Happy Holidays everyone! The holiday season has arrived and in what ever manner you and your family celebrate this time of year, here are warm wishes for a safe and happy time. I hope that you are able to make the Guild Holiday Party part of your festivities this year. We always seem to have a good time and it just wouldn't be the same without you there to join us. Remember that you don't need to make a toy to attend, the only prerequisites are a cheery smile and a hearty appetite (in lieu of a cheery smile, a wry smirk will also be accepted).
Thank you, Matt Bohlmann. At the eleventh hour in the nomination process Matt stepped up and volunteered to chair the Workshop Committee for 2002, with the caveat that the board stipulation of at least four additional committee member be met. Immediately, more than a half dozen hands shot up in the audience, pledging assistance. The Guild thanks all of you as well. Our programs and workshops have become nationally known, respected, and envied by other woodworking organizations across the country, and we should all be thankful that this team has volunteered to help keep that tradition alive.
If you have the opportunity to indulge in a bit of woodworking during the holidays, make a point of involving your family and friends. Sharing your ideas, skills, and passion is one of the best kind of gifts to give and receive.
The special date meeting of the WWG on Friday, November 9, 2001 was for the presentation of Marc Adams on the concepts of design in furniture building. Mr. Adams is founder of the woodworking school that bears his name, contributed and co-authored several woodworking books, advises numerous agencies in the wood industry, created popular woodworking videos, and has been honored for his work in furniture. His specialties are in veneering, carving, and joinery. What he wants to see in furniture building is work so well done that your children's children will be fighting over it to own and take care of it. His talk on design covered what it takes to be creative when building furniture: how to be better than before at functionality, fit, looks, how long it lasts, and the actual order of construction. He avoided talking about specific styles such as Shaker or Art Nouveau, but what to think about when designing furniture. His talk was divided into three parts, ornamentation, form, and process. Ornamentation is what makes a piece of furniture different than another of the same type, for instance a chair versus a throne. To Mr. Adams, there are 6 factors to consider in increasing the uniqueness of a piece.
1. Put life in the work. These are representations of a person or aspects from their life as in showing what they did.
2. Use nature in the piece. This is best seen in furniture with acanthus leaves, vines, animals, or scenes of nature as part of the ornamentation.
3. Build architecturally. In this case the piece of furniture has a building-like shape.
4. Use icons or a particular style. This is the use of icons, as in symbols, on furniture. For instance eagles in the Federal style, Greek motifs, or elements of style as in square pegs of Arts and Crafts or cloud ears in Greene and Greene Mission style.
5. Make the piece organic. This is the way the furniture flows through the use of root or vine shapes, or in the complex curves of Art Nouveau. The general feel of the design is that it moves or looks alive.
6. Use color. Color creates a mood in the piece like in a bold orange or a calming blue.
Actually putting on ornamentation is quite easy. If you study an ornate piece of furniture and break it down to parts, it is easy to see how it was done and replicate it. The example used was a 4-poster bed. It had a complex molding at the top, turned posts, and a stair rail-like footboard. The molding at the top was basically individual pieces of flat stock combined with a piece of cove and a piece of round over to create a built-up or stacked molding. All it took was 2 router bits. Below that on the frieze board were scroll-sawed shapes that were glued on. Another "plant-on" as these glued on pieces were called were small wagon wheels put on the square portion of the turned posts. The turning themselves only had 2 beads near the top and bottom. The footboard in isolation looked like a stair rail with turned balusters, a flat top rail and a piece of cove molding added below the top.
Form is what makes things functional. Mr. Adams described six aspects of form.
1. Hard versus soft lines. Generally, a hard line is one with a square edge and a soft line has rounded edge. By manipulating the lines, you can change the look of a piece with just a router bit.
2. The weight of the wood or line. In other words, how much wood there is. One can put in a cove molding that is slender or massive. On the trestle of a table you can divide up the trestle with stiles or have a single small square hole. The amount of wood actually there is almost the same, but the table with the stiles looks less massive than the one with the single hole.
3. Positive versus negative space. Positive space is where the wood is and negative space is where the wood isn't (it's air there). As in the tre stle table above, the use of negative space, the space between the stiles, is used to lighten the look of the table.
4. Directionality. Directionality draws your eye along the piece of furniture. The examples given were the curves of an Art Nouveau cabinet and the arrangement of hardware on a chest of drawers. The curves of the Art Nouveau cabinet drew your eye to the center of the piece. By arranging straight drawer pulls on a chest of drawers so they were on a diagonal rather th an parallel to the drawers completely changed the look of the piece.
5. Scale and proportion. When designing a piece of furniture it's best to think of where it's finally going to sit. Absolute proportion means the furniture fits into its environment well. Relative proportion is how the components of the furniture are comfortable with each other. He did not go into a discussion of the golden rectangle or other methods of determining proportion, but made this a judgment call. If the proportions feel right to you, then they are.
6. Animation and posture. Animation in a piece gives it a look that it can move by itself. Posture refers to how proud a piece can stand.
Process was the last part of Mr. Adams's talk. Process is integral to designing because it can simplify the task of actually putting the furniture together. But woodworking can be deceptive in that things that look very hard are actually easy. For instance he had a turned baluster. By cutting it with a bandsaw lengthwise into quarters, then arranging the quarters so that the turned faces all faced in and the bandsawed sides faced out, he created what appeared to be a complex internal carving in a post.
For Mr. Adams, process comes in 3 steps in this order:
1. Each component of the piece of furniture is rough cut square,
2. The joinery is then cut, which means all mortises and tenons are cut or holes for dowels put in; and
3. Each component is cut to its final size or shape. Doing the joinery while the wood is still square is much easier and safer than dealing with a piece of wood that won't sit still because it's rolling or tilting at weird angles. Mr. Adams demonstrated his process with a chair he had designed. He takes a piece of 1/4 in. plywood (luan is cheap) and he cuts it so it's sized to the outside dimensions of a single view of his piece with a little extra. He draws the chair in two dimensions, in this case the side view. This is a full size drawing and it has all the curves he wants and it defines the boundaries for each of the components. Another advantage is that you could stand the plywood up and analyze the side view of the chair from different angles. Even though the chair is in two dimensions, it helps in telling if it looks right. Next he defines the boundaries of each component based upon the stock he uses. The boundaries of each component meet square to each other. He uses this approach to figure out the location and of type joinery. He transfers each component to a piece of tracing paper. Don't cut the plywood! He transfers the tracing paper drawing to the rough-cut blanks that are all SQUARE. At this point he does all the joinery. Once the joinery is complete each piece is sized and curves shaped on the bandsaw to its final dimensions.
The actual steps in designing a piece of furniture come down to five elements.
1. The rough drawing. Just take some paper and doodle. DO NOT USE AN ERASER. Doodle different shapes or things you want to see as part of the piece. Keep going until you have at least 3-4 pages of doodles. These are all po ssibilities. DO NOT ERASE! Innovation. Try to make your piece different from what was done before. The example he used was a child's high chair that actually attached to the dining table.
2. List the requirements for the piece. This means its dimensions, the number of drawers or amount of storage it needs to have, whether it's supposed to be a formal or informal piece.
3. Incorporate ornamentation. See above about what you could add to the piece.
4. Form. The piece of furniture should not leave you wondering what it is. Make sure the piece of furniture is going to do what you think you want it to do. For instance for a table, consider two different views, like the top and the front.
5. Look at your doodles and decide which 3 or 4 shapes might meet your needs or likes. Take pieces of scrap wood like a 2x4 and use a router to shape the sides of the wood so the end grain looks like the top views of the shapes for the top you doodled. On the face of your 2x 4 draw the different front views of the table, one above the other. Each top view will be combined with each of your different front views.
6. Go to the bandsaw and cut out these shapes. You now have a collection of miniature tables with your different forms to analyze. You can see immediately whether the table will stand up properly and has a shape you like. This is much faster than doing a full-scale mock up in the early design stages and it shows you many possibilities with a small expenditure of time and material.
Marc Adams gave the best talk on furniture design the WWG has ever had. Your furniture will have a successful design if it's appealing, functional, and made well. With this information many of us will be able to go beyond pre-made plans and design something unique and special. This talk is one of those great benefits of being a member of the WWG.
Note:
On Saturday, following the Friday evening session on Design for Success, Marc Adams presented a two part seminar on adhesives and joinery.
He supplied the attendees with copious handouts illustrating the various types of joinery, and where they could be used, and in some instances, how to make them. Marc covered the dovetail joint, and how to cut them, mortise and tenon, housed dado joint, dowel joints, bridle joints and finally the hip joint used in chair construction.
A large portion of the presentation was devoted to the topic of adhesives. A full page handout compared and contrasted the various adhesives available to today's woodworker. The utility of each was presented. It covered such aspects as the shelf life, preparation, whether or not it could be reconstituted, required pressure, assembly (open time), strength and durability, moisture resistance and clamp time.
The editor was not present at the seminars. Photographs were taken by Jerry Smaglik, and the handout was supplied by Ron Hinderman.
Friday, November 9, 2001
Event: Membership Meeting
Program: Marc Adams and Furniture Design
Time: 6:15 - 9:29 pm
Presenter: Marc Adams
Location: Washington Park Senior Center
4420 W. Vliet St., Milwaukee
The first meeting of the year 2002 will be held on the second Wednesday. That is January 9th.!
It will feature John McAlpin from the Hansen & Leja Lumber Co. Mr McAlpin will speak on Hardwood Lumber Grading. He will cover grading of hardwood lumber from the producers aspect. He will include the overall philosophy of hardwood grading, a review of the meaning of terms used, and what the producers are trying to achieve with the grading process.
He will also provide advice on what types of grades to use on our projects, as well as regarding techniques used by the producers, and some pricing techniques. John will also show a short film on logging that will give some insight to the overall process that brings the trees to the mills.
If you buy wood, or use wood, see you there.
Treasurer: Liz Rohde was excused because of the by-pass surgery that her husband, Frank, had that day. Her report, by email, indicated a bank balance of $ 9995.59 as of that date.
Workshop: Bob Jahncke reported good feed back on the Marc Adams presentations on Friday and Saturday. A few dates have to be confirmed for planned workshops for the upcoming year.
Exhibit: Don Berger reported a team of 30-some members had indicated a willingness to help with the upcoming Woodworking Show at State Fair Park the weekend of Feb. 1 2, 3. (Friday - Sunday).
Workshop Registration:Dick Yezek said that 77 people had signed up for the Annual Holiday Season Dinner Party at Panos' (Zorba's) on December 5. At this rate, he expects the reservations to reach about 100. Some individuals spelled their name so poorly, a request was made to put "Please Print on the form next year"!
Program: Ken Bahr said that a full slate of programs had been finalized for the year 2002. He sent a list of them and their dates to the Washington Park Senior Center, to assure that those dates are acceptable and reserved.
Library: No librarian has been appointed as of this date. President Petrovic has some leads and is following up on them. We hope to have the Library up and running soon.
Wood Worker of the Year: The Board of Directors, by vote, modified the method of selection of this award this year. President Petrovic recused himself from the consideration and deliberations. As of the date of the Board meeting, there had been no recommendations from the membership for this honor. The Board of Directors selected the member for this award.
Publications: Si Farmer reported that a Calendar of Programs and Workshops for 2002 would be published and distributed at the beginning of the year, after all dates have been confirmed. A summary of programs and workshops will be published in the December RIPSAW. New Trifolds will be published in time for the Woodworkers Show and a Membership Directory, minus interest areas, will be published after the February meeting.
For Sale: The editor was just informed by Rich Sitzes, that due to a death of a great woodworker friend, a total woodworking shop is up for sale. The shop equipment is to be sold as a single lot (no piece-meal) It includes such things as 3 shapers (one with power feed), 1- 3 hp table saw, 6 inch jointer, 15 inch Jet Planer, 24 inch Drum Sander, a Panel Saw, Face Frame Boring Machine, Edge Sander and many many power tools. The whole works, including many cutters, etc, is going for the asking price of $15,000. If you're going into woodworking in a professional way, this might be just what you're waiting for. Call Bill Scheunemann for more details.
For Sale: Delta Shaper, 1/2 inch shaft. Complete w/ stand and some cutters. $75.00. Call Donald Engel for more details.
For Sale: Belsaw Thickness Planer and Molding maker, 5 hp motor, 3 new sets of knives. Also exra knives available. $650.00 Metal Cyclone, small 5 ft, with 2 hp Dayton Model 4C108 B bower with controls for wood chips pickup. $450.00 Wood: two lots of approximately 600 bd ft per lot. Maple, Ash, Oak. 5 yrs dry inside. $1.00 bd ft. Call Dale Lagerman for more details.
December 5. Annual Holiday Season Dinner Party and Toy Collection at Panos' in Waukesha
January 9 (Note ! Date Change)
Event: Membership Meeting
Topic: Hardwood Lumber Grading
Presenter: John McAlpin
Place: Washington Park Senior Center
Time: 6:15 - 9:30 pm
January 12
Event: Progressive Workshop Tour
Presenter: Walt Hadcock and Members
Place(s): As determined by volunteers
February 1 - 2 - 3 (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
Event: The Woodworkers Show
Place: State Fair Park
Time: Friday evening, all day Saturday and Sunday.
February 6
Event: Membership Meeting
Topic: Chair Design and Fabrication
Presenter: Michael Doerr
Place: Washington Park Senior Center
Time: 6:15 - 9:30 pm
January: Hardwood Lumber Grading - John McApin
February: Chair Design and Fabrication - Michael Doerr
March: Scroll Sawing - Al Caldiero
April: Table Saw Blades - Tom Lankton
May: Integrating Hand Tools Into Your Shop - Garret Hack
June: Wood Sculpturing with Chain Saw - Bob Younger
July: Show and Tell - Membership Given
August: Technical Aspects of Wood - Margaret Fisher
September: Clock Making and Restoration - Howard Young
October: Spruce Goose Presentation - Patrick Packard
November: Modern Boat Building Techniques - Mark Bronkalla
December: Annual Holiday Season Dinner Party
The format is simple. Guild members rotate from shop to shop and spend a half-hour or more at each. You can discuss projects, get ideas for your own shop, possibly swap/sell equipment, and generally get better acquainted with other Guild members.
But this will only occur if we have some hosts that volunteer to spend a day in their shops so others may visit. Please contact Walt Hadcock immediately if you are willing to be a host: email him at HadcockW@execpc.com.
Assuming we have hosts, we will have names, addresses, and maps as a hand-out for all to sign up at the January meeting.
For accurately measuring board thickness a vernier or caliper should be the tool of choice.
For better accuracy, place the ruler number at the board edge and use the ruler end as a guide to mark the chosen length.
For even greater accuracy use a mechanical pencil with 0.5mm lead over a wooden pencil, better still use a marking knife.
When using the ruler end for marking is not possible, use the ruler on edge and use the engraved marks to help guide the pencil or marking knife.
Using a marking knife on veneer or plywood also serves to score the wood thus preventing or reducing splintering.
To divide a board accurately into two parts, hold the ruler on edge diagonally across the board with a whole number located on each edge. Make a dot using the center number between them. ie: 4 and 6 on the edge and a dot at 5. Always use a dot and not a line.
This technique also works for divisions greater than two by selecting the divisions accordingly.
To divide a board in two using a marking gauge, set the gauge approximately to half the board width and make a mark. Then make a second mark using the other side of the board. Readjust the gauge to split the difference and repeat the marks. When the marks from both sides fall on one another your division is perfect.
Use white-lead pencils for marking dark woods like walnut.
If a mark disappears it sometimes can be found using a small mirror at the right spot and angle.
To draw a large arc freehand, use your arm as a compass by planting your elbow and swinging the arc with a pencil in hand.
To draw an gentle arc to fit between two points and a given height, cut a straight grain piece of wood like oak slightly longer then the outside length and about 1/8 inch thick by * inches wide. Clamp the ends between a pipe clamp or similar clamp and tighten the clamp to cause the wood to arc.When all three points touch the outside of the bent wood arc you are then ready to draw the arc.
To accurately measure a dimension inside a box, use two rulers with one end of each ruler against opposite sides of the box and read the dimension at the center.
To determine if a box is square measure across the corners and adjust until both diagonals are equal.
To draw parallel lines tape two pencils together and draw as one. Use spacers between the pencils for even wider parallel lines.
If you use a CAD program use it to make actual size drawings to be pasted to wood using school stick glue. This ends layout and the glue is removed with water.
CAD generated angles are accurate no matter what the scale. Using the technique above this scheme makes quick work especially for those odd angles.
Jan 12: Progressive Workshop - Tour Hadcock et al.
Feb ??: Chair Design and Fabrication - Michael Doerr
Mar 16: Sharpening of Planes, Irons, Chisels - Hadcock and Petrovic
May 4: Design Details. Where to use them and how to make them - Garret Hack
May 5: How to create curved elements in your woodworking - Garret Hack
May 11: Marquetry - Pete Kolettis
Sep 14: Hand Plane Restoration and Tuning - Hadcock
Oct 12: Build a Mantle Clock - Jerry Claussen
Nov 16: Pen Turning - Liz Rohde
Alan Clapp
The year end raffle prize is a No. 4 1/2 Smooth Plane with High Angle Frog. This finely crafted hand tool has been donated by Lie-Nielsen Toolworks. The No. 4 1/2 has a 2 3/8ths blade bedded at a 50 degree angle to reduce the tear-out on highly figured woods. Made of ductile iron with a bronze frog/cap and Cherry handle/knob this tool will be a pleasure to use on your next woodworking project! Lie-Nielsen Toolworks is located at P.O. Box 9, Route 1, Warren, Maine 04864, 800-327-2520, www.lie-nielson.com