 8 a.m. to noon on April 11, with a bowl-making demo at 9 a.m. That gave the chapter another entry point for people who wanted to see turning in action without having to commit to a full meeting.
On the bench, the April demo stayed firmly in the real-world lane. Members worked through manually duplicating small items, including a cribbage peg and a chess pawn, the sort of precise repeat work that sharpens layout, tool control and patience. The club later turned that session into a site article titled “Manually Duplicating Small Pieces,” a sign that it is preserving the good stuff instead of letting it disappear after a single meeting night.
The calendar ahead keeps that same practical streak. Chip Troost will demonstrate how to make a dibbler for the planting season at the May 6 meeting, a useful garden tool rather than a shelf-only showpiece. The next three-month raffle will center on a 3/8-inch detail spindle gouge, and Steve Hay won the president’s challenge for turning matching eggs, taking home a $10 Kwik Trip fuel card.
May’s challenge will push the same duplication skill again, asking members to hand-turn two matching items such as a drawer knob, game piece or shaker peg. The club is also collecting Feed My People bowls for the May meeting, and John Layde will pick them up. Feed My People Food Bank says it sources the equivalent of 7.38 million meals a year and logged 101,859 first-time visits last year, its highest total in 44 years, which gives the bowl drive real weight beyond the shop floor.
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