Minutes for December 17, 2013 meeting
of the Tennessee Valley Woodworkers

President Karen Browning called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM.

• Tonight’s program: Super Show and Tell
• Members in attendance: (~60)
• Guests: (1) Jerry Price - Manchester
• New Members: (3) Jessee Potter and son Jessee Luke – Manchester, Don Sellers

Reminders:

• President Browning reminded all guest to sign the guest sheet and pick up a newsletter.

Announcements:

• The TVW Christmas Party was a great evening and fun for all in attendance. Thank s to all who worked to make it a success.
• The Club exhibition “In the Spirit of Fine Woodworking” is only 2 1/2 months away. So far there are eighteen registered exhibitors and a total of sixty exhibit items. Anyone who has not registered their items should get the information to Bob Addington as soon as possible. Item display placement is already underway and placards need to be prepared for each item.
• Exhibition Chair Loyd Ackerman showed an excellent PowerPoint presentation which included local TV coverage and photos from the 2009 Exhibition at South Jackson and all of the current information about the 2014 event. He emphasized the need to register items, help in the preparation, and sign up to work during the event. He also reminded the membership that all the information can be found on the Club webpage.
• All were encouraged to visit the club website and use the TVW Forum. The more participation, the better the database becomes. Contact Loyd Ackerman if you have trouble with log-on.
• Membership was encouraged to visit Henry Davis and the Club DVD Library.
• Bob Reese apparently had a mini stroke but is recovering.
• Remember Phil Bishop as he deals with health issues.

Old Business

• Dues for the 2013 year are due and payable. Hand your $10 to Bob Addington. What a deal!
• Tools for Sale on the club web page, or contact Loyd Ackerman.

• See Chuck Taylor if your picture has not been taken for the website.

New Business

• No new business

Grand Show and Tell:

• Tom Gillard – described a table he is building for a customer, and discussed the difficulty of achieving straight enough edges to glue-up the table’s is eleven feet long, fifty inches wide, and one and one half inches thick poplar three-board top. After several unsuccessful attempts to prepare the boards using power tools, he finally accomplished the task using hand planes. He credited his success to lessons learned from TVW club members.
• John Duval – brought pictures to show how he transported and cut bowl blanks from four split sections of a freshly felled thirty-one inch diameter cottonwood tree. Each 320 pound section was large enough to provide a twenty-four-inch-diameter (48 pound) rough bowl blank and enough shavings to fill four 55-gallon trash bags. Stay tuned to see the finished bowls.
• Henry Davis – brought pictures to show his method for cutting a straight edge on a rough-sawn board. He showed the guide he made for his thickness planer to keep 3/4” by 1 1/2” boards square while removing saw marks from the narrow edges. He showed the adjustable girth weaving frames that he builds and showed examples of the handmade girths woven by a customer.
• Matt Brothers – brought before and after pictures of an antique chopping block that he flattened for a customer. He used a plunge router and cradle on a guide frame to provide a level cutting reference. Matt also brought photos of one of a three-drawer walnut side chest (one of two) that he built to match a bedroom suite that he has been working on. He also showed a cherry bookcase that he built using seventeen-inch-wide boards for the top and sides that he got at New Market.
• Doug Dunlap – brought a segmented bowl and pepper grinder that he made after attending one of Loyd Ackerman’s seminars. Both pieces were turned from 12-segment rings of alternating walnut and oak blocks.
• Don Sellers– brought a large kaleidoscope and stand made from mahogany with contrasting ash inlays. It is one of five that he built for Christmas.
• Josef Maienbacker – brought a lavishly carved tray that he bought at a yard sale for three dollars.
• August Dobert – brought three goblets that he turned twenty-five years ago. One had a large wooden arrow sticking through holes in the bowl. He explained how he had boiled and compressed the arrow’s end to fit through the holes and then boiled it again to swell the wood back to shape. He said that sizing the holes for a close slip fit on the arrow shaft was the most challenging part.
• Gary Runyan – brought four Christmas tree ornaments made by Howard Gilliam from sassafras, cedar, and redheart.
• Ken Gould – brought pictures of a carved bear (1986), a frog (1993), a turned pencil holder (1999), a recently turned gavel, and a five-foot-tall functional nutcracker that he built from walnut, cherry, and maple. He also showed photos of two gavel plaques that he made for presentation to outgoing blacksmith association officers.
• Jim Van Cleave – brought a carved pair of hands that he bought at a yard sale for fifty cents.
• Loyd Ackerman – brought a pair of personalized trivets and a jewelry box, all with decorative designs carved by his CNC router. He suggested that for such mitered-corner boxes, cutting the miters at 45.2 rather than 45.0 degrees will give the tightest-fitting corners and not require splines
• Ross Roepke – brought a scroll sawn sleigh made by Don Helton that he bought for thirty-five dollars. He also brought a Queen Ann style leg bandsawn from a Fine Woodworking pattern. He described how critical it is to start with a well designed pattern and to follow the contours very closely, as any minor variation will show in the final product. He uses a scraper made from an old saw blade to do the final surface smoothing. Ross recently burned out the motor on his planer and inquired about a place to get it rewound. Reid Electric in Shelbyville was recommended.
• Fred Heltsley – brought a “swizzle stick” that he whittled on the way to the 1960 Boy Scout Jamboree in Colorado Springs (one of his first wood carvings) and a walnut boot jack that he made for his father in the 1970s.
• Bob Leonard – brought a farm scene with over twenty-five implements and figures that he carved. He also brought along his more recently carved “prize winning” Smiley caricature.
• John Harton – brought three of eight vessels that he recently turned from a large walnut tree. Unknown circumstances in the past had produced two adjacent trunks that had grown tightly against each other, resulting in a sapwood-free and bark-free interface. John exploited the crotch-like interface to produce a unique natural-edged bowl with no visible sapwood or bark, but rather a burl-like edge texture. Because one trunk had been dominant, the interface bulged toward the more-deformed inferior trunk, causing a concave surface on the blank John selected and resulting in the very unusual edge contour.
• Jim Everett– brought a cabinet doors that he recently made with an intarsia rendering of Blarney Castle on the inset panel. He is currently working on a similar door featuring Edinburgh Castle and another with a tenor sax made from osage orange and basswood. These and many other creations will be featured at the Celtic Cup in Tullahoma.
• Ken Burgess – brought five cottage Christmas tree ornaments that he made from cottonwood bark. He explained how the backs (tree side)of two pieces of bark were flattened and glued together. Once the outside carving is finished, the pieces are split apart, hollowed out, and re-glued to make a lightweight ornament.
• Chuck Taylor – brought two bowl blanks that he turned from fresh-cut apple wood. In spite of being properly stored to dry in paper bags, they warped severely. Chuck says this is not the way it is supposed to work. Stay tuned to see if he can salvage one or maybe both of the bowls.
• Mickey Knowles – brought a bowl turned from Chinese tallow tree wood. The non-native plant has spread and is now common in south Alabama where it is considered a “weed” tree.
• Doyle McConnell – brought a seam ripper with a walnut handle turned by Bob Reese who could not be present because of recent health issues. Doyle also brought two maple pepper grinder “works-in-progress” that his shop elves plan to complete in time for Christmas.
• Richard Gulley– brought a Christmas wreath with ribbon bow that he carved from poplar and cherry using his CNC router. Richard’s least favorite woodworking tasks are sanding, finishing, and cleanup. Now that he has the CNC machine, it does all the fun stuff and leaves those very tasks to him.
• Sharon Wright – brought a toilet paper roll cover that Newton designed to foil their cat’s game of shredding the tissue and scattering it throughout the house.
• Vince Zaccardi – described William Ng’s 5-cut method of precisely aligning a shop-built table saw sled. See a materials list for the sled and a descriptive video of the alignment procedure on Ng’s website at:
  http://wnwoodworkingschool.com/5-cuts-to-a-perfect-cross-cut-sled/
  A program on the subject was suggested.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 PM.