A lovely night to finish off the year – great food, great friends and great woodwork.

Many Thanks to our cooks Brian and Peter – and of course the lovely Carolan.

An interesting mix of woodworking projects were offered for the contest this year:-

 

Thanks so much to our judges – Ben & Phil from the Woodcraft Guild – their understanding, feedback and anecdotes made for a wonderful night.

And the winners are:-

Outdoor Furniture

Workshop

Toys

1st – Train – Bruce

2nd – Dolls Bed – Trevor

3rd – Long Snake – Bruce

Prize Winner – Games Table – Antoni

Indoor Furniture

1st – Glass Top Table – Chris

2nd – Nick-Nack Table – Mick

3rd- Gift Wrapping Table – Hugh

Boxes & Ornamentals

1st – Treasure Box – Chris

2nd – Folding Chess Set – John

3rd – Cutting Board – Chris

Prize Winner – Bandsaw Box – Hugh

Phil finished off the night with his experience and recommendation of Organoil products – and he showed us his lovely little stool made from American White Oak.

For those interested in the polishing process Phil mentioned, check out this link to Classic Woodcraft Finishes – Wet on Wet.

Have a great Christmas – and start thinking of your woodworking projects for the New Year!

Chris & Brian gave members a great presentation and demonstration on routing small pieces.

 

Click on the pictures below for Chris’s original presentation and some further background from one of his sources.

 

As part of the demonstration, Chris showed us a great jig for pattern routing small pieces – click on the picture or video below for more information

 

After cake, tea and a good chat, Chris then gave a presentation on making workshop equipment mobile – click on the first page below for the full presentation.

Chris also sent out a link to the following video on an amazing flip top mobile workbench – at the end of the video, note the castors mentioned in Chris’s presentation above.

 

A little bit of trouble with Chris’s last video on bevel cutting (we’ll get that fixed), but to finish off a great night we had quite a bit of discussion by members. Mick came up with a very good idea for not being surprised in the the workshop by the kids – get a safety mirror!

This one is quite reasonably priced, and safe for the workshop.

Scott began a great night with a presentation on a portable Festool style workbench that he and Stephen are building.

Festool Basic Multifunction Table. Click on picture to get further information.

Looking forward to Stephen’s follow up presentation next month!
 

Hugh also gave us a presentation on his new fold-up Workbench, plus his amazing glue-up table and innovative approach to achieving a fully functional Workshop in very limited space.

Hugh’s Workbench

Hugh’s Glue-up Table

Hugh’s Workshop

Click on any picture above to see the full set of Hugh’s photos
 

Chris sent members a link to the following video by Timbecon on Designing Your Workbench.

Plus a link to their workbench accessories, including holdfasts and dogs.
 

And to finish a great night, Chris showed us an alternative process to cutting coves on the Workcentre using a parallelogram.

Woodsmith Cheese & Cracker Tray Plans

Cheese & Cracker Tray Preview

 

If you don’t have access to the full video by Woodsmith, following is a similar process from the Woodwhisperer that may be of interest.

Click on any item above to view them.

We had a great night looking at that essential component of any workshop – the woodworking bench.

A number of members gave presentations on their benches, and why they liked them –
functionality, accessibility, stability, suitability, affordability and how good they looked!

Click on any of the photos below to see the full presentation

Bob’s Bench

Chris’s Bench

Craig’s Benches

John’s Benches

Trevor’s Bench

John finished the night with a great presentation on the variety of workbenches available to members – click on the title page below to see his full presentation.

And here is the article Chris sent us on the most common workbench questions from Christopher Schwarz’s book Workbenches – from Design & Theory to Construction & Use – just click on the book cover below.