Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at 12:33AM Our next meeting will be at 7 PM on October 14. We will be having a brief business meeting where we would like to get the members’ input on our plans for the upcoming year, and a presentation about the Woodworking in America conferences held in the Chicago and Philadelphia areas this year.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009 at 10:29PM At the September meeting, Joel Moskowitz from Tools for Working Wood spoke about marking gauges. Although there are many types of marking gauges on the market, he prefers pin gauges over cutting gauges.
Pin gauges differ from cutting gauges in the shape of the part that does the actual marking. Pin gauges have, well, pins that are relatively sharp. Cutting gauges make parks in the workpiece with a knife edge.
Joel feels that the marks left with pins are easier to deal with than the marks left with a knife edge. Because the pins are not knife sharp, they leave a shallower line that can be easily removed with planing or sanding later on in the project.
One criticism of pin gauges is that it is hard to make a clean line with a pin, compared to a gauge that makes a knife cut. Joel demonstrated a good technique for using a pin gauge effectively. Instead of holding the gauge so that the pin is perpendicular to the surface of the wood, which will cause a lot of scratching and chatter as you try to make your mark, rotate the gauge so that the pin trails behind as you move the gauge, so that it makes an acute angle with the surface of the wood. This also gives you a lot of control in how deep a marking line is left by altering the pressure on the gauge.
Monday, September 21, 2009 at 12:04AM Log Power, a flooring manufacturer in Allentown, NJ, announced at the September meeting that they will be carrying hardwood lumber for sale to woodworkers. CJWA members will get a discount, although the details still have not been finalized.
Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 12:00AM Joel Moskowitz from Tools for Working Wood gave an excellent presentation on basic hand tool techniques at our September meeting.
He had some interesting new and upcoming products to talk about. There is a saw vise that is nearly ready for production. He brought along a sample of an aluminum bar clamp that he recently started selling on his website. This clamp has the advantage of being strong and light, so that you can position it easily with one hand, which is a huge advantage when you are working by yourself.
Finally, there is a book that will be coming out this fall called “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker”, which follows Thomas, a young teenager in rural England who becomes a woodworking apprentice. Through Thomas’ story, the book describes the construction of various woodworking projects, starting with a packing box, a dovetailed schoolbox and a veneered mahogany chest of drawers, all with hand tools. From Joel’s description of this book, the details of the making of these projects will be of use to any woodworker, even if you aren’t a hand tool aficionado.
The meat of Joel’s presentation was on the use of marking gauges, rasps, and saws in your work, which we’ll report on later.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 11:57PM Here’s a fun video showing what you can make with a bandsaw in just under 2 minutes.