December 2008

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Frank Ramsey called the November meeting to order and announced that the December meeting will be held on December 11 in Foster City at the William Walker Recreation Center. Featured events at this meeting will be desserts, a Christmas ornament contest, a "my favorite tool" presentation and the annual election of officers.

Announcements:

Frank also announced that there will be a meeting of the Board of Directors of BAWA on December 8 in San Francisco. He will send out directions.

Harold Patterson announced that there will be a Toy Workshop on Saturday, November 22 at the workshop of Jamie Buxton.

Per Madsen described the meetings for the first three months of 2009. In January, BAWA will visit the Kaiser Permanente cabinet shop in Oakland. The February meeting will be held at Laney College in their woodshop. The March meeting will be held at the Colma Museum where we will have the opportunity to see the new bench made by our member Arnold Champagne.

George Bosworth has completed the internet transition to BAWA's new web address: www.bayareawoodworkers.org. The old site will automatically direct inquiries to the new site. BAWA needs to update its business cards and stationary.

Frank said that he had received an inquiry from a man in Florida who has Cuban Mahogany for sale. It is wood salvaged from hurricane damage. His name is Mark Butler of Urban Forest Recycling. http://my.att.net/p/s/community.dll?ep=16&groupid=367582&ck=

Arnold Champagne described an exhibit of woodworkers from College of the Redwoods being held at the B. Mori Galleries in San Francisco, 450 9th St, between Bryant and Harrison.

New Member:

Scott Abate found us on Google, thanks to the new web address. He also saw the SF Chronicle articles. He recently completed the restoration of an old roll top desk.

Show & Tell:

Arnold Champagne showed us how he extended the working length of his clamps on the train bench project by adding a length of wood. He also showed us the frame for a set of closet doors. A wide center style is cut along its length to form the two center stiles for the two doors. Opposing rabbets create an overlapping joint. The top rail is wider than the bottom rail.

Stan Booker showed us a mystery tool he bought cheap at a flea market. It was a froe used to split wood.

John Wilson showed us an elegant jig used to cut tapers on legs. It has a spline slider that fits into the groove of the table saw. Three clamps secure the leg to the fixture. A pin indexes the center of the end of the leg on the fixture. Indexing permits angles to be cut on all four faces if desired.

Main Presentations:

Tonight we were fortunate to have main presentations from two BAWA members: Jamie Buxton and Claude Godcharles.

Jamie gave a Powerpoint presentation describing a large fixture for flattening large Walnut slabs he used to make a dining room table. In the table, he used two Walnut slabs nine feet long, 26 inches wide and 2 ½ inches thick. The jig consisted of two parallel rails made of 2 x 4s that were 10 feet long, supporting a moveable sled holding a router with a 1 ½ inch straight router bit. Each rail was made of two 2x4s joined and glued at right angles to each other to form a strong beam. The rails were joined at each end with end 2x4s. The entire rail system was leveled and flattened with monofilament line attached at the end of each rail and running on a diagonal to the end of the opposite rail, forming an "X" in the center. Jamie used shims to raise one line by the diameter of the line itself. He placed a heavy, identical weight on the end of each line to create uniform tension. The sled was constructed of two 2x3 pieces of White Oak. With each pass of the router across the board, Jamie removed approximately 1/8" to 3/16" of material.

The table top consists of two joined slabs of walnut. The perpendicular cut was made with a Festool power saw running on its rail system. Opposing mortises were cut in the perpendicular edge and tenons were glued into one of the slabs. Jamie then inserted 3/8" draw bolts into each slab and as the two pieces were joined, he tightened the bolts. A leg set was constructed for each end of the table using 2x4s of walnut for the stiles and lower rail. The top rail was a 2x12. Rails and stiles were joined with finger joints.

The table was finished with a primer coat of Pratt Lambert 38 varnish. The final two coats were sprayed with a water based varnish.

He bought the Walnut from Evan Shively in West Marin.

Next Jamie showed us photographs of a kitchen he did with cabinets having Cherry panels and Jatoba frames. He supports the upper cabinets on a cleat system to facilitate installation. The frames are joined with bridle joints cut on a band saw. Other unique features of the kitchen include three sliding full extension cabinets above the refrigerator and two trash drawers under the sink that are really just big boxes.

And, yes, there was more. Jamie made a Stickley style couch from Bubinga. The posts were made by cutting lock mitre joints along the length of four ¾" thick pieces, then joined to form a box leg. Frames were solid Bubinga with solid wood panels. Then came a slide of an entertainment center wall made of Walnut. Amazing. And then la piece du resistance. Jamie was asked to duplicate an antique wooden chair the use of which was contested by Jamie's friends, a husband and wife. Now Jamie has become the Click and Clack of woodworking, not automobiles, repairing relationships as well as making furniture.

First, came the prototype, a Frankenstein chair made of pine to get all the angles correct. The final chair was made of Cherry with 40 mortise and tenon joints, all off square, all different, with curved rails and curved top and legs. It took Jamie 3 weeks to make the chair, identical in all respects to the original except for a solid wood seat instead of woven cane.

Thunderous applause greeted Jamie at the conclusion of his presentation, beautiful work, Jamie.

Claude Godcharles loaded his Powerpoint presentation into the computer and revealed the Tree Trunk Table he had made for a client. The base of the table was constructed using planks of 8/4 Maple. Before he started cutting wood, Claude constructed a clay model of the table to show his client, using a 7:1 scale. He showed three sections to the table, a base, a trunk and a top.

The trunk column was made by cutting interlocking right angles in 2x4s of Maple. Claude used a magnetic angle indicator to get precise saw blade angles. With 30 degree angles, the column was constructed with 12 pieces. The column was tapered towards the top. Once the column was glued up, Claude attached blocks of Maple to the sides so that he could later carve burls and crevices into the trunk. The grandchildren of the client wanted to be able to hide their stuffed animals in the trunk of the tree.

The base of the table was created using 2x4s of Maple. He used a lap joint to form an "X". Blocks of Maple were glued to the crossed legs to fill in the space. Claude wanted the base of the table to look like the base of a tree with roots radiating from the trunk. He started with a chain saw, then moved to an Arbor Tech carver, then a sander to form the roots, the burls and crevices.

The tabletop was made from a John Boos laminated Maple top measuring 3' x 6' x 2". He cut the elliptical shape with a jigsaw, and created a half-round edge on the top with a router. He wanted an oval shape on the bottom edge of the top, but it was too big and heavy to create on a shaper. So Claude relied on his ingenuity and guts. At the last BAWA meeting, Claude had presented a portable power saw shaper he devised. He took a power saw and attached a molding blade to it. He then built a plywood box to support the saw, protecting him from the blade. Tonight Claude held up his hands. All fingers were intact. He had been successful. The molder power saw contraption had worked. He took off approximately 1/16" with each pass. He used 8 large bolts to secure the top to the trunk of the tree. Claude showed us the two circle cutting jigs he had made to use on this project. He also showed us photographs of all the new tools he bought with his profits.

The Box Contest:

The contest was rigged in absentia by Mark Rand. Mark won "most original", "most modern" and an "open" category. Mark Jones won "most classic" and an "open" category. The other winners were: Most Intricate by Richard Winslow, Most Unusual by Claude Godcharles, Most Useful by Frank Ramsey, and Best Execution by Richard Winslow.

We held an accelerated door prize drawing since we had run late and the lights were being turned out.


John Blackmore


Update to the box contest

The National Woodworking Bureau of Investigation held an inquiry as to the possibility of rigging of the Box Contest by Mark Rand. After two weeks of testimony, the Bureau has cleared Rand of all charges. They gave a tongue lashing to the BAWA accusers before they drove off in their brand new 2009 Mercedes limousines.