The Lenexa Spinach Festival September 6th, 2025
This is the second year the KC Woodturners participated in this event. Several members sold their personal woodturnings. The club sold donated items. The weather was perfect and the event was a success. The members manning the tent were Kris Coyan, Ed Jaszczak, and Kevin Neelley. Ann Mellina made a surprise appearance and helped with the tent sales. We also had for sale some woodturnings by Larry Dice, Sue Bergstrand, and Anthony Harris.
The September First Fridays at the Crossroads District Sept 5th, 2025.
This tent sale is just down the hill from the KCWT clubhouse. The weather was fine. Several members sold their personal woodturnings. The club sold donated items. The members manning the tent were Kris Coyan and Ed Jaszczak. Sue Bergstrand also made an appearance. We also had for sale some woodturnings by Larry Dice, Sue Bergstrand, and Anthony Harris.
The 2025 KC Irish Fest August 29-30-31, 2025
The KC Woodturners look forward to this event every year. We have entered the KC Irish Fest for at least 15 years. The KC Irish Fest helps pay our rent and this was a successful event for us. A number of members sold their personal woodturnings. A number of generous members donated woodturned items for sale. A great number of members volunteered their time to help with the logistics of this tent sale event. Many thanks to all. The weather was wonderful. Here is a list of all the people selling, donating and volunteering at 2025 KC Irish Fest: Sue Bergstrand, Jeffrey Bollman, Kris Coyan, Jerry Darter, Larry Dice, Mike Erickson, Anthony Harris, Ed Jaszczak, Jerry Lehane, Kevin Neelley, Terry Nelson, Bill Paullo, Charity and Bill Schmidt, Elizabeth and Calvin Wright.
Top Turning Event July 19 2025
A top turning event was scheduled to increase our top supply. Every lathe had a person turning tops. We trained a couple of new top makers. Around 150 beautiful tops were made during the event. The club needs around two thousand tops for the remainder of the year. We give away over a thousand tops to little kids during the Santa’s Workshop event later in the year.
Bingham Waggoner Craft Fair July 12 2025
Several members of the KC Woodturners attended the Bingham Waggoner Craft Fair in Independence, MO. It was a beautiful day to be outdoors. Attending were Kris Coyan, Ed Jaszczak, and Kevin Neelley.
Finished Batons May 2025
The 57 batons have been completed for the Kansas City Kansas Police Department. The last step was to put two coats of OSMO finish on the batons and laser engrave them with “KCKPD” and the officer’s badge number. The photos don’t show all the batons. there were a number of shorter batons made for the KCKs motorcycle police officers. Mike Thomas has delivered the batons to the KCKS Police Department.
Baton Turning March 9th 2025
Eight KC Woodturners got together on a Sunday afternoon finish turn and sand 50 batons for the Kansas City Kansas Police Department. These batons were for KCKS police officers that had graduated from the KCKS Police Academy over the last couple years that had not yet received their graduation batons. The KCKS Police Department contracted with the KC Woodturners to make their backlog of batons. Our club Vice President Mike Thomas was the contact guy that made this job happen. KC Woodturners member Gary Mundhenke did a great job programming the CNC code for cutting the batons and then cut all the batons on his personal CNC machine. The finish turning and sanding took all day Sunday by KC Woodturners members David Alexander, Don Frank, Anthony Harris, Ed Jaszczak, Kris Coyan (who took the photos), Mike McReynolds, Kevin Neelley, Bill Paullo, and Mike Thomas. The batons were finished with Osmo Wood Wax Finish. After the finish dries, Kevin Neelley will laser engrave each baton with the KCKS Department and the officer’s personal badge number. Mike Thomas will then present the batons to the KCKS police Department.
Bowl-A-Palooza February 23rd 2025
Eight KC Woodturners got together on a Sunday afternoon to rough turn 60 very wet maple bowl blanks. Don Frank used his sawmill, helped by Kris Coyan, to prepare 60 maple bowl blanks 10″ and 12″ diameters 4″ and 5″ thick. The bowl blanks were each turned round with a tenon by David Alexander, Kris Coyan, Anthony Harris, Jerry Lehane, Kevin Neelley and Mike Thomas. Don used his OneWay bowl coring jig to core all the blanks. Coring saved a lot of turning time. Most of the bowl blanks needed a bit of extra hollowing by the crew after coring. Kevin Neelley sealed all the blanks end grain with Anchorseal. Don Frank took all the sealed blanks back home and stuffed all he could into his two kilns. His two kilns held 39 blanks and will take about a month to bring the moisture content down to second turning level. So, in a month we will get together again to second turn bowls. This time we will invite club members to watch the second turning process.
You may ask why we wanted to make 60 bowls. Your club is going to sell the bowls to make money. We will sell the bowls at the normal venues like Irish Fest, Spinach Festival, First Fridays and new venues.
Full Lathe Room December 21st 2024
All eight KC Woodturners lathes were in use on this Saturday morning, December 21st 2024. Also, a couple people came by just to sit and talk.
Santa’s Workshop November 23 2024
This was a free kids event. Over four hundred children watched as the KC Woodworkers Guild constructed toy trucks for them. Afterwards, the KC Woodturners placed a new top in the truck bed. This event was great fun for all.
Skill Building – Tool Sharpening August 16th 2024
This lathe tool sharpening skill building event was held Saturday afternoon 8/16/24 at the KC Woodturners clubhouse. We had five grinders set up and had several instructors available to guide members on how to sharpen their various lathe tools.
Sawmill Outing with Don Frank July 27th 2024
KC Woodturners member Don Frank invited the membership to view his sawmill on a beautiful Saturday morning. 22 KC Woodturners members attended. Don showed how he set up the log, centering the pith. He sawed the log into nice thick slabs. Don was a great host and provided coffee and doughnuts.
The Clubhouse Lathe Room finally finished May 2024.
BIG KCWT letters were designed and painted on the lathe room wall by our club president Kris Coyan. The letters reflect more light toward the lathes. The lathe room is being tidied up prior to the May 5th First Fridays event.
Painting the new clubhouse floor, December 2023.
The left photo shows member David Alexander and president Kris Coyan rolling paint on the new clubhouse floor at 1717 Washington St. The right photo shows vice president Mike Thomas putting up caution tape to keep people from walking on the wet floor.