John Lopez AKA "ticklingmedusa"

I came to know of John Lopez through various woodwork forums his handle is "ticklingmedusa"
As a new turner I was/am always in awe of his work truly inspiring. It wasn't until one of the forums started a "Disabled Woodworker" section and John chimed into the posts that I discovered he is a wheelchair turner.


Johns a thinking man and loves to challenge himself, come up with new tools and turnings even built his own lathe set up to suit his needs. His tips and hints on tools on forums is with out a doubt great for any woodworkers use.

I have had contact away from forums with John as I needed some help with some USA information close to where he lives.

He has sent me this today. Thanks John for being a part of this small effort.

I have not done much in the area of turning wood lately. My shop space became gridlocked with many large slabs & blanks and lots of tools. I was given a pair of vintage lathes & a second bandsaw.  All of it treasure of course to a spinner of wood but after about 10 years of accumulation things needed a going over.

I gave away some of  the surplus tools and regained enough space to get myself to the far side of the room. I've been improving the shop with wood storage, a dust extractor hood & a new door with more sound dampening so I can work into the wee hours. I read the first few entries in your blog with interest and think it's pretty cool. We are a small club.

Since I'm not turning much at the moment I'd prefer to share a few shop ideas & maybe put up the link later. I have included early photos of a simple shop made rotary tool collet locking jig. Changing a bit on a rotary tool (Dremel) was taking me too long so I made a holder out of junk & later mounted it with a toggle on the bed of the lathe. I use it every time I remove a tenon and finish a bowl bottom.
A flap sanding wheel removes material more evenly than the drum in the photos.
It creates a nice fixed base allowing someone with impaired hand function
to change bit or operate the rotary tool safely in a fixed position.
It's summer here and I've been installing pvc pipe to irrigate my vegetable garden.
A locked spindle and a 4 jaw chuck ended up being a decent place to do pipe fitting.

 John

Johns Dremel Jig








Here's a photo of an Aussie (a far North Queenslander) known as Old Croc (Richard in the green shirt ) who visited John last year.

I have had a visit from Richard myself he brought me down some real nice Quilted maple.



John doing some turning the series of eight photos are taken by Fernando Ramirez.
Fernando's main site because I love good photography another thing I am into I still have my Canon EOS 100 SLR 35mm yes thats right film.