July 2006 | |
| Email Newsletter of The St. Tammany Woodworkers Guild | |
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NEXT MEETING7p Tues July 25
Dick Gahn's Shop Demonstration: Dick Gahn will demonstrate biscuit joining techniques. |
NEW TOYS
 On the left: Ryobi has come out with a neat new tool -- their cordless One+ 18-volt TrimmerŪ P600. It is great for quick routing tasks, like edge roundovers, delicate cutting for inlay work, routing hinge mortises, laminate trimming and other tasks. This battery-powered unit spins the bit at around 6,000 RPM. It is available at Home Depot for under $50 (if you already have an 18V Ryobi battery). On the right -- a column-mounted Drill Press Laser is designed to deliver pinpoint accuracy for drilling operations. Two lasers project crossing beams that guarantee precise drill bit placement. More detail from Woodcraft. About $35. |
Highlights of June Meeting
BUSINESS
Joe Perret presided over the meeting held at Carroll Miller's workshop June 27, 2006. Eighteen members were present, a few more than usual, probably because of the promised dessert from the Millers!
Perret discussed the results of the member opinion survey, which you can see here. One of the major observations is that although interest in seeing demonstrations is very high, the number of members willing to put on these demonstrations is very low. Perret asked that more members reconsider their willingness to put on demos in order to share their experience. Perret also reported that Vice President Brian Rowan had finished prepartion of the woodworking publicity flyer and would be posting it in various retail locations in St. Tammany. Rowan was also preparing newspaper articles that have appeared in the July 13 edition of the St. Tammany Flyer, and in the Sunday July 16 edition of the Mandeville Times Picayune which you can see here.
Bob Christman was unable to be present, but through Perret he reported a current bank balance of $2111.89 with no significant outstanding debts.
Dick Gahn reported that the blanks for the boat hulls are ready for members to pick up from his workshop. He will also have material cut for sails, and needs volunteers to sew the mast sleeves.
Richard Farley showed drawings of an antique table saw a friend has for sale. Contact Farley (985-745-8414) if you're interested.
Harland Johnson showed photos and explained two household projects using maple. The first was a set of three insert panels for a side-by-side refrigerator. One-eighth inch thick maple plywood was faced with "borders" of 3/4"x2" routed maple strips. The second was a cabinet above a large screen TV, Half-inch maple plywood was used for the box, and 3/4"x2" maple was used for the face frame and for the rails and stiles of the raised face doors, which were made from 3/4" maple glued into panels. In both projects he attempted to match existing maple cabinetry as much as possible.
Perret explained that a scarf joint is a method of joining materials, expecially plywood, end-to-end, using a beveled overlap. The drawing shows a joint with a typical 8:1 ratio of joint length to material thickness, which crates a bevel of about 7 degrees.
Compared with other joints (butt, spline, half lap, butt with a backing block), the scarf joint has the advantages of a large bonding/gluing surface, an ability to be bent almost to the same degree as the surrounding wood, can tolerate some degree of misalignment, is the same thickness as the surrounding material, and is relatively easy to do.
The joint is favored by boatbuilders who require sheets of marine plywood longer than the commercial 8' or 10' lengths. Using lap joints allows a virtually unlimited length to be created by joining plywood sheets end to end.
The sequence of steps is shown on the right.
The first step is to put the two pieces to be joined face to face (assuming one good side to each), and then lay them down with a third scrap piece (not shown) on top, staggering them with two inches of underlap (8:1 ratio for a 1/2" thick plywood). If there are more pieces to be joined, they can all be piled up stair-step-wise in pairs, with a scrap piece on top. The pieces are temporarily clamped and fastened together with screws.
For the next step he used a belt sander to sand down the ends of the pieces to produce the desired bevel. Instead of a belt sander, one can use a router, a power planer, or even a circular saw, although these methods require a jig.
After removing the hold-down screws, the next step was to glue the two ends together. Perret first spread a piece of plastic on the work table to prevent sticking the work pieces to the table, then spread glue on the beveled ends, carefully matched and aligned them together, put another piece of plastic on top, then clamped the joint firmly but not so tight that the glue would be forced out.
After the glue had dried, he coated the joints with Bondo, which fills in any gaps or voids.
The resulting joint was impressive in strength -- this is an excellent technique that can be used for a number of projects, and was certainly one that not many of the members had tried. Thanks, Joe for a unique demo!
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Gerard St. Romain had some items to give away as he dismantles his shop in preparation to move to North Carolina. Please call him(985-796-1323) if you're interested in seeing items for sale, including a pair of stilts for those who want to walk tall
Joe Perret, Guild President for 2006, introduced us to the art of plywood scarfing.
For his demonstration, Perret used small (approx 12"x18") peices of 1/2" marine plywood. For large sheets the technique is similar, but obviously a much larger space is required and the handling of the sheets is quite a bit trickier.
2006 Calendar of Events |
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| DATE | HOST LOCATION | EVENT |
|---|---|---|
| January 31 | Dick Gahn | Regular meeting -- no demo -- discussion of future events |
| February 28 | No meeting | Mardi Gras |
| March 28 | Dick Gahn | Regular meeting - demo by Gahn of wood turning "from the inside out" |
| April 25 | Dick Gahn | Regular meeting - demo of workng with Sitka spruce burl |
| May 6 | Dick Gahn | Annual Cochon de Lait -- family event |
| May 23 | Harland Johnson | Regular meeting - demo by Tony Saragusa of pen turning |
| June 27 | Carroll Miller | Regular meeting - demo by Joe Perret of plywood scarfing |
| July 25 | Dick Gahn | Regular meeting - demo of biscuit joining |
| August 22 | Harland Johnson | Regular meeting - demo TBA |
| Monday, Sept 25 or Wednesday, Sept 27 (tentative) | Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum (Madisonville) | Combined Meeting and Field Trip -- museum tour and observation of boat-building class |
| October 21 and 22 | Madisonville | Wooden Boat Festival (setup 9a-11a Fri October 20) |
| October 24 | Gerald Gibson | Regular meeting - demo by Gerald Gibson TBA |
| November 28 | Harland Johnson | Regular meeting -- demo TBA; election of officers for 2007 |
| December 2 (tentative) | Tchefuncte Country Club | Christmas Banquet |
Buy/Sell/TradeFOR SALEYour ad here |
Guild ContactsPresident - Joe Perret - jmp2915@yahoo.comtVice President - Brian Rowan -briangrowan@yahoo.com Secretary - Harland Johnson - harlandj@gmail.com Treasurer - Bob Christman - bobxman@bellsouth.net |