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These bowls of osage orange were chiseled out by
David Janowitz using a biiiig chisel and a lot of pounding. Of course,
the wood is hard. David discovered that his branding iron works soooo
much better on a flat surface.
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Lon Kelley presented some slides to show how he
band sawed, glued up and arranged laminated beams from mahogany and
padauk to create those butterflies. The butterfly effect?
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Maple, walnut and “darned-if-I-know” wood mostly
from his scrap pile was used by Dean Grimes when he crafted these
cutting boards. They are finished with mineral oil.
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This unfinished box of walnut and maple by Hugh
Parker has a secret drawer – but don’t tell anyone.
Hugh admitted that he did use some steel pins so he could say
that he didn’t use nails.
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These marble games and ball and cup games were
cleverly crafted by Chuck Lickwar.
Chuck made a jig so he could make three at a time.
He claims the ball and cup games are defective because the ball
won’t flip into the cup.
The ball and cups could double as shot glasses with stoppers – the
string so you don’t lose the stoppers.
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Left over curly mango from the islands was used by
Matt Proctor for his hall table.
He finished it with polyurethane.
Matt forgot to bring margaritas.
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While taking a break from fret work, Norm Nichols
decided to try some scroll saw boxes of mahogany and maple.
He finished them with polyurethane. Nice break, Norm.
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The
table is Patrick Water's first attempt at making a table – good job
Patrick.
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The crosses of purple heart, and kittens
reflecting in water were scroll sawed by Rick Spacek.
The pattern for the kittens was
created from a picture.
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A couple of upcoming weddings make a great reason
for Steve Wavro to craft wedding plaques. Steve found instructions on
how to personalize an existing pattern.
That way Steve could add names and dates.
The plaques are of birch with walnut backs.
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Rick Spacek did some wood burning to create
interesting patterns on a chunk of beef bone.
I don’t think he is going to
give that to the family dog
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Patrick Water used a laser cutter to create
images of his wife, kids and himself on the wall hangers.
He bought and then painted cheap hooks to create an antique look.
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Bob Wink acquired some scrap wood around the San
Jacinto Monument and made a cart of a family drive with Dad and, of
course, being in Texas, Bob says he hopes to grow up to become a cowboy
someday. Yippee tie yah, Bob.
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Tom Blanco made this calendar with wood he had
on hand. The calendar
inserts and slides out from the top. Tom calls it his afternoon project.
Now Tom can track and plan all of his projects.
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This space is intentionally blank.
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Jim Douglas was proud of the Lee-Nielsen hand plane
that he had purchased and wanted to show them to club members.
They aren’t cheap because they come with many finely made
features that Jim "plainly" pointed out.
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A trolley car upon which children can play will
soon grace the grounds of Woodland Park.
Paul Carr found an old photo of a trolley car that used to run
from Houston to Woodland Heights in the early 1900s and from that took
measurements needed to construct the trolley.
Paul used kiln dried after treatment (KDAT) lumber.
He painted the pieces before assembling the trolley.
Now all Paul needs are tracks, right-of-way and some ding
ding--or maybe clang clang?
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Chuck Graham showed slides of his light table that he made for his great
granddaughter’s classroom. It is eight inches deep with dovetail joinery
on all four corners. One
end, however, is not glued so it could be knocked off with a hammer if
necessary. LED lights of
various colors flood the acrylic table top.
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Steve Procter, former
president of WWCH and very long time member, spoke to Club members about
the different types of fasteners available to woodworkers. Steve spoke
basically of two kinds, hand driven and air/electric driven.
Steve talked a little about the history or nails.
Many years ago nails were hand forged and were quite expensive.
It is said that as early pioneers moved on they would burn down
their shacks to recover the nails.
Imagine doing that today.
Some woodworkers when using a nail will blunt the
end of the nail to make it less likely to split the wood because it
pushes the fibers out of the way.
Ring shank nails do a great job staying in place over time.
Pneumatic nails are great labor savers and they
shoot a variety of specialty nails.
You buy pneumatically driven nails in gauges – the larger the
number the smaller the size (not the length) of the nail.
The angle helps you get into some tighter places but Steve has
never needed the angled nailers. Steve
warns that rigging your nailer to shoot on the bounce is dangerous so
pay extra attention when doing so.
Pin nailers are useful for securing small pieces of
wood until the glue dries.
The gauge of typical pin nailers is number 23.
Pin nail strips are labeled with a triangle to show the direction
of the pointed end of the nail – don’t ignore this.
Steve spoke about the variety of screws available
to woodworkers. Drywall
screws are not ideal for use with wood.
They are brittle and can break easily.
Steve prefers the square drive because a screw will fit nicely
into a bit and thus not fall out.
Torx (or star) bits are not preferred by Steve because of too
many different sizes of drives required.
After drilling a hole the Kreg screw has a washer on the screw
head which helps prevent the wood from splitting.
Kreg screws are most useful for pocket hole joinery.
Steve also talked about various types of bolts
which are useful, obviously, when you want to be able to disassemble
something.
Biscuits are useful, increase the glue area, and
help with the alignment when joining wood together.
The biscuit will swell and can cause the wood to dimple if the
wood is soft.
Without a jig dowels are difficult to align and one
should use a spiral or fluted dowel that allows the glue to squeeze out
of the hole.
Steve has extensive experience installing cabinets
and offered numerous tips to club members.
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Photos, captions and commentary: Gary Rowen
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