Woodturning Techniques by Dave Murphy
Woodturning is a way to make wooden projects using a lathe. The wood is generally turned by a motorized lathe while a tool us used to shave, gouge, and shape it into different objects. Woodturning is commonly used to make bowls, furniture, bats, instruments, wooden toys, game pieces, spindles, chair or table legs, and plates. Of course, as with any woodworking hobby, woodturning can be used in a lot of different ways. The project is only limited by the imagination and skill of the woodturner.
Projects usually start with a blank piece of wood. For spindles, toys, tool handles, doll house parts, and other small projects, you may be able to start with wooden dowels. This can simplify the process for you. If you don't start with a dowel, you will need to use a woodturning tool designed to get the blank into the basic shape that you want to work with.
Most projects start with a roughing gouge to round the wood blank into a spindle. The spindle can be smoothed using the razor sharp edge of the skew chisel. However, if you are making a bowl, which is the most popular woodturning project, you will need a special bowl gouge that is designed to turn the inside and outside of the bowl. You may also need a hollowing tool to cut out the deep sections of the bowl, especially if the bowl is narrow, or you're turning something like a vase. A tool called a bowl saver is popular because it allows you to cut a smaller bowl out of a larger one, saving your wood pieces for later projects.
You can work with a blank while the wood is still wet or green to more easily get it into the basic shape that you want without having to wait for the entire block to dry out. Turning on wet wood is actually easier and creates less sawdust than dry wood. However, you may not want to turn your whole project while the wood is wet. This technique of cutting on wet wood is usually used only to get the wood into the basic desired shape so that it will dry out faster. Wet wood that is turned will distort a little as it dries and shrinks. You want to make sure that you have enough wood thickness left to work with so that you can remove the rough exterior and any distortions once the wood is dry. Drying out large pieces of green wood can result in cracks, so many woodturners prefer to rough turn their pieces while the wood is newly felled.
There are many different styles of woodturning that can help you to create artistic and functional pieces. Pool cues, wooden eggs, candle holders, and platters are some other commonly turned items. You can use dowel rods of varying thickness to get you quickly started on a lot of different projects. Research which type of wood is better for your project before you order or make your dowels. You can purchase birch dowels, maple dowels, red or white oak dowels, cherry dowels, poplar dowels, ash dowels, or walnut dowels, giving you a large selection of woods to choose from for your woodturning project. Some companies will even turn wood that you provide into custom diameter dowels so that you have complete creative control over your project.
About the Author
About the Author: Dave Murphy is the founder and president of Good Wood, Inc. which manufactures wood products in Ohio. Good Wood, Inc. makes dowels and dowel rods, all types of wood components, custom wood parts, and more. They offer safe wood finishing, wood turning, and a plethora of wood parts needs. Visit http://www.goodwoodinc.com for your wood product needs.
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Developing and delivering a live seminar take a lot of work. In an effort to make the most of the effort they're putting in, many trainers, speakers and consultants opt to record their presentations.
Packaging the recordings for resale to non-attendees is usually the primary motivator for videotaping a seminar. Within your list of prospects, there are people who want to attend your seminar, but can't because of a scheduling conflict or budget limitations. There are also people who may love your content, but do not like attending live events. Offering a recording of your seminar is a way to serve these clients and generate additional revenue.
Event recordings can be marketed heavily to non-participants, as well as to participants who may want the recordings as a way to review the information delivered during the live event. Recordings usually are promoted after the event, so that all pre-event marketing can be focused on driving people to the seminar. However, some promoters opt to mention the availability of recordings in their promotional materials as a downsell. For example, if you send out a marketing brochure to promote your seminar, you may wish to mention the availability of the recordings under a sub-headline like "Can't Make It?" 3
But that's not all you can do with your recordings. To fully leverage the investment of money, time and effort you make to videotape your presentation, also consider these 5 options:
Develop a home-study course. It's one thing to package and label recordings as being from a particular event. It's another to use the recordings to develop a home-study course. In this scenario, you would use chunks of your video to illustrate points you are making in the written portion of your course. Another option is to use the videos as the prime delivery method for your material. But rather than identifying the content as "recordings from my June 2011 seminar," you'd promote it as "my cold calling workshop."
Create a virtual education series. Break your footage into mini-lessons, and deliver one lesson per week as part of a virtual training series. You can supplement the lesson with a live question-and-answer session with course participants. 3
Support implementation. Do you know that your attendees will face a certain set of stumbling blocks? Consider posting videos reviewing that content on a special attendees-only web page so that they can review pertinent sections of your presentation.
Preview your seminar. The next time you market the course, use video clips to give prospects a preview of what you teach.
Support your sales claims. It's one thing to tell prospects that attendees have fun and are involved in a variety of activities at your seminar. But seeing is believing. Post footage from your seminar to prove your claims. For more information visit Videographer Gauteng
Create a YouTube campaign. Post short videos that intersperse footage of you talking about your seminar with clips from your event. (Tip: be sure to get footage of people at the registration tables, networking, engaged in activities and generally having a good time.)
Create bonuses. Adding bonus gifts to your offers is a proven way to get more people to buy. Use your footage to put together video bonuses that you can offer with other products, services and programs you sell. For more information visit Videographer Gauteng
Increase affiliate sales. If you are promoting someone else's products or courses as an affiliate, offer the people who buy via your affiliate link one or more of the video bonuses you created from your seminar footage.
Add value to launches. A common strategy with book launches is to gather up a bunch of bonuses from various experts and give them to everyone who purchases a book on a particular day. If you participate in such campaigns, use your video bonuses to add value.
Generate leads. Offer access to one or more of your videos in exchange for a customer's contact information. Test a video against an offer of written material or an audio recording to see if your target audience prefers one format over another. Another option is to use your video as a way to get even more contact information from prospects. For example, you might offer a written report in exchange for a name and email address. You could offer the video if they send their full address. (Tip: to eliminate resistance to giving you even more contact information, burn the video onto a DVD- that way, you have a legitimate reason to contact them via postal mail.)
Generate speaking leads. You know that companies want to see a demo before hiring you to speak. In fact, you may have encountered some companies wanting you to deliver a "dry run" of your seminar before they even consider hiring you. Offer to send prospective clients the video of your seminar instead.
Improve your delivery. Watch your presentation with a critical eye and find the areas where you can improve.
Although your primary goal in taping your seminars is to generate money, the footage you generate is pure marketing gold. The ways in which you use your seminar recordings to make money, generate leads, build relationships and improve your performance are limited only by your imagination.
Article done by Jenny Hamby Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jenny_Hamby
