Meeting

Hand Tool Olympics - Come cheer on or jeer your friends as they compete in the Hand Tool Olympics or join a team yourself and compete. They are being held Wednesday, February 17 at the 7 pm CMWA meeting, Sauk Rapids-Rice Middle School! It is a friendly competition to see which team can most quickly and accurately use hand tools to saw, joint, drill, dovetail and tenon wood. Participants will be assigned to a team and will only compete in one event. The fastest and most accurate team wins.

Shaded Inlay and Inlaying String

There will not be a specific meeting topic this month. Instead we will celebrate the past year with a pot luck dinner. Please bring your significant other and join us for a celebration of friendship and cheer. The doors of the school will open around 6:15 and we will plan on starting the buffet line about 6:30. Bring a dish to share and join us for a fun evening. We will have a show-and-tell session. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Plates, Cups, Glasses and silverware will be provided. Coffee and bottled water will be supplied. If you would prefer beverages other than these, please feel free to bring your own.

Time to shave: inshaves, spokeshaves, travishers, and drawknives.
These tools are great time savers when it comes to reducing large chunks of wood to smaller chunks. These tools reached their height of popularity during the 18th century when manpower did most of the woodworking and being able to remove a lot of wood quickly was important. Today these tools are used in much the same manner as then, but we also use them for fine trimming and shaping. In fact, Windsor chairs are primarily made using these tools. It will be an eye opening demo.

Rollie Johnson is going to demonstrate creating an inlay at the next meeting. This will be a hands-on demonstration so if you would like to try you hand at inlaying bring the smallest router you have with a 1/4in. straight bit installed, a chunk of wood at least a couple of feet long and the wider the better, 1/4in and 1/2in. bench chisels, mallet, razor knife and a couple of clamps to secure the board to the shop workbenches. This should open up some new design possibilities for your upcoming projects.

This month’s meeting topic, presented by Bill Simpson, is about Intarsia. Intarsia is similar to Marquetry; it is the craft of using various shapes and colors of wood pieced together to create a mosaic like picture.

Our August gathering will be a tour of Woodcraft Industries, 525 Lincoln Ave SE, St. Cloud. The tour will begin at 7:00 PM at the main West plant on August 19th. The tour should last about an hour or so depending on the number of questions.

The July meeting will be held at Greg Pont’s lumber mill on July 15th. The event will also be B.Y.O.B. and we are asking for a $5 donation to cover costs associated with the meal. We plan on serving around 6:00, but if you would like to come a little earlier or later or bring a side dish that would be fine. Greg’s mill is indoor with a large enough area to seat us all in the event of rain. It would be a good idea to bring a chair.

You can learn more at http://pontsloggingandlumber.com.

Directions to Greg’s are as follows:
From highway 10 in Royalton, take County Road 26 (also known as Nature Road) West to Bowlus. Turn North on County Road 24 (also known as 120th avenue). After about ½ mile, 24 turns into 238. Keep going North on 238 for about 3 miles until you reach 80th street. Turn East on 80th street and Greg’s place is ½ mile in.

Those of you who know Dave, know that his wealth of experience and down to earth demeanor make him a very enjoyable speaker.

Dave will be talking about and demonstrating vacuum pressing systems. He will discuss electric pumps, venturi generators and hand pumps.

There is a vacuum force demonstration planned to give us a feel for what type of forces these systems can generate. Part of the demo will include how to make forms and the materials used.

The May CMWA meeting subject is Wood Drying with Paul Herbst. Paul has a facility just off Hwy 23 near Foreston, MN. He brings in wood from sawmills, dries it, dimensions it, and either returns the dried lumber to the sawyer or sells it himself. Greg Pont has Paul dry wood for him. Paul should be able to answer any of your drying questions.