Dennis W. Montville

Woodturner and builder of woodturning solutions

Sterling Heights, MI

email:  Dennis@DWMontville.com 

Artist's Statement:

"Wood is one of the most expressive fundamental elements on earth. Once part of a living organism, it still expresses the echoes of that life captured within its fibers. This is the "voice" of the material. Engineering is the "voice" that humankind uses to express itself with works of visual and functional presence. My work combines both voices to create a harmony of natural and man-made beauty"

Last update: January 27, 2008     Rules are made by people trying to hold others down to their level.

What's new

Sad news to report. On Monday, January 14 I had to put Elvira to sleep. Elvira was my cat and I had really become accustomed to her being around all the time. What happened is that a fast growing tumor had invaded her pelvic area and was blocking her colon and other functional parts down there. The doctor couldn't offer any help because of its location and size, so I had to say "goodbye" and let her go. Even now it's hard to write about it, but life must go on. Except now it has to go on a little bit lonelier than it was.
I got Elvira from a friend who found her in his mother's attic after some renovations. How she got there is a bit of a mystery, but since he had two other cats at the time he asked if I wanted her. I really didn't, but I thought I'd give her a try. That was about 8 years ago, and I guess you could say the "try" worked. She became part of my life and now all I have are good memories and these photos. Enjoy.....

	Here are two videos that I just finished. The one on the left shows the use of the tool bit sharpening block. The one on the right shows the turning tool being used. They are short and should be fun. Please let me know what you think of them. I'll be posting more soon. My email address is at the top of this page.
I just made another video of my tool use. I was making a handle for a micro tool and decided to record a short video of some spindle turning. I hope you enjoy.

Below are a few photos of Ring, which sold at the Our Town show this past Fall. If you click on a photo you'll see a full sized image come up.

This is the new battery operated motorized display stand that I just made. This all started at one of the shows I was in over last summer. I had purchased two small rotating display stands from an eBay seller and had them at the show with two of my bowls on them. I wasn't happy with them because of their performance. They didn't have much power so unless the item on them was very light and they were very level they would just stop turning. I immediately started designing my own display stand in my head. Then another vendor came over to check out my turnings and saw the stands. He really liked the idea of a rotating display for his incense burning bottles. He brought one over and put it on the stand and just that weight was enough to nearly stop it in its tracks. Later, when I went over to consider buying one of his bottles he had already sold out and only had one left that he was taking back with him. However, he offered that one as a gift to me. I promised him that he'd get the first of my new display stands and the photos below show what he's getting. It is about 7 inches around and 4 inches high.
When I was nearly finished I asked him if he wanted it quickly or if he wanted to wait until I decorated the base with my own design. He said he'd wait so this is what I did to it. The switch is inset into one of the sides and can be seen in the first photo. The photo at right shows the workings. It will run on a single D cell for several days. This will rotate in either direction by simply sliding the switch in the direction you want. Click on any photo to see a full-sized image in a new window.