July 10, 2002

To: Dick Morano

From: Dan Smullen

Subject: Minutes from Furniture SIG meeting of 6/5/02

Attendees: 28 people assembled at Jon Zuegel's house, including Joe Straszynski. Joe works at Gleason, and is getting more into furniture type projects. He is working at expanding his tool collection also, as are we all.

Next Meeting [2002-03 planning meeting]:

• This will be held at Woodcraft store on 8/1/02. Bring ideas to meeting, or send Dick Morano a quick e-mail, and he will log them prior to the meeting. Also, if you want to host a meeting next year, let Dick know which month and whether you want to hold meeting at Woodcraft [default] or at your home [always an option].

Other news:

· Some club tour options are being explored for next season, including tours at Certainly Wood, Oakwood Woodworkers, and Youngs Restoration.

Questions and comments

· A problem with a 20 year old Grizzly jointer was discussed. The machine seems to be suddenly out of kilter. The most likely cause that was postulated [since we were doing the "diagnosis" in absentia] was that the table alignment has shifted, perhaps due to a gib shim slippage. A the use of a super accurate straightedge to check the relationship of the infeed and outfeed tables for flatness was seen to be the next step. Robin McClelland offered the loan of his 36" Starrett rule. Since these are ground extremely accurately, they can be used as the last word for alignment checks.

· Chuck Rinehart has seen his Delta Unisaw blade loosens and spins when shutting the machine off. He believes he has tightened the nut the same for years, but never had the problem until lately. Most felt that the acme threaded arbor nut must have developed enough wear to be causing this problem.

· John Britton told us about a metal detector from Garrett Security that is very effective at finding various blade-wreckers in raw wood. The device is normally used for airport checks.

· Troy Skinner brought a cordless impact driver which develops 900 in lb of torque, and can drive 3" screws into wood without pilot holes. It was a Hitachi model 6914. This tool would not necessarily be considered a typical woodworking tool, but the impact feature adds tremendous power to the small form factor device. It's pretty handy!

· This author has had problems with velcro sanding disks flying off a random orbit sander, even when disc is new. Several people said that the hooks on the backing plate can wear, which will cause this problem. I'll try a new plate to see if that helps.

RWS Tool Swap

Just a reminder for new SIG members - on Saturday, August 17^th there will be a tool swap in Mendon Ponds Park.

Program

Jim Altemus brought several planes to show us, some antique, some not. There are quite a few plane sizes out there, but he recommended that 95% of the uses for planes can be covered by Stanley #4 [commonly called a smoother], #5 [jack plane] and #7 [jointer plane]. A Stanley #92 would also be great for rabbets and mortise and tenon work. Jim mentioned that getting a thicker plane iron, such as a Hock, would improve plane performance by a huge margin. Anything that will prevent the blade from chattering will make for much cleaner cuts.

Jim added that a Stanley #3 would be a good size to use for woods like curly maple to reduce tearout. Of course, a very sharp blade and use of skew cutting motion will add to the experience.

Jon Zuegel, our host, is in the final stages of building a maple trestle table with breadboard ends on the table top. We all got to throw in our two cents on some assembly and joining options still open. Of course, there are always lots of ideas for doing most things related to our craft. Much of the discussion was around how to mate the stringer(s) and supports, while getting best balance of looks and stiffness. Overall, the table is well done; Jon's efforts will lead to a nice piece. I'm sure he will filter out the best approaches from our comments.

Happy woodworking!

Dan