The meeting started with a Tech Talk by Brad Heinzen about guitar making. He showed a jig that he built for bending the side pieces. The jig has a flat heating element that conforms to the shape of the male mold, and will get the wood hotter than the boiling point of water. It is much better than a steam box since the wood cools rapidly once taken out of the steam box. He uses a metal strap on the outside of the side being formed to assure that there are no lines or dimples pressed into the wood as it conforms to the shape of the mold. He made the mold, found the heating element and adapted it to his own requirements. The wood must be straight grained and has to be quite thin. He uses a hot pipe tool to fine-tune the shapes, as well as form tight curves in small pieces of wood, such as the designs around the sound hole. There were many questions for Brad at the end of his presentation.

Bill then called on any guests to stand up and introduce them selves. Bryan Curry, Owen Bates and Charles Azing introduced themselves. Bryan and Owen joined. Welcome to all.

Craig Colvin who kindly let us use his Sawdust Shop for this meeting described his operation. He rents time for woodworkers to use the machines in the shop. He has a new vacuum press that will handle large flat or gently shaped items; also has a new Kreg pocket hole screw joint making machine. There are also classes. He held an open house the weekend before, and demonstrated the Saw Stop. He also gets calls regularly for small commission work; if anyone is interested in these commissions, they should contact Craig at Bawa@craigcolvin.com. Or 408 499-8907.

Announcements were next.

Fred Reicher talked about Rebuilding Together which will be on April 29th in S.F.. The exact location will be announced later. BAWA has been involved with this project fro a number of years. It involves a group of BAWA volunteers and others to take a house, building or whatever and add or remodel the structure and its attachments. Last year, shelves and cabinets were built in the Meals On Wheels building. These are fun projects and people work to their own skill level. In other words, you don't have to be a master carpenter. He is looking for volunteers and a sign up sheet was passed around and will be brought to the March meeting. Last year there was a huge group from BAWA.

Bruce Woods talked about the Santa Clara Woodworking show which will be held on Apr. 21, 22, 23 at the Santa Clara Convention center. BAWA will get a triple wide booth. He is looking for about 30 people to volunteer for two hour shifts. He is also looking for displays - small ones (up to 12X12 inches) will be locked in the club's display case, and larger pieces, like chairs, can be displayed in the open. Don Naples will bring and demonstrate his Lap Sharp and Arnie Champagne will bring his work bench to do planing and other work. They will not be there all of the time so Bruce is looking for people to do hands-on displays like scraping demos or other work to catch the interest of prospective members. We get some of our new members through the show. IN ADDITION! YOU GET IN FREE if you volunteer.

Our Librarian, Dan Goodman said that the library contains many tapes and books available to club members for a nominal charge of $3.00 for one or several items that are checked out and due back the next month. Another $3 for the next month. Limit 2 months. He is working on organizing what is there. He is looking towards having a photo of each book or tape placed on our web site. Presently, there are far too many titles for him to bring them all to the meetings; contact him, and he will bring the book or tape to the next meeting. There is a list of what the library has on the web site. For non computer users, let Mark Rand know and he will get you the list. Dan is also looking for suggestions for titles that club members would like to see him add to our inventory.

Bruce Woods then handed out the 2006 Membership cards. If you didn't get one, see Bruce.

Bill Henzel talked about some sort of celebration next year since it will be the 25th anniversary of BAWA. We are looking for old photos, membership lists, newsletters, etc to put together a history. If you have anything let Bill or Don Naples know at d419naples@comcast.net or 707 433-5234.

Rafflemeister Stan Booker described all the goodies he had for the door prizes. They included glue, a drafting machine, a Pro E and a "One Man Stand" portable work support. Not enough tickets were sold for the raffle of the two boards. Stan again asked anybody with any hand tools regardless of condition as long as they can be re-conditioned to donate them. He is sending these tools to Tanzania and Uganda where craftspeople will re-condition them and use them.

Program Chair Per Madsen described the meetings to be held through August. The list can be found in the Events section of this newsletter.

Show and Tell

Claude Godcharles attended a Garrett Hack seminar that was free from the distraction of Garrett Hack actually being there! Claude made a couple of scratch stocks and used them to inlay accent pieces in some scrap. He plans to use this technique later on some real projects.

Main Presentation

The featured speaker was Robert Meier, who runs a custom furniture company with his twin brother Christian. Robert was born and raised in Munich, and attended college in Germany, getting a Mechanical Engineering degree. He worked for a short time for BMW, designing parts for their fuel injection system, but quickly became bored. He and his brother moved to the U.S., and 16 years ago and they opened the furniture business in Aptos. He was also part owner of Gallery M in Half Moon Bay, but sold out their interest, as they wanted to make, not sell, furniture. Robert came across an old map while on holiday in Clifden, Ireland, and developed a decorative joint for a picture frame for the map. He was so happy with the joint that he developed a table design around it, and over several subsequent tables, refined the design until today he makes a whole line of furniture featuring this joint.

Robert does most of the design, and essentially all of the construction, while Christian does the final sanding and all of the finishing. Christian has developed his own finish, as well as a wax. Robert stays away and lets his brother "concoct". The finish that is used on a piece depends on the wood. They do not hire any workers, do not have any plans to expand, and have resisted requests for apprentices. Their approach to making furniture is to make pieces that people can afford. They try to develop a new line every year. Customer waiting time is about 4 months for small pieces, one year for large pieces. They also have time for non commissioned small pieces. Their shop has standard shop tools and Robert used to work 7 days a week but now has cut back to 6 days due to family pressure. He still has no time to make furniture for himself and family.

Robert uses Figured Maple, California Walnut, Mahogany and other woods. Basically, he likes all woods and each wood has its own unique features. They have about 5,000 to 6,000 square feet of storage and it is climatized to an 8% EMC (Equilibrium Moisture Content). He was somewhat circumspect as to where he buys his lumber but said he uses several sources and Tree Service companies as well. To keep expenses to a minimum, he pays himself about $50/hour unless it is exotic wood.

You may have seen another of the Meier brothers' designs; a table that seems to have a slightly rumpled table cloth on top. The table cloth is really carved and shaped wood. Wood Magazine in April 2003 shows the design secrets of the table cloth table. The table, as well as many of their other designs, can be seen on their website http://www.mbfurnituredesign.com/ . The brothers are currently backlogged about 8 months which is about "right" for them. More than that, and customers don't want to wait that long. They mostly make commissioned pieces, but still take opportunities to make "spec" pieces for galleries and shows.

The meeting ended with the lucky door prize winners carting away their stuff and the rest carting away items from the Sawdust Shop which hopefully they bought.