September 2016

Sep 1, 2016

Total # of Attendees: 21

Notes:

1. Jim (President) opened the meeting at 7:31 PM

2. Introduced some new folks

   1. Rory

   2. Sean

   3. Mike

   4. Carlos

3. Welcome to all

4. Dave was talking about his lawn chair

   1. No glue in it, held together with screws or joinery (mortise & tenon)

   2. Sapele wood

   3. Planning to cut all the curves, then decided to laminate the pieces

   4. 1/8” cut off table saw and squished into forms, glued up

   5. For finish, thinking of tung oil or boiled linseed oil. Not planning to have it outside

   6. Folds up to 9 inches thick

   7. Two pieces are critical, holding up back support & seat

   8. Used barrel hinges on the key pivot points

   9. Thought about cutting in star on top, but went through the reasons why he decided against it

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Dave's lawn chair being studied by various members of the guild

1. Kevin D presented on Woodwright’s shop 5-day benchwork class in Pittsboro

   1. Five day class held in Pittsboro NC (near Raleigh)

   2. Focused exclusively on Hand Tool skills

   3. Did hand tool joinery (dovetails, through mortises, etc.)

   4. Use of specialized molding planes

   5. Hand tool store upstairs

   6. Kevin will email out presentation to group

2. Jim brought up the idea of a December meeting for auction for tools. We will have an auction and give away then

3. Jim put out feelers to Philly Ship Preservation Society, for a tour of the ship; he is waiting for their response (Saturday tour)

4. Meeting at Independence Seaport Museum in Philly. Not sure if they are going to charge us (Jim will be in touch with them, and will report back). Potential Saturday meeting for November

5. Mike has someone for the October meeting

6. If you haven’t gotten on Salman’s email list, you won’t get email. Especially important for new folks

7. Treasurer $4449.49 in treasury; 28 current paying members

8. John discussed Lee Valley Veritas Mark II sharpening system

9. Hearne Hardwoods Open House Sep 30 – Oct 1

10. Jim talked about the club tools & materials (Worksharp, DVDs, books, etc.)

11. Meeting concluded at 8:50pm

July 2016

Total # of Attendees: 17

Notes:

1. Jim (president) opened the meeting at 7:33pm
2. Bill Nyberg’s service is 3pm on Saturday at his home in Marlton
3. Mike brought in thousands of small wood parts (dowels, blanks, wheels, etc.) that he had warned folks about.
   1. He got a call from an individual who had a business which was a manufacturer rep’s for wood product lines.
   2. They were moving the business and Mike was willing pick up their excess items for free.
   3. Mike asked for a donation to the Humane Society.
   4. The group took the opportunity to look through and see what they could use.
4. Mark & Carl visited from the TSCA, Delaware River chapter of Traditional Small Craft. 
   1. They found our organization from an advertisement on Craigslist (Mike placed it there).
   2. Website for their group: http://www.tsca.net/delriver/
   3. Karl Kramer, karlksr@comcast.net, 856-935-4564
   4. 2nd Friday at Bivalve for oysters & program
   5. A week from Saturday (July 16th) for Maritime festival (Bivalve, NJ)
   6. Delaware consignment shop, tool exchange: http://delwaretoolexchange.com
5. Jim proposed to provide donation to Bill Nyberg’s family charity - $100. Club agreed
6. Mike spoke about the North Bennet Street School in Boston
   1. Trade school for woodworking, been around for over 100 years
   2. Fundamentals of fine woodworking (2 weeks); mostly sharpen & tune your tools
   3. Seven in class, instructor was graduate of 2 year program
   4. Provided list of tools you need, or you can buy them there
   5. The sort of course Mike believes he should have taken 20 years ago
   6. Did a variety of projects -- by hand -- to work through your hand tool skills
7. Dave discussed the 4-door chest he brought in
   1. Master class at Philadelphia Furniture Workshop
   2. Turned out well, fun class
   3. Impressive work
   4. General discussion on Philly workshop after Mario’s presentation in June

Chest made by Dave Potts

1. Jim discussed his work with Urban Promise
   1. Worked on rowboats with young students
   2. Showed video of Bill Nyberg on the boats during the launching
2. Jim discussed his Freud videos and his 3D cutting boards
   1. Freud video: tumbling block cutting board
   2. Used Walnut, Maple & Cherry
   3. Made a special jig for clamping during glue up
   4. Need slow-setup glue, because it takes a long time
   5. Used router & jig to flatten, because he did not have a wide-belt sander
   6. Looks better with edge all the way around (instead of just on its own)

Cutting boards (coffee cup for scale)

• Problem discussed; John had a question on finishing oak

1. Jefferson desk/table
2. Open grained, so you won’t get smooth unless you close the pores
3. One suggestion was sanding sealer, then tung oil
4. Polyurethane also has been effective, or oil/varnish mixture

• Next Meeting Thu, August 4th
• Meeting closed at 8:47pm

May 2016

Total # of Attendees: 11

Notes:

1. Jim (President) opened the meeting at 7:30am
2. John showed off his latest work, his wooden clock/gears
   1. Clayton Boyer designed
   2. Used Baltic Birch for material
   3. Got copy of plan, put wood on it, and used it to guide the cuts
   4. Used a bandsaw to cut out the teeth, with very little filing
   5. Used forstner bits to cut out (it had shamrocks on it)
   6. Used fret saw to finish up
   7. Numbered the teeth for both, then started running it – found out where it bound up
   8. Very consistent work – excellent
3. Jim handed out flyers for Camden County Tool Library and bike-share in Blackwood NJ
   1. Almost entirely hand tools
   2. Small number of power tools
   3. Tools from donations – so lots of hammers
   4. Also have over 3,000 bikes
   5. Can join for free if you live in Camden County – but you can also join
   6. Inventory on web site
4. Jim got a package from Freud, with saw blades and bits – based on his four (4) video presentations
   1. Router bits
   2. Saw blade
   3. Forstner bits
   4. General group discussion about the Freud opportunity (some folks are just using their phones to video), insurance requirements, etc.
5. Discussion on Potential Trips
   1. Fazios
   2. Winthethur
   3. Batsto’s water powered lumber mill
6. Summer picnic
   1. Do we do one? Anyone interested?
   2. Do that instead of meeting in Summer – turnout is pretty light for summer meetings
7. Ideas for future meetings
   1. Mike’s 2 weeks at North Bennet school
   2. Mike said he has 4-6 people interested in presenting
   3. Fall “tool show” or tool auction
8. Problem discussed; Front door had rounded top, molding on door is rotting. How can he cut the moldings
   1. Suggestion was to get moldings that can bend.
   2. Other suggestion was to get 3 pieces of wood, cut partial curves, joint them together
9. Next Meeting Thu, June 2 (tentative Mario Rodriquez)
10. Meeting closed at 8:34pm

February 2016

Hope you all enjoyed the meeting last week. We had a presentation by Freud about 5 years ago, at that time they had a truck loaded with Freud products and a setup for demonstrations. They have since decommissioned the truck, but kept the presentation level as it was when the truck was on the road. For those of you that did not make it to the meeting, Kevin Kauffunger and his entourage of Freud Reps, straight out of a training class at the Woodcraft store in Downingtown offered us a presentation on Freud and Diablo products.

Freud manufactures fine circular saw blades  and router bits (along with other products, check out their web sites, www.freudtools.com and www.diablotools.com) under two names, Freud and Diablo. The Diablo products are sold by stores like Home Depot, while the higher quality Freud products are sold by the more upscale Woodcraft, Rockler, Highland woodworking, etc. Though I have never been unhappy with Diablo products, Kevin explained and demonstrated some of the finer points of the Freud products. One point that he made about Freud Glueline Blades was how quiet they are due to anti vibration groves being filled with a vibration damping material. He demonstrated this property by striking the blade with a hammer, where other blades will produce a loud ringing sound, the Freud blade produced only a thump, most impressive!

On the router bit front, the Freud Quad cutter bits with 4 blades tilted to make a shear cut into the material produced an incredibly smooth cut in an end grain profile. I have seen shear cutting demonstrated by Alan Lacer, a turner who only uses skew chisels when he turns, he is able to achieve smooth finishes equivalent to 400 grit sandpaper right off of the chisel.

Having spent a lot of time sanding routed edges, i think there might be some Freud bits in my future.

Additionally at the meeting, Mike Richter officially stepped down as our president. Mike has been president for the past 8 years since he founded the club. We are all appreciative for his work and devotion to getting us top notch speakers over the years, it will be tough to fill his shoes, (though i probably have enough sawdust to do it.) Though he won't be at the helm, we will continue to be graced with his presence as a member.

We did present Mike with a brass lie nielsen smoothing plane as a small token of our appreciation. Once we are sure that he likes it, we are going to have it engraved.

Several of us rode down to Timonium MD last Friday to attend opening day at the Woodworkers show. I didn't see anything that I would consider new, but as always, spending day amidst tools, wood, and people of like mind was most enjoyable. I only took one picture, the slab below. Some of the rings were labeled with historical events, to the right of Joe Woodworker's head is the year 800. My birthday is there somewhere towards the bark. This is the first time I have felt young in a while.

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Ancient tree slab

Don't forget, Lie Nielsen at the Independence Seaport Museum  January 29 and 30. I plan on going on the 29th, and at the moment there is room in my car. For more info about the affair, http://www.phillyseaport.org/handtool.

If you haven't seen the boat workshop at the seaport museum, you are in for a treat, and it's FREE

Don't forget the Somerset Woodworking show the weekend of Feb 26th (F-S-S)

Next meeting, Feb 4th at the UU Church in Cherry Hill, no planned speaker as yet, but we're working on it. We can always drink coffee, eat cake and talk about woodworking. We will be discussing the possibility of a couple of paid presenters during the year, so bring some ideas of who you might like to see.

We will also vote on new officers for the club i'm ok with staying VP, haven't talked with Dave Potts about Treasurer, but i know that we need a President and Secretary.

And don't forget to bring your dues. ($50 for the year, to WGSJ)

I will send out an official meeting notice in a week or so.

This is the most I've written since High School!

Looking forward to seeing you guys on the 4th