newsletter - fvwwc. · pdf filenewsletter volume 23, issue 10 october, 2017 ... american...

2017 FVWWC—PO Box 1047—Batavia, IL 60510-1047 1

http://www.fwwc.org — [email protected]

NEWSLETTER Volume 23, Issue 10 October, 2017

Calendar of Events

October 2017

Date Time Event

Oct 3

(Tues)

6:30PM

Hand Tool SIG

WW Fundamentals SIG

Scroll Saw SIG

Oct 3

(Tues)

7:30PM

General Meeting

Oct 18

(Wed)

9:00AM FVWWC Breakfast Club

Red Apple Restaurant

414 S. Schmale Rd

IN THIS ISSUE Big Raffle - Page 2

Tool Collector’s Tour - Page 2

Sept 5 Program - Page 3

Library Notes - Page 3

Shop Tours - Page 4,5

President’s Sawdust - Page 6

Editor’s Woodfiller - Page 7– 9

Christmas Charity Auction—Page 9

Sept Show and Tell—Pages 10 - 12

Officers and Committees - 3

Special Interest Groups – Page 14

November 2017

Date Time Event

Nov 7

(Tues)

6:30PM

Hand Tool SIG

WW Fundamentals SIG

ShopSmith SIG

Nov 7

(Tues)

7:30PM

General Meeting

Nov 15

(Wed)

9:00AM FVWWC Breakfast Club

Red Apple Restaurant

414 S. Schmale Rd

Next Meeting

October 3, 2017

Al Miotke President Chicago Wood Turners

Al Miotke will be doing a presentation that will focus on highlighting the natu-ral beauty of woods accenting with carving, pyrography and painting



Big Raffle

At the October meeting you will have another chance to purchase a raffle ticket for the Earlex Spray Station. The tickets are $5 each or 3 for $10. This is a professional unit that will give your projects a professional finish. The raffle will take place at the November meeting. As usual you do not have to be present at the drawing to win and the raffle is for members only.

This a professional, durable metal gun, powered by a 650 watt turbine, paint volume control adjuster, non-stick PTFE coating container, on board hose, gun, and power cord storage,13 foot hose and carry handle. It is valued at $300.

Norm Musur and Andy Marck

Raffle and Silent Auction Committee

Rich Escallier’s Tool Collector and Museum Tour

Rich did a “coast to coast” tour of tool collectors meets and tool museums. His report is a bit long

for the newsletter, but it is posted on our website as a pdf file. Take a look:

http://www.fvwwc.org/documents/Coast_to_Coast_tool_hop_fvwwc.pdf

http://www.fvwwc.org/documents/Coast_to_Coast_tool_hop_fvwwc.pdf



Just a quick reminder. The club subscribes to a woodworking magazine indexing service. This al-

lows us to search through these magazines and possibly find an article or project you remember

from years back. Most of these magazines we have in the library. To access this, simply call the

librarian or send a request to [email protected] and let him know what you are looking for.

Below is a list of the magazines and what is in the index:

American Woodworker Mar, 1985 Aug, 2014

Fine Woodworking Nov, 1978 Dec, 2017

Popular Woodworking Jan, 1996 Oct, 2017

Scroll Saw Woodworking #1 #68

Shopnotes #1 #138

Weekend Woodcrafts Jul, 1998 Jan, 2005

Wood Sep, 1984 Oct, 2017

Woodcraft Jan, 2005 Aug, 2017

Woodsmith #1 #232

Woodwork Oct, 1998 Dec, 2008

Woodworkers Journal Jan, 1992 Oct, 2017

Workbench Nov, 1992 Dec, 2009

September 5 Program

Jim Heavey

HVLP Spray Finishing

Jim Heavey of Wood magazine was our speaker for September 5.

He covered all types of spray finishing from rattle cans to the latest

HVLP systems. He did a great job and, hopefully we can get him

booked again for sometime next year.

mailto:[email protected]



Note: Some information below has changed or updated from prior shop tour information.

My past visit to the Art Institute of Chicago - Program: Shakers and Movers

I went to the Art Institute of Chicago and checked out their Shaker woodworking (furniture and various other items). Their gallery display was nice. Wish it was a little larger. I also roamed around though other galleries and found a lot of other items (other than Shaker woodworking) that were outstanding. This made for a nice Saturday outing.

Upcoming Events

Illinois Railway Museum – 10:00 AM, Saturday, OCTOBER 7, 2017 Program: Tour of wood shop, barn 4, maintenance and restoration area plus small machine demonstration. Location: 7000 Olson Road, Union, IL, Phone: 815-923-4000 Free parking if you park at the volunteer parking lot see map on page 5 Contact: Buzz - George Morisette, volunteer at the Illinois Rail Museum (Home Phone: 815-895-0917) Meet Buzz at: Location to be determined. Since I do not know (at this time) where to meet come 15 min. early.

I am planning on going and parking in the volunteer parking lot. Unless otherwise noted plan on meeting at my car. My car (Chevy Cruze, Champaign color) will have the “FVWWC Shop Tour” sign on the back of it. For late comers or if I am not at the car I will post information about what I know on the dash board of my car or feel free to call me on my cell phone 630-803-7566. Cost: $7.00 per person and free parking in the back gate (volunteer area) see map. Train ride: If you wish to ride the trains follow signs to our main entrance and ask for the Fox Valley group rate. Lunch: Illinois Railway Museum Diner.

Chicagoland Canoe Builders – 10:00 AM, Saturday, November 11, 2017 Program: Wooden boat building (strip canoes) Location: 1215 Smith Rd, Lisle, IL, Phone: 815-923-4000 E-mails: [email protected]. Contact: Adam Poor phone 309-255-7902 Cost: None Lunch: BD Mongolian Grill, 221 S. Washington St, Naperville, IL 60540, phone: 630-428-0300 Directions from Chicagoland Canoe Builders: Google 9 min. & 4.4 miles Go east on Smith Road (0.8 m) and turn left onto Lincoln Ave/L-53 Go north on Lincoln Ave/L-53 (0.32 m) and turn left onto Maple Ave. Go westward on Maple Ave. (1.93 m) and turn right onto S. Washington St. BD Mongolian Grill, 221 S. Washington St, Naperville, IL will be on your left (.05m)

If you have any questions, tour request or if you would like to host a shop tour please let me know.

Dan Jarodsky, Shop Tours Coordinator 6N467 Barton Drive, St. Charles, IL 60175, E-mail: [email protected], Phone: 630-584-8555

Shop Tours 9-25-17 Information




For Your Reference

Current and Upcoming Woodworking Shows Art Institute Chicago

Location: Chicago, IL, 111 S. Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL Date: On now through Dec. 3, 2017 Program: Shakers and Movers Gallery: 168 Shaker woodworking - furniture and various other items.

Sculptured Objects Functional Art

Location: Navy Pier, 600 E. Grand Ave., Chicago, IL, Festival Hall A & B Program: Critically acclaimed and continuously running since 1994, what distinguishes SOFA from other top art events is its focus on three-dimensional artworks that cross the boundaries of fine art, decorative art and design. SOFA is noted for its exceptional presentation, with an elite selection of international dealers presenting for sale one-of-a-kind masterworks in handsome, custom-designed gallery exhibits. Dates: Nov. 2 thru Dec. 5, 2017

If you have any questions, tour request or if you would like to host a shop tour please let me know.

Dan Jarodsky, Shop Tours Coordinator 6N467 Barton Drive, St. Charles, IL 60175, E-mail: [email protected], Phone: 630-584-8555

Shop Tours 9-25-17 Information




President’s Sawdust

Tom Sharp, President FVWWC The editorial musings of your president which maybe serious, funny, technical, or philosophical, but hopefully

always entertaining.

Wood Joinery

Some time ago I purchased a set of templates to make exotic wood joints. The dovetail is our benchmark but

there are others. They have fine descriptive names such as arrowhead, , kings crown

, bird’s eyes , and dog bones . One my

favorites is teddy bears ears .

All of these joints have a mechanical structure built into them in order to make a firm joint. They will hold a corner

without glue and are aesthetically pleasing.

The templates themselves are simple in their make-up. A flat piece of aluminum

stock that has a simple pattern at one end. These jigs are a simple guide for the

router to follow with a straight bit having a roller bearing to follow the pattern.

Conceivably, I could make my own out of wood. I would just need to make each part of the pattern the proper

distance apart for each other. I would also need to ensure my pattern held the same structural integrity as the

others. I have a few, at least in my mind.

My ego points me to my name. Why not a repeating T for Tom. T T T This would be a great pattern.

Carry this a bit further and a I could make an S S S additional jig with an S as well . Imagine having a drawer with the initial of your first name on one side and the initial of your last name on the oth-er, Very cool. Religious themes come to mind too. A cross for the Christian persuasion or a crescent moon for Islam. The yin

yang symbol of Taoism would be a perfect application for joinery. For those more inclined to mischief, perhaps a

pitchfork or a forked tongue. These may be good for making those drawers for the mother-in-law.

Sometimes you are put in a position where you have to make something for someone you really don’t care for.

Imagine making a joint that’s best described with the title of “middle finger”. The description gives you a good

idea of it’s shape. This allows you to show your skill as a woodworker but have a subtle message in your joinery.

Think of a joinery shape for yourself. Make it to represent your personality, a metaphor, or a subtle message. Ei-

ther way it will symbolize a part of you and raise your ability to show your skills as a woodworker.



Investigating Old Furniture

As you may know, I am very interested in Period Furniture typically thought of as 18th century Queen Anne style. I also build Arts and Crafts style furniture from the early 20th century. But I am by no means an expert on old furniture. So when I inherited an antique dresser from my mother, I was very curious to investi-gate it’s age and style. I already know a bit about it’s age given that it was in my mother’s childhood bedroom and her older sister’s room before that. Mom is over 90 and her sister was 17 when mom was born, so I figure it is at least 100 years old. The style is not Victorian, Arts and Crafts, or Mission. But the basic design was common and seen in many bedrooms of the 19th century. It would have had a large bowl in the center shelf for washing, a water pitcher on the side, and a candle or two on the small shelves above. Most of the ones I have seen in old farm houses were a much plainer design made of oak.

Doing a little more research, I went to Google, where else? I searched for 1890 antique dresser and found many examples of this kind of dresser. There were many to be seen and the listings and prices quashed the idea that the piece could be very valuable, likely in the neigh-borhood of $500. The basic style is called Eastlake after an English architect named Charles Eastlake. Eastlake had an aversion to the overly embellished furniture pop-ular in the Victorian period and published a book of sim-pler styles called Hints on Household Taste, published in the US in 1872. This idea of simple, sturdy, well made furniture is along the same lines as the Arts and Crafts furniture introduced in the late 1800’s. Instead of elabo-rate high relief carvings and swoopy curves, the Eastlake style uses simpler chip carving embellishments, geomet-ric and floral, and contrasting veneers.

Given this information, I know the general vintage and style of the dresser, but it could be a replica built later, maybe in the 1920’s. A close examination of the case work and drawers revealed the following:

1. It is a product of a production furniture shop if not a factory. The drawers are dovetailed with some kind of fixed dovetail template similar to today’s jigs (photo be-low). No scribe marks are visible.

2. The drawer bottoms are 1/2 inch solid wood beveled to fit in the usual nar-row dados in the sides. The bevel looks like it was made with a shaper bit with a round filet. Definitely not made with a hand plane.

Lee



Investigating Old Furniture (Continued)

3. No plywood was used in the construction. Modern plywood was introduced around 1910 and it is likely a production shop would have used it for the drawer bottoms and the case back to mini-mize machining and avoid wood movement issues.

4. Hide glue was used in the case and drawers—I think the modern PVA glues came in the 1950’s.

5. The nails are wire nails with round heads—these came into use after 1885 or so,

6. Factory made slotted brass screws were used - available after 1840 or so.

7. The hardware is unplated brass.

8. The veneers on the drawer fronts are at least 1/32 inch or thicker. 20th century ve-neers became much thinner.

9. Finish is shellac, soluble in alcohol.

10. The chip carving is very reg-ular and even, but could be hand carved. I do not know enough about chip carving to say for sure.

11. The show surfaces are solid hardwood, either Walnut or Elm. The wood has a brown tone that could be aged Elm heartwood, but seems darker brown more like Walnut. I am wondering about Elm because one of the drawer backs has a handwrit-ten cut-list with very flowery old fashioned cursive. It listed panel dimensions and called for Elm.



Investigating Old Furniture (Continued)

My conclusion after all this investigating, is that the dresser was probably made sometime between 1890 and the early 1900’s. The dresser has not had much attention for decades, maybe over 80 years. I remember my grandfather telling me he had it refinished once, maybe with a wax finish. When I got the dresser, the wood was dull, dry, and faded looking. The top surfaces had numer-ous water marks and some kind of spots, maybe nail polish? I ended up using alcohol and fine steel wool to clean the top surfaces and remove the spots. Yes, I know Antique Roadshow says never clean or refinish antique furniture. But after finding out it’s not a high value piece, I just want-ed it to look old but nice. I waxed the show surfaces with dark brown tinted Briwax and the burl ve-neer with clear Briwax. I think the result is nice; it is clean and the wax gave it a soft satin luster. It is a family heirloom, so I hope one of my kids or nieces/nephews will want it when I am gone.

December 5 Christmas Party Auction

Too early to get into the Christmas spirit? Well, I know a good way to get in the

mood and enjoy some shop time as well. The FVWWC Board plans to have an-

other charity auction at the annual December Christmas party. This is getting to

be a nice tradition for the club and a way to raise cash for local charities to make

their clients’ Christmas a little more merry. So, when you are in the shop making a craft item for

family or friends, consider making an extra to donate to the club’s auction in December. Of course,

if you like to make toys, go ahead—we will collect these as well for needy kids.



Cory Hauser

Project: Fighter Jet

Wood: Pine

Rich Escallier

Project: Monarch Motel

Wood: scraps

Note : The cocoon inside should hatch to-

morrow (Sept 6?)

SHOW AND TELL

September 5, 2017 Meeting



Tom Sharp

Project: End Table to Toy Box

Wood: White Oak

Finish: Danish Oil / wax

Note: Wood from my property

SHOW AND TELL


Ray Rockefeller

Project: Lamp

Wood: Maple

Finish: Lacquer



Arnie Bandstra

Project: Thomas Jefferson writing desk

(travel desk to write the Declaration of Independence

Wood: Mahogany

Finish: Danish Oil, 4 coats of Shellac, Clear Briwax

SHOW AND TELL




2017

FVWWC Officers & Staff

President: Tom Sharp [email protected] Vice President: Mike Brady [email protected] Treasurer: Doug Pfaff [email protected] Secretary: Steve Fox [email protected] Programs: Dave Burk

[email protected]

Membership: Ed Schalk Website Director John Gesiakowski [email protected] Resources: Dave Dockstader

[email protected]

Member-at-Large: Arnie Bandstra Communications Lee Nye Director: [email protected] Raffles: Norm Musur Andy Marck Show & Tell MC: Rich Russel Audio/Visual Tech: Dave Burk Shop Tour Chair Dan Jarodsky Greeter: Steve Fox

Special Interest Groups ShopSmith Dave Dockstader SIG Chair: (630) 851-8118 Scrollsaw Dave Dockstader SIG Chair: (630) 851-8118 Hand Tool Mike Brady SIG Chair: [email protected]

Arnie Bandstra

Woodworking Tom Zillman

Fundamentals SIG Bill Schwartz

[email protected]

[email protected]

2017 Membership Dues Dues for 2017 can be paid at the general meetings - just see Ed Schalk at his table before the meeting or during break. Dues are still $30 per individual which includes the whole family. Please note that family members must reside at the same address. Our by-laws require payment of dues by Febru-ary 15. Members unpaid after that time are re-moved from membership rolls and mailing lists.

If you are unable to pay in person, or forgot your checkbook, mail in your dues. Print out the mem-bership form from our website:

http://www.foxvalleywoodworkers.com/Documents/MemCard_11_Online.pdf

Mail it in:

FVWWC Membership Chair

PO Box 1041

Batavia, IL 60510-1041








ShopSmith SIG

November 7, 2017

Because of the Christmas Party, the next ShopSmith SIG meeting will be November 7th,

2017, at 6:30 prior to the club meeting somewhere in the lower level. Because the SIG

membership did not want to wait until next year for another meeting, you will have the

meeting without your fearless leader. However there will still be lots to discuss and share.

Join us and share your ShopSmith experience and find out what the rest of us have been up to with our ma-

chines. Dave Dockstader 630-851-8118 [email protected]

Hand Tool SIG

October 3, 2017

The Hand Tool SIG meets, January through November, at 6:30 pm, before the regular meeting at

Bethany Lutheran in Room M111 of the Ministry Center (Church annex). Remember this loca-

tion changed last year from the main building. This month the Hand Tool SIG will be welcom-

ing the Woodworking Fundamentals SIG to a familiarization with traditional hand tools. Anyone in-

terested in the use of hand tools is welcome to join us for discussion of this fascinating area of

woodworking. Hope to see you there!

Mike Brady [email protected] Arnie Bandstra

Woodworking Fundamentals SIG October 3, 2017

This month the Hand Tool SIG will be welcoming the Woodworking Fundamentals SIG to a familiarization with traditional hand tools. During our hour together some of the essential tools of hand woodworking will be explained and available for use. Anyone interested in hand tools is invited. For October, this SIG will meet with the Hand Tool SIG in Room M111 of the Ministry Center (Church annex).

Tom Zillman [email protected] Bill Schwartz [email protected]

Scroll Saw SIG October 3, 2017

The next Scroll Saw SIG next meeting will be Tuesday, October 3

rd, 2017, at 6:30

prior to the club meeting. If you have a scroll saw or are interested, this group is

an excellent resource for expanding your knowledge and picking up tips and pat-

terns. Don’t forget to bring in some samples of your work for discussion.

Dave Dockstader 630-851-8118 [email protected]



Fox Valley Woodworkers Club

General Meetings held at:

Bethany Lutheran Church

8 S Lincoln St. - Batavia, IL

On the 1st Tuesday of each month at 7:30 pm

Doors Open at 6:30 p.m.

Visitors Always Welcome!

FVWWC Website http://www.fvwwc.org Email [email protected]

Next Meeting – October 3, 2017

Al Miotke

Highlighting the Beauty of Wood

http://www.fvwwc.org