Lake Superior Woodturners to demo McNaughton bowl coring system

Lake Superior Woodturners used its June 10 meeting to put three useful things on one bench: Jerry Maly’s McNaughton bowl coring demo, a mentoring push for members who want help with specific skills, and a follow-up on segmented bowl work. The meeting ran from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at 1314 Ogden Avenue in Superior, Wisconsin, the club’s new shop location.

That setting fit the club’s mix of experience levels. Lake Superior Woodturners describes itself as a group of “sixty some” men and women affiliated with the American Association of Woodturners, and it accepts members of all ages and skill levels. In that kind of room, mentoring is not a side note. The club’s mentoring effort pairs turners who need help on a particular technique with experienced members willing to share what they know, which gives newer members a path forward and gives seasoned turners a way to stay active between demos.

Maly’s program was the night’s headline for a reason. The club said the McNaughton bowl coring system can produce 3 to 4 additional bowls from a single large wood blank, which makes a costly turning blank go a lot farther. The system uses specialized cutters and a tool gate, and its appeal is practicality: instead of turning one bowl and sending the rest to the bin, the turner can pull several usable forms from the same piece of wood. The club also noted the system’s versatility, including use beyond simple hemispheres, which is part of what keeps coring relevant for turners who want more out of a single log section.

The June agenda also kept the club’s recent instruction calendar in view. Under old business, members revisited Elizabeth Weber’s June demonstration and workshops, which the spring materials said were filling up. Under new business, the agenda pointed to Tom Lohman’s segmented workshop second session, with a possible move to July depending on availability. Lohman’s segmented bowl workshop had been scheduled for April 12-14, 2026, so the June meeting showed a club that was carrying projects forward instead of treating each demo as a one-off.

That combination made the night more than a standard meeting. It tied a practical coring lesson to mentoring and segmented follow-through, the kind of agenda that helps a club build skill, keep members connected and keep the lathe time moving in the right direction.