May 14 Newsletter - Eurobodalla Woodcraft Guild

Eurobodalla Woodies
MEMBERS NEWSLETTER
May 2014
Edited by Malcolm McDonald
maluka3@bigpond.com
Or [bits that might be needed]
Bay, a job well done. We still have a supply of
smaller pine logs at our Mogo workshop to be
slabbed.
As you all know Tilba has been changed for
2014. We will not be having a competition this
year but we are having your favourite piece of
work on exhibition, no restriction of time since
you made it, so if you haven’t entered, do it now.
Contact Eric Simes and tell him the type of wood
and finish used and price of the item, if it is for
sale. Eric Simes will make up a card for your
item.
Till next time,
Des Jeffery
Tilba is on the Long Week-end in June, set up on
Friday, 6th from lunch time (all items for exhibition must be delivered by 2.00 p.m.) Sales area
set up by 5.00 p.m. If you cannot get your item
there for display at Tilba by Friday, talk to a
member who can take your item for you. Remember that all items on display have to be in
the Exhibition Hall till Sunday, 8th June closing
time.
Treasurer Val now has more raffle tickets available for First Prize of about $700 of Power Tools
that has been supplied by Masters of Canberra, a
great prize worth winning, so get your tickets
now.
At the May Executive Meeting a decision was
made to set up a roster of Executive Members
for Wednesday meetings to be Workshop Supervisors. Their responsibilities will be to oversee
the proper use of equipment and ensure that the
tools are returned to their place of storage. This
decision was made because of ongoing machine
problems costing the club great repair costs and
to ensure that our equipment is being used in a
safe and proper way.
It was decided that slabbing will not be conducted away from the original Gold Rush Village
until more younger fitter members can be attracted to the cause. Our thanks to the “oldies” that
recently slabbed the big black-butt tree at Malua
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May Show & Tell
< Set of shelves made for the Alpaca Shop as display
shelves. Each shelve is 40mm thick and made from
Southern Mahogany and the spacers are galvanised
pipe with threaded rod top to bottom for tying the
shelving system together. Team leader was Peter
McDowell with valued support from Ralph Vine,
Mark Barraclough, JJ McGrath, Cyril Elliot, Bob
Kolderie and Peter Brotherton.
Mark Barraclough crafted this Table Lamp in a
flute style. Frame made from Jarrah and the horizontal flutes from Huon Pin. Finished with wipe
on Polyurethane.
>
< Sue Page is learning the art of wood turning fundamentals. Sue has had her first lessons from Len Newman one of the clubs seasoned wood turners. Sue
brought these items along to show & tell for some
helpful discussion. The wood used is from a local Eureka Lemon Tree finished with EEE and Shellawax.
Well done Sue.
Helmut Delrieux made these blocks from recycled
timber stored in his workshop for many years. The
Butchers Block at right is Black Butt with pine handles strengthened with very long galvanised hexagonal screws. The cutting board below right is Iron
Bark with a central insert of Black Butt. The mallet
below is Black Butt. All three are sanded down to
600 grit and finished with several coats of Kunos
Natural Oil Sealer.
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May Show & Tell cont.
Pen & Letter Opener set was made by Des Jeffery
out of wood from the Belah Tree. Belah
(Casuarina cristata) is an Australian tree of the
sheoak family. It grows in open forest in a band
across inland eastern Queensland south through to
Temora in NSW. Des finished by sanding up to
1200 grit and applying three coats of surer glue.
A triple pen set made by John Lodding. The first
two pens are acrylic blanks turned down and finished with steel wool #0000. The third pen is made
from Mountain Grey Gum (Monkey Gum) and after sanding down to 600 grit John used EEE and
Shellawax Cream for a gloss finish.
May Monthly Meeting Demonstration.
After the BBQ and Monthly meeting held at Mogo workshop last Saturday we were given a demonstration of Organ Oil products and applications by Ernie Williams. Ernie began his presentation with
an explanation how each oil has been specifically blended for its intended use and to follow the instructions on the can for best results. This he followed with practical applications of “Hard Burnishing
Oil” and a “wet on wet” sanding (burnishing) technique starting with 600 grit then skipping straight up
to 1200 then finishing with 1500 showing how easy it is to reveal and enhance wood colour and character by this method. Ernie continued his presentation in the workshop by finishing a wooden bowl on
the lathe using the same wet on wet sanding method.
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Workshop Projects
< Each Wednesday club members were involved in making eight
easels for the Adult Education Centre at Batemans Bay. They are
shown here awaiting their final coat of Polyurethane varnish. The
team leader is Eric Simes with support from Helmut Delrieux,
Barry Corrigan, Les Low, Art Keeler and Bob Cripps and others.
The first 5 easels were delivered on Wednesday last and were
well received with the hint that more may be required when finances permit.
SHARPENING – THE NEXT STEP!!!
DRILLS AND TURNING TOOLS
Following on from the series of (successful???) Workshops on Sharpening Hand Tools, I am now proposing to run a series of 2 hour Workshops for members to learn about sharpening Twist Drills and
Turning Tools. The whole purpose of these Workshops (as with the ones on Hand Tools) is to make
members aware of the basics. If you ask 6 different Woodies how to sharpen a Twist Drill or Turning
Tool, you will get 6 different answers. Once you understand the BASICS then you can adapt the tool to
special uses.
I have to say that in the interests of uniformity, all Club
Tools should be sharpened to the BASIC requirements,
and any special requirements should be saved for your
own PERSONAL TOOLS!!!
The Workshops will be held weekly from 10.00 till 12.00
on Mondays commencing on a date yet to be decided (but
probably in July sometime!!!). There will be some disruption due to my family commitments in CBR and SYD
so we will have to work around those. Also I can run
some Workshops on Fridays to suit members.
Please let me know if you wish to take part in these workshops, either by email to johnjan155@bigpond.com or by phone to 0419 801 039. I will also circulate a nomination list at Club Days.
Please let me know if you have a preference for Monday or Friday.
I will arrange attendees in REVERSE alphabetical order (Dana please note!!!) and let you know when I
have you on the list. I will have to limit numbers to a maximum of 3 for each session so that you can get
the maximum benefit around the Sharpening Bench. I would also like you to bring 2 or 3 of your own
drills or Turning Tools to practice on during the workshop. I will also have some ‘bad tools’ for you to
restore!!!!
Also if there is anyone who missed out on the Sharpening Handtools Workshops and is interested in doing this, please let me know also so I can run another one.
John Tanner
CLUB’S WEB SITE:
www.eurobodallawoodies.org.au
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Courtesy of E Tips
Whenever I need to make an arc in a project, I've had
good results bending a thin metal ruler to the desired
curve between two brads. The trouble with this setup is
locating the brads to avoid putting holes in the project
or my workbench. The brads can also work loose while
I'm drawing the arc. I solved those concerns by designing the marking gauge you see illustrated here.
The gauge consists of a long beam with two sliding
stops. It works using a sliding dovetail joint. The
“tails" on the stops slide along the slot in the dovetailed beam. Each stop holds a 1/2 "-dia. dowel pin to
support the metal ruler when it's flexed. To keep the
stops in position, the pins are installed in the upper corners of each stop. As the ruler bends, the ends of the
ruler push against the pins, wedging the stops in the
groove.
Using the gauge is pretty straightforward. Start by clamping it to your workbench. Then, flex the ruler
between the stops, adjusting them until the arc is at
the desired curve, and draw the arc. The jig works
best if the work piece is level with the jig.
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Me the EWG and Boxes
MEMBERS
CORNER
I had over the years made many boxes with a
few hand tools and with designs dictated by
DAR timber available from wood merchants.
These were mainly kitchen cupboards and
chests of drawers. But after joining the EWG I was able to machine wood down to the sizes I needed.
My first jewellery box was made as a special birthday present and fortunately a suitable design was featured in a copy of the Woodsmith magazine. Machining the wood to size was straight forward but the
box required mitred joints. Not having a table saw I cut them on my bandsaw and finished them with a
hand plane with the aid of a jig. To complete the box required routing profiles on the lid and base and
also veneering a panel for the lid. These were all new methods of working with wood for me and as I
found the work both satisfying and enjoyable I decided making boxes would be my hobby.
I made a number of boxes based on the original design with some
scaled down to 90%. These I used as presents for the family and
also as raffle prizes for worthy causes such as Maranatha Lodge,
Rotary and the hospital auxiliaries. Although I enjoyed using hand
tools planning mitres was rather time consuming so I bought a
small Makita mitre saw. After a few small adjustments I was able
to cut a full set of mitres for a box in just a few minutes. This was
a major breakthrough for me and for some time I made many
small “coffee table” boxes with any piece of wood within reach.
These sold very well on our sales days but they were not as satisfying to make as the larger boxes that I hoped would perhaps become heirlooms.
When the club was meeting at Tony Whelan’s I gave a talk on box making and showed a number of
boxes I had made. Although interest was shown I don’t think any
boxes resulted. But later when we moved to the Bowlo I ran a SIG
on box making. Most of the members that attended were experienced wood workers. So after warning them that boxes have to be
very well made as they will be subjected to far greater scrutiny than
most other wood craft they had previously made, it was only necessary to start them off with a few basic tips such as cutting good
mitres, gluing up, cutting off the lids and fitting the hinges. They
were then able to finish the boxes by themselves.
The result was like I had let a Genie out of a bottle. Boxes soon began to appear at our monthly show
and tells and at our market days. These first boxes were like the simple SIG boxes but later the designs
became more ambitious with interesting lids and inner trays. Finally they found their way to Tilba.
Earlier when the Tilba Wood Show competitions started I entered two boxes. As they were the only
boxes entered it was a “two box race”. I won first prize and also the encouragement award for box making. Although at that stage I needed no encouragement the prize of two bottles of wine was greatly
appreciated.
I have enjoyed competing at Tilba, not only for the prizes but it
provided a personal challenge to make a better box each year.
This was a great stimulus to improve my skills. I introduced in
lays and bandings as well as marquetry using veneers into the lid
panels. I also added legs and drawers and used different combina
tions of timbers. All these had to be integrated into the overall design so that they complemented each other.
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Two years ago I was walking down the community hall at Tilba
and saw the array of beautiful boxes that had been entered into the
box making competition. I could not help feeling that I had as good
as shot myself in the foot by passing my box making craft onto
other members. I am still helping new members make their first
box and I am still enjoying the friendship I receive, which are surely two of the original objectives of the Guild.
Art Keeler
Dates for Your Diary
Sat 14th June 2014
Every Mon & Wed
Sat 7th & Sun 8th June 2014
Sat 6th December 2014
Monthly meeting
Meeting workshop
Tilba Wood Show
Christmas Party
Mogo Workshop
Mogo Workshop
Tilba Community Hall
Malua Bay Bowling Club
Sat 4th October 2014
Sat 29th November 2014
Village Centre Sale Day
Village Centre Sale Day
Batemans Bay
Batemans Bay
NOTE: Members seeking further information contact Secretary.
Tel : 4472
4629
www.cameronstimber.com.au
Next meeting will be held on Saturday
14th June 2014 at Mogo Workshop.
A BBQ will be held at 12 noon followed
by the meeting at 1 pm.
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WOODCRAFT
EXHIBITION & SALE
Narooma, Eurobodalla
& Bega Woodcraft
Groups Present
The 19th Annual Exhibition,
Demonstrations & Sale.
Central Tilba Community Halls
on
Saturday, 7 June 2014 – 10 am to 4 pm
Sunday, 8 June 2014 – 10 am to 3 pm
Entry: $2 per person
Children under 12 free
Demonstrations, Sales & Displays of
Hand Crafted Woodwork, Wood Turning and
Wood Finishing by Eurobodalla, Narooma &
Bega Clubs,
Exhibition Items will be awarded a “Best in Show”
and “Peoples Choice” award.
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