Get it while you can and before the Emerald Ash Borer kills all the trees. This is your chance to stock up on some fine native wood in sizes suitable for many types of projects.

300 Board feet rough sawn, air dried ash lumber
4/4 X 4″-6″, Wide X 8′-12′

$2.00/Bd Ft

Call Steve @ (603) 934-3348

Sales of “Old Town” canoe raffle tickets by mail could be called almost brisk; thanks to all who have purchased tickets. If another 350 Guild members buy one ticket and sell one ticket we could draw the winning ticket early and the lucky winner could enjoy the canoe all summer. The winner of the canoe will also receive two paddles beautifully made by our own Bob LaCivita.

Tickets can be purchased by emailing your “snail mail” address and your telephone number to Nate Carey granthamboatworks@myfairpoint.net or by mailing the same info to Nate at P O Box 27 Grantham, NH 03753 and indicate the number of tickets you would like.

Raffle tickets are $5.00 each or 5 tickets for $20; please include $1.00 for postage.

We have yet to paint the exterior of the hull as shown in the photo. Harvey Best and Dave Frechette listen carefully as professional canoe builder Tom Seavey (just out of the photo) of Azland Traditions in Henniker, NH reviews the painting process.

Ultra Light Boatbuilding at Lou Yelgin’s shop in Merrimack on Saturday May 19th at 9am. Go to the Guild website then “calendar” for more information and to register.

Bob Couch needs 4 volunteers to help setup Thursday afternoon May 3rd for the Youth Symposium and 2 more volunteers on Friday May 4th to help setup for the Saturday event. No special skills required! The time each day will be from 3:30 to 5:00.

For more information, please contact Bob at arcouch@comcast.net

Symposium A/V Room Monitors Needed

Bob Couch needs 6-10 people to help monitor the A/V equipment during the demonstrations both Friday and Saturday. No special skills required and we can guarantee you the best seat in the house to view the demonstrations from. There will be 7 rooms and plenty of opportunity to switch around and take breaks.

For more information, please contact Bob at arcouch@comcast.net

Video Cameras/Tripods Needed for Symposium

We need some extra video cameras & tripods for each room on Saturday May 5. These don’t have to be special or even very new. If it works, we can probably use it.

For more information, please contact Bob at arcouch@comcast.net

Woodcraft/Newington, NH/Mark Nelson

(603) 433-6116

Bush Oil/Amsterdam, NY Bill Bush (518) 843-3773 (2) tables

Gary Wood/Gary R. Wood & Co (603) 523-4337 24 Gristmill Hill Road, Canaan, NH (1) table

Product: woodturning/woodworking related items, finishes and waxes

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Oneway/Stratford, Canada/Cindy Clay

Product: Lathes and lathe accessories

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Thompson Lathe Tools/Doug Thompson/Ohio

(440) 241-6360

Product: Woodturning tools and handles

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HannesTools/JoHannes Michelsen/Manchester, VT (802) 362-3481 studio

(802) 353-0523 cell

Product: Woodturning tools and DVD’s

Rarewoods, USA/Mexico, ME/jenny@rarewoodsusa.com (jenny Harcourt)

(207) 364-1073

Product: Exotic woods

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Harvey Fein

Product: Router jig

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Birch View Barn/ Paula and Sharon/ 504 1st NH Turnpike (Rte 4), Northwood, NH 03261

(603)942-5990

Product: Burls

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Lyle Jamieson/(231) 947-2348/ Lyle@lylejamieson.com

Product: Lathe accessories

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Keith Tompkins

Product: skew tool, Gage-T

Thanks,
Owain Harris
harriscabinets@gmail.com

I had not gotten around to telling my mother or father that I was in the process of trying to arrange for the damage to be fixed (I took the pictures when my mother was not home, the day before the dresser was scheduled to be moved to my dad’s assisted living apartment), and to my amazement and horror when I got to my mom’s house to meet the movers I saw that my mother had taken a couple of markers (red and then black) to the damaged areas (later she said she thought red and black would make brown). I could not believe it. I guess this won’t prevent the damage being fixed, as I imagine some new bits of veneer will be covering those areas anyway. Later it occurred to me this was something like when my kids were toddlers and colored the wall with crayons.

Thanks again for your help!!

 Please register for this meeting by going to the “calendar” at the Guild website.

Once turned bowl blanks for auction

Peter Breu asked for a show of hands of those that were planning to attend May Symposium. Nearly everyone raised their hands. A plea was made for volunteers as it will take many hands to have a successful symposium.

A show of hands

A plea for volunteers

David brought in some of his turnings for the members to view, discuss and ask questions about.

Wow! How do you think he turned these?

The members look on as David discussed each piece

David Belser was today’s presenter and he started with a slide presentation of few examples of some of his pieces. David also had sides of pieces made by other artists to show different points of view or interest. For today’s demo David will turn a small similar to the one on the table to the right. The project starts with tuning up the shop tools. The layers are very precise and identical in size. First on the band saw. David finds that finding the track of the blade and clamping a fence on that line works best. David use a “V” mark on the wood blank in order to keep all the pieces in exact order to keep the grain aligned. From the band saw they go to the drum sander. Again the sander had to be tuned up to sand perfectly flat. The veneer pieces are laid on a trued up piece of plywood “perfectly flat” that has a piece of sandpaper glued to it. The sandpaper helps to hold the thin veneers in place for sanding. For this project David is using a piece of maple acquired from Scott Russwick. The veneer layers are glued together with small spacer pieces “sticks”. The stick are also sanded to an exact thickness and width using the drum sander. David makes a custom press to fit the piece gluing layers of veneer and sticks. The form is cut on the band-saw with pins in two locations keeping the entire stack perfectly aligned. Dry fitted in the press the piece is steamed just enough to relax the veneers. This helps to take out the “spring” in them and they are more likely to stay in place at the end (final step). The veneer layers and sticks are glued (still in the press) using CA glue. Best done outside says David, preferably with a breeze. After applying a coat of finish the piece is then placed in a bucket. The bucket and piece is heated up in the oven so that when the bucket is filled with molten wax it fills without voids. There is a turned foot inserted in the center of the lamination at the wax filling stage. This will be used to mount the piece using a chuck. David discussed the many waxes out there and that wax shrinks a lot in the drying process. After drying it’s to the lathe where the exterior is turned. Oh by the way, wax all over and covering the floor is very slippery. David glues 60 grit sandpaper to the bottom of his shoes to keep from slipping. We covered Donna’s floor with shaings to try and keep the wax off her floor. Now the easy part.

David trues up the piece. Just wax at this point.

Mounted on a chuck the piece is turned true using a bowl gouge at first. With the excess wax turned away David switched to using scrapers. He had Marcel running back and forth sharpening one while David using another.

Turning the outside

The audiance looks on as David turns the exterior

With the exterior to the right shape/form David steps back to examine the shape and looks at it from multiple angles to be sure it good to go. Now the sanding. One member suggested that David pick his foot up and use the bottom of his shoe, ha ha. David goes through the grits and with just the right amount of pressure the paper does not build up with wax.

Sanding; No the shoe will not work!

With the exterior complete someone asked, how do you reverse mount the piece to turn the interior? Good question said David. With a heat gun he melted wax into a shallow waste block that was shaped to fit the exterior of the turning on one side and had a tenon on the other for mounting into a chuck. With the bowl like waste block filled he heated the bottom of the turned piece. When the wax in the waste block was just right, like a gel he stuck the waste block to the bottom of the turned piece. Holding it in place he, by hand turned the piece slowly while holding onto and centering the waste block. He did this until he had the waste block just where he wanted it and that it started to stick. Letting go of the waste block to lathe was turned on and spun at a very slow speed. This was done to keep the waste block from slipping off center while the wax hardened.

Gluing on the waste block

Centering the waste block

As an extra precaution David melted some wax onto the bowl/waste block connection.

The connection

While the connection dried David showed a second slide presentation. One piece was a piece a glass. David said this piece was to die for and that if someone would buy it for him that would be great. How can someone design a piece of glass that appears to move. A must see.
With the slide show complete and the wax hardened the waste block was trued up. This took very little as David had it glued on almost perfect. With the bowl reversed chucked he proceeded to hollow out the inside, again using a combination of scrapers.

True the waste block

Turn the interior

Almost there!

The finished piece

With the piece sanded and finished the wax is melted off for the final reveal.
Great meeting. WOW

Many thanks to all who helped. A special thanks to Donna and Dave for hosting the meeting. Donna for organizing the silent auction.
An extra special thanks to David Belser for a very well thought out, organized, entertaining and inspiring presentation.

GNHW General Meeting

Date: April 21, 2012

Where: William Thomas’s Shop

15 Todd Hill Road

Rindge, NH

Schedule

• 9:00 – 9:30 Coffee and social
• 9:30 – 11:30 Morning session TBA
• 11:30 – 12:00 Business Meeting
• 12:00 – 1:00 Lunch
• 1:00 – 3:00 William Thomas will demonstrate veneered moldings and lunette banding.

Contact Bob LaCivita with any questions

Jig for Steve Redmond's "Flapjack" design!

The Guild has been invited to participate in the American Independence Museum’s 22nd annual “Festival” in Exeter on Saturday July 21st. The theme this year is maritime history and the Festival Coordinator would like the Guild to demonstrate traditional wooden boat construction. I am soliciting ideas on how we can best take advantage of this opportunity to promote the Guild; also who among you would like to represent the Guild at the festival? Does anyone have (or know about) a traditionally constructed wooden boat that might be available for display (out of the water) at the festival? Your input is needed and appreciated. Thanks, Nate

Fun Day for All Ages!