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The New Year got off to a good start with

the January meeting. We had 37 mem-

bers attend the meeting and other than

addressing a few business details we

spent the meeting visiting and catching

up with what everyone is working on in

their shops. It’s really nice to have the

occasional meeting without an agenda,

other than enjoying the camaraderie of

fellow woodworkers.

One of the basic reasons for the club’s

existence is to help strengthen the local

woodworking community through edu-

cation, sharing of resources and fellowship. Woodworking tends to be a

pretty solitary hobby and it’s nice to share ideas and experiences with other

folks who share the same passion.

Events and seminars are an important part of our club. In the past we have

run into problems finding presenters or subjects for our meetings. To help

alleviate this problem the CMWA now has a committee in charge of club

meeting seminars and programs. The members of the committee are

Shawn Jarvis, Rollie Johnson, Bill Langen and Charlie Myers. If you would

like to be part of the committee or if you have any suggestions or requests

for specific seminars please let one of us know. Also, if you would like to do

a presentation for the CMWA please let us know.

I think it would be interesting to have a club member shop tour sometime

this year, preferably while the weather is warm and on a Saturday. I realize

that many of us have shops too small to accommodate the entire member-

ship, so we would set up “rally routes” that would send small groups out on

different circuits so we wouldn’t all end up at one shop at the same time.

We can coordinate schedules and locations so groups can start and end

close to their homes so we won’t have to assemble at one location before the

tour. I think six shops would be ideal and we would split the tour into

morning and afternoon tours (three shops each tour) to allow the folks who

open their shops the chance to join one of the tours. Obviously we have

A ga in st t h e Gr ai n b y R o lan d J oh n so n

Vo lu m e 11 I ssue 2 F eb r ua r y 2 01 1

President: Rollie Johnson

Vice President: John Wilson

Treasurer: Kurt Zniewski

Secretary: Bill Riner

Board of Directors: Tom Harlander

John Kenning

Albert Keppers

Denny Myers

Marketing Director: Cy Valerius

Newsletter Editor: Glenn Street

Website Manager: Darren McKeever

2011 CMWA Officers

Dues: $30

Mail to: CMWA

PO Box 1955

St. Cloud, MN 56302-1955

Benefits:

Informational monthly program in-

cluding seminars, guest speakers,

demonstrations and hands-on ses-

sions

Instructive monthly newsletters

Card entitling you to discounts at the

following suppliers: Acme Tools,

Youngblood Lumber, Renneberg

Lumber…

Current Membership: 57

Membership Information

Newsletter

The CMWA is a group of men and women from around the St. Cloud, Minnesota

area who share a common interest in the art and business of woodworking. We

meet monthly and share information, techniques and topics of interest in the area

of woodworking.

Visit us at: www.thecmwa.com

Email us at: newsletter@thecmwa.com

enough shops in our membership that

we could do this a couple of times a

year or annually for many years. Let

me or one of the committee members

know if you would be interested in let-

ting us tour your shop.

(continued on page 2)

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A ga in st t h e Gr ai n ( c o n t . )

Jack Kelly (CMWA member) has a knack for finding classy little

woodworking gifts that he can make fairly easily and that the re-

cipients appreciate. This article features one of these ideas: a

playing card holder, with fabrication instructions. It holds two

decks of cards as shown in the photograph to the left and ex-

ploded drawing below. The one pictured is made of cherry.

M aki n g a Pl ay i ng C a rd Hol der ( g s )

And now the big news: we will be

discontinuing the print version of

our newsletter starting in May.

We’ve had lengthy discussions con-

cerning this change and have had to

face the hard decision that for the

financial health of the club it has

become a necessity. All of our club

dues are consumed by the printing

and mailing costs of our newsletter.

The newsletter will be electronically

mailed to your email address about

the same time the hard copy of the

newsletter typically arrived in your

postal mailbox. If you don’t have

internet access, please let us know

and we’ll find a solution for you. We

won’t leave anyone out in the cold.

If we don’t have your email address

yet, or if you have changed your ad-

dress recently, please drop us a note

with your correct address. Send it to

http://thecmwa.com/contact

Denny Myers has offered to assem-

ble a member’s profile catalog for

the CMWA. He will be contacting all

of the active members (paid dues)

for a photo and background infor-

mation. We hope to produce a

downloadable CMWA member’s

profile catalog from this informa-

tion.

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STEP 1—Hardwood Preparation

Select your hardwood. Maple and

cherry are nice choices since they

are fine grained and easy to work

with. Plane, joint, and sand the

hardwood to the dimensions in the

material list.

STEP 2— Dado Side Strip

Dado a 1/4” x 1/4” groove the full

length of the 20” x 1-1/4” strip. Start

the dado 1/8” up from the bottom of

the strip as shown below.

Card Dimensions

A deck of cards, bridge or poker, have the same 52 cards, plus a joker or

two. So either type of deck may be used to play your favorite card

games. However, the width of bridge cards is 1/4” narrower than the

more common poker cards. So you will need to decide which type of

holder to make, one for the smaller bridge cards (2-1/4” x 3-1/2”) or lar-

ger poker cards (2-1/2” x 3-1/2”). Another option is to make the large

one which will house either type of deck.

The cards I measured were slightly (~1/32”) undersized in both direc-

tions. So you may be able to get away with making the two compart-

ments to the exact dimensions. If you want to be entirely confident that

all decks will fit, you may want to cheat slightly in excess of the standard

dimensions.

STEP 3—Route Side Strip

Route the top outer edge of the 20” x

1-1/4” strip with a 1/16” or 1/8”

round-over bit as shown below.

STEP 4—Cut Four Sides

Miter (45°) cut the sides to length as

measured to the outside corners.

The 20” long strip will give you two

4-1/2” long sides and two 6-1/2”

long sides.

STEP 5—Cut Floor

Cut the 1/4” plywood floor to the

dimensions listed in the material

list.

1-1/4”

1/4”

1/4”

1/8”

Material List for Larger Poker Card Holder:

1/2” thick hardwood

(1) 6” x 4-1/4” (top)

(1) ~20” x 1-1/4” (sides)

(1) 3-1/2” x 5/8” (dividers)

1/4” thick plywood

(1) 5-3/4” x 3-3/4” (floor)

hardware

(2) 3/4” x 1/2” (brass hinges)

STEP 6—Glue Holder

Glue the four sides and floor to-

gether. The plywood floor has 1/8”

clearance all the way around. Jack

likes to put a few beads of glue in the

dados which act as spacers once

dried. You may also use 1/8” foam

or rubber beads if you prefer.

STEP 7—Cut and Install Dividers

Miter cut (45°) the end of each di-

vider. The bottom of each divider is

1-1/2” long. Glue the two dividers

into the bottom of the holder, leav-

ing 2-1/2” on each side for the cards.

STEP 8—Route Top

Route three or all four sides of the

top with a bit of your choice.

STEP 9—Install Top

Install the top to the back of the

holder. If you want the top to sit

flush with the sides, mortise the

hinges into both the top and back

wall of the holder.

STEP 10—Finish Holder

Stain and seal as desired.

Nice Touch

Laser something on the top.

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Wixe y Di g it al A ngl e Gau ge ( g s )

A few years back, I set the blade angle stops (0 and 45°) on my table saw using a quality carpenter’s square that I had

checked against a 2’ square of plywood whose diagonals were within 1/64”, or better, of each other. So, I was confi-

dent my square was as “square” as needed to set the blade stops to the accuracy required in woodworking. It was the

eyesight that raised doubts about how accurately I had set the stops.

To set the stops (bolts), both bolts were backed off. With the blade vertical, the square was set on the table and

against the blade as shown below. Making sure the square was between carbide teeth, I then tweaked the blade angle

both directions until my 50+ year old eyes, with the assistance of 1.5x “cheaters,” perceived that the gap between the

square and blade had uniformly closed. While I was confident that gravity was doing its job of holding the square

against the table top, the acuity of my visual feedback about the gap between the square and blade was in question.

Eroding my confidence further was having to evaluate the uniformity of the gap over such a short distance. Only

~2.25” of the flat face of the blade was against the square. To supplement my visual assessment, I slid a slip of paper

between the blade and square to get tactile feedback. This helped, but I still wasn’t confident of the stops’ accuracy.

I repeated this for the 45° angle and reset the stops (bolts).

FOR SALE

Grizzly G1073 16" band saw; includes 6-7 blades and a home built steel rolling base. Asking $550.

A couple of 8' bowling alley sections, for heavy duty work bench tops @ $5.oo per foot.

Contact Marvin Meyer from Meire Grove (320-987-3113).

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Still lacking confidence in the accuracy of the stop settings, I ordered a Wixey digital angle gauge. As shown below

(top left picture) the gauge is set on the table top and turned on. You’ll note that it initially read 0.2°. Since the top

surface is our reference, the “ZERO” button is pushed so that it reads 0.0° (top right picture). Once zeroed you sim-

ply set its magnetic base against the blade and read the angle. With the stop properly set, the blade angle with respect

to the table top reads 90° as shown in the bottom left picture. It has three strong permanent magnets on its base as

shown in the bottom right picture. This was repeated for the 45° blade angle.

One thing I appreciate about this gauge is its simplicity. It only has two buttons and a battery that I’ve found needs

replacing about once a year. This seems like a rather short life for how seldom I use it. However, its replacement re-

quires no tools, can be done in seconds and is relatively inexpensive, so it isn’t a major issue.

Being a skeptic, the first thing I did on its arrival was check its accuracy. I did this by using a few machine squares

and found that it was “right on.” It read 90.0°, so it was within 0.05° (89.95-90.05°) since it rounds to the nearest

0.1°.

It costs $30-40. I would recommend it to anyone interested in a digital angle gauge. I have seen other brands on the

market but have no firsthand knowledge about them.

Wixe y G au ge ( c o n t . )

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Ja nu a ry C M WA M eet in g ( g s )

January’s meeting started with show

and tell items from John Wilson

who brought in a small red oak chest

(below), Alex Neussendorfer a

carved mirror frame (far right) and

Lenny Merdan a globe holder (top

left). We have quite the talented

membership.

The business part of the meeting

focused on recognizing the returning

volunteers (see page 1) and nomi-

nating the new leaders (Rollie John-

son as President, John Wilson as

Vice President, and board members

Tom Harlander, John Kenning, Al-

bert Keppers and Denny Myers).

Thanks to all these volunteers for

making CMWA a vibrant club.

The rest of the evening was spent in

enjoyable conversation.

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Please support our

sponsors by patroniz-

ing their businesses.

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PO Box 1955 St. Cloud, MN 56302-1955

Upcoming Meeting

Wednesday, February 16, 7 pm, at Denny Myers’ shop.

Ron Brown will present on mortising equipment he

has developed. Bring items to auction.

Car poolers meet in the Sauk Rapids Coborn’s

Superstore parking lot at 6:30 pm.

Mississippi

River

Parking

Shop

Denny Myers

7505 Hillton Road

Royalton, MN

320-360-0784

CMWA Board Meeting

Wednesday, February 16, 6 pm, Coborn’s Super-

store, Sauk Rapids.