We held our delayed December woodwork competition at our regular meeting in May.
This year members undertook judging in lieu of external judges.
Scoring was based on a simple allocation of points according to the number of entries in a category.
The categories were as follows:
Indoor, including furniture, ornamental items and toys – excluding tables, desks & boxes
Workshop and outdoor items
Tables and desks
Boxes
Prizes awarded were $50 (1st), $35 (2nd), and $20 (3rd) in each category.
And here are the entries!
Indoor, including furniture, ornamental items and toys
Members had a very busy night at our regular meeting for April, looking at all aspects of veneering.
The evening began with a warm welcome by John, discussion on the May Competition, and an overview of the latest edition of the Australian Woodworker Magazine by Chris.
We then got straight into our first session on basic veneering.
Don’t forget members – login to can see all the presentations
We began our first meeting of 2023 with a remembrance and farewell of former member Peter Croker.
John then mentioned the club’s two page spread in the February issue of Australian Woodworker – grab a copy from your newsagent if you can.
Bob then showed members how to preserve the scales on Workcentre arms, and Chris showed us how to make a drill powered drum sander – there’s always something new to learn!
Chris continued with the main subject for the evening – Glue – truly a sticky subject!
Members – please login to can see all the videos shown on the night and their full context in the Table Theme Topics List
The Club had its own stall, and on display was the computer desk that Chris made. This is the prototype for the workshops we will be running after the Expo.
Chris gave a couple of very useful and informative presentations after the AGM at our November meeting.
(Members, please login to see the President’s Report on the Member’s page.)
Chris first presented a session on card scrapers, including two videos. The first demonstrated four uses of a scraper, while the second demonstrated how to sharpen one.
He also showed an alternative sharpening tool from his own collection.
Chris then presented an overview of clamp storage methods, drawn from the web and his workshop.
Click on the first page below for the full presentation.
And this is the video Chris made reference to in the last slide
Enjoy your woodworking – Christmas is not far away!
Members have been busy making bird boxes for the Lions Croke Place Wetlands Landcare Group – part of the Ginninderra Catchment Group
Ron introduced the teams making the bird boxes at the meeting. All the makers enjoyed the opportunity to work with other club members in making the boxes. When there were problems, or things did not turn out as they hoped, the common catch cry of all groups was…”its only a bird box!!”.
The teams were;
Spotted Pardalote
Crimson Rosella
Eastern Rosella
Kookaburra
Nightjar
Red-rumped Parrot
Congratulations and thanks to all who participated!
The boxes were presented to Mick wearing his Landcare hat. The following video shows Mick giving a bit more information about the group (and a little bit about a local woodworking club!)
A certificate of appreciation was presented to Debbie from Bunnings for supplying all the materials for the project. She and her husband (another Mick) were pleased with the outcome and enjoyed seeing how Bunnings donations were making a valuable contribution to the community.
Lindsay From COTA gave a short presentation on the Silver in Gold Expo. Sadly the Expo has been postponed, but when it’s finally held the Club will hopefully be running a stand at the Expo, and Lindsay will organise for the Landcare group to have an adjoining stand to highlight the work being done by TOCACT in the Community.
The evening was rounded off with some great demonstrations on board making.
The router – connected to Brian’s cyclonic dust extractor and the vacuum cleaner (no dust in the face tonight) – was in full use for demonstrations of tongue and groove cuts and biscuit joining to make wide boards for table tops etc.
Brian demonstrated specialised tongue and groove router bits (relatively expensive) and general cutters (inexpensive) to achieve similar results.
Ron demonstrated biscuit joining just using a biscuit cutter bit and the fence of the router.
The techniques used by Brian and Ron could be performed on any router table and were not specific to Triton, although Brian did show us the Triton biscuit joiner.
Members might also be interested in the following from The Wood Whisperer
Tonight’s meeting was on making the frame for drawers.
Ron demonstrated the Gifkins dovetail jig for making drawers. A little help from Brian’s sledge hammer and we had a nice tight fit!
Check out another demonstration of the jig below.
John gave an overview slide presentation on drawer lock router bits and demonstrated the Torquata drawer lock router bit from Timbecon. Click on the first page below for John’s slide presentation.
As John says – ‘Every mistake provides a learning opportunity with the audience getting a good understanding of the concepts involved and where things can go wrong! We also the learnt the importance of connecting a dust extractor to the router. Everyone attending the demonstration will have memories of the demonstrator being covered in dust.’
If you are looking at drawer lock bits, the small diameter upright bits (the blue type in John’s slide presentation) may be safer and easier to use. The gap between the fences on the router table are narrower. There is less opportunity for the wood pieces to slip into the gap between the fences. The downside is that there is limited scope for integrated fascia boards with the smaller diameter bits.
The smaller diameter bits can also be operated at higher speeds. Many routers only have a single high speed. The Triton router was one of the first to bring in variable speeds.
We also learned the importance of doing lots of test cuts – not just to make sure the depth of the cut is right but also to develop a safe reliable technique for these awkward cuts. A high temporary fence is recommended by John to provide stability, especially with larger drawers.
Click on the Torquata drawer lock bit below for more information by Timbecon. John found their video demonstration particularly useful as the bit did not come with any instructions. John has written instructions for his future reference on test cut pieces which he keeps with his high fence. It is worth searching out U-Tube videos demonstrating other drawer lock router bits.
And these are the Timbecon demonstrations.
Members might also find the following site useful.
