Ohmigosh, it’s August already! The next regular monthly meeting of Fine Woodworkers of Austin will be Thursday evening, August 5, from 7 to 9 pm in the Woodcraft classroom. Most Woodcraft club discounts have been discontinued, but Sandy, our local manager, continued the 10% discount for our club members, on most merchandise, on the day of our meetings. Hopefully his offer will continue indefinitely. Come early and spend hearty.

PROGRAM:

BANDSAWS…the Machine or Tool of the Month. A couple meetings ago we got the suggestion that we have a time to discuss a machine or tool - whether this is one to economize on, or whether it pays to go first class, why we got the brand we did, how big (for those that come in different sizes) and so forth. For example, I bought my first bandsaw for under $100, and my fourth bandsaw has a retail price is $4,695 (but I bought it refurbished) - what is the difference?. John Parkinson will lead the discussion on Bandsaws this month, and we will pick a different machine or tool to discuss next month.

HAND SAWS… Getting the most out of your handsaws. Mark Wells will discuss how to select a handsaw for different functions and how to use them (I know my problems may be above the handle rather than in the saw itself). He show what’s involved with sharpening a handsaw (maybe not a comprehensive class, but enough to know if you want to learn how).

HAND SAWS… Rob Harris keeps getting the short end of meetings, and hasn’t been able to finish his discussion on refurbishing saws. I hope he will be able to get to the point that we can tell if a saw should be fixed or trashed - if that $2 saw at a garage sale is “worth it”

SHOW AND TELL: Bring your projects, tools, jigs, and suggestions - to ask questions, share your techniques, or show your results.

Future programs….please add to the list, or if you don’t like some of the topics, let me know, and perhaps we will remove it. I would appreciate your comments, preferences, and suggestions for the upcoming meetings.

Choosing a sander or sanders (the power kind), exploring functions, not necessarily brands - if the bandsaw portion of the program goes well, this may be the next power tool to discuss.

Staining and dying - how to match colors. Frank Lynn is a professional furniture finisher and antique restorer, so I am hoping he will lead this program.

David Petersen has a friend who designs and builds Chinese style furniture, and has offered to ask him to put on a program for us.

Sharpening tools other than flat plane irons and chisels, such as turning and carving gouges, including discussion of grinders such as Tormek or the Jet copy, “low speed” bench grinders,

Finishing, including water based finishes, and rubbing out a film finish (satin, semi-gloss, gloss, grand piano), french polishing

Tuning a bandsaw for cutting curves and resawing

Types of planes, and building your collection of planes - I assume tuning a hand plane was covered enough in the Lie-Nielsen program, but we can do more if you think it would be interesting

Shop-made tools and jigs (Rob Harris offered to coordinate this if other members would contribute)

Advice on how to choose and restore old hand tools (This sounds Like Rob or again, or Mark Wells, or other members might contribute)

The next regular monthly meeting of Fine Woodworkers of Austin will be Thursday evening, April 1 (no fooling), from 7 to 9 pm in the Woodcraft classroom. Most Woodcraft club discounts have been discontinued, but last month, Sandy, our local manager, continued the 10% discount for our club members, on most merchandise, on the day of our meetings. Hopefully his offer will continue indefinitely. Come early and spend hearty.

The program this month will be conducted by turner Curtis Turner - he will send more details of what he has in mind in the reminder notice during the week, but I believe the plan is to survey the different types of turning - spindles between centers (such as legs for furniture makers), mandrel turning (such as pens), faceplate turning (such as bowls), hollow vessels, and so forth. You aren’t likely to become an expert on all types in the hour or so of our meeting, but hopefully you will learn what is involved in the various types of turning, and may want to get involved.

Bring your show and tell for admiration, critique and assistance (it doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, and can be a plea for help).

For the May meeting, I think it is time to get Bill McCaffrey back to actually demo the techniques he uses with classic tools to make chair seats and other chair techniques. This may be a good time to include some other hand tool topics - suggestions?

Future programs….please add to the list, or if you don’t like some of the topics, let me know, and perhaps we will remove it. I would appreciate your comments, preferences, and suggestions for the upcoming meetings.

David Petersen is one of the founding members of the club. As a full-time pro who uses a lot of veneers, he has offered to conduct a program on veneering. Only one person signed up for his Woodcraft class on veneering, so I wonder if this has widespread interest?

Sharpening tools other than flat plane irons and chisels, such as turning and carving gouges, including discussion of grinders

Finishing, including water based finishes, and rubbing out a film finish (satin, semi-gloss, gloss, grand piano), french polishing

Staining and dying - how to match wood colors

Tuning a bandsaw for cutting curves and resawing

Choosing a sander or sanders (the power kind), exploring functions, not necessarily brands

Types of planes, and building your collection of planes - I assume tuning a hand plane was covered enough in the Lie-Nielsen program last month

Shop-made tools and jigs (Rob Harris offered to coordinate this if other members would contribute)

Advice on how to choose and restore old hand tools (This sounds Like Rob or again, or Mark Wells, or other members might contribute)

The next regular monthly meeting of Fine Woodworkers of Austin will be Thursday evening, March 4, from 7 to 9 pm in the Woodcraft classroom. Although most Woodcraft club discounts have been discontinued, Sandy, out local manager, has continued the 10% discount for our club members, on most merchandise, on the day of our meetings. Come early and spend hearty (we will have a full program, so try to do your purchases prior to the meeting, if possible).

The program this month will be presented by Joe Slack, the master luthier at the Homestead Heritage Woodworking School near Waco. Joe teaches classes in making guitars as well as other woodworking courses. He will present a program on some of the woodworking techniques that he uses in making guitars, especially those that are applicable to both guitar making and other projects, such as resawing and bending wood, working with different wood grain, the multiple techniques that might be used to create an inlay like the rosette on a steel-string guitar, use of different glues, and how he has moved to largely hand tools in the making of his musical instruments. He points out that guitar making is such an interesting challenge that many of his students build guitars for the fun and challenge, even though they are not guitar players.

Bring your show and tell for admiration, critique and assistance (it doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, and can be a plea for help).

Future programs….please add to the list, or if you don’t like some of the topics, let me know, and perhaps we will remove it. I would appreciate your comments, preferences, and suggestions for the upcoming meetings.

Bill McCaffrey has offered to return to actually demo the techniques he uses with classic tools to make chair seats and other chair techniques.

There have been several requests for a program on turning - which might be an overview or it could involve as many as three programs

1. Turning spindles (long pieces between the head and tail of the lathe) and including turning pens.
2. Turning bowls (open pieces attached to the head of the lathe) - these projects are especially fun since they can often be completed in an hour.
3. Turning hollow vessels (special techniques used to hollow a vessel through a small opening).

David Petersen is one of the founding members of the club. As a full-time pro who uses a lot of veneers, he has offered to conduct a program on veneering. Only one person signed up for his Woodcraft class on veneering, so I wonder if this has widespread interest?

Sharpening tools other than flat plane irons and chisels, such as turning and carving gouges, including discussion of grinders

Finishing, including water based finishes, and rubbing out a film finish (satin, semi-gloss, gloss, grand piano), french polishing

Staining and dying - how to match wood colors

Tuning a bandsaw for cutting curves and resawing

Choosing a sander or sanders (the power kind), exploring functions, not necessarily brands

Types of planes, and building your collection of planes - I assume tuning a hand plane was covered enough in the Lie-Nielsen program last month
Shop-made tools and jigs (Rob Harris offered to coordinate this if other members would contribute)
Advice on how to choose and restore old hand tools (This sounds Like Rob or again, or Mark Wells, or other members might contribute)

The regular monthly meeting of Fine Woodworkers of Austin will be Thursday evening February 4th at Woodcraft, from 7 to 9 pm. Come early and spend heartily - remember Woodcraft offers members a 10% discount on most items on the day of the meeting.

Bill McCaffrey has built some jigs that allow him to build a chair in a few hours. He will cut another chair, and bring his jigs so he can show us how he built the jigs and how he uses them to build chairs. I gotta see how he builds a chair that fast!

I suggest that folks who yielded to temptation last month, and have received their packages from Lie-Nielsen (or from other places, inspired by Lie-Nielsen), bring their goodies for show and tell.

Bring your show and tell projects also - those you would like to show off, or those where would like help and advice from club members

For the future, I am still trying to get Frank Strazza of the Homestead Heritage Woodworking school in Elm Mott (Waco) to do a program for our club. He suggested interest in talking about the woodworking involved in making a violin. Although few if any of us are likely to become luthiers, Frank is such a great woodworker and popular teacher that I am confident he will provide an interesting program for everyone.

David Petersen is one of the founding members of the club, and a full-time professional furniture maker. He makes extensive use of veneers in his projects, and has offered to conduct a program. Warning - this program could get you hooked on veneering, so after the program you will probably want to take the more extensive class David occasionally offers through Woodcraft, then you will want to buy you own equipment, etc. That is how I got hooked!

There have been several requests for a program on turning - which might be an overview or it could involve as many as three programs

1. Turning spindles (long pieces between the head and tail of the lathe) and including turning pens
2. Turning bowls (open pieces attached to the head of the lathe) - these projects are especially fun since they can often be completed in an hour.
3. Turning hollow vessels (special techniques used to hollow a vessel through a small opening)

Here are some more potential topics for future meetings… please add to the list, or if you don’t like some of the topics, let me know, and perhaps we will remove it.

• Sharpening tools other than flat plane irons and chisels, such as turning and carving gouges, including discussion of grinders
• Finishing, including water based finishes, and rubbing out a film finish (satin, semi-gloss, gloss, grand piano), french polishing
• Staining and dying - how to match wood colors
• Tuning a bandsaw for cutting curves and resawing
• Choosing a sander or sanders (the power kind), exploring functions, not necessarily brands
• Types of planes, and building your collection of planes - I assume tuning a hand plane was covered enough in the Lie-Nielsen program last month
  Shop-made tools and jigs (Rob Harris offered to coordinate this if other members would contribute)
• Advice on how to choose and restore old hand tools (This sounds Like Rob or again, or Mark Wells, or other members might contribute)

I would appreciate your comments, preferences, and suggestions for the upcoming meetings.

With the Thanksgiving holidays “in the way” it is only a little more than a week until our December 3rd meeting of the Fine Woodworkers of Austin, 7-9 pm on Thursday evening, in the Woodcraft classroom.

Terry Hall has coordinated a program on “legs,” of the type used in building furniture for the December meeting. It will include a demo/presentation by Peter Clark on the classical Ball and Claw type foot; Frank Linn will discuss finishing legs, and Bob Dennison will cover tapered legs.

On Friday-Saturday January 8-9, 2010 Lie-Nielsen will be conducting a free Hand Tool Training Event in Austin - this year it will be at Fine Lumber and Plywood, but similar to the one they did last year on the ACC campus. Curtis Turner is trying to see if they would conduct a special program for the woodworking clubs. The logical time for the special event is Thursday evening January 7, the day of our January meeting. They would likely want to do the presentation where they are set up. Therefore, if there is interest, and also if the details can be arranged, we might move the January meeting to Fine Lumber where they are set up for the Lie-Nielsen program. What do you think?

Frank Strazza of the Homestead Heritage Woodworking school in Elm Mott (Waco) has (through Mark Giles) expressed willingness to do a program for our club on the woodworking involved in making a violin. Frank is such a great woodworker and popular teacher that I won’t ask if we should… I am trying to get it arranged for our February or March meeting.

This is the list of potential topics for future meetings… please add to the list, and perhaps offer to do all or part of the program on one of these topics. If you don’t like some of the topics, let me know, and perhaps we will remove it.

• Turning spindles - lathe demo - if you don’t have a lathe, you world is square!
  Sharpening tools other than flat plane irons and chisels, such as turning and carving gouges, including discussion of grinders
• Veneering - at least simple stuff
• Finishing, including water based finishes, and rubbing out a film finish (satin, semi-gloss, gloss, grand piano)
• Staining and dying
• Tuning a bandsaw for curves and resawing
• Turning bowls - another lathe demo. Bowls are fun since many projects can be completed in less than an hour!
• Choosing a sander or sanders (the power kind)

Types of planes, and tuning a hand plane was on the list, but if we have the Lie-Nielsen program, I expect this topic will be covered for this year.

It’s November already, and our “first Thursday of the month” meeting will be this Thursday, November 5, in the Woodcraft classroom, 7-9 pm. As usual, Woodcraft offers members a 10% discount on most items on the day of the meeting

Curtis Turner and Mark Wells will be teaming up to discuss the goal of sharpening planes and chisels (and other straight sharp things) - things like hollow grind, bevel angles, secondary bevels, and those mysterious terms. Then they will offer two different techniques for honing - getting the final edge - on the properly shaped blade. If you want to see how well they do, bring your own band aids.

Be sure to bring your show and tell.

The December 3 meeting will be on legs, including how to carve legs if you aren’t a skilled carver, and other types of legs that you might incorporate in various furniture projects.

This is the list of potential topics for future meetings… please add to the list, and perhaps offer to do all or part of the program on one of these topics. If you don’t like some of the topics, let me know, and perhaps we will remove it.

• Turning spindles - lathe demo - if you don’t have a lathe, you world is square!
• Sharpening tools other than flat plane irons and chisels, such as turning and carving gouges, including discussion of grinders
• Veneering - at least simple stuff
• Finishing, including water based finishes, and rubbing out a film finish (satin, semi-gloss, gloss, grand piano)
• Staining and dying
• Tuning a bandsaw for curves and resawing
• Turning bowls - another lathe demo. Bowls are fun since many projects can be completed in less than an hour!
• Types of planes, and tuning a hand plane
• Choosing a sander or sanders (the power kind)

See you Thursday evening

The next meeting will be held at Woodcraft, as usual, from 7 to 9 pm on Thursday October 1. Come early to enjoy the 10% discount offered to members on most items on the day of the meeting.

John Parkinson will present a slide show about his apprenticeship program in England. It was originally scheduled for last month, but we ran out of time, so rather than rush it, it was moved to this month.

New member Mark Wells, who has taken the lead on hand tools, will lead a discussion, demo, and comparison of screwdrivers. The original intent was people-powered tools, but it has been broadened to include a comparison with all “cordless” screwdrivers, including battery powered impact drivers. If you have a favorite, bring it to compare with the others.

Bill McCaffrey, who did an in-depth discussion of marquetry and inlay last month, promised a brief demo on “doing it today” (rather than the historical techniques) - specifically something simple like inlay.

Be sure to bring your show and tell.

For the future, we are planning sessions like those below - all subject to change and looking for your comments and suggestions. One suggestion, that we are trying to incorporate, is at least some hand-tool topic each meeting, in addition to the “general woodworking with power tools” topics.

• November 5 - sharpening - grinding and honing - focusing on both sandpaper based and waterstone sharpening, especially for chisels and planes
• December 3 - Peter Clark will demonstrate carving a traditional furniture foot (ball and claw or some similar wild animal), Peter may be a surgeon, but he swears he isn’t a wood carver, so these should be techniques we all can use.
• In the sequence of “all the steps to design and build a piece of furniture” (such as a lingerie chest) we haven’t given any attention to legs and feet, so that may be a program to go with Peter’s tutorial in December. We will be looking for people to do parts of this program, like Terry broke up the carcase program into smaller parts.

Other topics for the future

• Turning spindles - lathe demo - if you don’t have a lathe, you world is square!
• Sharpening tools other than flat plane irons and chisels, such as turning and carving gouges, including discussion of grinders
• Veneering - at least simple stuff
• Finishing, including water based finishes, and rubbing out a film finish (satin, semi-gloss, gloss, grand piano)
• Staining and dying
• Tuning a bandsaw for curves and resawing
• Turning bowls - another lathe demo. Bowls are fun since many projects can be completed in less than an hour!
• Types of planes, and tuning a hand plane
• Choosing a sander or sanders (the power kind)

Don’t forget to pay your dues for 2009-2010.

The regular monthly meeting of the Fine Woodworkers of Austin will be held Thursday night, September 3, from 7 to 9 pm in the Woodcraft classroom. Come early and enjoy the 10% discount on most items that Woodcraft offers members on the day of the meeting.

If you haven’t paid your dues for 2009-2010 you have time to get your check for $30 (Payable to Fine Woodworkers of Austin) to our treasurer, Bill Tims.

Bill McCaffrey will do a presentation on Intarsia (making a wood picture) and inlay (decorating with wood), including techniques, tricks, substrates, etc. We won’t mention that these are techniques you could use if you wanted to build a lingerie chest or other pieces of fine furniture.

Peter Clark will follow Bill with a brief lesson on how he makes squares and strips to inlay, using the techniques Peter has mastered for gluing scraps of wood together to make something quite valuable!

John Parkinson will give a talk about his woodworking apprenticeship in England - should be interesting

One of our new members, Bob Brown, iis a salesman for MesquiteBurl.com - a relatively new mesquite lumber yard in Georgetown. He will be bringing some sample wood from his firm, that he will award as a door prize or prizes for the members who attend this meeting. If you were thinking of joining, now would be a very good time. The way we usually handle things like this is for the Treasurer to pass out tickets with serial numbers to the members in good standing - you keep half, and the other half goes in a hat for a drawing at the end of the meeting. You must be present to win - if you leave early, we draw again, until we have a winner (or perhaps multiple winners) among those present at the end. Of course everyone should also run out to this lumber yard at 2217 David Ferretti Drive and give them a lot of business, so they keep bringing door prizes to future meetings.

Be sure to bring your show and tell items. Among other show and tell, Bob Brown has promised to bring some Mesquite items he has been working on.

For the future…

It has been suggested that we do more with hand tools, and Mark Wells has suggested a number of topics. I think we can cover two or three shorter topics each meeting, including some focused on hand tools.

The tentative plan for the October 1 meeting (not yet firm) is a cordless screwdriver comparison - Bring your favorite unit(s), both those that use batteries and those that use people power. For the other half of the meeting, lets talk about legs and aprons - the basics for a table (or for the base of other types of furniture.)

Preliminary idea for November 5 is a sharpening program - perhaps a face off between the sandpaper techniques some advocate, and the waterstone techniques others favor, as used with plane irons and chisels. This might help you build a wish list for Christmas presents! And Curtis Turner’s daughter Kathrine was born August 12, so he may have gotten enough sleep by November to be allowed to handle sharp instruments, and may be able to help with this program.

For the December 3 meeting, Peter Clark has offered to do a talk on carving feet (he may be a surgeon, but he swears he isn’t a wood carver, so these may be techniques we all can use). Perhaps ball and claw feet, or other wild animal feet that Peter suggested. And perhaps some plane topics (sorry, that hand-plane pun was intentional)

We still would like to do some veneering - maybe the January meeting?

Comments on these program, and suggestions are welcome (PLEASE).

The next meeting of the Fine Woodworkers of Austin will be held this Thursday evening August 6 in the Woodcraft classroom from 7-9 pm.

We haven’t discussed drawers in a long time, so the program this month is DRAWERS…

• build or buy
• metal drawer slides of various types
• wooden drawer slides
• drawer fronts - overlay, shaker, flush, inset
• drawer box construction - front, back, bottom

As we have discussed the program with some of the officers and members, I put together a web page that could be an outline for the program… it is only a draft so far, but you can see it at www.solowoodworker.com/drawers.html. You have to link directly to the draft page if you are interested … there aren’t other pages that link to it yet.

If you would like to volunteer to take a portion of the program (like one of the topics listed above) I would appreciate your help.

Since the Lingerie chest is a dirty word to some of the members, I won’t mention that drawers could be the next issue that we have to face in the design of the lingerie chest.

Bring your show and tell, especially anything related to drawers and drawer slides (or other topics)

Come early with your shopping list for Woodcraft… to get the 10% discount that they offer members on the day of the meeting.

If you haven’t paid your dues for the year, Bill Tims will collect your check for $30 payable to “Fine Woodworkers of Austin.” He appreciates checks rather than cash so he can enjoy the meeting and do the bookkeeping after he gets home.

The tentative topic for the September meeting is Marquetry and inlay
Even more tentative for October is tables… specifically, legs and aprons
November … simple veneering
or whatever you would like to suggest

Charlie Plesums, President
Fine Woodworkers of Austin

Come join us on June 4th as we continue work on the lingerie chest.  This month we will be covering different aspects of carcase construction, focusing on various current techniques such as sliding dovetails, mortise and tenon, floating tenon (domino), stopped dado, and dowel joints.  Additionall discussion may involve overall carcase construction, the materials used (plywood vs. solid wood), the use of floating panels and how these choices affect construction techniques such as drawer mounts.