SPLINTERS
Tennessee Valley Woodworkers
     Vol. 18/ Issue 9         September  2003        Editor: Tom Gillard Jr. 

Meeting Notice:
The next meeting of the TN Valley Woodworkers
Will be held, September 16th, at 7:00 p.m. in the
 Duck River Electric Building, Dechard, TN
All interested woodworkers are invited!

The following people have agreed to serve as contacts for their particular skills.  If you have questions, suggestions for activities, or other comments relating to these skills, please call these folks.  Their interest is to help the club better serve their area of expertise.  Your participation with them will help them achieve that goal.

          Design: Alice Berry                       454-3815                 Finishing:    Phil Bishop           967-4626
          Turning: Tom Church                    967-4460                 Carving:      Harry May           962-0215
          Sharpening: Bob Reese                 728-7974                 Joinery:       Ross Roepke       455-9140
          Health and Safety: Maurice Ryan   962-1555

We welcome Dick Wollam to the club, Dick is from Winchester and says he has many woodworking interests.
Great that you joined us Dick!

        As of this month we have 137 members in the TVW,   33 of those have joined us in the past year, if my math is correct that's almost a 25% increase.
        So far this year our attendance at our meetings has averaged 62 members, this count is from our grand door prize sign-up sheets and doesn't count our guest.
        Our all time attendance record was in March 2003 with 70 members and 9 guests.  Wow that was a roomfull !

Tip of the Month

               
After I stained one side of a
paneled door, I was looking for a
way to hold it so I could stain the
other side. Because I had
mitered the corners of the door
frame, I had some triangular
cutoffs in my scrap bin that were
just what I needed.

The triangular scraps support the piece being stained only on
their "peaks". Drilling holes in the cutoffs and inserting a dowel helps keep
the blocks from tipping over. You can adjust this simple jig for any width
project by sliding the blocks along the dowel. For larger pieces,
simply use a longer piece of dowel.

                 —Norman Crowfoot, Tucson, Ariz.

Taken from the "Woodworker's Guild of  Georgia" newsletter

We need to have a main power cut off switch near the door. In an emergency, you can cut off all power in shop in case of fire or other disasters. We hope you never need any of these items, but it’s comforting just knowing they are there in your shop, if the need ever arises.

I want to thank Paul Serina from the Oldham Tool Co. for the wonderful items that he donated to the club for a giveaway.  I was over in W. Jefferson, NC last month and paid a visit on Paul.  It is amazing how many people are involved in making a router bit or saw blade.  I’ll try and put together a story for everyone by next month’s newsletter.  If any of you readers are looking for some quality tooling or your router or saw, give Oldham a chance.

Maurice Ryan brought in a really old violin that he played as a child a long time ago.  It had many cracks and was in very poor condition and he asked Bob Reese to look at it and tell him if it was worth fixing.  It was and Bob fixed it and Maurice showed pictures of before it was fixed and after it was fixed and the violin not only looks good now it also sounds good.

James Coulson made a table that was featured in last months Wood Magazine.  He made it out of Cherry and mixed two different colors of stain to get the color he wanted and than finished with Deft.

Ray Cole brought in pictures of a kitchen he renovated for customers of his.

Doyle McConnell brought in a large natural edge bowl turned out of Wormy Red Maple.

Henry Davis brought in a gadget that he made after seeing and using one at Maurice’s shop.  It was a piece of plywood with a saw blade cut in the edge, so you can fit it over your saw blade when changing blades and prevent it from moving when you are tightening or loosening the blade.

Jim Van Cleave brought a work in process.  It will be a tilt top table with pedestal and 3 legs with ball and claw feet.  It has a birdcage to hold top and the top are made out of Black Walnut with scallops around its edge.  He had some of the scallops carved and sanded and others to do yet. The top is 27 inches and he made a fixture with 3 rollers on it and put his router on sled and held rotor in place and turns table by hand and kept changing position until he had it the correct size.  He also used the rotor to put a cove all the way around it.  He drew the lines where he wants the scallops with a template and used a Dremel tool to cut away some of the scrap and than carved the rest.

Gary Runyon found a use for some of his scrap Cherry wood he made Cherry boxes with sliding tops.  He used minwax and Teac oil to finish them putting it on with steel wool size 0000.  He also turned a darning egg; small weaving needles and a Cherry threaded box for the needles. He finished the inside of the boxes before he glued them.

Harold Hewgley turned a vase out of Palonia Royal Princess wood.  He finished it with high gloss polyurethane.

Bob Lowance carved an Indian Mask and he also went to John C. Campbell Folk school and he carved a cowboy and a Santa.  He finished the mask with oils and linseed oil and all the carvings were made from BassWood.

Dave Whyte showed a bending brake he made for bending metal and this was not made out of his usual Walnut since he ran out of Walnut.  He also made a bending jig for flat metal and it did have walnut on the ends of it.

Harry May carved a dogs head on a piece of wormy Buckeye and put on a walking stick.  He carved another walking stick with an English Bull Dog’s head and an owl, snake, turtle and upside down sea horse and a wood spirit carved in it.  He also showed a mule that he carved.

Bob Reese made a violin out of Birdseye Maple which took him a year to finish.  The Maple was in the shop for about 45 years.  His wife played it and it sounded very good.  He also made a tool sharpener based on the Wolverine sharpener.  He made it mostly out of wood and said it was very easy to make.

Loyd Ackerman went to Norway last month and wanted to bring back sample of type of bowls they turn but they were to expensive.  He did bring two bowls that he turned out of Black Walnut.  His wife had purchased a plant stand she liked and after seeing it he decided to make one like it, his was made out of Walnut with the center of the top made out of marble.  He did everything but the legs on the lathe.

Newton Wright 12 years ago found a book of musical instruments and out of it he made a Mountain Teardrop fiddle.  He carved the end of neck for an image of his dog.  He also made a Spill Plane like he saw on the Wood Wright program.  You make peels of wood from it to start a fire with.

Ross Roepke brought in a picture of a solid Mahogany modern bed design that he is making.  It uses full 2-inch thick pieces of Mahogany to make it.  The original cost $3200.00 and the wood to make his has cost him $300.00. He cut some of the pieces for it and has about 5 hours work in it so far.

Harry Hodge, Stones River Woodworkers Club

(Click here for pictures)
Sears: 6 x 48" belt / 9" dia. disk sander
Comes with a few extra disks
It has the stand to go with it.
Contact:  Tom Gillard Jr.
455-6651(H), 393-0525(W)
          $125.00