Newsletter
May 2010
Newsletter
May 2010
May Meeting
Is Tuesday!
May 11th
7:30 PM Start
Meetings are held
at the small pre-school building on the corner of County Line Road & Ridge
Avenue
Social hour starts @ 7:00
May meeting Highlight
Open Turning Night
Next Tuesday’s meeting will feature open turning. There will be at least three lathes set up and ready for whatever you want or need to know. This is a great opportunity for you to give a new or rusty technique a try! Also, there will be a sharpening system set up and ready for you to put a new edge on your tools.
The current plan is to have our large lathe set up for bowl or hollow turning, while one of the minis set up for spindle turning (think getting used to the skew if you dare)…practice beads and coves or whatever you want. The other mini will be available for turners’ choice.
Ron Hughes has generously agreed to supply the wood for us to turn.
In anticipation of this momentous event, the club has purchased an additional chuck, the Penn State Barracuda 2 T/N with five sets of jaws and a couple of screw centers.
Also for May, remember Bev’s challenge, held over by popular demand, is a pepper mill.
No show and tell this month.
Upcoming Meeting
The next show & tell is scheduled for the June meeting. We haven’t had one in a while, so there ought to be some great things “showing up.” Tom will have the photo booth up and running.
June will also feature a repeat of our famous tool sale (well maybe not so famous but we’re gonna do it again). The details are in the President’s message.
The
President’s Message
Wow. It's May already. Only 1
more month before our summer break!
I hope you all are taking advantage of the nice weather and spending some time
turning.
Did anyone try the things Barry Gross showed us? While many of the things he discussed were
similar to the way I already did things, I did pick up a few tips. If you haven't watched his DVD yet, you might
want to consider it. Everything he covered during the demo is on the DVD, plus
more. Remember that we have a copy in
the club library, if you didn't buy a copy of your own.
I hope you all feel we're providing enough opportunities for you to learn.
We've been averaging open turning sessions about every third meeting, and we're
trying to cover the key aspects of turning.
If there are techniques you want to learn that we aren't covering,
please let us know. We've also been
getting some good demonstrators this season, and have some great ones in mind
for the fall.
I'm happy that the mentor program is finally off the ground, although disappointed
by the participation. So far, I seem to
be the only one who has signed up to be a mentor, and have three members that
I'm working with. We have some amazing
talent in our club - certainly there are others who are capable of mentoring!
We also are getting the HOW workshop off the ground. Remember that the first HOW - spindle turning
techniques, culminating in turning a bottle stopper - is May 22. Cost is $35,
and includes lunch and cost of materials.
See John Puckhaber to sign up.
I'm hoping we get good participation on this.
HOWs are great ways to share knowledge, and face it: you can't take a woodturning course for
cheaper than this anywhere!
Also, just because we don't have meetings over the summer, doesn't mean we
can't have HOWs. Is there a particular
skill you want covered? Please let us
know, so we can try to schedule a HOW that covers it. Do you have a HOW you'd like to host? Please let us know that as well. Is there a reason you aren't willing to sign
up for a HOW (either as a presenter or a participant)? If so, we'd like to understand that as
well. The bottom line, we're offering
these sessions for you, the members. If
we don't get good participation, the sessions will fall by the wayside. So
please, help us make this program a success!
Next month (June), we will have our final show & tell for the spring. I will be setting up the photo booth, so
bring any items you want photographed for the gallery.
Simultaneously, we'll be repeating a popular event from last year: a tool sale. Do you have items you want to
sell? If so, bring them! This is a silent auction, where a piece of
paper will be placed next to each item.
A suggested opening "bid" will be written on the paper by the seller. Anyone who wants to buy that item will write
down how much they're willing to spend for it. If someone wants to buy that
item and is willing to spend more, they will write down their higher bid. At the end of the evening, the highest bid
gets the item! It's as simple as that.
Remember a few rules: Anything brought in MUST leave!!!! If items aren't sold, they must be taken back
home or thrown away. Do not just leave them
here, assuming the club wants them. If you have items too big to bring in,
bring pictures and a description. Items should be woodworking related. Don't
bring in your old plumbing, for example, and try to sell them. Tools, wood, pen kits, pen blanks, finishes,
etc., are all reasonable items. And
finally (but most importantly), ten percent of the sale price goes to the
club's treasury. So price accordingly, and remember to give the money to Stan
before you leave.
Finally, I have to hang my head in disappointment, and report that we didn't
win the AAW website contest once again.
They only list the top 3, so I don't know what place we came in at. But we didn't make that list.
Here are the winners:
First Place: Northeast Florida Woodturners Association
http://www.jaxturners.org/
webmaster: Keith Larrett
Second Place: Hunt County Woodturners, Inc
http://www.huntcountywoodturners.org/
webmaster: Johnny Campbell
Third Place: Montgomery County Woodturners
http://montgomerycountywoodturners.org/default.aspx
webmaster: Carl Powell
Personally, I think Hunt County Woodturners has the best website, AND newsletter.
But I wasn't the only one voting. I see a lot about this site that I like, and I
might try to incorporate some of it on our site over the summer. We'll see. I hate making promises, since I know I'd much
rather be turning than working on the website! So don't hold your breath. But we'll see.
See you at the meeting,
Tom
Club Mentoring Program
Our mentoring
program has started with Tom Jones mentoring Lisa Carey on mastering the basics
of turning. From both Lisa and Tom, the
program is well worth it.
However, Tom has
been the only one to volunteer to be a mentor, but there are more expert
turners in our club who could volunteer to share their skills with someone who
needs or wants to learn or improve skills.
We also need our
members to let us know what they need.
Our Own HOW Program
(Repeat Message From
April)
We are once again
trying to start our own club’s HOW (Hands On Workshop)
program. Before we explain the first
workshop, here are some of the general specifics:
Because of our
insurance regulations, only AAW members will be able to participate. For space and equipment issues, a maximum of
six people can attend (my shop space and number of lathes and equipment
available, at least for the first one).
The cost for each
will be $35.00, with a portion going for supplies, some to the club’s treasury,
lunch, and the rest, other expenses.
Now for the First HOW Program:
The first HOW will be held at John Puckhaber's
shop, on May 22, 2010.
Tom Jones and John Puckhaber are collaborating on
this one. The topic will be Basic Spindle Turning,
with the final result being to turn a bottle stopper. Participation will be limited to 6
participants.
This is considered a beginner to advanced beginner level
HOW, with emphasis on people who have turned a couple of pens, and are ready to
move up to the next level.
Attendees are encouraged to bring their own tools, if possible. If you don't have tools, there will be tools available
for you to use. The tools that will be
used include:
- Spindle Roughing Gouge
- Parting Tool
- Spindle Gouge (3/8" and/or 1/2")
- Skew
The agenda for the Basic Spindle Turning HOW will include:
- sharpening tools
- methods for mounting spindles on the lathe
- using the skew and roughing gouges to turn spindles to round
- using the skew and spindle gouge to turn beads and coves
- sanding and finishing techniques
- advanced topics, such as turning captive rings, if time allows.
The participants will complete the session by turning one or more bottle stoppers,
as time allows (wood and non-wood parts are supplied).
The HOW is expected to last 6 hours, starting at 9:00am, and running until
approximately 3:00pm.
A signup sheet will be available at the May 11 meeting. You can also contact
John Puckhaber directly.
Ron Hughes
For those of you who
actually read this newsletter, you know that Ron Hughes has been submitting
“Wood of the Month” articles recently (he has also been very generous to us by
supplying us with good! wood). Since Ron
is in the “wood business,” I asked him to write his biography this month instead
of his usual wood column.
Here is Ron’s bio:
A little story about me, Ron Hughes
Because I’ve done a couple of articles in our news letter on the “tree of the month,” I’ve been labeled the “tree guy.” By now some of you are probably asking yourselves, how does he know this and where does he get all of his wood.
Well, I’m not one to toot my own horn, but I think it’s time to talk a little about myself.
My mother always said I was climbing curtains before I could even walk. I don’t know about that but what I do know is I was climbing trees as long as I can remember. We had a wooded lot across from our house about a half mile deep and there is hardly a tree in that woods that I haven’t been in.
I was about twelve years old in the back seat of my parent’s car when I saw a tree trimming crew working in someone’s yard. I said out loud, “you mean to tell me, you get paid to climb trees?
When I turned eighteen I got a job with a tree expert company in the pursuit of becoming an arborist. So my passion for climbing trees brought me to the field of Arboriculture, the care of trees.
I couldn’t learn about trees fast enough. I found a tree identification course at Cook
College. After taking that course, I took every course available to me. With several years of cramming all the
information I could acquire on the tree care industry, I applied for the New
Jersey Certified Tree Expert Exam. I
passed the exam on my first attempt. My
C.T.E. # is 274. My son Gary Hughes is
also a C.T.E. We operate a small family
tree care business out of New Egypt,
So now my passion for the tree care industry has brought me to wood working and turning. After six years of turning; I feel there is no better tool than the lathe to bring out the natural beauty in a piece of wood.
Enough said about me. Next month my article will be on “spalted” wood.
April Demonstration
We were indeed
fortunate to have Barry Gross demonstrate Pen Turning & Finishing.
For those attending,
Barry showed us how to expertly make and finish both wood and plastic pen
blanks. He did not make and assemble an
entire pen, but concentrated on the process for turning, sanding, and finishing
to perfection.
While most of us
have made pretty good pens, he showed us a few tricks and methods to make them
even better. All of his methods can be
found on his two DVDs: “Pen Turning with
Barry Gross” and “Turning Acrylic Materials.”
In addition to
giving us a top notch demo, Barry donated both of his DVDs to our library. Thank you Barry!
Barry will be teaching
a youth class at the AAW symposium in June.
Upcoming Events
2010 AAW National Symposium will be the weekend of June 18th to 20th at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford. Details such as the demonstrator list and the topics for special interest night are not finalized yet, however, the preliminary schedule can be found the AAW website at: http://woodturner.org/ If you are thinking of attending, register early and even earlier for hotel reservations, as close-by rooms disappear quickly.
The Next All Day Demo
Saturday June 12
John’s Garage
Kurt Hertzog
The demo:
Sharpening made Easy
Mastering the Skew
Work Holding
Unique
Pen Designs (if time permits)
The demo is
scheduled to last about six hours, with lunch provided. As in the past, please bring chairs (someday,
I’ll buy a few myself). The cost will be
about what it has been in the past:
$35. I’ll have a sign-up sheet
available at the meeting.
Kurt is a professional woodturner who enjoys the entire continuum of woodturning from making his own turning tools to photographing his finished turnings. He has intentionally kept his turnings diverse in an effort to keep exploring the craft and the medium. As frequent demonstrator and instructor on many facets of woodturning, he particularly enjoys teaching tool sharpening, work holding, and advanced pen making. For further information, visit his website at:
Club Logo Apparel
We will again be ordering shirts and hats with our logo. The order will be placed right after the May meeting, and the stuff will be available by the June meeting. The items and prices are as follows:
Golf shirt: $18.50 with logo (no pocket
$24.50 with logo (pocket)
XX & XXX add $1.00
Tall add $3.50
Denim shirt: $26.00 with logo
XX add $2.00 XXX add $3.00
Ball cap: $13.00 with embroidered logo
Tee shirt (screen printing): $13.50
($60 one time artwork fee paid by club)
The order sheet will be at the meeting.
(please note some price changes)
Things to think about
In a previous newsletter, we asked you to think about several things, all designed for the improvement of our club. Here’s a continuing update.
To refresh, the topics were:
AAW membership: Now mandatory for HOW activities
HOW (hands on workshops): Now started with the first one scheduled
Mentoring program: Underway with the
first one completed and the second scheduled
Charity/Outreach effort: Nothing yet
A New Lathe: Penn State’s new 12” mini lathe is on backorder
Library Items: We need input
The Website
For those of you who haven’t recently visited, take a new look! The calendar is right up to date with all sorts of interesting things, and the members’ gallery is chock full of great photos of OUR work. The site is continually getting better…thanks Tom. To submit news, calendar items, or photos, contact Tom at:
www.atlanticshorewoodturners.com
Members can get the user name and password for the members-only section at a meeting. Reminder, the members’ only section contains the complete club roster. Check it out and let me know if there are any changes needed.
Meeting
Specifics
Meetings are the second
Tuesday of each month except for July and August. They are held at the little pre-school
building, which is located at the corner of
2010 Officers and Contacts
|
President |
Tom Jones |
732.571.9636 |
|
Vice President |
Ishmael Tuazon |
732.792.3806 |
|
Treasurer |
Stan Leibowitz |
732.886.1530 |
|
Librarian |
Ishmael Tuazon |
732.792.3806 |
|
Secretary |
John Puckhaber |
732.349.4275 |
|
Newsletter |
John Puckhaber |
732.349.4275 |
Meeting
Directions
Directions: From Route 9, go east on
complex.