September meeting: Rich Mantell demonstrates hollow form turning

The September CJWA meeting will be held on Wednesday, Sep. 10, at 7:00 pm. Rich Mantell will be giving a demonstration on how to turn a hollow form. He will be covering the tools needed, things to consider in selecting wood and material for making a hollow form, techniques, and more. Hollow form turning is both a challenging and satisfying area of woodworking, and many of the techniques used can be applied to other areas of turning as well.

As if that wasn’t enough, Ray Ostrow and Frank Vucolo will also cover turning basics as it applies to pen turning and furniture making at the meeting. Bill Woodard will also provide updates from the CJWA summer picnic and projects at Camp Quality. We look forward to seeing you there.

CJWA Summer Picnic, Saturday, Aug. 16

The CJWA summer picnic will be on Saturday, August 16, at 2 PM with a rain date of Sunday the 17th. Again this year, Bill and Becky Woodard will be hosting at their home, at 13 Roberts Road, Millstone Township, NJ 08535. This is a family event with spouses and children welcome and it’s always a fun day.

The club will provide hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, non alcoholic drinks, and paper goods. As we have done in the past, if everyone coming can bring a side dish or desert there will be more then enough for everyone. Please contact Marc Gaertner if you can attend and how many people, as well as what you are bringing so we can have a better idea of how much food to buy. If you have some folding chairs please bring them, so we are sure to have enough.

We are also going to do a small tool sale and swap meet for anyone who is interested. In addition, we are going to bring out an invention from the past, the Chisel-O-Meter, built by David White.  This will be a contest to see who has the sharpest chisel. If you want to participate, you just need to bring a well sharpened 1/2 inch chisel and this Patent Pending contraption will determine whose chisel is the sharpest.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

CJWA Summer Picnic, Saturday, Aug. 16

As mentioned at the June meeting, the summer picnic will be on Saturday August 16 with a rain date of Sunday the 17th. Again this year, Bill and Becky Woodard will be hosting at there home starting at 2PM. The address is 13 Roberts Road, Millstone Township NJ 08535. This is a family event with children welcome and always a fun day. The club will provide hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, non alcoholic drinks, paper goods ect. As we have done in the past, if everyone coming can bring a side dish or desert there will be more then enough for everyone. If you have some folding chairs please bring them, so we are sure to have enough. Please send me a reply if you can attend and how many people, as well as what you are bringing so we can have a better idea of how much food to buy. We are also going to do a small tool sale / swap meet for anyone interested. We have talked about doing this again at one of the regular club meetings, but never could find the time. In addition, we are going to bring out an invention from the past, built by David White the Chisel-Om-Meter. Basically if you want to participate you just need to bring a well sharpened 1/2 inch chisel and this Patend Pending contraption will determine who has the sharpest chisel.

June Meeting: CJWA member exhibition, and summer plans

The June CJWA meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 11, at 7:00 PM. Before we break for the summer, we will be holding our annual member exhibition. Members are welcome to bring in a project that you have made over the past year, big or small, to show to the club. We will also start taking photographs for our members gallery.

We will also be discussing some of our summer activities, including a workshop at the Philadelphia Furniture Workshop the weekend of July 12-13, and the CJWA summer picnic on August 16. In addition, there will be a business meeting June 12 at 7:00 PM, in conference room #2 at the Lawrenceville branch of the Mercer County Library, 2751 Brunswick Pike (local Rte 1), in Lawrenceville. All members are welcome to provide their input.

May meeting: Steve Altman on a secret project

The May CJWA meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 14, at 7:00 pm. Our featured presenter will be Steve Altman. He will be talking about a secret project that he’s been working on. This may sound like it’s a very vague description, but anyone who has ever heard Steve give a woodworking presentation will attest to the fact that this promises to be a very entertaining and educational talk.

In addition, Robert Drudy will be giving us a shop tour, and there will be updates on the Wharton Escherich Museum tour on May 17th. If you’re interested in the museum tour, please bring payment for the tour to the meeting. Spaces are limited, and priority will be given to those who pay in advance.