Members had a great evening at our annual barbeque and competition – and many thanks to our chefs who coped so well without a barbeque!

There was a good selection of entries in this year’s competition –

With many thanks to our judges, who gave some great assessments and feedback on member’s work.

And the winners were –

Workshop
1st : Peter Barton for a pair of chisels
2nd: Brian Copeland for a clamp rack

Toys
1st: Bruce McKenzie for a bulldozer

Boxes & ornamental
1st: Graham Aitchison for pair of model delivery trucks
2nd: Peter Barton for Jewellery cabinet

Indoor furniture
1st: Chris Mobbs for dresser-top valet unit
2nd: Peter Barton for chair
3rd: Hugh Hutchinson for apothecary cabinet

New Entrant
1st: Antoni Podolak for bird house

John also showed members one of the seven dolls houses which will soon be presented to Communities@Work. Many thanks to the doll’s house team, Burn & Judy for the workshop and cake!, and Moray & Agnew who very kindly sponsored the project.

 
And Bruce displayed a small selection of the beautiful toys he has prepared for donations this year.

Another great year – see you all in 2017!

Our 2016 AGM, valiantly chaired by Ron, with Carolan and Chris, showed the club to be in a good position as we head into the year of our 20th anniversary!

Many thanks to the committee who were all re-elected, and we’re all looking forward to a year of learning, friendship, contests and celebration.

Brian then gave us some hints on producing halved/lap joints with the use of a marking gauge – and demonstrated it’s use as the base on his vacuum hose stand. A halved joint is a woodworking joint in which the two members are joined by removing material from each at the point of intersection so that they overlap. The halved joint is differentiated from the lap joint in that the members are joined on edge, rather than on the flat.

 
Chris finished off by demonstrating his beautiful handmade kerfmaker.

 
Check out this video by Shopbuilt as they demonstrate how to make something similar.

Carolan gave us a great presentation on her modifications to her windows – plus a whole range of her other great home projects to boot!

Then, following this year’s theme, Chris finished off the evening with a demonstration of the Lock Mitre Joint.

Timbercom have a good range of Lock Mitre bits and jigs on offer.

Member’s might also be interested in the further explanations of the joint in this video.

At our June meeting, Brian demonstrated using the Triton router on the Workcentre, with both the overhead router plate (AJA150) and the router table top (RTA300).

 
Chris finished off the evening with a demonstration of vacuum veneering using his own hardwood veneers.

For those interested, the Australian Woodsmith had an article covering Chris’ process in it’s April 2009 (No. 68) issue – see Brian at the next meeting to borrow the club’s copy.

A very inspiring evening!

At our April meeting, club members were treated to a fascinating evening on steam bending, kindly presented by Fred Buckley from the Woodcraft Guild.

 
Fred also covered shaping, kerfing and laminating – including the pros and cons of each method – with the example of his beautiful Eleanor Roosevelt chair.

Chair by Fred Buckley

For those who wish to pursue this fascinating area of steam bending, Lee Valley in North America have a full range of equipment and a downloadable version of the Veritas Steam Bending Instruction Booklet