February meeting: Fundamentals Round Robin

The February CJWA meeting will be on Wednesday, February 9 at 7 PM.  This meeting will be great for anyone looking to get a better understanding of many of the basics of woodworking, including how to buy wood at the lumber yard, sharpening your tools, setting up or expanding your shop, and basics of using a router.

For this meeting, we are going to try a new format: a round robin.  Instead of a series of talks, there will be four stations running concurrently throughout the evening, like four mini-woodworking show demonstrations.  CJWA members are free to go between stations as they would like.  If you want to hit all four, that’s great.  If you want to spend all night at just one station, that’s okay too. These stations will be very interactive, and Q&A is highly encouraged.

Our presenters will be:

Marc Gaertner: How to buy wood at the lumber yard.  Marc will be fielding questions on what to think about when going to the lumber yard to buy wood for your next project.

Stuart Moore: Setting up and improving your shop.  Stuart will talk about and give advice on what to think about when looking to start up your shop, or even if you are thinking about rearranging or expanding your current setup.

Matt Greco: Router basics.  Matt will show how to get started with routers.  Given the wide range of models and types of routers and bits, this will be a great way to figure out the best set up for your needs.

Wilbur Pan: Sharpening tools.  Bring your plane blades and chisels, and learn a quick and easy way to keep your tools sharp and performing their best.

Hope to see you there!

CJWA January Meeting: Open Mike Night

Despite the snowstorm and the rescheduling, there were a lot of members participating in the Open Mike Night at the first CJWA meeting of 2011. So without further ado:

Joe Ferraro showed a box made with double dovetails using the Incra jig.

William Duffield brought a bench-on-a-bench that he uses for detail work.

Matt Greco made a beautiful carpenters square out of scrap wood.

Matt Kestenbaum brought a prototype for a table with parabolic legs that he is in the process of designing.

Doug Poray demonstrated a way to easily find the center of a dowel.

Ray Ostrow showed some pens that he made for Steve Altman’s wife.

Jerry Van de Sande showed pictures of his “El Cheapo Roubo” that he made. The leg vise is made with a screw from a prohibition-era wine press that his family had.

Paul Dzioba showed some pictures from the recent Williamsburg conference.

Frank Lovero showed a gorgeous chair that he made with wood salvaged from the dumpster.

John Steinmetz demonstrated a very clever jig that his father made to sharpen scrapers.

And finally, Frank Vucolo brought a Federal accent table in progress.

CJWA officers for 2011

CJWA is very happy and proud to announce the officers for 2011, who were voted in at the January meeting.

They are:

Frank Vucolo, President
Marc Gaertner, Vice President
Doug Poray, Treasurer
Wilbur Pan, Secretary
Ray Ostrow, Librarian

We would also like to give a big thank you and sign of appreciation to Jeff Brown for serving as our club president for the past 2 years.  Jeff brought a ton of energy to the position, and was always willing to help and aid anyone who came into contact with CJWA, members and nonmembers alike.  Although he is stepping down from the position of president, we look forward to his future contributions to the club. Thanks again, Jeff!

CJWA member Wilbur Pan featured in Popular Woodworking

As many of you already know, our own Wilbur Pan caused a bit of commotion in Kentucky last October while giving Christopher Schwarz some pointers on Japanese planes during a break at Woodworking In America. The following article appeared in the December 2010 Issue of Popular Woodworking, and we got permission from Popular Woodworking to reprint the article on our website. Nice job Wilbur!

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I just spent three days teaching hand-tool techniques at our Woodworking in America conference and my staff members are now trying to keep their eyes open long enough to get this issue looking good, reading correctly and in your mailbox.

During my three days at Woodworking in America I talked until my voice was hoarse, answering questions about router planes (which Roy Underhill coined the “One-Tooth Sex Monster” plane), workbenches, saws, chisels and scrapers. But what was most amazing about the conference was how much I learned when I shut my mouth.

I am a confessed moron about Japanese planes, and I’ve been hesitant to set up a Japanese plane that was a gift from a friend. But when I found out that Wilbur Pan, a New Jersey doctor, was attending Woodworking in America, I asked him to give me a lesson in Japanese planes. He agreed.

On my lunch break Saturday we dragged a workbench into a hallway below an enormous window facing the 19th-century streetscape of Covington, Ky. Pan explained the fine points of seating the iron into the wooden body (called the dai) and showed me how to adjust the wooden bed to get the iron fitting properly.

While we were talking, other attendees began watching Pan’s mini-lecture. A blogger began filming the event. Soon everyone was getting into the act. Attendees were giving the planes a try. Pan was explaining how Japanese planing stops were different and I was thinking of ways to hollow out the sole of my dai.

And that’s when tool collector Tony Murland and woodworking legend Frank Klausz walked up and started listening. I could tell that Pan was a little nervous. He had started out explaining Japanese planes to just one guy. But now he had a high-powered audience that was growing by the moment. After Pan finished, Klausz added that he had heard that Japanese woods were softer than American woods – that’s why the tools were different.

Pan took a deep breath, and he politely disagreed with Klausz. I could hear a slight tremor in Pan’s voice as he explained that Japanese furniture was made from a wide variety of woods, including species that were very hard. Klausz listened thoughtfully and nodded his head.

It was an amazing moment for me, seeing this amateur woodworker hold his ground and explain the things he had learned to Klausz. But I knew that this was just one of the hundreds of amazing moments occurring everywhere at Woodworking in America. By the end of the weekend, attendees had also managed to show me a better way to mark hinge mortises and cut rabbets with a chisel.

I just hope that I showed them a few things myself. PWM

——————
Christopher Schwarz
Editor

Popular Woodworking Magazine
4700 E. Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, OH 45236

UPDATE: January meeting rescheduled for Jan. 19

Due to the coming snowstorm, we have cancelled this week’s meeting and have rescheduled for the following Wednesday, January 19, at 7 PM. It will be an open mic night, so please feel free to bring your projects, questions, or answers. There is a lot of experience and talent in the club, and this is a chance to draw upon the most valuable asset the club has: our members.

We have confirmed with the church that we can meet there on January 19.

Don’t forget that membership dues are due at the January meeting. Regular membership is $40.00 per year. Membership for people over 65 is $30.00 per year. If you filled out a Voucher Form during 2010 for doing some service for the club, the membership fee is also $30.00.

We would also like to remind everyone that elections for all of the CJWA officer positions are coming in January, and anyone is welcome to run for any of the officer positions: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Librarian. If you are interested, you are invited to talk to the current officers for information.

Thanks, and hope no one gets stuck in the snow. See you next week.