May 18, 2012

The door prize

In December of every year our Woodworkers Guild has a Christmas dinner in lieu of a regular meeting. This year we recognized two people who made significant contributions to the Guild: our current Guild President, and our Coordinator for the Toy Program (640 toys made by Guild members donated to charity this year). Each was awarded a special plaque that includes a hand-made toy car model, similar to the models given to charity):

Tim, Guild President.

Larry, Coordinator of the Guild's Toy program.

Sometimes the Guild conducts a raffle to raise funds for its Treasury during regular meetings. For this dinner we decided to have a Door Prize. This time we had a very special prize: David Mathias’ wonderful new book, Greene & Greene Furniture: Poems of Wood & Light:

Dick - winner of door prize: David Mathias' book!

On behalf of the entire membership of the St Joseph Woodworkers Guild, I congratulate to all three men. Also on behalf of the Guild, I thank David Mathias for his generous gift of his very special book to the Guild. I know that Dick, our Secretary, will enjoy it very much!

Al Navas

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Today’s assignment: judging high school woodworking projects

I will have photos of the entries early next week.

Every year at this time our local Woodworkers Guild is invited to judge the North West Technology Education Association of Missouri (TEAM) Awards contest. In 2009 I wrote an article about it, with several photos of the terrific woodworking work done by high school students in our District. I am looking forward to this year’s entries.

Sandy and I will participate in judging, as members of the Guild. As I get ready, I look back on last year’s event, and wonder if this year’s entries will be even better. To entice you read the article I linked above, here is the winning entry from 2009:

Overall winner in 2009 - gun cabinet.

 

I must not forget to take the camera with me.

Al Navas

Presentation to our Guild on resawing on the band saw

Our Guild meetings are always interesting, sessions during which I almost always learn something new. Tonight I made a one-hour presentation on resawing on the band saw, covering safety aspects, tuning the band saw, adjusting for drift, blades, drift, etc.:

Showing the details of resawing on the band saw.

Toward the end of the presentation, one of our members requested that I show how to fold a band saw blade into a small hoop. After I demonstrated my method, one member volunteered to show us how he does it. I looked with much interest, as I had never seen it done this way (this is a 19-second movie that Cherie captured on her iPhone):


Video courtesy of Cherie,
recent past Guild President.

I always have a good time at our meetings, seeing people I have missed for a while, and renewing friendships. Tonight was special, as I learned something new, and possibly better than my method of folding a blade. I would love to learn how YOU fold the blades:

  1. Do YOU fold your blades?
  2. Or do you just hang them on the wall until next time?
  3. If you fold them, do you use the method shown in the video?

Al Navas

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