Our previously scheduled demonstration for this date had to be postponed until 2011. Thanks to Joe Perret, we will be the guests of Messrs. Henryk "Heiner" Orlik and Rob Mingo for a tour of The Brewhouse, followed by a tasting of selected beers.

Directions:
From East Boston Street (Business 190) in downtown Covington, go north two blocks on Columbia St. to E. Lockwood Street, and turn left. The Brewhouse is at the corner where E. Lockwood dead ends into N. Theard St.

Over 1200 kids designed their personal boats, with the help of Guild members, at the 2010 Madisonville Wooden Boat Show. More photos below.

• Carroll Miller presided at the meeting held October 26, 2010 at Brian Harrell's shop. Seventeen members (including a visit by one of the founding members, Dick Gahn) and one new member, Ray Jenkins, attended.
  Miller complimented members, spouses, friends and volunteers for their participation in the Madisonville Wooden Boat Festival, includsing special thanks to Gerald Gibson for his work as liaison with the Madisonville Museum. Staff from the Museum wre very cooperative in getting our tent erected and tables in place well in advance which made our Friday setup much smoother.
  Miller also reported that Bob Busfield's wooden lake skiff (above center), an intense year-long project, won first place in the Museum-Built Category at the Show.
  Miller also acknowledged the posters and business cards prepared by Harland Johnson and asked members to distribute some of the cards to hardwares and lumber yards where they might attract new members.
  Miller also reported a discussion with Christal White, Development Director of The Green Project in New Orleans, regarding the 2011 Salvation Furniture Contest a competition to design and build furniture items out of salvaged materials. Johnson agreed to forward contest details and entry forms to members (done October 26). Entry form deadline is December 1.
• Wayne Thompson continued the Boat Show report with the news that the Guild had assembled 1200 boats, and received donations of $1600. He also expressed thanks for the student volunteers who assisted at the sails table and at a special table for adding names to the boats.
• Secretary's Report -- Johnson reported that membership currently stands at 37, with one more potential add. He offered the new Guild "business cards" to members for distribution, and showed the posters used at the boat show. Both the posters and cards will be used at the St. Tammany Culture Splash (see report below), which Walter Babst agreed to coordinate.
  Johnson also reminded members of the Christmas Banquet on Dec. 9, which will be held at the Tchefuncte Country Club; the cost will be $15 per person, the same as last year (with the Guild picking up the balance of the actual cost), with the same overall menu. A notice will be sent out shortly requesting payment.
  Johnson also reported that Jim and Claudette Sanguinetti were unable to participate in the Boat Show because of Jim's severe arm break. Jim is recuperating at home, and apparently will not have to undergo surgery.
• Treasurer's Report -- Busfield reported a bank balance of approximately $2500, and said that he still has some extra Guild T-Shirts for sale. (Busfield arranged for the printing and manufacture of the Guild t-shirts and caps that most members wore at the Boat Show.)

Brian Harrell showed two items made following a recent woodturners workshop -- the first is a lidded box, the second a delicate finial, which could double as a chess piece.

Harrell put on two demonstrations. The first was to show how to sharpen twist drills using a commercially available sharpener called The Drill Doctor (website here). The dull bit is inserted into an alignment chuck (above left), which is then inserted into the sharpener, where it is adjusted for bit depth. Then the machine is turned on, and the chuck is inserted in the sharpening port to be sharpened by a diamond grinding wheel. The chuck rests against a cam, which holds the bit at the proper angle, and allows you to sharpen it by successively rotating the chuck to another guide position. The number of half-turns needed to sharpen the bit depends on the bit size.

His second, and major demonstration was to show how he made the metal bells he displayed at one of our recent meetings.

• Harrell began by mounting a wooden bell shape into the headstock of his lathe (above left). The shape is made from a 5"x5" piece of ash, and had been turned freehand until he achieved the desired shape, a somewhat difficult task in itself, as evidenced by the fact that the one used in the demo was his fourth or fifth try.
• Next he mounted a 6" diameter 18 gauge aluminum disk between the tailstock and the ash form. To make sure it was centered, he used a wooden positioning jig, as shown above center, before applying pressure with the tailstock to hold the disk at the proper height. He pointed out, only half seriously, that sometimes the disk can fly off the lathe during deformation, and offered the spectators in the front row a plywood "shield" containing a collection of artifacts from other alleged missile strikes (above right).

• The actual deformation of the aluminum -- "metal spinning" -- was done with a steel tool made from a 3/4" diameter rod with a rounded and polished end. He applied pressure to force the metal to deform over the bell profile. As it did so, it expanded, not always evenly, resulting in a non-circular edge, which he trimmed off with metal-turning cutter-head tool.

• Next he polished the exterior of the bell, and added decorative bands using a stippling tool (above right). All that remained was to drill out the top of the bell, with the final product shown immediately above.

This demo was a timely combination of wood- and metal-working, just in time for Christams decorationos for those of you ambitous enough to give it a try. Thanks, Brian, for an entertaining demonstration!

Walter Babst, with the help of Carroll Miller, Gerard St. Romain, Brian Harrell, and Jack Terry, organized and set up a booth to advertise our Guild at the St. Tammany Culture Splash, a gathering of nonprofit cultural organizations serving St. Tammany and the Northshore on October 30 at the Mandeville Lakefront. The tent included a display of several special items made by our members.

Culture Splash was made possible through a partnership of: The City of Mandeville, The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (which gave a free concert), The Northshore Community Foundation, The St. Tammany Parish Commission on Cultural Affairs and WWNO. Because of the large crowd attending the event, the Guild received invaluable free publicity which wil hopefully attract members.

Joe Perret and Gerard St. Romain responded to an invitation from the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum to do a walkthrough of the historic Madisonville Lighthouse-Keeper's House, which has fallen into disrepair over the years (more on the Tchefuncte River Light Station, as the lighthouse is officially called, here). The photos above and below highlight some of the problem areas, which will be discussed at the next meeting to see if any Guild members are interested in participating in a repair effort.

The newsletter would not be complete without a visual record of some of the great moments at the 2010 Wooden Boat Show. From setup on Friday October 23 until teardown late Sunday afternoon, members, friends and volunteers contributed to a special experience for the hundreds of families whose children patiently waited in long lines for their opportunity to have a boat of their own unique design. The weather cooperated, a few changes in our assembly procedure sped up the work, and the added help in the sails area and the addition of a separate table for adding names to the boats all contributed to an improved work flow with satisfying results to the boat-builders and their customers. But the real satisfaction comes from the smiles of the children and their parents, as you can see below.

On November 12, The Madisonville Museum hosted an appreciation party for all volunteers that helped out at the Boat Show. Several Guild members attended.

Jack Terry recently had a good experience at Lemoine (distributor for Southern Fastening Systems) in Mandeville, and because some of you may not be familiar with all Lemoine has to offer, here's an excerpt from his report: "I had to have my Porter Cable compressor repaired. The store in Kenner recommended I drop it off at Lemoine Southern Fastening Systems at 445 Asbury Dr. in Mandeville (985-624-4923). Porter Cable picks up items each Monday and drops off the following Monday. While in the store I saw that they had a great selection of power tools -- Dewalt, Porter Cable and others. They also had a super selection of drill bits and Freud router bits. I did drop off one of our cards and asked them to post it which they said they will. Also Southern Fastening Systems offers in-store repair of most power tools as well as offering saw and bit sharpening. My 24-tooth rip blade cost about 10 dollars to be resharpened. Two contacts there are Patrick and Andre. Patrick said if we said we were from the St. Tammany Woodworkers Guild we could get a 5% discount on a number of items."

Don Saucier, who will miss the next meeting because of knee surgery, forwarded a number of interesting photos of the Morgan, a hand-built wooden substructure automobile, with these quotes (source unknown): "The Morgan Motor Company, located in Britain, doesn't change in a changing world. Not only is it still independent, but it also makes each car by hand. A base model is about $44,000, with some cars costing up to $300,000. People wait for over a year to get their exclusive hand-built cars with the shell made out of metal and much of the vehicle made out of wood. Working on the wood interior, workers use metal shears to individually shape a hood because each car has to be different. Every year Morgan produces about 600 cars. The company will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2011. It has a long and interesting history, and is still run by the same family: the Morgans. Founded by Henry Frederick Stanley Morgan known as "HFS", it was then run by his son Peter, and is now run by Charles, the son of Peter Morgan." A few of the photos are shown below -- you'll have to search online for more, but here's one site that has some of the production line photos.

Another wooden car story, from former member Bob Christman, who found this Custom Built 2009 Wooden Car on ebay! It rides on a 1986 Toyota truck frame and gets power from a Chrysler 318 engine. It has an automatic transmission, and only 1800 miles on the odometer. The wood is cedar, and the interior finish is just as impressive as the exterior.