woodshop advisor - cawspi.orgcawspi.org/newsletters/feb17.pdf · june 10th - jeff miller weekend...
TRANSCRIPT
1
The President’s Corner
Our January meeting was used to
plan for the upcoming year. I think
things went well and we came
away with several topics that the
attending members were interested
in. I am working with the board to
try to find individuals who would
be able to present those topics at
upcoming club meetings. We are also working on
organizing some club trips for the year. I am looking
forward to the presentation in June by Jeff Miller; we
are still working on possible venues for that presenta-
tion. Don't forget to plan to present something in the
Springfield Art Association’s “Works in Wood” ex-
hibit; this will be great marketing for the club.
Volume 30 Issue 2 February 2017
WOODSHOP ADVISOR
CAPITAL AREA WOODWORKERS
See Meeting, p2
January Meeting Review:
Editor’s note: Being that I was absent from the
January meeting, I have to thank David Kalaskie and
Michael Mitchell, both of whom provided me with a
written report and photographs of the meeting’s
events.
There were 20 in attendance with one guest Sandy
Erickson, member David Erickson’s wife.
The meeting started with President-elect Michael
Mitchell announcing the slate of club officers for
2017: Michael Mitchell (President), Clay Crocker
(Past-President), Norm Koerner (Treasurer), Clay
Crocker (Editor), and Michael Mitchell (Webmaster).
The need for a President-Elect was discussed but
there were no volunteers or suggestions for the
position. The members present voted to approve the
officer slate as presented.
CAW Officers 2017
President Michael Mitchell 416-1819
President-Elect Open
Past President Clay Crocker 546-6033
Treasurer Norm Koerner 787-8795
Editor Clay Crocker 546-6033
Web Master: Michael Mitchell 416-1819
Website: www.cawspi.org
REMINDER: CAW club membership dues were payable in January.
The annual dues amount is $30. Please submit pay-
ment to Norm at the next club meeting or via mail.
Upcoming Meeting:
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Social Time 5:15 to 6:30
Meeting starts promptly at 6:30
MCL Cafeteria, 2151 Wabash Ave
February Program:
Uneeda Enterprises Sanding Products
Presenter: Lee James, Technical Sales
January 2nd—Monday
February 7th—Tuesday
March 1st—Wednesday
April 3rd—Monday
May 2nd—Tuesday
June 7th—Wednesday
July—Annual Club Picnic
August 1st—Tuesday
September 6th—Wednesday
October 2nd—Monday
November 7th—Tuesday
Dec—Club Xmas Party
Schedule of 2017 Meetings
Mark your calendars now!
2
Treasurer’s Report:
The club’s 2016 yearend bank balance was $2,181.00.
Several members paid their $30 annual dues that
evening. Norm announced that anyone not paying
dues tonight could mail their dues to him.
Announcements:
February's program presentation will be given by
Lee James from Uneeda Enterprises Sanding
Products.
In September Clay plans to do a program
presentation and then follow it up with an Open
Shop.
Michael is participating in several Marc Adams
classes and asked if anyone would like to attend
and carpool to the classes with him.
Michael encouraged members to consider hosting
an open shop event during the upcoming year.
He also requested Shop Tips and/or Jig-of-the-
Month ideas for the newsletter.
February 10 – 12, 2017, is the next St Louis
Woodworking Show, again at the Gateway Center
in Collinsville. Anyone interested should contact
him about carpooling.
Michael announced the upcoming Works In
Wood exhibit at the SAA Collective's gallery at
the Hoogland Center. The exhibit will be October
20 through November 17, 2017. Member’s are
encouraged to participate.
June 10th - Jeff Miller weekend class.
Evening Program:
The evening’s program was a discussion of the
upcoming year’s topics. There were three handouts
for the evenings discussion:
Handout on possible club trips.
Handout on Program topics.
3) Handout on volunteering for a presentation (Full -
One hour; Half - 30 minute; and Quarter - 15
minutes).
Those in attendance spent some time reviewing the
Meeting, Cont. from p1 handout of program topics. After a brief time
reviewing the topics a discussion of program topics
began.
Bob Fox offered a program idea, that he is willing to
present: Photographing projects. Another topic
brought up was Sketchup. Someone commented that
“we pretty much beat that to death several years ago
and that the program Sketchup has since changed.”
Also, though the learning curve is far nicer than say
AutoCAD, it's still a lot of work for most projects so
interest seemed to wane somewhat because of that.
Roland Folse asked if anyone would be interested in a
Japanese joinery presentation. This idea was
expanded to include "complex" joinery. Also
mentioned was Pro-Strip, a local furniture stripping
company which is a division of Stephens B.M.W. Inc.
Their building, with a large dip tank, is located near
the mining rescue building on Princeton St. just off
South 6th St.
The following is an overview of topics of interest that
were discussed:
Finishing - both Spay and French Polish
Inlays
Wood Sculptures
Sketch Up
Japanese/Complex joints
Photographing Work
David Kalaskie and Michael Mitchell both made an
offer to any member who would like to do a program
but is unable to create their own PowerPoint
presentation. Interested members could send their
photos to either David or Michael to have them
converted into a PowerPoint presentation.
Michael said he would reach "outside" the club for
program presenters. These could be programs to be
presented either at regular club meetings or at another
time at the location of the presenter. Along these
lines, it was discussed that rather than taking a club
trip to Forrest Products Lab, in Madison, Wisconsin
that the club pay to have someone from the lab come
to Springfield for a presentation. Another idea was to
seek out local "experts" from colleges and
See Meeting, p3
3
Special Notes:
Show-and-Tell: Members are encouraged to bring in
items or projects to share at our meetings during the
Show-and-Tell session. Show us what you’ve been
working on lately!
Share What You’ve Learned: If you’ve read an inter-
esting article or some other woodworking related
source, bring the topic to one of our meetings to
share. Your participation is needed.
Bring a Friend or Absent Member: And don’t forget
to call members you haven’t seen at our meetings
lately to ask if they need a ride to our next meeting.
You are also encouraged to bring a friend who might
be interested in the presentation topic.
WANTED
The CAW is looking for members to contribute con-
tent to the Woodshop Advisor. Do you have a “Tip”
that you think other members would be interested in?
It could be “TIP-OF-THE-MONTH” in our next is-
sue! Do you have an interesting or unique jig that you
use? It could be “JIG-OF-THE-MONTH” in our next
issue. Send Clay Crocker an e-mail if you have an
idea for the newsletter, it just might get published.
universities. The topic of outside presenters came up
again later and the amount of $200 to $500 for gas,
meals, overnight accommodations and the presenter's
fee was approved verbally by club members present.
Michael’s Club Trip handout discussion included
Forest Products and Johnson Creek, both suggestions
of Dan Schmoker’s. Michael was curious if people
were interested in a Saturday ride to a presentation
and then return that evening, or would any members
be interested in an overnight trip. Not much interest
was shown for the overnight idea. Further discussion
resulted with interest in two locations: a trip to Kunz
Carpentry, Trenton, IL; and Amish Furniture at
Roodhouse, IL.
Michael Mitchell brought three thumb drives with the
video recording of the router class presentation from
October saved on them. The thumb drives are
available for members to view or copy. David
Erickson, Richard Metcalf, and Andrew Ogden were
the first members to take the thumb drives.
Show-and-Tell:
The members brought a lot of items to share for Show
-and-Tell. Of particular interest was a Paraguayan
Harp Dave Erickson and his wife Sandy brought in
that they had made from edge glued oak and a "floor"
of Luan. The strings come up though the bottom floor
which was slightly bowed from the tension of the
strings. This “floor” appears to be the "sound board"
of the harp. It's unique in that the strings come up
through the middle of the brace at the top, instead of
attached on the side like most harps. This is
apparently a distinguishing feature of a Paraguayan
Harp. Spruce is apparently a better wood for the floor
but is more expensive. This project was a learning
experience for Dave and Sandy; additionally, she is
currently learning to play the instrument. Norm
brought in a 6" stack dado set to sell. He said he had
bought a better one and just didn’t need this one any
longer. More Show-and-Tell can be found starting on
page 5.
50-50 Raffle:
Ralph Winch won the 50/50 raffle with a prize
amount of $24.
Meeting, Cont. from p2 Shop Tip
Take a retractable key chain, mount a magnet on the
back, drill a hole in your chuck key and ta-dah! Total
investment about $6.
Submitted by Chuck Frank
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Check Out Your CAW Website!
If you have not been to www.cawspi.org in a while,
you should check it out! The website has a new, up-
dated look and is easier to administer. Some new fea-
tures include a members only bulletin board and
password protected member information. If you need
the password, contact Mike Mitchell at:
A SYNOPSIS OF WOODWORKING
PUBLICATIONS
By Norm Koerner
For years I subscribed to a lot of woodworking
magazines and for all those years I kept all of the
back issues. In order of content and quality, my
personal preferences were Fine Woodworking,
American Woodworker, and Woods (by Better
Homes and Gardens after it started in 1984). But the
real bargain was Woodshop News which I subscribed
to for under $8.50 per year. It was more like a
somewhat small newspaper of 76 to 80 pages,
published monthly.
When we moved from Vandalia, IL, to Springfield in
2003 I boxed them up and stored some in my newly
built shop. This week I was cleaning and reorganizing
the shop storeroom and decided it was time to toss
them after glancing through them for possible content
to include in the CAW Newsletter.
In January 1989 I noticed a short article about OSHA
(Occupational Safety and Health Administration).
This federal act began in 1970 but took awhile to be
organized and put into effect. Its purpose, in short, is
to protect workers from unhealthy effects from 428
chemicals and substances. By the beginning of 1989
they were zeroing in on the woodworking industry.
The early arguments between woodworking owners,
woodworkers, unions, and their lawyers versus the
federal agency concerned the quantity of actual wood
dust in the air. The quantities bartered ranged from 1
milligram (of dust) up to 15 mg per cubic meter of
air.
Some argued for a discrepancy between softwoods
and hardwoods until it was agreed that most places
had a mix of the two. At first there was also
discussions relative to wood dust being a potential
carcinogen, but then was thought of more as a nasal,
pulmonary, allergy, and dermatitis situation.
Final agreement was settled on 5 mg per cubic meter;
state governments are allowed to be more restrictive.
For example, a limit of 2.5 mg was set by Washington
for allergenic species such as western red cedar,
mahogany, and teak.
OSHA officials soon found it to be an insurmountable
number of visits and inspections to monitor all of the
hundreds of thousands of woodworking companies in
the USA. They drew the line at those with ten or more
employees. But this included all employees including
management, office, sales, delivery, etc. Often only
four to seven of ten employees were exposed to dust,
and the quantity among those depended greatly on the
specific milling operations each performed.
Usually those smaller companies were only inspected
IF a complaint was filed by an employee who thought
he or she was working in a hazardous situation.
Among the larger companies, the workload for OSHA
was still overwhelming. Consequently most
companies are only inspected once every four to ten
years, and then given a grace period to “fix” any
deficiencies. This reminds me of the inspections for
restaurants and other food businesses.
On a humorous note, many years later, I did hear of a
woodworker who was so proud of his home workshop
that he actually contacted OSHA and invited them to
his premises for an inspection. He thought it was safe,
well-equipped, and clean. They slapped him with a
half-dozen violations and a $2000 fine!
Motion Requiring Membership Vote
At the CAW Officer’s meeting held on January 16,
2017, the officers present voted unanimously to ap-
prove the following motion for member approval:
“Family Membership - Any immediate family mem-
ber of a current, dues-paying CAW member, may join
the CAW at half the current membership amount.
‘Immediate family member’ shall include spouse, do-
mestic partner, children, grandchildren or parents.”
This will be on the February meeting agenda for dis-
cussion and a vote.
5
▲ Ben Reynolds brought in an Arbor Tech "Turbo Plane" that is intended to be mounted to an angle grinder.
He also brought in a piece of wood he used it on to "texture" the surface. Ben said one must be very careful as
the turbo plane is very aggressive and will eat away the wood quickly if not careful. This has carbide cutters.
Show-and-Tell
▲ Brian Ginn shared a salt and pepper shaker set that he made. He used 35mm film canister lids for
the bottom stoppers; a very clever use of an unconventional material!
6
▲ David Erickson and his wife Sandy explaining the
details of a Paraguayan Harp they built together.
▲ Norm Koerner showing two items - Transom/
Divider and a Scribe both made by Union Tools Co.
He also brought a piece of mesquite wood (not pic-
tured) that he acquired during a recent trip to Houston.
◄ ▲ Roland Folse shared photographs of two dif-
ferent tables that he recently built.
Show-and-Tell
7
Show-and-Tell
▼▲ Ralph Winch - Shared a cross he had made for
the Christmas party gift raffle. He added it to the
meeting 50-50 raffle.
▼▲ Michael Mitchell - Shared a table with quarter
sawn lumber from Ralph Winch’s sawmill.