Programs for 2003
This will be the third year for this program committee. 2001 and 2002 was a very successful year for programs, and we all hope you find 2003 even more entertaining and informative. Assisting me on the Program Committee will be Bob Gabor, Ed Karolak, Rob Zaccardi, Irene Joiner, Leon Harkins, and Jeff Leimberger. We are all set to make 2003 the best year yet.
You will see host names after each event. They are responsible for all aspects of the events. They act as hosts for guest speakers, accept reservations (with fees if any), write the descriptions below, write newsletter articles, etc. Please contact them if you want more details about their respective programs.
We are using the responses to the program survey as a guide; however, we are always open to new ideas. If you have a special interest or an idea for a program, please see me at the meeting or give me a call (469-9575).
The programs listed below may have to be changed if, for some reason, the speaker becomes unavailable. Keep posted to the newsletter for updates and changes.
Submitted by Fred Ford, Chair of the Program Committee
Tuesday, January 21 st meeting. Windsor Chair Construction. Dan O'Sullivan, an expert craftsman and accomplished Windsor chair maker, will do a show and tell program on the intricacies of Windsor chair building. He will talk about lay out, proper angles and dimensions, and bending and turning the chairparts. He is available to give small group classes in his shop in Durham. Dan also is a gunsmith, builds furniture, and restores old cars. Hosted by Ed Karolak. Telephone 383-4233
Before Meeting Seminar From 6:30 until 7:15 Dick Courtney will be showing some basis about using and tuning a band saw. Please come early and be entertained and informed.
Saturday January 25th Table Saw Workshop Bruce Wrenn will be conducting a workshop on the table saw. He will be tuning up two different types of table saw. One will be a contractor's saw and the other will be a cabinet saw. He will cover blade alignment with the miter slot and fence and reducing vibration. He will show how to make zero clearance inserts. He will cover making a cross cut sled (panel cutter for you "Normites"). Tips and techniques will be covered.
The workshop will be held in Hal Brown's workshop from 8:30 am until 4:30 pm. Cost will be $25 for the full day and $15 for half day. Hosted by Bruce Wrenn. Telephone 362-0878
Saturday February 1st Sawmill Fieldtrip Mike Robin has invited TWA members to come out and see him cut a log into boards with his band saw sawmill and learn a little about drying wood. The fieldtrip will cost $5, and run from 9:00 am until about 1:00 pm.
Hosted by Dick Courtney 481-1257
Tuesday, February 18 th meeting. Wood-Carving on Furniture. Paul Rolf. Is a TWA member and professional wood carver. Carved ornament adds so much to a piece of furniture. Unfortunately, when you walk into a furniture store today and look at the furniture that has carving on it, it will be a machine generated appliqué that has obvi-ously been simply tacked on to the piece. Personally, I think that the piece of furniture would look nicer if they would have just left it off. Being a carver, I am probably too critical of these things because somebody must think that it s OK or the furniture stores would not be able to sell them. In this program, we will discuss the different ways to incor-porate carving on furniture, what tools are required and, in most cases, how easy it can be. Paul Rolfe started wood carving as a hobby in 1974 while attending Appalachian State University. As a student, tools were hard to afford and hard to find. Starting out, Rolfe used pocketknives and X-Acto tools. While at the university, as a senior, Rolfe took two semesters of furniture design and construction from the Industrial Arts department. This is the only formal train-ing that he has had. He graduated in 1980 with a Masters degree in chemistry. In 1982, Rolfe left his full time job as a Research Scientist at Burroughs Wellcome to look after his first of two daughters and to start a woodworking/ woodcarving business. Since that time Rolfe has produced hundreds and hundreds of mostly commissioned pieces. Working under the name of Raleigh Carving Company, he has produced models for industry, carved signs, com-pany logos, church furniture and sculptures, reproductions, realistic portraits in wood, mantels, carousel horses,&.. the list could go on and on. For the last twenty years, he has shown and demonstrated his work in the Village of Yesteryear at the North Carolina State Fair. Rolfe has successfully competed in many woodcarving competitions and has occasionally been invited to judge some as well. He is currently working with area woodcarving clubs to organize a woodcarving competition to be held at Klingspor s Woodworking Shop on February 8, 2003. Rolfe started working at the Woodworking Shop when it opened in 1999 and is now the store manager. Hosted By Leon Har-kins.
Tuesday, March 18 th meeting Router Techniques and Jigs Hal Brown ,a TWA member, retired from Rex Hospi-tal as the Director of Cardio and Pulmonary Services after a twenty five year career in the medical field. He started his woodworking as a child in bible school. He turned professional in 1995, when he retired from the medical field. Working on commission jobs, Hal turns out everything from custom kitchen cabinets to special furniture pieces. At this meeting, Hal will explain, the basics of a router, the bits to use, and how to use them. He will also share with us how he makes some items used in his profession. Making things from simple rabbit cuts the raised panel doors will be explained. Router fences and jigs will be discussed. Learn some new tricks to do with your router. The fence , the most important accessory for the router, will be covered in some detail. Learn from a master what to look for in a fence. The router is probably the most versatile tool in your workshop. Come and learn how you can improve your use of your router. Hosted by Fred Ford. Telephone 469-9575
Tuesday, April 15 th meeting. Mortise & tenon, and Dovetail joints. ; Michael Joerling is a professional furniture maker from Chapel Hill and becoming somewhat of a regular at TWA meetings. He has operated his own studio near his home since 1984. He creates both commissioned and gallery pieces that are sold and exhibited across the nation. Besides creating beautiful objects in wood, Michael has taught woodworking classes over the last several years and is currently teaching classes at his studio. Michael will talk about and demonstrate the use of dovetail and mortise tenon joinery. This discussion will touch on the proper use of joints to avoid problems with wood move-ment. Michael cuts his dovetails by hand and will show us how he does it! He will also show us how he lays out M&T joints to be cut by hand and talk about how he actually does it these days. Hosted by Jeff Leimberger
Tuesday, May 20 th meeting. Table Saw Jigs. Bob Gabor, a TWA member known by just about all the members, will be showing us his Jigs that can be used to improve the usefulness of your table saw. Bob has hosted TWA workshops in his 20X40 foot workshop for as long as I can remember. I have visited his workshop many times and have yet to come away without a new idea for my shop. You are going to be impressed with the quality of the jigs Bob makes. After you have seen his jigs you will not be surprised to learn that he also makes the highest quality furniture that can be found. Bob will be showing table saw jigs to make accurate and clean crosscuts, get a straight board out of a bent one, cut miters for excellent picture frames, make box joints with ease, and more. Hosted by Fred Ford. Telephone 469-9575
Tuesday, June 17 th meeting. Furniture Design. Jim Kirkpatrick will give a program on Furniture Design. He will show and tell how he goes from a concept or idea to the finished project. His projects are unique, tasteful, graceful, and just plain beautiful. He is a long time member of and former officer of the Carolina Designer Crafts-men. Jim lives in Chapel Hill with his wife and children. Hosted by Ed Karloak. Telephone 383-4233
Tuesday, July 15 th meeting. Wood Selection for Projects and Identification of wood. Hill Peel, owner of The Hardwood Store in Gibsonville, NC, is our guest speaker for July and will go into depth on the selection of wood for that special (or not so special) project. This is not another presentation on lum-ber grading. Instead, it will focus on such things as how to select a board for best stability, how to look at a rough cut board and get a feel for how it will look after it is dressed, species selection versus machineability... and much more. Hill has been in the hardwood lumber business for many years and is great at offering easy to un-derstand advice. This program will be useful to all. Plan to attend. Hosted by Bob Gabor 542-5951.
Friday, August 15 th meeting Kelly Mehler makes beautiful custom furniture in Berea, Ky. He has written articles for Fine Woodworking, American Woodworker and Wood and is the author of Table Saw Techniques. He stars in two Taunton Press videos: Building A Shaker Table and Mastering Your Table Saw. Kelly lectures throughout America and has taught at Marc Adam s school. Kelly has developed a reputation as an accomplished instructor and he will present two workshops over the weekend. His presentation will cover his years as a furniture maker and touch on the highlights of his weekend seminars. Hosted by Jeff Leimberger 489-5195
Saturday, August 16 th workshop. Kelly will present All Things Table saw during his Saturday seminar. He will present jigs and techniques that he uses in furniture construction involving this workshop workhorse. Why buy the book when you can experience it first-hand! Hosted by Jeff Leimberger 489-5195
Sunday August 17 th workshop Kelly will talk about the steps he takes during carcase construction, from wood se-lection, to design, to joinery, to glue-up. He will use a chest of drawers for demonstration purposes. If you can build a carcase efficiently and well, most furniture making becomes much easier. Hosted by Jeff Leimberger 489-5195
Tuesday, September 16 th meeting. Lathe Set-up and Turning. Dave Mackie will be presenting. Dave is the President of TWA, and has a great sense of humor. He started doing woodwork as a pre-teenager, mostly scroll saw work with a hand scroll saw (probably before electricity). He continued woodworking as a hobby throughout his adult life and has included house building and remodeling among his accomplishments. Upon his retirement, Dave discovered the electrical outlet and decided to buy all the power tools he ever wanted and build a nice shop. I can report in Dave s own words that he Did this . Dave s activities now include: making furniture, cabinets, toys, model boats, whalebones, carving, woodturning and mentoring. He enjoys attending classes at the John Campbell and Penland craft schools. I have been told that I should feel free to exaggerate Dave s superb skill and vast knowledge but to downplay his ability to make mistakes. If I remember correctly, his mistakes during mentoring classes were called, learning experiences for those of us taking the class. I am also instructed to show that Dave has humility even-though, he may be an extraordinary person. Dave will be demonstrating basic spindle turning techniques by making a weed pot. A weed pot is a small flower vase designed to hold dry arrangements. Hosted by Irene Joiner.
Tuesday, October 21 st meeting. . Band Saw tune up, blade selection and re-sawing. Bruce Wrenn, longtime member of TWA will present a workshop on setting up, tuning, and using one of the most valuable tools in the work-shop, the band saw. Many professional woodworkers, if given a choice, would pick the band saw as the tool they would most like to have in the shop. Bruce will show us how to take full advantage of this tool by demonstrating the correct way to tune it. In addition, he will talk about different jigs that can be built to take advantage of the saws full capability as will as many other issues such as blade selection. Hosted by Rob Zaccardi. Telephone (910) 590-2340
Tuesday, November 18 th meeting. Annual Auction. Phil Bright, a licensed professional auctioneer, and Dick Snow, a computer expert who will coordinate the auction on his laptop, will present the third annual auction at our November meeting. They have conducted many auctions and are very knowledgeable woodworkers. This is the time to not only get rid of all those tools that have been sitting around in your shop for years that you know you will never use, but also pick up a little money at the same time. Also, this is a chance to pick up someone else s treas-ure. As they say one man s trash (tool) is another man s treasure (tool). Hosted by Ed Karolak. Telephone 383-4233
Tuesday, December 9th meeting. Toys for Tots Show and Tell and Social. The December meeting is going to be a meeting and social. We want everyone to bring a spouse or friend. We are going to have coffee, soft drinks, and dessert. We will have some time to socialize, a brief business meeting, and a show and tell featuring the Toys for Tots donations. Everyone is also encouraged to bring items they have made to show to the members and guests. The Marine Corps will be there to receive the toys and to add a spot of color to our meeting. Hosted by Hal Liberty telephone 787-7603