About Us
The Sydney Northern Beaches Woodturners Club is a community-based organisation dedicated to fostering woodturning in a friendly and supportive environment.
We have a modern fully-equipped workshop in Forestville, we also have social events, regular fund-raising activities, and we support local charities through donations and a toy-making program.
Membership is open to anyone over 14. Members pay an annual fee of $65 which covers both Club membership, associated membership of the Sydney Woodturners Guild, and insurances. Our members hail from all over Sydney’s Northern Beaches and North Shore areas.
We have a nominal workshop attendance charge ($5 for each visit) to cover overheads including tea/coffee etc.
The Club is an incorporated entity registered in NSW under the Associations Incorporation Act 2009 and operates on a not-for-profit basis. We hold an annual general meeting where Members elect office-bearers and other Club positions, confirm the annual accounts, and the Club submits an annual return to the Department of Fair Trading.
Our Committee
John Donnelly – President
Secondary school teacher for the past 40 years and still helping to form tomorrow’s generations.
Currently renovating/restoring a house in regional NSW to apply a carpentry and joinery interest I have harboured for many years.
My passion for working with timber led me to woodturning and I have been a member of the Club since 2016. My best work is spindle work and small furniture construction using turned features.
Alex Bendeli – Vice President
Retired Electronics Engineer.
I joined the Sydney Woodturners Guild in 2000 after meeting Guild members at shows, and started with the Club when it was at “The Boatshed”. I have been Club Vice-President for the past two years and Club representative on the Guild for the last 20 years.
Woodturning remains a hobby although I occasionally turn bespoke items commercially. Being science-based I am not a prolific artist, but I have a good fundamental understanding of woodturning, having completed the TAFE course under George Hatfield. I have no speciality (bowls or spindle work), but use woodturning as a tool to achieve a goal.
Ian Blume – Treasurer
I joined Sydney Northern Beaches Woodturners to pursue my passion with wood.
I enjoy the constant challenges woodturning provides and the continued development of new and varied skills. I get great satisfaction from working with wood in a creative pursuit.
There are a number of highly skilled knowledgeable woodturners at the Club who mentor, support and provide different perspectives. The cameraderie of sharing my interest with other woodturners increases my passion for this hobby.
Our Workshop
Our spacious new workshop in Forestville was fitted out and opened in late 2021. Our workshop is open every Tuesday and Friday from 9.30am to 1pm, and on Saturdays from 8.30am to 1pm. You’ll find us at the end of Forestville Ave, Forestville.
We have 10 lathes, including four heavy-duty Vicmarcs, four Nova and and two Woodfast lathes including mini-lathes for delicate work; an entire wall of chucks, faceplates, jaws and accessories; a sharpening bench of grinders and honing oilstones to keep your tools ‘just so’, bandsaws to cut your own blanks, a mitre saw, scroll saw, disc and belt sanders, a drill press, and all the power tools and hand tools you could want.
We have spindle gouges, roughing gouges, detail gouges, bowl gouges, skews and scrapers, parting tools – you name it. You can bring your own and even DIY your own handles.
We have a huge range of hand tools including chisels, mallets, saws of all sorts, gauges, dividers and calipers, and various power tools.
The workshop has a fully-ducted dust extraction system and multiple room air filters, a kitchen/tearoom, male and female toilets, meeting room, Club office and resource library, and a demonstration area where we hold our monthly meetings.
Use our library for books on woodturning practice and technique, the art of bowl design, making toys, and technical publications and manuals by best-selling Australian and international authors such as Richard Raffan, George Hatfield and Mike Darlow.
We have everything you need to help you create and finish the perfect piece of woodwork – whether it’s your first piece, or something intricate and complex, be it functional or form. To assist you in this we have a WOODBank of timber of various species suitable for turning available for members to purchase.
You can work at your own level, at your own pace, in the company of the friendliest bunch of fellow woodies including qualified trades and experienced turners who can provide advice, tuition, and always encouragement.
Community Work
The Club has a long and proud tradition of making toys for both local and overseas charities. ‘Operation Christmas Child’ sees around 200 toys made for three local churches who put the toys in Christmas boxes for distribution to families in need. The boxes from many charity groups are sent overseas to less well-off countries around the world.
The Club has eight different toy designs (the churches requested the toys be suitable for boys aged two-to-four years) and Members work as teams to fashion the various parts and to assemble the completed toys with moving parts.
In addition, Members will make around 60 toys of various designs for the local Womens Shelter which are always a huge hit with the kids.
In past years, Members have also made special one-offs including a Rocking Horse, a Cubby House, and each year Members make small give-aways and other trinkets for the Bunnings Belrose Family Fun Night.
Sydney Woodturners Guild
The main objective of the Sydney Woodturners Guild is to promote the craft of hand woodturning.
The Guild publishes a regular newsletter, By Hand and Eye, which showcases various turning techniques, alerts for upcoming events, and advertisements from suppliers offering new products, specials and discounts to members.
The Guild also acts as an administrative umbrella coordinating turning demonstrations and judging at major events such as the Sydney Royal Easter Show and the Working with Wood Show.
As an affiliate of the Guild, the Club nominates three representatives who attend Guild meetings and who report back on upcoming activities. This can include co-ordinating with other affiliated clubs on guest demonstrations, and publicising special events such as mini-symposia.
Our Guild representatives are Alex Bendeli, John Donnelly and John Cottle.
Club Members are encouraged to visit other clubs. You can go as a small group, and it is an excellent way to help build your skills as a demonstrator, and to just have a chinwag with other woodies.
