April 23, 2003
To: Dick Morano
From: Dan Smullen
Subject: Minutes
from Furniture SIG meeting of 4/3/03
Attendees: We had 37 people at Woodcraft for this
meeting, including three new
people, Gary Young, Ed Anderson
and a fellow named Garrett, I missed getting his last name, sorry. Welcome,
everyone!
Next
Meeting: The next meeting will be hosted by Rick Diehl at
Woodcraft.
Video cabinet update – The project is temporarily on hold with wood on order and will resume
with Chuck Rinehart’s return on May 6th. Mike Desjardin’s shop will be the locus of activity, and the
species of wood is to be raisin maple.
Other items:
·
About 10
people were able to take a tour of Young’s Restorations in Newark. They make
architectural and kitchen moldings, and have literally hundreds of cutters able
to make most any molding from the Victorian era onward. They have big, old
machines that can make any molding from 1850 to date; probably about $50,000
worth of cutters was estimated by some of the folks on the tour. There is probably about $1,000,000 in wood
at their facility as well.
·
Bruce Chapman
showed us a shaker candlestick table he had made and finished with Tried and
True. He recommends to use a pan of hot
water to warm up the material prior to use so it goes on better. Also, use thin layers rather than thick ones
for a better job.
Program:
Craig Smith arranged to have Chris Cable from Fein USA give us a
rundown on the Fein tool offerings. Chris gave us an informative talk and some
nice handout materials also. I will add
the key information in bullet form below:
·
Fein is the
oldest power tool company in the world, at about 100 years. Their first tool was a 16 lb. electric drill
that had exposed brush holders and had two large handles. It could only drill a 3/16” hole. Chris actually had a model of the tool for
us to see – it was in beautiful condition considering its age.
·
Fein offers a
6” random orbit sander [Model Msf 636-1] with a patented mechanism which
delivers truly random behavior. It has a vacuum port which connects with the
Fein vacuum machines and is 98% effective in removing sanding dust. Dust is of course drawn through holes in the
sanding pad, but in addition there are radial holes in the outside edge of the
mounting platen for the pad which await dust escaping from the edges – the
result is a superior job. Chris
demonstrated the unit without the vacuum – an amazing difference! The unit also runs in both directions
alternatively to improve the randomizing effect, which is 5/16” stroke, the largest
available in any such unit.
·
Fein tools
are expensive, but are really professional grade and include free
maintenance. In fact, since repairs are
warranted for 6 months, you could send your tool in at the end of the original
1 year coverage period for a going over, and then every 6 months thereafter and
always have it “covered”.
·
Chris showed
us several ways of using the Multimaster tool, which oscillates at 20,000
cycles per minute. It can sand, scrape,
cut grout out prior to retiling or saw with great control. It is excellent for jobs such as cutting out
door jambs prior to hardwood floor installation, for instance. I was faced with the task of installing
hardwood flooring since the meeting in the entire upstairs of my house, and
justified this $200 tool on that job alone.
·
We also got a
quick rundown on the Fein vacuums of course, which have the ability to turn on
and off automatically when power tools are plugged into their accessory
outlet. The vacuums are exceptionally
quiet, and can be fitted with filters down to 0.3 micron if necessary.
·
Fein also
offers a quite capable plunge router with 3 ¼ HP, soft start motor.
·
Chris asked a
trivia question during his talk which Gary Young [new tonight] had the answer
for. Gary’s prize – a brand new Multimaster!
Gary joined RWS right away.
That’s it for now. Happy
woodworking!
Dan