Mark's Musings

Mark Bronkalla

  The May meeting was quite a bit different than most. We had 5 different demonstrations going on. Lather turning was the them and we had a number of mini and midi lathes set up. You could get close, learn new techniques and ask questions. With all of the simultaneous demos going on there was plenty to choose from. My favorite was George Henderson’s demo on off-center / multi-center turning. He demonstrated how to turn oval vases.
  I want to thank all of the folks that brought in their tools and doing the demonstrations. It shows what we can do with member involvement. If you liked the meeting, let any of the board members or the demonstrators know (red guild shirts). I think it was a lot of fun. Based on interest, we may do some more like it in the future. There are many things we could demo. 
  The June Meeting will have Mike Hanley discussing hand planes. He will be showing the planes and comparing them. We will also set up a bit differently. Only one of the stage sections will be used and the chairs will be set up on 3 sides. Sort of a “hand planes in the round” kid of thing. We want to be able to have people site close to see what Mike is talking about.
  We are still looking for more folks to sign up for our booth at German Fest. The June meeting will be your last chance to sign up as we have to turn in the registration form after it.
  The July meeting is our annual show and tell and tool swap. Bring in your surplus tools to sell.  This is a great chance to trade up or convert the tool you never use to cash. Show and tell sign up sheets will be at the June meeting . The show and tell can be a project, jig / fixture, technique, etc. The project can be shown to show off your workmanship or to discuss some aspect of its construction and finishing. YOU can even bring in an unfinished item and ask for some help. Indicate what you will be bringing and how much time you would like. 5-20 minute time slots are available . Typical time is 15 minutes.  Items to show have ranged in size from 6 inches  to 20 feet
  We need volunteers and logs for Logfest. Contact Ron Hinderman or Bill Smeaton. There will be several sawing sessions over the summer. The sawing is fun and you also get to scope out the wood in advance of the auction. Knowing what is coming really helps in budgeting.
  This month, ‘In the Shop, ’ was a bit light for woodworking. In April and May we get the boat ready for the summer. Nothing terribly interesting there from a woodworking standpoint this year. We had to lift the engine to fix the oil drain hose (what a pain) and paint the bottom.
  I made a final version of the double high / wide  feather board for the table saw. This was suggested and prototyped at the panel raising class. This makes panel raising much safer as the blade is actually covered by the feather board. The greater pressure area and having the high fingers helps hold the work against the fence better. The cut quality is also noticeably improved!
  The Surface Prep Class was a lot of fun. We covered a number of finish prep techniques with particular emphasis on scraping and solving problems. Everyone got a chance to sharpen a scraper and use one. This helped each person prove to themselves that it really is as easy and fast as it looks. The Lee Valley Veritas Cabinet Scraper was a real hit. I think that several will be purchased in the coming weeks. It makes
getting a smooth surface very easy.
  I enjoy shopping for old tools at flea markets, rummage sales and antique stores. We went to the Elkhorn Flea Market. I was able to pick up some planes including a Stanley #8 for $20!. It was a bit rusty but cleaned up beautifully. The bed was flattened on some sheets of 220 grit wet or dry sandpaper that were stuck to a large aluminum plate. The blade back had some pitting. The pitting was removed with some sanding and honing, leaving a perfectly flat back for the first inch or so of the blade. Lots of life is still left in the blade.
  It was a good thing I had the kids along with backpacks to act as bearers. The big plane gets heavy after a while. Plus my wife, Teal, had picked up some items of her own. I had hoped to find a Stanley 45 but they were all vastly overpriced and very incomplete. Maybe I will have better luck next time. If you are trying to save some money, there were lots of #4, #5 and block planes to be had for generally reasonable prices (although one person wanted $80 for a not terribly nice #5).

Board Briefs

MAY BOARD BRIEFS

Ken Bahr

President:

A microphone headset was found and the board voted to purchase one for the meetings. A purchase of a “flip chart” and markers was also approved, as any old ones cannot be located. Sign up sheets will be at the next meeting for both “Show and Tell” and German Fest”

VicePresident:

Dick Yezek  The Sign-making /Gilding Workshop was cancelled due to lack of sign-ups. The Chip Carving Workshop was cancelled, but may be rescheduled in fall.

Exhibts:

The sign-up for German Fest has 10 members participating so far. A few others will be needed to make this successful. Sign-up at the June meeting.

Programs /  Workshops:

Show and Tell for July, August and September have not been confirmed as of meeting date. Log fest was discussed at length, as we have an offer of about 75 logs. Purchase of these will be determined by securing transportation to the cutting sight, as they are about 50 miles away and a truck would have to be hired for this quantity. Several contacts have been made by Ron Hindermann, but firm prices are not yet in.
    Workshops for fall are still in the works, with a “workbench workshop” being discussed and possibly an ornament turning workshop for fall. Details are being worked out in the next few months. The Program/Workshop Committee is trying to finalize programs for the remainder of the year, and also starting on next years schedule.
Plans will be made to provide better promotion of the workshops and more details (such as samples).


Program

Ken Bahr

JUNE

Comments:
  Mike Hanley, one of the founding members and a past president of the Wisconsin Woodworkers Guild, has done extensive research into the capabilities of both antique and new hand planes that are available today.  He will compare and contrast them as well as provide information on the best ways to acquire hand planes.  This is a great companion program to the “how to use a plane” program done by John Petrovic in February.  John showed you how to use them and Mike will point you to the best ones and how to find them.

JULY


  Workshop Cancellations - Both the Chip Carving Workshop and the Signmaking/Gilding Workshop were cancelled due to lack of participation. These were really good workshops to attend. Hopefully conflicts were the cause of this. If there is some interest in the fall, the two members that were going to give them could be available then. Those who would be interested please contact Ken Bahr.

  Potential Workbench Workshops:

    There is potential for a Workbench Workshop later this year. We would like to have a multi-session hands on workshop with participants actually making a workbench. Everyone would learn the techniques needed to build a good workbench, and the one that would be built would be the Guilds for our presentations. No date is set yet, plans are still in the early stages. More details will be published during the summer.
  There is interest have a “Mini-Quilt Racks” Workshop- to learn some basic turning and bandsaw techniques to make a number of mini-quilt racks similar to the ones donated last year to the Milwaukee Art Museum. Anyone interested in this please contact Ken Bahr before the July meeting.

Reflections

Woodturning Demonstrations
Leila Crandall-Frink


 We were privileged to have 4 members do woodturning demonstrations and one member doing scroll saw demonstration at the last Guild meeting. The turners doing demonstrations were:Liz Rohde showing how to make a turned large candlestick; Mary Anderson showing how to turn a pen; Klaus Zunker showing how to make a turned potpourri bowl;and George Henderson doing an offset turning of a small vase. The scroll sawing demonstration was performed by Bill Smeaton, doing a cut out of a maple leaf that would fit on the potpourri bowl.


offset1I had never seen anyone do offset turning before and that was interesting. It required changing where toffest2he spindle was on the vase. The result was an almost oval shaped vase with a both sides coming together in a triangular shape. I hope George will bring a completed vase to the next meeting so we can all see the finished product.













candlestick1candlestick2It was also interesting to see Liz do her turning of the large candlestick. I have turned a candleholder before and it was amazing to see Liz do it so effortlessly. Her skill is to be admired.









I



pen1pen2It was interesting to see Mary have trouble with a pen blank breaking out on her, since that is often my result when doing that. And many other folks in the audience had ideas on how to prevent that from happening. I hope Mary found that as helpful as I did.














potpourri1Potpourii2Klaus and Bill worked side by side, one turning the very pretty small bowl and the other cutting the pretty design in the already turned top. Klaus’ bowls seemed to be finished so quickly and as fast as he had them done, Bill had a top finished also. He also showed folks how he did his scroll sawing on 1 in. thick pieces of wood.











All of the presenters answered questions as they worked.  I am sure that created a more difficult time for each of them.  The Guild members who were present seemed to find plenty of questions to ask and felt free to move between the demonstrations.
The difficulty with this method of presentation seemed to be in keeping up with any kind of schedule. While the intent was to have a common question and answer time, most people decided to ask their questions while they were watching the demonstration. It was an interesting format for the meeting and I am sure the Program Committee will be assessing the effectiveness of the format.

Thanks to those who did the demonstrations.  I am sure it was not totally easy.  We appreciate their efforts on our behalf.


Basic Series Workshop Review

Jeffrey M Nebel

  Several Guild members gathered in the home woodworking shop (studio) of Mark Bronkalla who hosted an informative three-evening workshop series. In addition to learning about frame and panel construction and wood surface preparation, everyone had ample opportunity to ask questions and share relevant experiences with the group. Mark generously answered questions and demonstrated tips and techniques beyond the planned scope of the workshops that exceeded expectations and made for an enjoyable time for all. This was another great Guild event where you learned more than you bargained for and furthered friendships.
  Mark demonstrated multiple approaches to tackle several common woodworking tasks. Rails and stiles and the
associated mortise and tenons were cut on the table saw, radial arm saw and router. Panels were raised on the table saw, shaper and router. Wood was surfaced by machine and by hand. Removal of mill marks, router tracks, router ripples, snipe and burns using sanding, scraping and hand-plane techniques were discussed and demonstrated.
  Mark pointed out that a few minutes spent looking each board over for defects such as cross grain scratches and
imperfections will save time during the staining and finishing stage and yield professional results. Mark also demonstrated how to remove scratches that are uncovered when staining. A quick wipe down of a board using mineral spirits may reveal some unsightly scratches. Knowing where scratches will be more apparent, such as on flat grain boards warrants extra attention before finishing.

  Any Guild discussion on surface preparation would not be complete without a hand scraper sharpening demonstration.  Mark’s 3-step method was successfully completed by several of your colleagues:

Raffle Column

Alan Clapp


  Winners of the March raffle were Bill Drumel and Larry Jornt. The April winner was Mike Goldstone.
    The Wednesday May 5th raffle is a pair of hearing protectors donated by Paula Nicks and Dust Bee Gone.  The light weight and padded headband has a 26 dB noise reduction rating.  Dust Bee Gone participated in the Milwaukee Woodworking Show and offers the Dust Bee Gone breathable lightweight dust masks that filter effectively down to 3 microns.  Other Dust Bee Gone products may be viewed at http://www.dustbeegone.com  They may be contacted at 239-694-3627 in Fort Myers, Florida.


Classified

Delta 16" bandsaw with extra blades and accessories. $225 Brian Halligan

Portable Thickness Planer. Delta 22-540 12” Good working condition. Comes with children’s workbench / stand,
 including a real front mounted woodworking vise and a 12” knife sharpening jig for Delta vertical grinder.  All for $225. Mark Bronkalla