Ohio Valley Woodturners extend open shop, add lunch and social time

The Ohio Valley Woodturners Guild is giving its open shop a longer runway, and the extra hour is aimed at more than just another half-turn at the lathe. On Friday, May 8, 2026, the Learning Center session will run from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., with a lunch break from noon to 12:30 and room for members to stay, talk and keep working instead of clearing out after a short block.

The club said it was trying something new, and the change points to a familiar pressure in hands-on woodturning: beginners need machine time, but they also need coaching, repetition and enough uninterrupted time to finish a cut before the session ends. The open shop is not a formal class, but monitors can coach members on basic and more advanced turning skills, and attendees can arrange to meet mentors there for more personal help. Dave Kratzer and Mark Malmstrom are listed as the monitors for the May 8 session.

The format is still tightly controlled. Attendance is first-come, first-served, limited to 12 people, and the posting showed only four slots left. Members have to sign up ahead of time, and the monitors can stop any activity that does not follow the Learning Center’s safety rules. That combination of open access and firm oversight is part of what makes a shared turning space workable, especially when people are bringing their own projects and trying to solve specific problems at the lathe.

The tweak also fits the guild’s larger pattern. OVWG says it started in 1988, serves everyone from beginners to seasoned professionals, and offers free skill-building sessions several times each month at its fully equipped Learning Center. Its mission includes providing woodturning mentors, hosting professional demonstrators and holding a major symposium every two years. On its resources page, the guild says it regularly runs turn-and-learn events for newer members, visits members’ shops and organizes a wood day when fresh wood is cut up and made available to members.

Safety remains the thread running through all of it. The American Association of Woodturners says safe, effective lathe use requires study and knowledge of procedures, and that a full face shield should be worn whenever the lathe is turned on. With more time, more social room and a lunch break built in, OVWG is testing whether a longer open shop can do what a three-hour slot could not: keep members in the room, keep projects moving and keep the community around the machines.