Our March meeting started with Announcements

Eric McCrystal brought some tools left by a woodworker who passed away. Some items sold with the money going to his widow.

Eric Heim has 40 board feet of walnut, 20 of mahogany and some miscellaneous wood for sale for $300. Police restored order after members stormed the seller waving $100 bills. The lumber was sold.

Kevin Johnston of Straw Hat Pizza requested someone to build a Straw Hat Pizza chair with a King motif for youngsters who are celebrating their birthdays. He wants a prototype to be built and will pay $500. The eventual production quantity could reach 35 chairs. A conceptual drawing was shown. See Bill Henzel for details.

Bill also announced that John McCormack is teaching woodworking classes at the Palo Alto Adult School. You can still enroll in the Spring or Summer quarter. For information call 650 329-3752 or www.paadultschool.org.

Rafflemeister Stan Brooker has Wenge, Zebra wood and a Woodline Fence System available in the three raffles now open. Remember $1/ticket or a real bargain, 6 for $5.

Door prizes for the evening included a gluing kit, a tool box, a 12V Skill drill/driver. Old files and Rotten Stone were free for the taking all out of Stan's "teaching" stash.

Tony Fanning wearing Fred Reicher's hat talked about Rebuilding Together to be held on April 29 at an old firehouse in San Francisco near the SBC/AT&T ballpark. The firehouse is being used as a distribution center for the SFFD Toys for Tots program and by the Mother Teresa organization to feed 300 people per day. Captains for the event are Harold Patterson, Stan Booker, Bill Henzel, John Blackmore, Dick Reiser and Tony Fanning. Fred Reicher is heading up the program this year. This will be a massive project and Tony was calling for all hands whatever your skill level to participate. Contact Fred at tincan@rcn.com or 650 991-1766 to volunteer.

Harold Patterson announced that there will be a Toy Workshop at Per Madsen's shop on March 25 to make blocks and boxes to house them. A sign up sheet was circulated.

Bruce Woods gave an update and a call for volunteers to staff a BAWA 30 foot booth at the Wood Working Show in Santa Clara April 21 to 23. He needs display items up to 12X12 inches for the locked cabinet and large items for floor display. A sign up sheet was circulated. Space is still available for Saturday 2-4 and 4-6 so contact Bruce to volunteer at mojowoods@comcast.net or at 925 443-9052. Volunteers get in free to the show.

If you haven't gotten your 2006 Membership card then see Bruce Woods.

Dan Goodman brought a portion of the BAWA library. The library has books and tapes available. There is a listing on our website or contact Dan for a paper copy at dan_m_goodman@yahoo.com or 415 826-4205.

Arnold Champagne has four Cabinet Makers benches and two mortising machines for sale.

Ken Rauen has finished developing his high end audio speakers and is looking for a living room to use for a photo shoot. Any volunteers? Contact him atkmpr27@yahoo.com or 650 557-8875.

Per Madsen, the Program Committee chairman, is looking for members who want to present at meetings, a new program called Tool Talks. A 10-minute description of a favorite tool of yours. Also, members who are interested in presenting a Tech Talk. Contact Per at permads@comcast.net or 415 928-4509.

Per also knows a cabinet maker who makes kitchen, home theater, etc cabinets who needs an estimator. Contact Per if you are interested.

Following the Announcements, we had a Tech Talk by Don Naples and Carl Johnson on Grain Matching in Solid Wood.

Don manufactures high end audio speaker cabinets for the Orion Speakers sold by Linkwitz Lab. A set of these speakers can cost up to $6500. The width of the cabinet side panels requires that several boards be joined together. Color and grain pattern must be matched. Don buys quarter sawn 8/4 lumber, and resaws it for book matching. He prefers not to use flat sawn lumber because it has a tendency to bow when resawn and joined. When shopping for rough lumber, Don recommends you take your sharp scraper with you so you can get a good look at the grain and color. Don't forget to look at the edge grain as well since an example was shown where one finished side developed quite a crack when the edge grain was not checked. It is a good idea to take a moisture meter along when looking at the rough stock. When evaluating the match of planed boards, Don recommends wetting the wood surface with a damp rag. It can give you a good idea how the boards will look once finished. Fruit woods, such as Cherry and Pear develop a patina with age. Different boards age differently. Boards should be matched from the same tree to give the optimum grain pattern and color.

A new program called TOOL TALK was presented by Harold Patterson on his brand new Craftsman 14" Bandsaw.

After selling his ShopSmith, Harold wanted a 14" bandsaw with a steel frame. His experience suggested that steel frame saws cut truer with less drift than cast iron frame saws. He wanted at least a 6" resaw capability. The Craftsman saw has 8 ½" resaw height, steel frame and two dust collection ports. The fence is adjustable for drift. It lists for $479, but he got it for $369 after waiting for it to go on sale, using some discount coupons and negotiating with the sales person. He also has been successful in bargaining for other tools. He got his bargaining skills when he was a used car salesman.

SHOW & TELL was next.

Bob Berryman showed BAWA members a Walnut kitchen spoon tray he makes using an overhead milling machine. The tray has a rubbed oil finish. Several club members have the tray and recommend it. There was some talk about finishes and their toxicity. Behlens Salad Bowl finish is approved by the FDA for food items. It is also said that once most finishes are fully cured, they are food safe.

Our MAIN PRESENTOR was Dennis Sullivan, aka "Frank Lloyd Wrong", Director of Design, Design Partnership, Architects and Planners.

The Essence and Spirit of Architecture

The Design Partnership is located in San Francisco and specializes in designing unique building projects for the fields of medicine and justice. Dennis has worked in Manhattan for Perkins Eastman Architects and in rural Mississippi where he designed and built low cost community projects.

Dennis describes himself (and Frank Lloyd Wrong) as a student of architecture striving to create social meaning. Architecture, he points out, is like learning to play the piano. It takes a long time and lots of practice to do it well. He creates with imperfection and imperfection leads to invention and innovation. He focuses on the dreams of architecture. It is a journey. He does not know where it will lead or where he is going. When he does get there, he knows the architecture will be passionate, visionary and inventive. It will be rooted in context, woven together, display standards of simple elegance and have social meaning. The theme was epitomized by a photograph of a canopy of maple trees with yellow turning leaves framing a country lane. Here nature, light and the grid of humanity converge.

It is not easy to capture the unity and spirit of architecture. Frank Lloyd Wrong has met profound resistance in his work. When he taught and practiced in rural Mississippi, he was figuratively mentored by Louisa Parks, Unita Blackwell and Patti Crosby. Like them, he too had to overcome obstacles. The Mississippi Cultural Crossroads project encompassed community schools, slave gardens and vivid building murals.

Dennis returned to San Francisco three years ago. Today, Frank Lloyd Wrong is designing community plazas, creating streets without cars. Why he asks do we build planned communities without socialization. We need to bring people together to mingle and be social. It brings to mind the Italian custom of the "passagiata", or evening walk around the town, through the piazza. He is creating a similar experience around the Café Trieste in San Francisco.

We saw pictures of many of his projects: The Cardio Vascular Center in Manhattan, a place of healing. Open intensive care with glass partitions permitting unobstructed views of the East River.

The Department of Medicine at NYU designed to bring the grid of the city indoors. Pear wood walls meeting polished stone floors to image the grid of the city, lighting designed to change, drawing one through the building imparting a sense of community.

The Health Center in Harlem facing east to accept the morning sun, open to the street in a conflicted neighborhood, with a garden above.

The Maimonides Medical Center, first described in a narrative in his notebook. Then the inspiration is expressed in colored drawings, one 8 feet high and mounted in the lobby of the building today.

Genentech Building #5: High technology meets nature, a hub for growth.

Placer County Kids Shelter --- a unifying complex for kids in transition. The community is to include a school, living quarters, dining facility and activity center.

Clearly, the architecture was dramatic, functional, social and inventive. Frank Lloyd Wrong is doing an awful lot of right things.

The meeting ended with some members clustered around Dennis and continuing the discussion and others clutching their door prizes and sprinting towards the door.