There were 65 people in attendance. Doyle McConnell called meeting to order at 7:00 P.M.

VISITORS: There were no visitors but there were 3 new members. They were David Jacobs, Pat Patrick, and Howard and Janice Bauder.

ANNOUCEMENTS: Henry Davis said it was time for this years dues to be paid. He also said that Tom Gillard had the membership cards ready and you could pick one up when your dues were paid. There are also extra hard copies of Splinters on the back table. There was a suggestion made that we all start wearing our nametags. For those of us that do not have a nametag they can be ordered via Henry Davis. Doyle encouraged everyone to bring something to show and tell and he read an article from Splinters June 1986. Refer to Webb site for the article about beginners. Tom Gillard would like to take pictures of people that did not get their picture taken yet for the Webb site. Bob Leonard announced that the Rotary Club is going to have an Antique, Arts and collectable show. The tickets will be $3.00 each and it will be February 7^th and 8^th. It will be held at the Manchester Conference Center. Ken Gould said that February after the show and tell we should bring in useless tools or unique tools that we have and share our experience with members. Houston Clark has a Craftsman’s 12 ½ inch thickness planner for sale for $100.00. His telephone number is 649-5398 Doyle said that Coco Fine Wood Tools has a seminar January 25^th on finishing. One on band saw boxes February 8th^nd and beginning wood working February 22^nd and they are $20.00 each.

OLD BUSINESS: None

NEW BUSINESS: Doyle said the Executive Committee met on January 7^th. At that meeting it was decided to do away with the weekly drawings and add that money to the yearly grand drawing. This year the prize will be a Tormek sharpening system. To be eligible for this drawing you must be a member and sign up each month when you attend the meeting. You will have as many changes to win as number of meetings attended. Doyle passed around the sign up sheet. Several members are working hard on getting our Webb site going. The new name of site is Tnvalleywoodclub. Org. Tom Gillard said that all issues of splitter, except one, from 1986 to present are on the Webb site. Doyle said that we need to get a committee in place for the spring seminar. Harry May has agreed to have a carving wood shop. The club will try and have more wood shops this year. Doyle will have one on using Leigh dove table jig and probably will make a box as the project. He is sending around a sign up sheet for those interested in this type of workshop. Doyle would also like to have shop tours this year.

SHOW AND TELL: Tom Gillard brought in a piece of red oak that he had put wood putty on one side, applying cross grain and than sanding off. He used Elmers white wood putty. He than put a finish on it and it does a real good job smoothing grain.

Dave Whyte made a tendon jig that can be used with a table saw. It slides in the rail slot. It was made out of Cherry and Walnut and had adjustments to hold wood (even long pieces). It also has an adjustment for the depth and can also do miters. He also showed a Jewelry box made out of Sassafras with walnut inlay. It also had inlay around the feet.

Winfield Bennett showed us a frame made out of paint paddles. It was a very unique frame and it was done with just a pocketknife. He said that type of art is called Tramp Art.

Karen Kerce brought in several bowls with starting with square bottom. One was made from very old wood. It was checked and made an interesting bowl. One was out of Mahogany and was out of Box Elder. She also did a larger one from Black Walnut.

Tom Cowan talked about the emotional side of woodworking, saying that if something has a story behind it than it is more interesting to the craftsman. He found a book in Chicago on the history of a family of cabinetmakers named Dunlap from Scotland. Because of reading this book it made him interested in making a corner cabinet that incorporated some of the things he learned from the book and he also carved on it with a chisel. If not for the book and the emotional side he may not have made the cabinet. He brought the book in and a picture of the cabinet.

Henry Davis saw a vacuum attachment for a drill press in splitters 3 issues back. He made it and brought to show and tell. He also made a plant stand that has many angles and different types of joints in it. He said this type stand might make a good future workshop. He also brought in a piece of wood he had bought at Phil Bishop’s auction a long time ago. It was twisted and he had to do a lot of work to smooth it but turned out very good and will use for some future table.

Ross Roepke brought in a piece of paper and a board with 2 nails in it and showed us how to make an ellipse. This was done since someone on our Webb site had asked how to do this simply. He also brought in an apple box he made for an auction at Trinity Care Center. He also made a Walnut table for using at church for the guest book. It fits under the last table he did for storage.

Ken Gould made a jig for ellipses that you use with a rotor. He had a block of wood that he made 2 dovetail slots at 90 degrees to each other and than put 2 pins in. He set up cross piece for rotor and than put multiple holes in it for circles or to use cross pin jig. You just decide on the size you want and set pins on that size and you can make the ellipse.

Bob Leonard made a fire truck. It was a model of 1928 Aronfox and it has 28 different species of wood in it. It has about 200 pieces that he had to make. It took him about 180 hours to build it. He finished with Deft Spray. The pattern was from an issue of Fine woodworking 1989.

Bob Reese brought in 2 books that contain everything he knows about violin making. He made them for his Children and Grandchildren in case they ever want to make violins. Since he bought a new computer he has redone them and has about 500 pictures and a total of 1000 pages the rest being text. He put it on 3 CDs. He thinks it probably is about the equivalent of a 5-year apprenticeship program on violin making. It was 15 years in the making.

Steve Shores he made a walnut mirror with very nice figuring. He also brought in another mirror made of maple and painted on the back by his neighbor. They were finished with Lacquer.

Loyd Ackerman brought in a table he built in 1992 out of popular which he uses for a telephone stand. He used Aniline dyes on it. He showed another table that he made that has laminated bend front. Which was Walnut over plywood with walnut on back also. He tapered the legs first and than turned them just enough to get rid of flats. He found this to be an easy way to do them.

Houston Clark made a music holder. The post he made out of 2 X 4’s which he cut in half so he could turn the bark on edge to the inside and it would not show. He used yellow pine from some old shelving for the braces. He sprayed it with several coats of polyurethane high gloss and than one coat of semigloss to take off some off the shine.

Henry May carved a Santa out of basswood, which was painted. He also showed a spirit out of Cherry and one out of Pecan. He also showed a Squirrel monkey on a tree that he carved from 1 piece of wood.

OF INTEREST:

Bill Davis said he was in the high school system and he got to go to the National skill competition one year and found it interesting. The 3 previous National Winners train for one year and than they have a contest to select the best one to go to the International. There are 33 different skills represented. The United States has never won. He said that a man from Ireland said that when boys are 12 in Ireland they can apply for apprentice ship and 1000’s apply but they only take 100. These boys than train until they are 21, which is probably one of the reasons the United States has never won.

PROGRAM: The program was on tool sharpening and given by Bob Reese.

Dull tools will get you in trouble and the sharper your tool is the easier it is to work the wood.

Most importantly, grinding wheels they must be a coarse grain. Never use finer than 60-grit. The wheels are marked and the number on them is the grit and the letter after the number is the hardness. A is the softest and Z would be the hardest. Always stay within the H through K range of hardness. This would be medium hard, which is what you need. The third criterion is wheel speed and most motors are 1800 rpm, or 3600 RPM. You need to calculate the surface speed of the wheel. You need to know the diameter of the wheel and the RPM and then you figure circumference using the formula Circumference equals Pi times Diameter. Example: Circumference of a 6 inch wheel equals 3.1416 times 6 inches (round off Pi to 3) which equals 18 inches, which is 1 ½ feet, times the 3600 rpm, which equals 5400 feet per minute surface speed. You should not exceed 4000 feet per minute, so use an 1800 rpm motor and an 8-inch wheel and that would equal 3600 feet per minute.

The grinder should be mounted on a cabinet or stand about 36 inches high so you can do your work without having to bend over. He has storage space below his grinder for his equipment and supplies for grinding. He has two accessories one is a V-block holder and the other is a flat tool rest, infinitely adjustable. You could also make these out of wood. Hunt’s Garage in Manchester has lots of steel tubing and steel that they sell by the pound.

Wheel dressing is very important since you must keep your grinding wheel round and free of debris. You should use a single point industrial diamond and you want to keep the dresser pointing a little downward. His second choice for a dressing tool is the star wheel dresser, which has 4 loose wheels and rolls against the wheel, crushing the grain. The tool should hook over the front edge of tool rest and slide across it. The cheaper dressing sticks make the wheel too slick and dull to be of practical value.

You will also need a good bench stone such as the Arkansas Washita stone. He has it mounted on a board that allows him to be able to use both side of stone and top for dressing tool. You also will need shaped stones - wedges, rectangles, such as India stones, or hard white Arkansas stones. You also need a strop made of leather glued on a board that you can put abrasive powders onto for finish polishing. The grit you put on it should be about 400-silicone carbide, or diatomacious earth. Micro-beveling is done with Hard Arkansas stone or ceramic strips.

You must figure what angle you need to sharpen at. A bevel angle of 45-degrees will be about 1.5 times the thickness of the tool. If bevel length were 2 times the thickness of the tool, it would be about 30 degrees. If length of the bevel is 3 times the tool thickness, it is about 20-degrees. "Eyeball" measurements are close enough. He has wooden pieces made at various angles that are labeled and used to set up tool rest to the desired bevel angle. He made homemade jigs for using on tools wider than the wheel width. The jigs allows you to grind by moving across wheel with a continuous sweep.

You use oil on your stones to carry away the debris. You should use kerosene, or kerosene and oil mixed half-and-half. You can even use WD40. Push down on the tool and oil will puddle up and than raise a little bit more to remove burr. Use hard white Arkansas stone for micro-beveling, which is removing the burr, and is done at 10 to 15 degrees steeper angle than the bevel, or original flat face. Run stone along the edge a couple of times. Use the leather strop with the fine grit, 10-15 degrees steeper angle than the bevel, or original flat face, and polish the whole edge of the tool. The strop will put a mirror polish on edge of the tool. When secondary bevel gets more than 1/16 wide it is time to grind it again. It is the sharpest when it is about 1/64^th.