I have heared of groups of turners bringing their lathes to a park, turning several projects, and having a sort of picnic as well. Has anyone here done anything like this?
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Turning at a park
- Thread starter Wyatt Holm
- Start date
Never heard of this. Thoughts: First would be a power supply. Parks would only have 120V, 1 ph. Second, a permit might be needed. Third, would be cleaning up the dust and shavings. I first got introduced to turning at an old RR depot.
Yes, in the Gulf Coast Woodturners Assoc. we have an annual picnic that is held in city parks. We usually have one or two mini lathes set up and have an egg cup turning competition. But the main reason to have a lathe there is because we turn potatoes into curly fries and cook them on the spot.
Our club does public demos at local businesses a couple of times per year, we use it as a PR & recruiting opportunity. We do rely on AC power from the business, but I have seen mini-lathes run off those battery power stations before.
I've dreamt of putting a canopy of solar panels on a flatbed trailer and setting up an open air mobile turning shop. I think it would be cool to pull it to different events, or just a roadside park, beach, etc. and just turning and talking to people for the day. I think it could be a lot of fun, but I also use/need my trailer for hauling logs or transporting my tractor or other vehicles.
Our club brings a few mini lathes to a park during a local art fair. It's a lot of fun to be turning outside and talking to people.
Our club brings a few mini lathes to a park during a local art fair. It's a lot of fun to be turning outside and talking to people.
A 2000W gas generator from Harbor Freight (Preditor brand I believe is on the label of mine) would power a mini lathe or two for many hours on a tank of gas. Pretty quiet and smooth running. Not as quiet as the Honda they are cloning, but Honda is now out of the small engine business.
Sounds like a lot of ideas to promote woodturning. My complements to all.
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I rarely do markets anymore, but I would always take a midi lathe. My truck is all-electric, so an extension cord or two would reach back to my truck and give me something to do while no one was buying my stuff. I got a lot done during those markets.
I believe Carl Jacobsen did a few parks turning in a trailer that looked like a food truck with the open side for people to watch.
I demonstrate about six times a year with my spring pole lathe most of the time outside under a tent or a nice shady tree. I have built two lathes that will fit in my vehicle to make travel easier and my main lathe stays home. In April 2024 I attended Northern Bowl outside of Durham England and they had 21 spring pole lathes with people learning bowl turning, German ring turning, plates and turning end grain cups. All outside under tents. Of coarse my lathe didn't come with me. Last spring I brought my lathe to Washington D.C. Most of the time I am in Minnesota or nearby.
Have lathe will travel.
Have lathe will travel.
There were a group of folks from Front Range wood turners in Denver that used to do this monthly or every few months, They would take a few mini lathes to a park that had electricity and have a picnic and turn spin tops and give them out to people in the park with cards with club info on them. They also would introduce turning to the kids and their parents, and the smaller kids that had parents there to give consent were given free lessons and a chance to turn a top and of course the adults could play as well. The parents were always just as intrigued with turning as the kids, and the club gained exposure and members from this. FYI, this club is now almost 300 members strong. Rocky Mountain Wood turners has also done this at some of the groups crafts shows and its a great way to get people involved and inspired and interested in wood turning, and it draws people to the booth and to club meetings and also promotes the Rocky Mountain Wood Turning Symposium that happens every sept..
That is a great approach to promote the craft. Working with kids for years, my concern would be the liability with only verbal consent. I would post a disclaimer that would be visible and direct parents to read it first.