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

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

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

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

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

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.