Woodturning, Making Art from Wood

Lake Superior Woodturners

Meeting Notice

Click here to download 2025 – 2026 Meeting Schedule

This is our 5th year of turning 4 trophies for the Superior Curling club’s 92nd Annual Northwest Bonspiel. This year’s trophies were made of Cherry which produced some of the most attractive trophies yet

Meeting Date: Saturday, February 14, 2026

Time: 9AM – 12PM

Location: 1314 Ogden Avenue, Superior, WI

Agenda

When you get to the meeting, please sign in so we know who is attending, and wear a name badge to help those who are not familiar with who we are put names to our faces.

8:30 AM Half-hour before the meeting: Meeting set-up (Chairs & Lathe) plus coffee & chatter!

9:00AM Call to Order

PRESIDENT REPORT – Susan Van Loon Runnoe

TREASURE REPORT – Paul Howard: Current balance, Income and Expenses

OLD BUSINESS:

Tom Lohman Segmented Workshop—April 12,13 & 14^th 2026
Elizabeth Weber Demonstration and Workshops – June 2026. Workshops are filling up. Let us know if you are interested
Superior Curling Club Wooden Rock Trophies – second team project day after today’s meeting.
Mentoring: Whether you are interested in finding a mentor to help you with a particular woodturning skill, or if you are experienced and wouldn’t mind sharing your skills with others, we want to know. We are trying to match individuals to expand our talents!

NEW BUSINESS:

CBN Wheels. A member has offered to donate 2 CBN wheels to our club if we would be willing to purchase two additional wheels. (we have 2 low-speed grinders, and have been looking to replace our current wheels). The Board discussed this offer and the purchase at our last board meeting, and made a motion to bring it up to the membership for a vote to approve the expense.
We now have 220v available in the club. The electrical work happened sooner than we expected, and does require us to notify the membership of the expense for installing a 220v outlet for us to use for our 220v lathe. Four 220v were actually installed, but we were asked to help cover the cost of installing one of the four.
Mentoring/ Open Turning-Dates – see the sign-up sheets if you are planning on taking advantage of one of our open turning dates – our next open shop dates between now and our March meeting are Saturday, February 21^st, 9am – 12noon, and Wednesdays Feb. 18, 25 and March 4 and 11. We are requesting anyone interested to sign up or email us so we know you are coming, and if there is a particular project that you will need help with. We need to know how many to expect – we hope you are able to join us for turning on one of those days

SHOW & TELL:

As always, we love to see what you’ve been turning, but this month we have two themes! The first is wondering if you received a new (or new to you) wood-turning tool you would like to show the group. Maybe a new chisel, chuck, a special jig? Secondly, this month’s theme is box turning/covered containers. Do you have a turning with a fitted cover? Bring in your turning and show what you have been up to! You can ask for critiques of your work, or you can simply show your turnings. We can discuss turning ‘challenges’, talk about best practices, and chat about perplexing pieces of wood you would like suggestions on how to turn or what to turn it into. We would like to have members show one of their turnings and once everyone has a chance, if time permits additional items can be shown.

SAFETY MINUTE: Open Discussion – Best practices, what to do and what not to do in the shop.

RAFFLE:

We are back to our regular ongoing item on our agenda, the monthly Raffle. If you have an item to donate for the raffle, whether it’s a woodturning book, a piece of wood, a pen or bowl blank, a tool you don’t use, or maybe a turning you have done, we would sincerely appreciate the donation. Depending upon the quantity of donations received your item may be saved for a future month’s raffle.

PROGRAM:

Our format will be similar to our Show and Tell. Each person will be able to describe the finish, share example. Multiple finishes are welcome if time permits.

The program will start with a brief discussion about sanding. Following that, we will discuss various wood finishes, application methods and then discuss what we like, and what we don’t like about them. Those who have volunteered so far and their topics are:

Bees Wax and Mineral Oil (Robb Glibbery)
Dry Brush Technique (Robb Glibbery)
Polyurethane – Wipe on, and spray
Polyurethane – Brush on – satin (Gene Rosberg)
Friction Finishes Such As Hut and Crystal Coat (Bill Penning)
Waterlox and Osmo (Skott Nielsen)
Walnut Oil and Tung Oil (Jon Stephenson)

Additional finish examples could be, but are not limited to the following:

Shellac
Mineral oil
Food Safe finishes
Penetrating Danish Oil
Gloss Or Satin Spray Laquer
Carnauba Wax & Beal Buff
CA (Cyanoacrylate) Glues
Spar Varnish

Additional volunteers are welcome. You can contact John Skarja jfskarja@yahoo.com and let me know what you’d like to cover.

Click here to download 2025 – 2026 membership form

Membership – IMPORTANT:

September began our new fiscal year, and if you have not yet completed a new membership form or submitted your 2025-2026 dues payment please get these in as soon as possible. Membership dues remain at $60/year. The money raised by dues helps us maintain our equipment, purchase supplies, and prepare for rent and moving costs when we move to our new shop.

Our club offers many opportunities to learn, including demonstrations, hands-on workshops, and formal and informal training. We provide a safe environment to learn proper safety techniques. We form a great community, and it’s an awesome place to connect with others who share an interest in woodturning. As you all know, woodturning is a great hobby, whether your interest is in turning practical pieces, or if you lean towards creating items with a more artistic flair.

New members are always welcome. Help support your club by bringing a friend who would be interested in learning, sharing knowledge, teaching, or someone who just appreciates great art.

Current Board of Directors:

President Susan Van Loon Runnoe
Vice President Bill Penning
Secretary Doug Runnoe
Treasurer Paul Howard
Program Director – John Skarja
Bonnie McDermid
Greg Whitaker

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Click here to see all meeting detail.

February 2026 meeting pictures

January 2026 meeting pictures

December 2025 meeting pictures

November 2025 meeting pictures

October 2025 pictures of move and club meeting pictures

Pictures from the August 2025 meeting

Pictures from the July 2025 meeting

Pictures from the May 2025 meeting

Pictures from the April 2025 meeting

“Thank you to Ray Hyde and the Lake Superior Wood Turners for their donations of Wig Stands! We have been blessed by this amazing contribution on more than one occasion.”

Click here to see the Facebook post.

Pictures from the March 2025 meeting

Pictures from the February 2025 meeting

Pictures from the January 2025 meeting

Ray Hyde, from the Lake Superior Woodturners presents wig stands to Christine See from the Northwest Wisconsin Cancer Center to be distributed to cancer patients.

To date the Lake Superior Woodturners have been able to distribute:

18 stands to Ruth’s Free Wig Closet in Grand Rapids and
7 stands to Northwest Wisconsin Cancer Center

Pictures from the December 2024 meeting

Pictures from the October 2024 meeting

Pictures for the September 2024 meeting

Pictures for the July 2024 meeting

Pictures for the June 2024 Meeting

Click here to see directions

End of Meeting Details for June 8th.

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May 2024 Club Meeting Pictures

April 2024 Club Meeting Pictures

March 9th, 2024 club meeting pictures

The class of 2024 Curling trophies

Bill Penning, Jon Stephenson, Caleb Shadis, Bonnie McDermid, Ray Hyde, Greg Whitaker, Doug Runnoe, and Susan Van Loon Runnoe. Missing from the picture is Ray Hyde and Doug Runnoe.

February 2024 club meeting picture

Wig Stand Project

Sharon Rasmussen, from Ruth’s Free Wigs in Grand Rapids and Ray Hyde, from the Lake Superior Woodturners, exchange wig stands turned and donated by members of the wood turning club.

January 2024 club meeting picture