AAW October Chapter Newsletter

[note]The following is the October Chapter Newsletter from the AAW[/note]

Monthly Drawings/Grand Prize Drawing

We are continuing with our monthly drawings. Nothing is required to participate other than being a member of the AAW. We have great prizes each month and will have a grand prize drawing again at the end of 2011. Walter Meier Powermatic/JET has donated the same grand prize (3520B plus the local chapter choice of JET full-size or 5 minis).

Thank Our Sponsors

Please make sure that you thank all of our business members for their support of the AAW. These companies (and individuals) help make the organization great and offer many special benefits to our members. Let them know you appreciate them when you do business with them. We also thank those donors to the monthly and year end grand prize drawings. You can find a complete listing of those on the website. Board of Directors Elections Deadline

The election is underway for the three Board of Directors positions. These are 3 year terms. The balloting began on August 1st and will close on October 21st. You can vote online.

EOG/ERF Grants

The EOG applications for this year’s grants are now open online. The deadline is January 15. You must apply online. New this year with the EOG grants 10 AAW symposium registrations will be awarded. You may be aware of the ERF (emergency relief fund) which is available to AAW members. If you have suffered woodturning equipment losses due to a natural disaster, consider applying for ERFmonies to help you with replacement equipment.

Mid South Woodturners Guild Joan Kelly Memorial Fund Grants

The members of the Mid South Woodturners Guild have created a Joan Kelly Memorial Grant program. MSWG is offering, on a first come first serve basis, $100 Grants and simple “how to guidelines” to build your own protective shield. You can find more information here.

Best Practices – Safety

The best practices area of the website is used to share ideas, techniques, and methods among the membership and chapters. You can find everything from presentation skills to tax suggestions for chapters. We are soliciting input from the chapters and members to
help expand our safety content in the best practices area. In addition to hard copy documentation, we will open it to video materials as well. Send your ideas and contributions to Dan Luttrell for consideration.

Membership Drive

AAW is excited to kick off our membership drive. As we continue to grow, we look forward to welcoming new members and renewing friendships with returning members. This year we look forward to expanding our programs and implementing new ideas, and as always, sharing with you, this amazing time. Our membership drive is designed to work through and in support of the local chapters. For each 10 memberships (new or lapsed two years or more) the chapter will receive a complimentary symposium registration. The start date for the promotion is November 1st with an end date of December 31st. Click here to participate in the offer. We hope that you’ll choose to join and spread the word to your friends.

Woodturning Fundamentals

Woodturning Fundamentals is a new program at AAW whose goal is to provide a source for basic skills and techniques. We will be adding information on the website and sending emails in the months the American Woodturner journal is not published.

Our purpose is to:

  • Encourage and assist members of the woodturning community in the development of their skills
  • Provide a source for starting and developing woodturning skills
  • Provide reference for equipment
  • Promote oodturning safety

Watch for registration for the Woodturning Fundamentals when you renew your membership.

Kurt Hertzog
Chair Chapters and Membership

AAW / Message

Time to Renew

renew nowSPSW members, its time to renew your membership for 2012. Dues for 2012 remain the same as 2011 at $30. Cheap when you consider all the benefits you receive. You can pay your 2012 dues to Membership chairman Jarred Hoffpauir at the next meeting, or you can download the membership form and mail in your 2012 dues. Mailing instructions are included on the form.

Membership

Segmented Turners Challenge Re-vote

[note]The Segmented Woodturners sent out this note today regarding the Summer Challenge.[/note]

Hello Fellow Segmented Wood Turners,

We had an unfortunate accident with our database this weekend and subsequently lost all the votes to the current club challenge program.

So, I need to ask each of you to recast your votes for your favorite segmented turning in this challenge.

Fortunately, we did not lose the comments that you’ve contributed and they are wonderful learnings for the rest of us. If you’ve not yet submitted comments on the club challenge entries, I encourage you to do that.

So, please visit our gallery, log in, select the “Summer 2011 Club Challenge” album at the bottom of the page and recast your vote.

Voting will continue until Oct 31st at midnight and then we’ll count the votes.

The gallery URL is:
http://segmentedwoodturners.org/forum/photopost/index.php
I apologize for this problem and hope that everyone can recast their votes right away!

If you have any questions or problems, please contact me!

Thank you,

Dennis Daudelin
SWT Webmaster

There are many fabulous entries, so if you are a Segmented Woodturners chapter member make sure to check out the entries and vote for your favorite. I have been reading the comments on each piece and find them very constructive for my own turnings as well.

chapter profile / segmented

Segmented Turners October Chapter Summary

3

Minature Vessel by Curt Theobald
Minature Vessel by Curt Theobald
The Segmented Woodturners virtual chapter of the AAW has released the October Club Summary. Here are some of the goings on:

The first chapter challenge is coming to an end. There are over 25 entries. The first challenge forced members to really focus on “form;” only one wood species was allowed. The entries are in the gallery and members can vote for their favorite before October 31st. There are several amazing pieces that encourage consideration of other segmenting options than just contrasting colored wood.

Castle by Dennis Keeling
Castle by Dennis Keeling
The forum has had several discussions. Here is just a sample:

  • Discussion about leaving comments. Many submissions to the gallery request feedback. But several people commented that they forgot to post that request with their photo. In the end, there is a new message at the top of the forum for members to add constructive and respectful critiques to photos that are posted and to say so if no comment is desired. Agreement was that nearly all of the members are looking for input to help them improve their craft.
  • There was a discussion about sharpening band saw blades with vinegar! This is one you will want to check out.
  • Discussion of whether to turn the inside or outside first in an open segment project.
  • A very interesting discussion on the use of rub joints vs. some kind of clamps.
  • A handy, and for some, timely discussion on how to get Titebond out of your clothes.
  • Malcolm Tibbetts shared this video on Golden Ratio and Fibonacci Numbers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkGeOWYOFoA

Wavy Plywood Bowl by John Beaver
Wavy Plywood Bowl by John Beaver
Upcoming Segmented Woodturning Classes

Nov. 2-3, Dec. 7-8, 2011
Segmented Bowl Turning
Instructor: Jon Ross
The Sawdust Shop, Sunnyvale, CA

Chapter web stats:

The chapter website received 4,817 unique visitors in September and 252,018 page views.

AAW / chapter profile / segmented

Port Townsend School of Woodworking Foundation Course

The following press release was sent to newsletter editor Bill Wood who passed it on to the website.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Tim Lawson, Director
Port Townsend School of Woodworking and Preservation Trades
200 Battery Way, Fort Worden
Port Townsend WA 98368
Phone: (360-344-4455)5
Email press@ptwoodschool.com
Web: www.ptwoodschool.com

==============

Woodworking Foundation Course Announced by Woodworking School
Port Townsend, WA. August 25th, 2011.

The Port Townsend School of Woodworking and Preservation Trades is pleased to announce the Foundation Course with a focus on hand tool use to be taught from January 9th, 2012 through March 30th, 2012 at the non-profit school on Fort Worden in Port Townsend WA.

The Foundation Course is an intensive twelve week class that will provide any novice woodworker a solid grounding in the basic array of skills they’ll need to develop as a furniture maker, skills that will provide the foundation to all further work an individual takes on the rest of their life.

The School suggests that students have some basic woodworking experience before taking this class, but will accept students with no woodworking experience provided they can produce evidence of strong practical skills and problem solving ability. Attitude and motivation are key to woodworking success.

Traditionally woodworkers learned their craft working as apprentices in a master craftsman’s shop. The apprentice did the “grunt work” and picked up skills by assimilation.

“The School’s approach is a little different”, said Tim Lawson, the School’s Founder and Executive Director. “Our approach is based on the assumption that the student is developing or already has a passion for woodworking, learns quickly, and can devote three months to an intensive class on hand tool-based skills development.” Continuing, Tim said “This training will show students that many of the more advanced techniques in woodworking are relatively straightforward and build on the basic techniques that will be learned in the Foundation class”.

In the Foundation course, students will focus on developing their hand tool skills. “They’ll learn to work wood, instead of machining it”, said author and instructor Jim Tolpin. “And, they’ll find that while it may be somewhat slower, it is certainly much more enjoyable making furniture rather than manufacturing things”. While it is important that students develop an understanding and appreciation for the standards that make woodworking great, perfection is not the goal. The School teaches and encourages the continuous development of useful and pragmatic hand tool skills as a basis for the development of furniture-making expertise.

Students do not need to bring any tools along with them and may elect to use the School’s tools. Doing so will allow students to base tool purchases on their experience. The School’s hand tools were generously donated to the school by Robin Lee of Lee Valley / Veritas.

Students who have already started to acquire tools should feel free to bring them along. Instructors at the School will teach each student how to sharpen and tune them so that students can use them in the class. While each student bench has storage space for personal items and project parts, students should bring their tools in a tool bag or box for convenience. The School’s website provides a detailed list of required tools.

The Foundation course is divided into three basic units, each respectively three, four and five weeks long.
During the first three weeks of class, the School’s goal is to develop the student’s basic competence with hand tools, train the student in woodworking machine safety, and to educate them in the basic principles of woodworking. Students will learn the basics of shop safety, hand tool use, sharpening, design, wood selection, lumber preparation, hand joinery and project execution.

While the emphasis will be on hand joinery skills, students will get a good grounding in the safe use of woodworking machines for lumber preparation and dimensioning.

During the fourth through seventh weeks of class, the School’s goal is to further build student proficiency with hand tools and to help students deepen their understanding of the basic principles of woodworking. Students will focus on the design and construction of a small solid wood frame and panel cabinet with doors, drawers, and moldings.

The class will also look at the traditional techniques for adding detail and interest to design through beading and chamfering to create shadow lines. Students will learn how to make tools to create these essential details.

During the advanced project work portion of the course, the School’s goal is to build student confidence with hand tools and to deepen their understanding of the basic principles of woodworking. Students will construct a project of their choice that will build upon the basic skills they’ve learned during the first seven weeks, one that will require them to learn and employ even more advanced hand tool techniques.
The School and shop are situated in the Old Power House at Fort Worden. The School presently has two teaching spaces – a bench room and machine room. The bench room is equipped with a large, professional quality workbench for each student and is the focus of student work during the class. Each work bench is stocked with a set of high quality handtools. Classes at the School run from 9:00am sharp through 5:00pm, Monday through Friday, with an hour’s break for lunch at noon, and 15 minutes breaks mid-morning and mid-afternoon.

Information about scholarship and work trade opportunities will be available in early October.
This is an intensive course, one that will repay student focus and concentration with skills for a lifetime. For more details, see the School’s website at www.ptwoodschool.com .

symposiums / techniques