Villages Woodworker’s Club Meeting

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

7 p.m. Laurel Manor

 

 

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Charlie Shark. The membership said the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.

 

Charlie welcomed 1 new member, visitors, and all members who braved the thunderstorms. 

 

As of yesterday afternoon, we had 670 paid members for 2008.  We have had 19 new members during ‘08, and 29 members were trained.  You can sign up at the back for monitor duty.  See Max Bohnstedt or Anne Bell at the shop if you prefer to sign up as a Greeter. 

 

We need more office staff volunteers to assist with front desk duties.  We need volunteers to act as Monitor Trainers; we have 4 but would prefer 8 to cover overlap times.  The program helps reduce accidents.  We also need volunteers to work in the tool crib area; this is a sit down job if you can’t take long periods of standing.  See Charlie at the present time.

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS

 

Certification/Training – Paul Greene – I want to mention we had our 2nd accident investigation since we opened.  Both incidents were on the 8” jointer, facing a board without using a pressure safety gripper on the out table and using fingers over the blade.  We need to be careful with using this machine, and use the safety holders provided. 

 

We also need additional assistance with running our certification program.  If the shop is not up and running on Thursday we will run a mock session, training with no actual cutting of wood.

 

Safety - Paul Greene for Jerry Dederich – Wayne Hendricks will work with Jerry on developing our Safety Program.

 

Note:  Our Rocking Horse is displayed at the back.  We are raffling off the Rocking Horse to raise money for Toys, etc.  Feel free to buy tickets and assist in selling.  See Grumpy Landers for tickets.

 

Office Administration – Murry Bishop - Update on Wood storage:  We have received approval from The Villages, and our board has approved building a 20’ x 40’ wood storage building, directly north of the dumpster, running 40 feet up the fence line.  It will be open on the inside.  We’re working on the details now, so we should see it some day soon.  The Villages is very behind the project, and the Engineers’ have donated their time to do this.  The Villages will front the cost, and we will reimburse them over time.  It is considered a ‘minor improvement’, so we don’t have to go to the Planning Commission and that will help speed the process.  They will do site and concrete work, and we will erect the building.  Estimate approximately 3 months to complete.  We will open the back as additional workbench area and maintenance workspace.   Cost of building is estimated at $30,000, including site and concrete, so we are willing to take donations! 

 

Parking Area expansion:  We have considered an entrance and exit to facilitate traffic flow; however our existing entrance is already too close to the intersection at present.  We will develop a plan using grass on both sides of the parking lot, and we’ll try to mark flow, etc., to expand parking.  We have considered gravel over the grassed area we will use as parking; however, there are conflicting thoughts on this at the present.  We may also get a hard surface golf cart path in the future.  The Villages may have to expand the RV area and would remove the waste site.  If so, they will work a hard surface golf cart access to us at that time. 

 

Financial – Bill Sadler (by Charlie) -   As of January 31, we had $50,522 cash in bank. However we have many projects earmarked so there will be expenses not showing up yet.  During January we had:  Expenses - $6,000, Income - $11,000; thus Net Surplus of $5,000 in January.  We have money at present but we are using it!

 

Shop Administration – Dave Adamovich - Too bad it’s a small crowd.  Our vacuum system, hopefully, will be up tomorrow.  Mike Nedler & John Mills will be at the shop and should figure out the problems and what we need to improve the system.  Table saws:  We have 3 nice saws, but since we seem to have lots of people who don’t know the difference between blades I have brought examples.  1) Cross cut blade, lots of little shallow teeth.  It should not be used to rip lumber - you will ruin the blade and it will not cut properly after.  It also leaves burn marks, etc. on your wood.  If your wood doesn’t cut right, you are doing something wrong or the blade is dull.  Ask for help.  2) Rip blade, designed to go through quickly and efficiently, and much safer.  It has fewer deep blades.  3) Combo does some of each; neither perfect but a good alternative for the shop.  A Cross cut blade is generally left in the Powermatic.  The Deltas have a combo blade so use them for ripping.  If you are doing heavy ripping, change the blade or get help!  

 

Suggestions:  load combo on all; put signs on which blade is in.  Our current blade set-up seems to work well.  Chuck has an instructor for a table saw course.  Bob Ledenican is redoing all our signs in a professional type manner.

 

Question:  What is the life of our vacuum system?  Hopefully a lifetime, forever with maintenance!  But filters only last two years, and are costly to replace.

 

We have a Safety concern in our lumber storage area – lumber piled in center and against the wall must be secure, not hanging over the edges.  We had an incident where a few boards fell when someone tried to pull his off the pile; other boards were not stored properly. 

 

Suggestion:  Padlock broken machine until repaired.  We use the stop sign, placed in a conspicuous spot, and notify monitors to complete the written notes.

 

Special Projects – John Justice - I mentioned at previous meetings that people were noticing us.  For example we received 60 projects in December, 59 in November, and 115 in January!  We have received 39 to date in February.  It is rolling pretty well, and we are holding our own.  We currently have 45 open ...if we each do two projects we’ll be caught up.   Bill, Roy, Murry, Ron, and Tom Lane, have all helped out, and the Carvers worked on a cabinet.  We have lots of interesting things.  We put together a Dulcimer that was interesting.  Quite a variety that livens things up.  Come check what’s on the books to see if anything interests you.

 

Education - Chuck Heise – We have classes starting up now.  We have a list at the back table.  We’re running a little behind as we are making changes that will improve the future implementation.  We met with the Turners to help plan courses and expand the instructor pool.  We’re looking to start full swing in September and get enough people together so that we can have a system with classes running continuously.  All courses will be listed so people can look forward several months ahead to sign up.  Also, we’re looking to start some single specific classes on individual stationary equipment.  These classes will help expand knowledge, safe operation, and hopefully reduce maintenance.  If you are interested in assisting with a particular tool, we will develop a lesson plan and train you so you can run classes easily; and classes will be consistent. 

 

We are organizing a trip to the Seminole Fairgrounds Annual Woodworking Show in Tampa.  We will book a bus, leaving the woodshop on Friday, March 21st at 10am and returning around

6 pm.  The cost would be $14 for the bus trip plus admission.  We need 46 people, and we are accepting sign-up and payment by check at the office.  If we do not have enough interest, the trip will be cancelled and checks returned uncashed.

 

Toys – Don Young - 300 toys were boxed in January, and we have a couple hundred in process.  We are doing 20 different items at this time.  There is lots of work to do so we always welcome volunteers.  We are usually there from 8:30 to noon if you want to get started.

 

Woodturners Group – Herb Faust -  The Lathe area is exciting and busy.  Our small lathes are getting good use.  Our large chucks (100 mm) have been expanded too far again.  There are charts on the wall showing what is recommended.  When over-extending, it is very dangerous.  Steel can fly, and the strength of hold on your piece is reduced.

 

Break at  7:30 pm until 7:40 pm.

 

Show & Tell (pictures posted on the Web site)

 

Herb Faust  Toothpick dispenser, plan provided by Murry, so he went and made one.  Trick is fitting the cup properly.  Then I remembered the old soda fountains, and decided to make the Straw dispenser with blood wood highlights.  Fun projects.

 

Ray Roberts – One vessel with natural voids; one vessel with natural edge and voids.  Both are made from the same piece of Juniper but the sapwood was different colors.  Both were turned green, and finished with Behlen clear finish (a tung oil) which dries nice and shiny.

 

Jim Wicker – Segmented bowl.  His second attempt as the first one blew up.  Cherry finished with tung oil.  Segmenting gets easier after the first time.

 

 

Jack Hopkins - Cigar and slim line pens.  Has been turning for awhile, but still learning.  The slim line one was made of scraps.  He will be doing a demo next Tuesday at the Turners’ Meeting.

 

Ron Gammon - mirage and maple bowl.  Mirage all done with mirrors—looks like it has a lid but it is just a reflection.  The bowl was a blank picked up at the Symposium auction that turned out to be birdseye maple.  Looked like junk wood and planned to play until he saw the birdseye so plan changed.  Pretty wood, fluted.

 

Wayne Hendricks – Carving of cow “Buttercup”.  Caricature—tries to work outside the box.  Horns are laminated or would break off all the time.  He’s going to go through a design process for other members, starting with a clay mock up and work from there.

 

Dick Brady – pens.  One of Jack’s students.  Wanted to learn to turn pens and with Jack’s help made two cigar pens.  Now his wife has ordered some for the entire family, so he is no longer retired!  Finished with friction polish.

 

Ray Jusick – Footstool.  Brought a different design previously, this one modified with hearts for a Valentine gift.  It is a basic beginner project.  Fun to make.

         

 

50/50:  The 50/50 raffle brought in $ 30 for the club. There were 3 drawings of $10 each.

 

 

Members & Guests in Attendance:  40    (down due to thunderstorms)

 

Meeting adjourned at  8:03 p.m.

Next meeting on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008, 7 p.m., at Laurel Manor.

 

 

B. Clake

For Heather Sawyer, Secretary