SPLINTERS

Tennessee Valley Woodworkers

Vol. 22/ Issue 5       May 2007         Editor: Chuck Taylor 



Meeting Notice:
The next meeting of the TN Valley Woodworkers
will be held May 15th at 7:00 p.m. at the
University of Tennessee Space Institute
All interested woodworkers are invited!

Please remember all our Troops around the world in your thoughts and prayers.

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:        Tom Cowan    967-4835                            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
Maurice Ryan  962-1555   Health and Safety

List of Club Officers for 2007

                                                                                      President:             Tom Gillard, Jr.
                                                                                      V. President:          Matt Brothers
                                                                                      Secretary:             Bob Lowrance
                                                                                      Treasurer:             Jim Steadman
                                                                                       Publicity:              Larry Bowers
                                                                                       Newsletter Editor:   Chuck Taylor
                                                                                       Web-Master:          Richard Gulley
 
 

MAY PROGRAM

Our May program will be a detailed video presentation of “Bowl Turning” from green wood. The featured turner will be Tom Cowen and the producer is Loyd Ackerman. The program will cover every detail concerning the “Green Wood” turning process and will begin with getting the blank out of the log. Come and learn everything you ever wanted to know about the subject

KEEP UP WITH ALL THE CLUB NEWS

(TO VIEW THE LATEST INFORMATION CONCERNING CLUB EVENTS, UPCOMING PROGRAMS AND NEWS -- VISIT THE TVW WEB SITE BY CLICKING HERE)
 
 

The TVW Web Site is changing and is in the process of being redesigned. The changes will result in you being able to navigate within the Web Site easier and more efficiently. Thanks to Loyd and Richard for their efforts toward making the Web Site more useable for our members and Site visitors. Be sure to take a look and check it out!!!!!!!


TVW NEWS AND NOTES
 

TIME TO PAY YOUR 2007 MEMBERSHIP DUES

As a reminder, your TVW dues were payable in January. We will begin the process of removing names from our club roster of those who have not paid their membership dues. If you would like to continue to be a member of the club and receive the Newsletter, please pay Jim Steadman at the next meeting or you can mail your dues check to Jim at his home address (702 Bluff Drive, Winchester, TN 37398).

Our dues are $10.00 for a single membership, and $15.00 for a family membership (what a bargain).
 
 

SCHEDULE OF UPCOMING EVENTS FOR 2007
 

Spring Seminar - May 12. "Chair Making with Greg Pennington". Chairperson: Anthony Watts

Shop Tours - The second 2007 shop tour is scheduled for Saturday May 19. See details under "SHOP TOURS ARE BACK" section.

Annual Picnic and Auction - June 2 (rain date June 9). Chairperson: Karen Kerce Browning.

Coffee County Fair Demonstrations - September 17 -- 22 Chairperson: Doyle McConnell

Fall Seminar – Topic and presenter TBD

Christmas Party - December 7

Click "here" to view all the latest information concerning "TVW Upcoming Events" on our Web Site.

NEXT MAJOR TVW EVENTS

SPRING SEMINAR

The spring seminar, "Chair Making with Greg Pennington" is scheduled for May 12 and will be held at Tom Cowan’s shop. Anthony Watts is the chairperson for this event. Greg is a skilled Windsor Style chair maker with over 100 chairs, rockers and settees made thus far.  Come watch him make a chair from start to finish.  The Seminar starts at 8 am and ends at 6 pm.  Cost is $40 per person and $45 at the door (includes lunch and take home CD with construction info).

This will be an exceptional day of learning and watching a craftsman take raw materials through to a finished chair.  If you have any questions call Anthony Watts at 455-8624 or Matt Brothers at 467-3014.

SHOP TOURS ARE BACK

The first 2007 shop tour was really great. The tour was in the Tracy City area and included the shop of Dean Lutes and the Marugg Company. Thanks to Doyle McConnell for organizing the tour schedules. Thanks to Dean Lutes and Andy Weaver for "showing us around" the Marugg Company and Dean's newly expanded shop.

Our second shop tour will be May 19th in Lawrenceburg. The tour will include the shops of club member Ken Miller and Henry Beckman. We will also visit the Amish shop of  Youree Gingrich.

We will meet at Shoneys in Fayetteville at 8 AM on Saturday May 19, for breakfast and then drive on to Lawrenceburg.  We will meet Ken Miller in Lawrenceburg and he will direct us to his shop, Amish brother Youree Gingrich's shop and to Henry Beckman's shop.

This promises to be a very interesting and entertaining outing.
 
 

THANKS

Thanks to Ken Gould (Coordinator) and those who “braved the elements” to help with the club activities and demonstrations at the Dogwood Festival.

CARVER’S CORNER

The “Splinter Carvers” met at Phil Bishop’s shop on Saturday May 5th. Six carvers were present. They worked on individual carvings, put the mini-totem pole together and put the band on the bottom of the large totem pole.

The decision was made to raffle the mini-totem at the club picnic, selling tickets at the next TVW meeting, the spring seminar and at the picnic June 2. No decision was made concerning the carver’s participation in various arts and crafts events.
 
 

The November and December “refreshment” slots are still available. If you are interesting in helping with this activity, please contact Tom Gillard. You may call Tom at 931-393-0525 or contact him by email at tjgillard@bellsouth.net .
 
 

APRIL PROGRAM

Thanks to Walter Clement for presenting the April program on "Sketching".

MEMBER NAME TAGS

WANT A TVW NAME TAG? HERE IS THE WAY TO DO IT!!!!!

The name tag cost is about $5.00 including tax. You can get yours by contacting Jim Steadman (931-962-2940) or Chuck Taylor (931-728-7086) and they will secure a tag for you.
 
 

MEMBER INFORMATION CHANGES

We strive to always keep the club membership roster listing up-to-date. If you have address, email or phone number changes, please contact Chuck Taylor (931-728-7086) or Jim Steadman (931-962-2940) so that your information can be updated in our membership listings. We are making a concentrated effort to keep our membership information current.
 
 


SHOW AND TELL:

Henry Davis showed a horizontal router stand which he made.

Ken Miller brought pictures of a cherry cabinet he recently finished.  He explained the process of working with wide boards to avoid warping. The inset doors had no visible hinges.

Ken Gould displayed 2 butternut wood spirit carvings. He particularly noted the changes in the color of one of the pieces, due to aging.

Billy May displayed a “Gecko” carving which he made for Lillie Clark.

Dave Whyte brought six sculptured band saw boxes for display.   He had used cherry, poplar and quarter sawn oak.

Jim Wright shared a four foot tall carved "warrior", which is a commissioned piece, made as part of a set. This is to be displayed in a “War” game room.

Ross Roepke displayed several boxes, many of which were book matched.  Two boxes were of Curley Maple with inlay tops, one of which was Oak Burl and the other Carpathian Elm.

Lewis Bryant recently began making pens and brought a display case showing numerous pens of different types of wood.

Doyle McConnell brought a bowl made from cherry wood that Jim Acord had given him.  He gave the bowl to Jim.

Maurice Ryan displayed a clock that he had recently made.  It was inset into a natural shaped board which had retained the bark.

Bill Davis shared pictures of bookcases that he has made from cherry.  These were designed to span 16 feet.  He had particular interest in the type joint that had been used in this design.

“Show and Tell” was followed by a brief video preview (teaser) of the May and June programs. The two-part program will be on the topic of “Bowl Turning” from green wood and will show many details of the process. The programs will feature Tom Cowan.

WOODWORKER'S TIP

"Indexing Jig for Ripping Thin Strips"

Ripping several thin edging strips to the exact same thickness -- such as those you would use to edge-band a cabinet -- can be tricky. The answer is to use a simple indexing jig to set up each cut.

Make a Jig - The jig is just a 1/4" plywood block mounted to a wood runner. To make the jig, start by sizing the runner to fit in the miter gauge slot. Then place the block on top of the runner and move it close to the blade. Once the distance between the block and the outermost tooth on the blade equals the thickness of edging you want to cut, fasten the block to the cleat permanently.

Set Up for First Cut- To use the jig to set up the first cut, simply slide it back away from the blade and butt an extra-wide workpiece against the block. Then slide the fence against the workpiece (Fig. 1).
Once that's done, remove the jig and rip the first strip (Fig. 2). Notice that the fence is positioned so the blade cuts the strip off on the outside (left side) of the blade. That way the edging strip falls off on the "waste" side, reducing the chance of kickback.

Rip Consistent Strips - To rip additional strips to the same thickness, place the jig back in the miter gauge slot and butt the same workpiece against the block again. After repositioning the fence, make a second cut similar to the first one.
Now repeat the setup and ripping operation until you have cut as many strips as needed. You will find that each strip you ripped is exactly the same thickness.

                                            (FIG. 1)                                                                                                            (FIG. 2)

Safety Note: Once the workpiece has been ripped down to about 3/4" wide, stop using it and get another one.
 

----------From Wood Magazine----------
 

WOODWORKER HUMOR
 


 


TOOL DEFINITIONS

 TROUBLE LIGHT:The home mechanic's own tanning booth. Sometimes called a drop light, it is a good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin," which is not otherwise found under cars at night. Health benefits aside, its main purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate that 105mm howitzer shells might be used during, say, the first few hours of the Battle of the Bulge. More often dark than light, its name is somewhat misleading.

PLAN TO ATTEND OUR NEXT MEETING
MAY 15TH
AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE SPACE INSTITUTE.
 
 

WEB SITES OF INTEREST

Wood Central

Woodturner Forum

Intarsia Net

Woodturners Catalog

Exotic Woods
 

click on the image below to go to these sites
(Special contributors to Club functions and activities)
 
 


 
 


 
 


 
 


 

THIS IS THE END OF YOUR TVW NEWSLETTER FOR THIS MONTH
ANOTHER IS BEING PREPARED FOR YOUR "PLEASURE" NEXT MONTH
PLEASE SEND SUGGESTIONS/COMMENTS TO CHUCK TAYLOR