Attendance: 21
1. Welcome; Meeting started at 6:10 PM (new summer hours)
2. New Members: No new members tonight
3. Treasurer’s report: $3,459 in account. 42 paid members for 2025
4. Member’s news:
a. Salman in accident, he is OK, but can’t make it
b. Mike is having knee replaced, so can’t make it
5. Old Business
a. Mark went to Wharton Esherick Museum
i. Passed out two books for club members to look at
ii. Can take up to 30 guests at one time
iii. Mark has requested some dates (1 in Aug, 1 in Sep) $20 per person (no refunds)
iv. Can take up to 16 at a time
b. Discussion on workbench still remaining at church.
i. Original plan was to build it so we would have something to do demonstrations on
ii. It was not the maker’s intent that the workbench would remain with the church – it belongs to the guild.
iii. Some discussion on what to do with it (leave it, sell it, store it with a guild member, etc.)
iv. Current plan is to move it to Rockler, take the books/magazines for free table, and deal out the tools inside
c. Tool sale in Cinnaminson went OK, mostly old Craftsman. Some items for free table will be brought in next month
6. Member’s forum
a. Question on SketchUp. Some folks plan on discussion. Mike Zaslav (one of the members) ends up being pretty expert in using the software.
i. Described other program, Layout, which makes an overlay
b. William showed some various woods that he used for his work
c. Alan Tassof made a flying saucer turning with inset, wide variety of woods (curly maple, walnut, cherry burl, etc.). Lots of gluing
d. Dave Potts cabriole chair leg: Dave described all the techniques and challenges to make a cabriole leg
e. John Owen fixing crack in chair leg; Chair was made up of dowels, and could be taken apart rather easily instead of having to deal with mortise and tenon joints.
7. Break
8. Presentation (Rich Turner – turner woodworking design)
a. Class list available up front for TWD woodworking school. Info on website
i. Teach woodwork without machines (chisels, saws, planes, etc.)
ii. Will start with some basic joints (half lap, etc.) and will work up to more complicated ones
b. Dovetails
i. Purpose is to reduce movement of wood in one direction. It’s a practical joint, not an art form
ii. Multiple ways of doing dovetails (using hand tools, router jigs, tablesaw jigs, etc.) Does not like jigs to make dovetails
iii. Tools: Saw, chisels, marking and measuring tools, hand plane, square. Can do it with just a saw, chisels and pencil
c. Layout and tails
i. Use wood to mark width, not marking gauge, for thickness
ii. Does layout by eye, cuts based on what looks right. Key is to saw square
iii. Uses a chisel to cut out dovetail, not a coping saw
iv. Saws out ends
v. Does tails first, then pins
d. Pins
i. Uses hand plane to set tails on, so he can mark pins– need to make it so you cannot see daylight between the pieces
ii. Mark them with knife, not pencil (too thick)
iii. Will use square to get the lines close, cut square with inside, leaving maybe 1/32” inside the lines, and pair them off
iv. Use chisel to clean out
e. Try to make the go together. Test fit
i. #1 reason they don’t go together is they don’t clean the corners
ii. Clean up the larger dovetails, not the pins, to make fit
iii. Tap into place gently and a pull apart and clean as you go.
f. To finish, rubs polyurethane varnish, create a “slurry” and it covers the gaps
9. Next meeting will be at Rockler on September 4th at 6 PM
10. Meeting closed at 8:07 PM
