October meeting: Chuck Bender on Bermuda dovetails

Our next meeting will be at 7 PM on October 13. We are again very lucky to have Chuck Bender from The Acanthus Workshop, and he will demonstrate how to make Bermuda dovetails.  What are Bermuda dovetails?  That’s exactly what I asked him when we were planning for this meeting.  If you want to find out, you’ll have to come and see Chuck’s presentation, which should be excellent, as always.

CJWA birdhouse event at the Fall Forestry Festival in Jackson, Oct. 2

Once again, CJWA will be participating at the Fall Forestry Festival at the Forest Resource Education Center in Jackson, Oct. 2 from 9 AM to 3 PM.  We will be selling birdhouse kits and helping kids build them throughout the day.  This is one of the biggest fundraisers for our club, so please come join us for a day of fun and help out CJWA to boot.

Directions can be found at the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry website, or the handy Google maps link below.

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September meeting: CNC techniques for woodworking

At the September CJWA meeting, Rainer Schmidt gave an interesting talk on CNC machinery and how it can be applied to woodworking, and how to put together your own CNC setup.  He brought in a small milling machine, a controller, and a computer with the software that controls the CNC process.  Although technical difficulties unfortunately didn’t allow him to demonstrate his setup, he was able to show how the process of designing a workpiece on a computer ultimately leads to the finished product.

David White also gave some insight about his experiences with CNC machinery in his woodworking, for both business and for himself.

Finally, Marc Gaertner showed a porch swing that he made.  Marc talked about the joinery involved, and about how challenging it was to precisely cut the joints for the back vertical stretcher pieces because of the curve of the top rail.  Because of the curve, every piece had to be individually fitted. 

 

September meeting: CNC techniques for woodworking

CJWA meetings are back from their summer vacation!  The September CJWA meeting will be at 7 PM on Tuesday, Sept.  7 at the church and will be on CNC techniques as they apply to woodworking.  CNC may sound like an expensive, exotic way to work, but it may be a lot more simple than you may think.

Please note that the meeting date has been shifted from our usual second Wednesday of the month due to the Rosh Hashanah holiday.  See you there!

Birdhouse parts made

The birdhouse kit making session at Jeff Brown’s shop was a success.  Here are some pictures of the nights production.  Thanks to everyone who helped out!  It is contributions like these from club members that keeps CJWA running.