Meeting called to order by Secretary Jim Jolliffe 6:30 PM.

Jim welcomed all those online to our March Zoom Meeting.  The meeting broadcast was hosted at UTSI’s H-111 conference room due to its improved video and audio capability.  We appreciate UTSI’s generosity allowing the club to use H-111 and their broadcasting capability.  Feedback from the members was unanimous that the meeting and program video/audio was greatly improved!

No guests joined.

Officers and Committee Reports:  Vice President & Program Chair Gary Runyon noted next month’s program will be hand-cut dovetails and requested members email him any June and beyond program ideas to his home email: deertracefarm@gmail.com.  He noted that programs don’t necessarily need to be from local folks due to the ability of Zoom to connect us with anyone around the world!

The 2021 Calendar is correct with monthly general meeting dates and first and third Saturday Carving meetings.  The special events column included “placeholders” in the months the special events have been held in the past. The special event leads will need to discuss the timing (if at all) of holding special events and update the calendar accordingly.

Once the general meeting announcements concluded we moved to the Program section of the meeting which was the Show & Tell.

Show and Tell:

Karen Browning showed various maple and cherry turnings she completed at Doyle McConnell’s shop.  The turnings were finished with lacquer.

Denis Urbanczik presented four projects he recently completed.  The first was a compost bin storage container made of Eastern Cedar and finished in teak oil.  The second was a hard pine sofa frame refinishing project. Finish was not yet applied.  Denis noted the effort took a lot of paint stripper to remove the original finish. That takes us to the next small piece he made/invented — scraped finish collecting tool. PS: Hats off to all the restorers out there, this was a lot of work! Denis used a piece of pallet oak and old ballast casing.  He finished the oak piece with teak oil. It performed well!  The fourth and final piece was an upgrade to his router table fence.  He replaced the melamine fence with quartersawn oak and finished it with mineral oil.

Loyd Ackerman Oak Box with CNC V-Carved Name “Wendell” in Top.  The box is 8.5”l x 5.25”w x 4.25”h and constructed of short thin Red Oak (maybe) wood pieces provided by Wendell.  The finish is rattle can lacquer.  His lesson learned is to smile when someone gives you inferior wood. 

No additional projects were shown.

March Program – Cast Epoxy Lava River Table Top

Jack Kincella and Tom Gillard provided a program on a cast epoxy lava river table top.  The program was a shop video of Jack and Tom using casting epoxy sourced from Stone Coat Counter Tops (www.stonecoatcountertops.com/home) and dyes purchased from Alumilite (www.alumilite.com).

This project produced a table top with the theme of the lava flow from an erupting volcano as it flows through the landscape forming channels as it flows.  As the lava cools along the edges in the real world, the color there turns to black as lava rock forms. To emulate that, black dyed epoxy is carefully poured along the edges.  A heat gun blower is used to steer it toward the edge when needed. The epoxy is poured in 1/4 inch layers to manage the setting process which forms bubbles as it begins to cure. When bubbles form a torch is used to pop them.  Jack noted after the video that the ¼” pour allows bubbles to best be managed.  There was no curing time between the ¼” pours.  The entire epoxy pour took 24 hours to set up before Jack use a 50 grit sanding disc to lower the red cedar portions of the table to the epoxy level.  He then used sandpaper on the wood and epoxy progressing to 320 grit before applying Johnson Paste Wax.

This was Jack’s first attempt at cast epoxy.  He used a ¾” plywood board as a substrate and sealed it with 3 coats of 2# shellac.  On future tables, he used MDF that was painted to seal it before the cast epoxy application.  He noted the materials are very cost effective and Stone Coat Counter Tops have excellent online tutorials for their process.  Alumilite carries more than 70 dyes/effects.  Jack and his wife have used the application on a variety of materials including an antique round sawmill blade with a hand-painted scene.  Jack then applied epoxy with a glitter application to mimic stars in the night sky. He said the versatility allows almost any idea! Jack is welcome to provide additional information. To reach Jack, please call him at 931-759-6808 or email him at jackkincellafurnitureman@outlook.com.

Meeting adjourned.  Next meeting is on Tuesday, April 20^th with a program on hand-cut dovetail joints.