Norm Nichols, playing with different woods, crafted a cross and a
dog. Norm showed members his
piece of the dog that he scroll sawed out of the wenge - the largest
single piece that that he has ever pulled out of a project.
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Steve Wavro’s sister saw this bird and nest in a scroll saw
magazine and asked him to make one for her.
Steve, being the wonderful brother that he is, explained how he
put together the intarsia bird with eggs in nest.
Steve could not find any wood approximating the blue of the eggs
so he painted them. Everything else is natural wood.
Steve boiled some twigs and then put them in a clamp to bend them
to create a more natural nest look.
With a daughter marrying in October, Steve
was asked to make a door plaque commemorating the event. To help design
the letters and numbers, Steve found a downloadable shareware program,
Inkscape, online for his Mac (numerous tutorials are available on
YouTube). Steve used a
Sandflea sander (looks like a jointer but has a roll of sandpaper
instead of blades) to sand the project without damaging the fragile
fretwork.
Steve finished with multiple coats of spray on Spar polyurethane.
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Keeping
up with his tradition of mostly using “excess” lumber, John Gay
rescued some presswood underdecking for his wooden platter.
The gold gilding was not panned by John in Colorado.
After having crafted a tool box with tools for a Masonic order,
John made a tool box and tools for himself.
Once again “excess” wood shines through his tools.
Of historical interest is that John had some leftover white oak
that came from a Danish boat under restoration at the Houston Holocaust
Museum (this boat was used by Danish fisherman to ferry Jews and other
minorities out of Denmark to escape the NAZIs during WWII).
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On
a trip to Colorado, Chuck Meeder visited a couple of sawmills and
came back with some cottonwood that was turned into a bench with maple
legs. The joinery was
mortise and tenon and half blind dovetails.
Chuck used two coats of Armorseal then five coats of finish.
The butterfly substitutes for a crack.
One member suggested several butterflys “in flight” – the, um,
butterfly effect?
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Bob Wink, known for his whimsical creations,
dazzled members again with a short puppet show, a rodeo display and a
well-known somebody giving the peace sign.
Like John Gay, Bob makes excellent use of “excess” wood.
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Rick Spacek showed a cross of Corian and an antler.
Using a 2/0 spiral scroll saw blade Rick carved out the take-down
details into the horn of a buck.
Rick stated that he carefully held the antler while scroll
sawing, not using clamps or a vice.
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Ron Matherly showed his first of eight chairs
of mesquite. At least Ron
will have one to sit on while resting.
The leather is stamped to look like ostrich – real ostrich
leather is expensive. Ron
praised his Festool Domino machine for all the mortise and tenon work,
“like shooting fish in a barrel”.
The inlay for the back was made on a CNC machine.
Ron will seal with shellac and finish with polyurethane – done to
match a table that Ron also made.
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 A friend of
Charles Volek asked him to make a horse
for his granddaughter. So,
from a Kathy Weiss pattern, Charles crafted this intarsia girl on a
white horse with black mane.
Since polyurethane tends to darken the maple Charles used polyacrylic.
With only a camera to capture the pattern Charles
made some owls and then more owls with the leftover wood.
Now Charles has something to hoot about.
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Keeping up with the toy effort,
Bill Harris showed
a few from about 200 toy cars that he crafted from “excess” wood.
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George Alderete purchased some postal box doors
from ebay and repurposed them into coin banks – with working
combinations, no less. George used zebrawood, mahogany and walnut then
sealed with Armorseal. For
joinery George used his Domino machine.
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A very nice cutting board crafted by
Mark Womack is
his first attempt at detailed woodworking – well done, Mark!
Mark cut all pieces to dimension on his table saw, stressing the
importance of a straight fence – a reminder that we all need. Intending
to install feet to the board, this board will be a Mother’s day gift – yes, for his
Mother.
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