Ornamental Turners International Symposia History (Part 1 - Information Age)
OTI Symposia History - Part 1
Ornamental Turners International symposia began as gatherings under various names including Society of Ornamental Turners Seminars, North American Center for Ornamental Turning Seminars, and Ornamental Turners of America Seminars. Currently called Ornamental Turning International, the OTI holds a symposium every two years, generally alternating between east coast, midwest and west coast locations. Past symposiums and related details for each are listed below.
Event organized by Kener Bond.
Speakers included:
- Warren Ogden
- Frank Knox
- Robert LeMoine
A video of the lectures was produced.
Event organized by Ted Crom.
Speakers included:
- Frank Cummings - Turning
- Roger Davies - Origins, collecting, unusual equipment; OT design, practice and tips
- Kener Bond - Epoxy treating for checked turning material; turning machinable wax for casting
- Dale Chase - California turning
- Walter Balliet - Building and OT lathe
- Daniel Brush - Ornamental turning
- George Shaw
- Daniel Brush
- Ray Lawler
- Ted Crom
Event organized by George Shaw.
Speakers included:
- Walter Balliet - Building and OT lathe
- Kener Bond - Treating checked turning material
- Daniel Brush - Rose engine work
- Dale Chase - California turning
- Roger Davies - Origins, collecting, unusual equipment; OT design, practice and tips
- George Shaw - Tour of Shaw Industries Inc. new tool and die plant
- Robert Whiteside
- John McNaulty
- Kener Bond
- Daniel Brush
- Walter Balliet
- Roger Davies
- Dale Chasen
- Bonnie Klein
Event organized by Kener Bond.
Speakers included:
- Daniel Brush - My machines and work
- Bob Baker - Restoring a Holtzapffel rose engine
- Dale Chase - Sharpening cutters; rose engine work
- Fred Armbruster - Crafting rosettes; building a rose engine lathe
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Demonstration of HaWk Computer OT Lathe by:
- Dave Hardy
- Ken Wertzel
- Mark Krick
Demonstrations on Holtzapffel lathes.
A booklet with photographs and transcriptions of the lectures was produced. A DVD with video excerpts from the event was produced in 2012 (compiled by Michael and Susan Brooks for the OTI).
Speakers included:
- Jon Sauer - OT equipment and work; holtzapffel #2237
- Alan Bugbee - Modifying and working a lawler lathe
- Alfred Schwartz - Rose engine work
- Mark Krick - The HAWK CNC lathe
- Kermit Kincade - Using a spherical chuck; jewelry work
- Paul Fletcher
- Dale Chase
- Kushen
- Foster Giesman - Converting a lathe for elliptical turning
- Ted Crom - OT equipment; history of OT
- Frank Coggins - Lathes and work
- Levy
- Cal Nash
- Al Collins
- Wicotch
- Mike Shuler
- Kensey
Event sponsored by Ted Crom, Ray Lawler and William Robertson.
Speakers included:
Speakers included:
- William Robertson - OT before 1800
- Bruce Bradley - Books on 19th C. OT
- Andy Apathy - God as turner and the religious significance of OT
- Ted Crom - Converting a jeweler's lathe into a rose engine; collecting antique OT equipment
- Jon Sauer - My workshop, machines and work
- Bob Baker - Holtzapffel history
- John Edwards - Antique rose engine lathes and accessories
- Fred Armbruster - Why & how I built a rose engine lathe
- Paul Cler - Design and build of latest Cler lathe; examples of turned objects
- Charlie Wilcoxon - Attachments for a lathe to do OT
- Walter Balliet
- Jack Ferguson - Works of Robert Whiteside
- Ray Lawler - Construction of the Lawler lathe; multi-start threads
- Gorst Duplessis - Reciprocating & spiral turning
- Richard Miller - Plexiglas chucks; ivory turnings
- George (Sonny) Sharrar - Segmented turnings
- Foster Giesman - Workshop; elliptical turning; self-built ornamental lathe
Speakers included:
- Dale Chase - overview of his boxes; straightline engine turning; lapidary work and turned metal boxes
- Richard Ketchen - guilloche for clock making
- Michael Brooks - restoring a medallion lathe
- Paul Fletcher - zig-zag inlay
- Lynn Scharrah - Coburg ivories
- Frank Coggins - computer-based turning and CNC
- Fred Armbruster - Birch lathes
- Alan Bugbee
- Tony Cushon - OT work using an XYZ milling machine
- Paul Cler - updated info on Cler lathes
- Walter Rizkowsky - my workshop and self-made equipment
- Michael Schuler - OT designs with segmentation
- Jon Sauer - rotary engine turning with a Plant rose engine lathe
- Lee LaFevre - CNC milling
- Walter Balliet - my automatic "double" indexer
- Fred Armbruster - cutting frame design
- Steve Johnson - internet and OT
- John Edwards (discussion with Gorst DuPlessis, Paul Cler, Fred Armbruster, Dale Chase, and Jon Sauer)
Speakers included: Ted Crom.
Speakers included:
- Bonnie Klein - using a Cler lathe
- Gene Doren - using tagua nuts
Speakers included:
- William Robertson - Plumier's work in the 1700s
- James Harris - OT using an adapted machinist lathe
- Alfred Schwarz - modified pattern maker's lathe for larger OT pieces
- Fred Armbruster - medallion chuck
- John Edwards - rarely used OT techniques with seldom seen equipment
- Len Sherock - wave work with reciprocator
- Frank Coggins - computer-aided OT
- Richard Ketchum - restoring a straightline and rose engine and how to design pattern bars
- Douglas Davenport - using a modified Taig metal lathe for OT work
- Jim Richardson
Speakers included:
- Dale Chase - wet rose engine turning and cutting stone
- Gorst Duplessis - using the golden mean for OT
- Jon Sauer
- Len Sherock
- Frank Coggins
- Fred Armbruster - Birch lathe restoration
- Bonnie Klein - threaded boxes; spinning top boxes
- John Edwards - Evans lathe company
- Tony Kushon - computer software to generate rosettes and pattern bars
Presentations:
- Bill Robertson - Joseph Bonnier de la Mosson's workshop
- Bonnie Klein - Turning acrylic
- Tom Wallsmith - Rectilinear chuck for Lawler lathes
- D. Mayeron - Lost OT items of interest
- James Harris - Aesthetics and the nature of design
- Steve White - precision subassembly in the machine shop
- John Edwards - Overview of OT
- Robert Sakauye - Straightline work
- Coral Shaffer - Enamelwork
- David Wood-Heath - Brocade engine turning
- Dale Chase - Rotary engine turning on boxes and jewelry
- Daniel McDonald - Bergeron and beyond
- Jon Sauer - 20 years of OT
- Fred Armbruster - The complete spiral apparatus
- Al Collins - My rose engine
- Gorst DuPlessis - A portable R/E Tour of Bonnie Klein workshop.
It is sad to think that a group supposedly interested in the history of these fine machine tools would knowingly take part in artificially driving up the price to the point where even senior fellows in the field of O.T. can no longer afford to acquire the tools of their beloved calling, putting them in a terrible bind. Unfortunately narrow profit seekers, who know next to nothing of the history, traditions, and quality associated with Holtzapffel lathes, continue to menace the future of O.T.
Warren Green Ogden, Jr., from "Notes on the History and Provenance of Holtzapffel Lathes" (1987)
Turners of the Information Age
Toolmakers of the Information Age
- Walter Balliet
- Ray Lawler
- Paul Cler
- Fred Armbruster
- Al Collins
- Lindow-White