TVW Zoom Meeting Minutes 1/19/21

Meeting called to order by President Carl Blumenthal 6:30pm.

No guests

Carl welcomed all those online to our first Zoom Meeting of the club and our first general meeting since February of 2020.  TVWW is celebrating our 36^th year!  He noted that a short set of slides covering Tips Using Zoom were sent to the club members in advance of the meeting to help them navigate this new technology.

He noted that this new method was a useful way to connect club members during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Club Secretary Jim Jolliffe covered Tips for Using Zoom slides including better viewing options and the ability for members to enable microphone and video use during the meeting.  Users can find their audio and video controls on the lower left corner of their Zoom window.  We are hopeful that with multiple uses, members will be comfortable adjusting their settings.

Officers and Committee Reports: Carl noted that the 2020 officers and Committee Chairs had all agreed to serve for 2021.  Vice President & Program Chair Gary Runyon requested members email him any program ideas to his home email: deertracefarm@gmail.com.  We 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 Super Show & Tell.

Super Show and Tell:

Gary Runyon has been working on many projects since our last meeting!  He discussed his progress on hand cut dovetail joinery and showed pictures of pine and cherry dovetails from the first one to a later one.  As a result of his practice, he is getting consistently good ones now.  Gary showed us finger jointed boxes with sliding lids made of cherry, black walnut and white oak and finished in Minwax Antique Oil Finish.  The finger joints were cut on a three-axis router.  Gary showed three threaded acorn boxes with dogwood bottoms and cherry tops and finished with Briwax.  He also showed a Tanto style tool/storage box made of ambrosia maple and finished with Minwax Antique Oil Finish.  He showed a CD storage box also out of ambrosia maple made with finger joints and finished with Minwax Antique Oil Finish. His final project was 18^th Century style tape looms made from cherry and finished with Minwax Antique Oil Finish.

Loyd Ackerman showed two projects.  The first was an Antique Mantle Clock Imitation made of maple and cherry and finished with 1 coat sanding sealer and 3 coats Deft satin “rattle can” lacquer.  He noted he had two tries at finial design before being satisfied with look.  The split turning was learned at a Club seminar.  The back has two small nails in its top that are forced in to hold the top in.  The bottom has a ¼-20 thread in the wood frame for the brass hold-in screw. Loyd also showed a side table with 2 legs made of walnut and 2 legs made from dyed and glazed poplar.  All legs had CNC carved embellishments.  The table top, apron and shelf were mahogany.  He applied 2 coats lacquer sanding sealer and 3 coats of Deft Satin Lacquer [sprayed].  He learned that it is difficult to match poplar to walnut!  We hope Loyd will send us a close up of the CNC legs as part of the February Show & Tell!

Richard Gulley showed us a poplar Garden of Gethsemane CNC-carved panel finished with sanding sealer, stain and a wax topcoat.  He noted that the various depths of tool cuts were very challenging on this intricate piece!

Vince Zaccardi showed 9 cherry crosses with CNC-carved lettering by Richard Gulley and rope applied that was supplied by Paul Jalbert.  The mortise and tenons were cut with a pantorouter.  The crosses were finished with sanding sealer and lacquer.

Walt Elliot showed a variety of bowls he recently turned out of various species and ranging in size from just over 3” diameter to just under 17” diameter and just over 1” deep to almost 7” deep with a variety of finishes.  Walt noted:  As a new member and a new woodworker, I am amazed at the talent of so many members!  My woodturning background consisted of turning 2 bowls–one with the help of a friend from Athens TN a few years ago and one with the help of Doyle McConnell after moving to Manchester — both done on their lathes. It was so enjoyable, I started looking for a used Powermatic lathe and when the pandemic hit, took the plunge and bought a new one in May 2020. Since then, I’ve turned about 30 bowls: learning mainly from trial and error and YouTube videos.  I’m definitely still on a big learning curve but am really enjoying it. And…looking forward to when the club can resume meetings.

Ross Roepke shared a sample of the amazing work he has created over the past 25 years and given to family, friends and charities.  Ross’s eye for extraordinary wood grain patterns, alignment and furniture design were clearly evident in the array of pieces shown.  He used a variety of finishes and noted that he has shared many tips and tricks with the club over the years! From boxes to desks, rocking horses to wall hangings, we were delighted to see the breadth of his talent!

Allen Odell shared four Christmas elves he carved out of basswood for his grandkids.  He finished them in colored pencils and spray lacquer.  Judy Bennett noted that she uses oil paint pencils for finishes similar to Allen’s pencils and will share her pencil source with the club.   Allen noted that the project was fun in Jim’s shop but his wife said to keep carving!

Fred Heltsey shared some of his gifts he has made for his kids, their spouses, and grandkids.  First was a red cedar mug turned from a 4×4 air dried post.  He added CA glue to seal some cracks and finished it with 3 coats of wipe-on spar varnish and micro chrystaline wax.  He learned that CA glue dries before you can coat large areas in one sitting; apply thin coat in single passes with small pieces of paper towel; repeat using a fresh towel piece for each pass; and DO NOT overlap passes!  Fred showed turned candle sticks made from 100 year old Douglas Fir 3”x14” floor joists for 1.5” pillar candles.  He finished them with 3 coats wipe-on CA glue and noted, like the mug, CA glue dries before you can coat large areas in one sitting.  Fred showed three turned Christmas ornaments.  One had a spalted maple ball and sycamore finials; one with a royal paulownia ball and black walnut finials; and one with a Wisteria ball and apple wood finials.  All were finished with 3 thin coats of wipe-on CA glue.  Again, you need be aware that CA glue dries fast so you need to limit the amount of surface area you finish at a time. Fred turned a button lidded box with a black walnut lid and a box bottom made from a 100 year old yellow pine 2×12 floor joist.  The lid insert was made from sycamore.  The lid and insert was finished with walnut oil and the base was finished with spar varnish and Johnson Wax.  The lesson learned on this turning is to drill the lid holes before hollowing as he didn’t on this one and had to add the lid insert to cover backside tear-out.  Fred also turned a long-handled scoop and a pair of short-handled scoops from windfall red cedar.  He finished them with multiple coats of walnut oil and noted that the scoop walls were thicker than he intended. Fred showed 33 shadow-copied stair baluster finials turned from a 100 year old red oak 2×4 stud and finished with Brush-On Minwax Satin Penetrating Stain, then 3 thin coats of brush on spar varnish.  He noted the shadow-copy method is fast and accurate and that, even though it took 4 lathe setups, he could turn a square blank to a finished finial in 6 minutes!  Fred showed “String Steadies” made from 3/4” plywood, screws and cotton string.  No finish was applied.  They work very well to safely hold thin finials and are easy to set up. Fred offered to demonstrate the shadow-copy method as a future program.

Patrick Murphy showed a 10” high decorative optical illusion created for his physics students from black walnut and cherry.  He finished the piece with Clear Satin spray varnish.   He got the idea from a YouTube video.  The “floating” component is suspended by small chains.  John Hartin noted that the sum of the moments connecting the “floating piece” to the “mounted piece” need to be equal to zero for this “illusion” to work. Fred Heltsey noted that chairs have been made with rope instead of chains but the chains work better for the “illusion” because they don’t stretch like rope.

Jim Jolliffe showed a Victorian Moon Santa and Star carved out of basswood and finished with boiled linseed oil, acrylic paint, Deft Semi-Gloss spray lacquer, and liquid wax.  The carving design was based on a 2D painting.  He noted that he hadn’t held a carving piece in his hand for a while.  To use both hands for carving, it was a challenging effort to clamp the Moon shape to carve details.  He used a carving arm and vice-grip type clamps to secure work for some final details like the holly, cap texture and beard texture.

When we asked if anyone else had something to show, Clay and Cindi Cooper used their tablet computer to show a their live edge table, sideboard (which can convert to a bar) and mirror in their home.  The pieces were beautifully constructed by Clay with woodburning accents by Cindi. We noted that these pieces were able to be seen via Zoom and they wouldn’t be hauled into an “in person” meeting.

We received great Zoom Meeting Format/Flow feedback from the members.  They unanimously preferred the “side by side” slide format that had both the words and pictures on a single slide.  This style allowed us all to better enjoy and understand the displayed project.  We will use that format in future meetings.  Members asked that the General Meeting invitation be sent at the start of the month and then the reminder sent the day of the event.  The reminder being sent on the day of the event should allow members to easily find the reminder and Zoom link in their inboxes.

Another high feedback item was the audio quality due to many “open” microphones during the meeting.  To mitigate this audio concern, please mute your microphone if you are not presenting during the meeting.  Simply move your cursor over your microphone icon in the lower left corner of your Zoom window and click on it.  You are muted when your microphone icon has a red diagonal line across it.  To comment or present your Show and Tell project, simply press and hold down on your space bar to unmute your microphone.  Once you are finished talking, release the space bar and you will returned to a muted microphone.  We will remind everyone of this during the meeting as it really makes a positive difference to the quality of the meeting audio.  Thank you all, in advance!

Meeting adjourned.