Newsletter September 2021
President's Message
The style of our future meetings
After we had to cancel our regular Foster City meeting in March last year and knowing it would be a few months until we could resume them, we dived into our Zoom on-line meetings in April without being sure if they they would be popular, or how they would evolve.
Zoom meetings had been suggested by some members who had already used them for private and business meetings; Bruce had a Zoom license and had already run meetings, so we had our experienced expert and off we went.
The meetings went very well; we had good attendance (including past members who were no longer in the Bay Area) and we were able to invite Guest Speakers from out of the area.
Bruce ran the password controlled invites and Paul ran our Virtual Workshops where members showed pictures of their workshops. He soon realized it worked better for some attendees if they sent their pictures to him in advance so he could assembled them with words into a slide format.
Way back in July this year we had a very enjoyable in-person picnic in Belmont which we were hoping would be the prolog to our regular meetings starting back in Foster City. Unfortunately the virus did not give up that easily and we had to continue Zoom meeting for a few months longer.
We are now hoping to start combined in-person / Zoom meetings in November. This is like starting fresh: we can change / improve the way we have our meetings and show our work etc.
Paul has sent out a survey on when and how best to hold our future meetings so if you have not already done so please take time to respond and add any comments you like on how you think we should continue.
Survey
Or email Paul at: mozo@mindspring.com
Enjoy your woodworking.
Frank (Contact at: Frankramsay8@aol.com
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September 2021 BAWA Zoom Meeting
The meeting was called to order by President Frank Ramsay.
Announcements:
October we will be another Zoom meeting. Patrick Edwards, the creator of Old Brown Glue, will talk about glues.
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Tom Gaston
Respiratory Disease in the Workshop
Tom Gaston was our speaker. He spoke about respiratory disease in the workshop.
He noted that the nose and naval cavity are very good at filtering most of the dust that enters the body. Dust particles come in all different sizes and only the smallest particles will make it past the nose and into the lungs.
These particles are so small that they cannot be seen floating around in the air.
Tom mentioned that certain tools make finer dust particles than other tools. For instance, the bandsaw, lathes, and sanders produce finer dust than the tablesaw or router/planer/jointer.
He said that the best defense is to catch dust particles at the source - with dust collectors, rather than cleaning up the dust after the fact.
He said that you should not use compressed air to clean off surfaces, as that just circulates the dust. Much better to vacuum up dust than to blow it off.
Some people are allergic to wood dust and certain woods are known to be more prone to causing allergic reactions.
He listed a few websites where you can see what woods are the most likely to cause allergic reactions.
wood-database.com
2coolfishing.com/
billpentz.com/woodworking
As for wearing dust masks, he uses disposable masks and does not throw them out after a single day, but is sure to let them dry out after each use, as moisture from your breath will collect in the mask.
The best news was that the hobby woodworker is not likely to suffer any serious respiratory disease from woodworking dust.
