John was born on 17 August 1927 at Boulder, Western Australia.
He attended Boulder Primary School, and left the day he turned 14. He
worked as grocers' boy, paperboy and apprentice fitter and turner.
Sports included tennis, cricket, boxing and VFL football. He moved to
Melbourne in October 1949 and had to concentrate on earning a living.
During the next 33 years he started machining then became leading
hand foreman and chief engineer in charge of production and building
and maintenance of 300 high-speed weaving machines including safety
belt machines. For 3 years he was a full time experimental engineer
and 4 years part-time including 10 months perfecting finishing of
safety belt with 4 major achievements for the company.
Jean and John caravanned around Australia for 5 1/2 years in
both directions. He joined the Frankston Anglers & Boat Owners
Club in 1964 -and was President for 7 years and is a Life Member.
He was an angler, and it seems to
have consumed most of his time since. He is also a Life Member of the
Guild. He enjoys the challenge of OT work especially building
machines to make the fancy patterns and some new type of units that
may help our members and all woodturners to achieve better results
and the ultimate finish.
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42 x 32 x 26 mm It was turned on a Levins oval turrning machine (Holtz Type) I have made. Using a router and formed cutters, it is a quick and precise method and there is not much finishing required The embellishment was achieved with a rose engine type machine I have made. It has its own 240 V motor drive and a 9V motor with a rechargable battery running at 2000 rpm and a lot of torque. The cutters are dental drills. One is a 1/8" round and the other 60 degrees. Many patters can be made. The Oval Machine is linked up to my engineers dividing head by two 100 tooth gears to obtain the position for each cut. |
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Croquet Mallets & Tall hollow decorated vase |
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Long pens made in crushed velvet |
