SPLINTERS

Issue 14, February 12, 1987

If you weren’t there you missed another great meeting. Tom Bask ±n, our Vice President and Program Chairman met up a number of interesting topics, something for everyone. For the business part of the meeting it was agreed that Jack Townsend will head a committee for our participation in the Franklin County craft show. We’ll have a couple of booths reserved and those who wish to use them will chip ~n to pay for their use. Jack knows everyone in the craft show business so I bet we’ll have the best spots on the grounds I

Good news. For those of us who don‘t seem to remember when our next club meeting will be, our meetings will be announced in the Herald Chronicle. Look for us under the calendar of events! Good going guys, more free advertising! I

Our January program featured Tom Baskin and a presentation of a finger joint jig he made and a device he used to make spokes and another he used to drill angled leg holes for a Windsor chair. Henry Davis demonstrated a jig he uses to sharpen scrapers and Susan Church showed us a carving jig that goes a long way toward taking the finger slicing out of a carving project. Terry Penn’s jig which he uses to set up miter angles is just the thing I needed the week before to make some framing cuts for a new table. Phil Bishop showed off a Christmas gift which took him totally by surprise, a set of carver files and small wood rasps. The surprise was really complete when Phil’s wife received the bill for those few pieces of metal!

Bill Knight and Bill Shirley showed us some toys they’ve been working on. Bill Knight’s toy truck looked like a great project for next Toys for Tots program as did the Valentines day carousel Bill Shirley brought in.

Thanks to everyone for the great program.

PRESIDENT’S Notes

Some thoughts from Tom Church our club President:

I was very pleased to see the excellent showing of members at our last meeting. It was another excellent showing and tellIng and sharing. Every meeting seems to reveal another hidden talent or another new work technique keep up the participation

We had two new visitors at the January meeting, William Dunn and Ted Baldwin. It’s great to see new folks at the meetings and your friends, neighbors or acquaintances are always welcomed. Bring a friend to the next meeting, who knows we may find another aspiring amateur like the rest of us!

After our January meeting we had an executive committee meeting. Most of the discussion involved activities and projects for the next year. A lot of good suggestions came out of out “brainstorming “ (that’s technical for bull) session. I’m sure there are many more good ideas throughout the membership and I hope you’ll find the time to let any of the club officers know what interests you. I’d like to summarize some of the ideas just to get you thinking about the kind of things we can do as a club;

PROJECTS

TOYS FOR TOTS invite non—members & community groups to join us in this project. . . maybe have some kind of competition.

CHILDRENS MUSEUM help this group in building displays and other items as needed.

OTHER CLUB PROJECTS we’re open for your ideas.

SPECIAL CLUB ACTIVITIES

A contest among members & non—members — maybe school wood shop classes would participate. Classes of competition might be Crafts, Furniture, Toys, Carving, or your idea. Maybe a contest to build a container — one which is no larger than 72 cubic inches. Prizes, gift certificate, free club membership, or your idea. How about an awards banquet?

That’s just a sample of what we talked about. - Think about some of these and come to our next meeting prepared to talk about them. Then we’ll do something about it. Let’s set some goals for the year.

Another noble experiment. Recently as I completed my European style workbench, I had to lubricate the sliding wood surfaces of the bench. Needless to say the immediate solution was parafin BUT the weather was so cold that I had to break my dog loose from the fire hydrant.. . that’s cold... the parafin wouldn’t stick to the wood. I used the low flame of a propane torch on both the parafin and wood. The parafin penetrated the wood and seemed to form a more permanent lubrication. “It’s an ill and cold wind that blows no good.” (Hey Tom I tried that once and also managed to heat the garage -for a couple of hours as the workbench torched off and returned to it’s original state of ash!!—ed.)

Officers are reminded to come early to the February 17th meeting — 6:45 the Herald Chronicle will be there to try to get our pictures again... I guess we must have broken the camera the last time.

February Meeting

Tom Baskin has lined up a great meeting for February. Dan Daniel from Tullahoma is in the saw sharpening business and will talk to us about the tools, techniques, and methods he uses to sharpen both hardened and carbide tipped blades. Dan also sharpens planer blades and is open for questions we might have on the basics of sharpening. While Dan is in the business I know he won’t mind giving us some saw “first aid” advice to get our dull blades through that one or two more cuts we really need to make to finish our project. You know that always happens at night after everyone is closed.

Meet Our Officers

This month we’ll meet our Vice President and Program Chairman, Tom Baskin.

Most of us had a chance to meet Tom during the past year and marveled at the duck carvings he brought to the meeting and his description of the effort he puts into each carvings It turns out that Tom is a real sportsman and finds it satisfying to blend his woodworking talents with his lifelong interest in hunting and fishing. One of Tom’s earliest woodworking projects was a fishing net which didn’t turn out as round as Tom hoped but was still usable.

Tom’s prowess as a marksman was demonstrated when he won the state championship in long range target shooting a few years ago. He’s an avid fly fisherman (brim and trout) and duck hunter (carves his own duck calls and decoys).

Tom works for Calspan as a controls engineer and is heavily involved in computer programming and that has led him to yet another woodworking project— designing and building a computer cabinet for a DEC computer he now has spread out around the house. Tom enjoys tackling all aspects of a project and gets as much fun out of designing just the right jig or fixture to do a job right.

Tom and his family live on a small farm outside of Winchester. Tom could be called a gentleman farmer (could he called a few other things as well!!). The Baskins live on a 30 acre farm and raise duck decoys and alfalfa. Actually Tom bought the farm so he could get a barn to work in. He has set up his wood shop in one third of the barn and has outfitted it with the tools of his woodworking hobby. Since the family really enjoys his woodworking efforts Tom has a problem getting rid of the old, finished projects. Tom is that what’s stored in the rest of the barn??

Like all of our new officers, Tom is anxious to get your ideas on improving the club and especially on program ideas. Tom is working on a trip to the Stanley Plant in Shelbyville and other visits as part of our future plans. - He, like the other officers are depending on each of us to make our desires known.

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