Our September 16th meeting was the 3rd Annual Fall Kickoff dinner and Show and Tell/Jigs & Fixtures extravaganza and an EXTRAVAGANZA it was. Fifty members some with their significant others socialized and munching mixed nuts before dinner. A big crowd of woodworkers surrounded Elin Thomas (Mike Cooper's wife) who had brought her sewing machine and set it up to embroider names and woodworking tool shapes. Many wanted her to adapt the sewing machine to embroider on wood but alas she said that was impossible. Knowing the ingenuity of our members, I am sure this is being worked on at home. Due to the hard work of Robbie Fanning with the help of Tony and some dedicated volunteers, the dinner went off smoothly and a delicious dinner it was.

After the dinner, Craig started off the business meeting. He mentioned that our Vice President, Peter Wronsky was now in the northwest getting bone marrow treatments. Stan Booker then described the Bloodwood board that was to be the raffle item. Harold Patterson was next announcing the 9/26 Toy workshop at Bill Henzel's shop. He showed some of the articulated toys that will be made and the wood block sets as well. Mike Cooper was next and announced that Woodcraft-Dublin was going to have a free Sorby turning demonstration on 10/7 from 1-4 pm and 6-9 pm at the store. Wayne Barton will have an Introduction to Chip Carving on 2/12 and 13. Ian Norbury will be at the store in April. More details on this will come later. Craig announced that the SF Craft & Design gallery has opened in San Francisco at 550 Sutter Street. Admission is waived until the end of the year. Details can be found at www.sfmcd.org or by calling 415/773-0303. Craig also mentioned that the Oakland museum was looking for a woodworker to teach woodworking to kids in the spring and to also demonstrate woodworking for families. There is compensation for the work. Tony Fanning and Bill Henzel talked about the 9/30 BAWA volunteer construction project at the Belmont Senior Center where new kitchen cabinet doors are to be designed, made and installed. Also on 10/8, there will be a BAWA volunteer construction project with a Rebuilding Together crew at the Janet Pomeroy Center (Recreation Center for the Handicapped) in SF. Where a pergola will be built also some gates amongst other projects. A barbeque lunch will be served. John Schmidt was next where he announced that the Tuolumne River Woodworkers will have a show from 9/26 till 10/10 at the McHenry Museum 1402 I St. in Modesto. Hours are 12-4 pm every day except Mondays with demos on Sunday. There were 113 items last year. There will be a kid's program with soap carving, toy and top making. Eric McCrystal who is opening a new Woodcraft store at 1121B Industrial Road in San Carlos said everything is on track for a 10/18 opening. There will be good classes with our own Jamie Buxton as one of the instructors. Jay Perrine our Program chair mentioned that the October meeting will be in San Francisco at Kevin Fryer's. Kevin is a harpsichord maker. In November, we will have a Finishing Roundtable with Jamie Buxton, Don Naples, Carl Johnson, and Glenn Krueg. December will bring Ashley Eriksmoen, a furniture builder and sculptress.

Show & Tell, and Jigs & Fixtures

Tony Fanning showed a jig template to make ogees. Stan Booker brought some small boxes and bowls from Morocco. He said that they virtually had no furniture industry importing most of it but the small items he brought were a beautiful burl turned from Thuja wood and made in the city of Essaouira in southwest Morocco. The wood is highly endangered and not available. He showed photos of a unique lathe that they used. Laid on the ground, the right hand moved the lathe while the skew was used with the left hand while the right foot held down the lathe bar. In addition, he described a bed he finished that his been in the works for 4 to 5 years. He showed a toy making book which had good looking toy plans plus suggestions for various jigs to safely cut small items. Mike Cooper showed a laser cut wooden name tag with the BAWA logo on it. The club will have a discussion on this to see if members are interested in getting them. Gene Wagg is in the segmented bowl business! He showed several bowls. One made of Ash and Walnut and one of Cherry and Maple. He commented that accuracy of cuts for the segments is of prime importance. Fred Reicher showed a band saw box made of Cherry and Maple. John Schmidt described a routing class he taught where a piece had to be finished even if the student had to come back the next day (a tough prof!). He showed some safety items including an angle drilling jig. Jay Perrine showed an edge router jig for edge banding on plywood. Arnie Champagne showed what he learned in his month long class at the College of the Redwoods. He brought a chair which had complicated joints and double tenons. He also showed a jig for putting several wood inlays on the back of the chair. George Comstock showed a cradle with slanted sides and ends with dovetail joints. Very complicated and he used a router with a dovetail cutter and a jig to do this. He also showed a 40-year old chalice which his wife Anne treasures. It has a chip and a crack in it and he is looking for someone who can repair it. Andy Grose had a table full of clocks. One had a embedded pin with the company name and the owner's company position. There was also a "jigsaw" of clocks made for his wife Jacquie's Breast Cancer Survivors group. He also showed one of 175 clocks that he made by hand on a scroll saw without a jig. They were made for the 10th Anniversary of the Public Policy Institute of CA out of recycled Redwood that came from a building. The clocks were in the shape of California. Aren't you glad that the state wasn't Hawaii Andy? Harold Patterson showed several examples of table saw inserts he has made. Some were zero clearance and some had imbedded splitters. He described the procedure to make them using double face tape. He warned that that the indoor tape is much weaker than the outdoor tape. He also showed a jig for a router and table saw. Jamie Buxton showed an ingenious but simple jig to clamp two pieces together for gluing that are angled to each other. He also took a break from his artistic and sculptured chairs to show a traditional one. It has 3 back slats curved in different directions to fit the curve of a human's back. There are mortise and tenon joints that are skewed in two directions. He said it was a very challenging piece. That ended a fascinating display of our members' ingenuity and professionalism in their woodworking.

The meeting ended with the door prize winners. John Schmidt ( who always wins & I don't) won a Lie-Nielsen plane from Woodcraft-Dublin. A $50 gift certificate from Woodcraft-San Carlos went to Elin Thomas and a knife went to Anne Comstock donated by Rockler. There are more prizes to be given out from both Rockler and the two Woodcrafts but they will have to wait for future meetings since we were being driven out of the building because it was 10 pm closing time.

A message from Robbie

I'd like to thank everyone for pitching in to clean up the Senior Center. There wasn't a scrap left when we finished! That kind of cooperation makes it a pleasure to put on the annual dinner. I'd also like to thank Estelle Wagg for above-and-beyond KP duty and Elin Thomas for bringing her embroidery machine. (We thought it would be of interest to the mates, but I saw an awful lot of woodworkers hanging over Elin's shoulder. Maybe we should start an embroidery interest group?) Also many thanks for some great door prizes from Woodcraft- Dublin, Woodcraft-San Carlos and Rockler-Pleasant Hill.