CJWA News and Updates

Northeastern Woodworkers Association's 19th Annual Fine Woodworking Show

2010-03-12T18:34:55Z

As mentioned at the March meeting, the Northeastern Woodworkers Association’s 19th Annual Fine Woodworking Show is taking place the weekend of March 27-28 in Saratoga Springs, NY. Demonstrations will be given by David Ellsworth, Ernie Conover, Christopher Schwarz, and Phil Lowe, along with displays of furniture and other woodworking items made by some really talented craftsmen. More information is available at the NWA website.

March Meeting: Advanced Router Techniques with Marc Gaertner

2010-03-03T14:00:19Z

The March CJWA meeting will be at 7 PM on March 10, and features a discussion about advanced router techniques led by Marc Gaertner. Marc will be demonstrating techniques using a router table and hand held routers that go beyond simply making a dado for a bookcase shelf. Frank Vucolo and David White will also be sharing their methods of using a router. There will be ample opportunity for members to contribute their experiences, so feel free to bring and share your tips on router use.

CJWA Booth At The Woodworking Show, Somerset, NJ

2010-02-24T23:13:00Z

If the number of flyers that we passed out is any indication, it seems that our booth at the Woodworking Show in Somerset on Feb. 19-21 was a huge success. We went through several hundred flyers, and traffic at our booth was quite steady throughout the show.

Our booth featured an impressive display of projects made by CJWA members, including a rotating tree of projects. We had demonstrations on a wide variety of topics, including showing bandsaw techniques and a number of demonstrations on how to use hand tools to their greatest advantage.

Congratulations and thanks go to Frank Vucolo, Simon Stark, and John Tamaino for organizing the best booth we have ever had for the Woodworking Show. They really did an excellent job putting together the booth, and thanks also are due to all the volunteers who helped out over the course of the weekend. It was your efforts that made the CJWA booth such a success!

February Meeting: Steve Altman on Box Making

2010-02-18T13:50:17Z

We started the meeting by welcoming two new visitors. Frank Vucolo, Simon Stark, and John Tamaino gave our final update for our booth at The Woodworking Show at the Garden State Exhibit Center in Somerset on Feb. 19-21. They really have done an excellent job organizing the displays and demos at our booth. Here are some of the projects made by CJWA members that you will be able to see at the show:

Steve Altman gave an excellent presentation that was ostensibly about box making, but the talk wound up covering a wide and fascinating range of topics. Steve touched on design considerations in making a box, methods of working with smaller pieces of wood, and modifying tools to suit your purpose. He also showed how he cuts the lid for a box, examples made by famous box makers such as Peter Lloyd, Andrew Crawford, and Philip Weber, and even found time to run through a survey of glues.

The highlight of Steve’s talk was his run though of this jewelry case that he is in the process of finishing. The jewelry case is made of pommele sapele, spalted maple, and ebony, and features a slide out section to hold necklaces, and a hidden cash box specified by Steve’s wife.

CJWA at The Woodworking Show, Somerset Feb. 19-21

2010-02-15T00:04:16Z

As we have done for the past several years, CJWA will have a booth at The Woodworking Show at the Garden State Exhibit Center in Somerset on Feb. 19-21. Frank Vucolo, Simon Stark, and John Tamaino have really done an excellent job organizing what will be our biggest and best booth ever. In addition to a display of projects made by CJWA members, we will also have a running series of demonstrations given by CJWA members. The demonstrations will include such topics as sharpening, hand planes, dovetail joints, making a bandsawn box, inlay techniques, saw sharpening, Japanese hand tools, using a shavehorse, and bandsaw setup and safety.

For those of you who will be displaying projects at the booth, please bring them to our meeting this week, if possible. We will be able to bring them to the booth on Friday for display for the weekend.

IMPORTANT: MEETING DATE CHANGE

2010-02-09T20:30:46Z

Due to the snowstorm coming our way, the February meeting has been rescheduled to Wednesday, Feb. 17 at 7 PM. Good luck with your snow shoveling!

(If you saw a previous message regarding rescheduling the meeting, please disregard it. Wednesday, Feb. 17 is the correct rescheduled date. Sorry for any confusion.)

Beginner Woodworking Classes in Bridgewater starting Feb. 25

2010-02-04T12:41:09Z

CJWA member Michael Melofchik of Dream Forest Studios will be teaching a series of three woodworking classes aimed at the beginning woodworker through The Jointure for Community Adult Education. The classes are titled Woodworking I - Woodworking for the Total Beginner, Woodworking II - Finishing for the Total Beginner, and Woodworking III - From Quality Design to Quality Woodworking. Each class consists of two weekly 1-1/2 hour sessions, and tuition is only $49 for each class. The classes will be held at the Bridgewater Raritan Middle School in Bridgewater, and the series starts on Feb. 25.

The Jointure has been providing adult education classes in Somerset County for over 80 years. You can get more information and register for the classes online at The Jointure’s website.

February Meeting: Steve Altman on Box Making

2010-02-03T12:42:22Z

The February CJWA meeting will be at 7 PM on February 10, and features a presentation by Steve Altman, maker of Kandi Boxes. Steve will talk about making boxes, the techniques he uses to create his boxes, and discuss the decisions and choices involved in designing and building different kinds of boxes. If you know Steve, you’ll also know that besides making incredible work, he’ll also be very entertaining and thought-provoking as well.

What You Can Do With A Home Made CNC Router

2010-02-02T00:33:36Z

As an aside to his experiences with SketchUp, Roger Ackerman mentioned an acquaintance who had made his own CNC router machine. Roger took the bandsaw box that was made at our October 2008 meeting and carved in a picture of a house in the lid using the CNC router. The photo doesn’t really do justice to the detail that could be achieved with the CNC router. The CNC router did take quite a bit of time to finish this carving, however, and probably was quite a bit noisier than using carving tools to do the same.

If you are interested in building a CNC router, you can start with this article from IEEE Spectrum magazine that will give you a good start.

January Meeting: SketchUp for Woodworkers

2010-01-14T21:00:00Z

We started off the first CJWA meeting of the decade with five new members at our meeting. Frank Vucolo presented an update on plans for our booth at The Woodworking Show at the Garden State Exhibit Center in Somerset on Feb. 19-21. Although we have had a booth at The Woodworking Show every year in the past, this will be our biggest effort yet. Not only will we be showing projects that CJWA members have made, there also will be a full slate of demonstrations by CJWA members throughout the show.

Elections were held for CJWA officers for 2010. The current officers were re-elected.

For this year, one project that CJWA will take on for the Old Brick Reformed Church will be to build some storage shelves for use in the storage area just off of our meeting room. Dave White and John Steinmetz will head up this project. Thanks, Dave and John!

Our featured speaker was Robert Lafferty of Blackpoint Woodworking, who gave a demonstration of how he uses Google SketchUp in planning projects. He was able to show how to mock up a kitchen cabinet layout using SketchUp, including dimensioning the carcasses, showing how to easily add decorative elements like crown molding, and adding grain patterns using Wood Workshop, a program that will add wood patterns to SketchUp objects.

In addition to creating SketchUp objects from scratch, there are many woodworking related SketchUp models uploaded by SketchUp users that are available on the internet. Popular Woodworking magazine has an extensive selection of SketchUp models related to articles from their magazine and related publications.

Roger Ackerman and Matt Greco also showed how they used SketchUp in their projects. Roger used SketchUp for planning and building a shed. Matt showed how he used SketchUp to facilitate getting client approval for projects, and showed how to use SketchUp to create a table.

Jerry Fishlin showed a Greene and Greene inspired small table made of white oak. The top was quartersawn white oak, and it was finished using Japan Colors, shellac, and wax. Hopefully he will bring it to exhibit at our booth at the Woodworking show.