OCTOBER SAWDUST NEWSLETTER
October’s Meeting
“Your Gift Ideas”
by John
Graham
October’s
meeting will be a lot of fun indeed!
Like our popular “Jig’s & Fixtures” meeting, members will be asked
to bring in samples of gifts that they make for the holidays, whether it be
toys, baskets, bottle stoppers, ornaments, boxes, games, cutting boards,
etc.
This is a good time to show off
your work and will give other members time before the holidays if they want to
try their hand at it as well. As an
additional incentive, 3 prizes will be awarded to the best gifts - $25, $15,
& $10 and winners will be judged by applause! All members, new and old, are encouraged to participate – the
more the merrier!
August’s Meeting
by Jeffrey Hollis
An incredible array of craftiness was presented at the August meeting, as about 70 members and guests came to see the many fixtures and jigs and general shop aids brought in by many of our clever members. Among the many offerings were a slow-motion paint can mixer, a doll-house shingle jig for the table saw, a table saw taper jig, a vacuum drum sander for the drill press, a drawer knob mounting guide, a variable scale router circle-cutting jig, a shop-made router table, and a finger joint (box joint) spacer jig for the table saw that ingeniously takes advantage of the precision offered by a 16 x ¼" threaded rod to align the cuts.
There was almost more material to show than we had time for. Our thanks go to all of you who demonstrated your wares.
Last Month’s Meeting
by John Graham
Our
September meeting was hosted by Steve Hooper.
Steve was called at the last minute by yours truly and agreed to give a
presentation on various aspects of scrollsawing. He agreed, even though he is in the middle of a move! With the aid of several members who brought
in samples of their work, Steve covered what was probably one of the most
confusing aspects of working with a scrollsaw – blade selection. He had made up a chart of proper blades for
use with different thicknesses of wood and also spent some time on the history
of scrollsaw machines.
Member
Doug Tucker brought in a jig that he uses to make wine bottle stands and
several ornament patterns. Doug’s
patterns were cut out of a thin substance (I think Formica), which he then uses
as his template. He offered to let
members borrow the templates, provided they return them, of course!
Brent Richardson took over our
Treasurer’s position like he had always done it. And although the attendance box was missing, everyone present
signed their name on a sheet which Jeffrey Hollis will transfer to tickets so
all attendees will have a chance at winning a prize for the Christmas party.
CWA On-Line
As
usual, there’s much more to the CWA to see than what’s presented at the monthly
meetings. Come check out what your
fellow members are creating at the CWA’s own website at:
www.charlottewoodworkers.org
You’ll also find helpful articles, club history, back issues of the Sawdust, and links to many of the best woodworking sites on the web. Check it out!
Classified Section
For Sale: Western cedar, 4"x4" lengths from about 8' to 14', 4"x8" not sure of the lengths,
some 2"x6" and some 4"x10". I also have some 4"x6" southern pine. Call Bob Reading at 704-821-7868.
For Sale: I have a work table for sale 42" x 84" x 1.5" the table is 32" high. $150, but you have to move it and it is heavy. Call Bob Reading at 704-821-7868.
For Sale: 5” diameter, ½” arbor, biscuit jointer blades. 4 DeWalt Jointer/Planer blades. Contact Ron Rogers at 704-861-0403.
For Sale: Old wormy chestnut lumber, width 2” to 12”, length 2’ to 18’, thickness 1” to 7”. Several 7”x7”x8’ for turning or mantel board. Pricing starts at $2.00 b.f. Will make best deal on 500 b.f. or more of “short craft quality or 2x4s.” Call Don Hovis at 704-597-1856.
Y2K Gift Contest Results
Well, it was a tough competition and the judges were left with a difficult decision… oh, let’s cut the BS – it was a blowout! It was so completely one-sided that we were left with no other choice than to award the $50 grand prize to our president, John Graham.
Fact is, John was the only one of the membership to lift a finger and make something for the contest! His entry was a wall sconce for a candle, just perfect for when the lights go out at 12:01 AM on the first of January. Congratulations to John for his prize winning idea!
“Fine Woodworking On-Line”
by Jeffrey Hollis
Any day now, the Fine
Woodworking website (www.finewoodworking.com)
will be listing the CWA in its directory of woodworking clubs across the
country. If you’ve never checked out
their website, you should! It’s only
one of several devoted to our craft, but it makes a fine introduction to
getting online help to a problem, contributing to a discussion group, or maybe
even catching up on missed issues of the magazine – oh yeah, they still publish
a magazine, too.
“Buying Wood with Bifocals”
Computers
and fluorescent lights. They’re commonplace today, and the main contributors to
my failing eyesight. I’ve been in
glasses now for 10 years and at my last exam, I was prescribed bifocal lenses. No big deal, I thought. And they did help me see farther and up
close. They were great until I went to
the local home center to purchase some red oak to make a shelf for the
bathroom. It was then that I discovered
a new hurdle – how to tell if the board was warped or not. As I held the piece, I was happy to clearly
see the detail of the grain. However, when I looked at the piece straight on,
it appeared to warp up.
As I
moved my head it appeared to warp down.
Moving my head sideways only complicated the problem. Taking my glasses off only revealed a
blurred image. My only solution – put
the piece edge down on the counter and see if it rocked back & forth!
So what do you do? I can only hope that I will adjust, or
always be lucky enough to find straight edged pieces. Only time will tell my future of buying wood with bifocals!
Looking Ahead: “Solid Wood Guitar Construction”
by John Graham
Ari Lehtela, owner of LA
Guitar, will host November’s meeting.
He will demonstrate the techniques of building guitars and also have
sign-up sheets to participate in classes.
More details forthcoming…
“Shop Update”
by Steve Hooper
At the meeting last month I reported that I felt that Dave Lewis and
Brent Richardson were winners in my “contest”.
I also
reported that I had not yet been blessed with power from Duke Power. When I got to Salisbury Wednesday morning I
found the trenchers hard at work. Duke
had been there Tuesday, set the pole, and connected my house and the next-door
neighbor to it.
While
the trenchers were busy laying the underground portion, Duke showed up with two
trucks and a cherry picker. They
blocked off the street and changed the transformer.
When
all this was done, the neighbors’ VCRs reprogrammed, and the meter installed, I
became a new Duke customer.
I began
to move the shop.
As of this writing I have moved
most of the small stuff and am preparing the heavy stuff for the movers. They come soon. Then I get to start unpacking all the stuff I've been dragging to
Salisbury.
Happy Woodworking
- Steve Hooper
“A-Line-It” Kit Available
to Club Members
by Bob Reading
The
club has a kit that can be used to set-up, tune-up and check the accuracy of
your shop’s tools. It can be used to
check: table saw blade and fence alignment, arbor and blade runout, miter slot
to blade squareness, drill press table to arbor squareness, arbor/chuck runout,
jointer/planer head to table parallelism, jointer/planer knife alignment,
outfeed table alignment, router to table and insert alignment, router/shaper
spindle runout, or any other set up or alignment measurement. The kit comes complete with a
"smart" miter slot bar, which automatically adjusts to fit your slot
perfectly, a .001” dial indicator with 23 different tips for a variety of
measuring applications, an 11” dial mounting bar that adjusts for virtually any
application, plus accessories required
for machine set-up. Includes an
instruction manual and the A-Line-It video for expert guidance. We also have a 10” flat disc that can be
used in the table saw alignment.
The kit is available to members
for a rental fee of $5.00 for 2 weeks.
Anyone that is interested in renting the kit call Bob Reading at
704-821-7868.
CWA Supporters
CHARLOTTE
HARDWOOD CENTER
Mr. Ron Davis
4250 Golf Acres Drive
Charlotte, NC
28208
704-394-9479 (contributing
/ sponsor)
CUSTOM
RESTORATIONS
Mr. Larry Hinshaw
3230L Piper Lane
Charlotte, NC
28208
704-357-9929 (contributing
/ sponsor)
H&S LUMBER
Mr. Robert Boland, Manager
4115 Monroe Road
Charlotte, NC
28205
704-333-3130 (sponsor)
THE WOODWORKING
SHOP of Charlotte
Mr. Marc Saunders, Manager
116M Freeland Lane
Charlotte, NC
28217
704-521-8886
(contributing / sponsor – except power tools &
lumber)
WOODCRAFT
Mr. David Boyuka
1725 Windsor Square Drive
Matthews, NC
28105
704-847-8300 (contributing)
WT TOOL
Mr. Martin C. Dowdy, General Manager
4200 Barringer Drive
Charlotte, NC
28217
704-527-4071 (sponsor)
Show your CWA membership card at any of the listed
places to receive benefits (except for Woodcraft, which is unable to provide
sponsorship in the form of discounts).
The Charlotte
Woodworkers Association
Jeffrey Hollis, Editor
2818 Tallu Road
Charlotte, North Carolina 28269-4632
HeffMoe@bellsouth.net