President Craig Mineweaser opened the meeting with announcements. An email was passed around from a Brenden Pierce regarding his sale of Oak and Maple by June 30th. The June Open Shop was hosted by Jerry Robinson in San Francisco. There were over a dozen in attendance. Details can be found in the THIS AND THAT section of the newsletter. Craig asked that everyone check their copy of the roster they received in May, and report any discrepancies to Mark Rand for correction at okmor@sbcglobal.net or 415/647-9244.

Neal White reported on the progress on a weekend class by Michael Fortune that BAWA will be putting on in the fall. Most members agreed that early to mid-November would be a good time to hold this.

Eric McCrystal announced plans to hold a half-day finishing seminar using representatives from two finishing products companies. Hopefully BAWA can co-sponsor this, which will result in a cost of about $10.00. Stay tuned for more information on this.

Harold Patterson announced a demonstration and discussion of hand planes on Saturday, July 23rd. Everyone is urged to bring their hand-planes to the session to tune them up.

Mark Ferraro announced that he purchased a used slide projector at auction and donated it to the club. He also reported that there will be a class taught by member Mike Bray at the Dublin Woodcraft store on Saturday, July 9th focusing on hand plane tune-up. For more information contact the store or Mike at mmbray@earthlink.net or 510/749-6797.

Jim Voos got word form a friend who is moving his shop of high-end woodworking machines from Virginia to a new location, somewhere in the Bay Area. He will be looking for someone to share these machines and shop expenses with him. If you need access to really good machinery and are willing to share expenses, call or email Jim at furnituremkr@mac.com or 650/508-9384.

Show & Tell

Richard Shirasawa showed a charging station for re-charging tool batteries. It consists of a simple wooden box with a power strip mounted on it, to allow you to plug in as many different chargers as you have. The power to this strip is controlled by a simple timer, thus the chargers will turn off after however many hours you choose, to protect the batteries. He got the idea from a magazine some time ago.

Mark Bouquet has purchased some machinist's plane gages. He has several different sizes and he demonstrated how he uses them to set heights on routers, planers, shapers, and other tools where you need a precisely repeatable dimension from one operation to the next. Although expensive, Mark found used ones on eBay.

Claude Godcharles showed some Roy Underhill type projects and tools. First he formed several types of striking mallets from the roots of a tree he dug up. Then he talked about the blacksmithing course he took at The Crucible (in Berkeley) in which he made a two handled inshave from a file. Other items and tools he made included ones from concrete reinforcing bar material and other common scrap steel.

Main Presentation

Our host and BAWA member, Craig Colvin, owner of The Sawdust Shop gave a short presentation on his new business, where we were meeting tonight. There is a retail store in the front that stocks machine tools, hand tools, books, finishes, lumber and other woodworking items. In back, there is a large workshop with benches and machine tools for use by customers. For a monthly fee of $85.00 for access to the machinery and workbench to do any woodworking projects you want. Or you can buy a block of ten hours of shop use for $200.00 in ½ hour increments. Storage space is available for your projects, etc. at the rate of $150.00 per week or $385.00 per month. Craig also intends to offer classes and he asked for anyone interested in conducting a class to contact him.

Two guests were present; woodcarver Jim Phipps from Sunnyvale, and David Piper who makes furniture in Burlingame. Also a former member, Tim O'Mahony of San Francisco attended. He usually can't make our meetings because he's been teaching furniture making on Thursday nights. Two new members joined us. Frank Taylor and Scotty Logan and and Stu Hoffer an old member has re-joined us. All were welcomed.