A Chapter of The American Association of Woodturners

A Chapter of The American Association of Woodturners
V OLUME 14, I SSUE 6
W WW . NORTHWESTWOODTURNERS . COM
J UNE , 2009
T HE WOODTURNERS ’ LOCAL RESOURCE
P RESIDENT ’ S M ESSAGE
Q UICK U PDATES
Summer is coming. I know this because I don‟t have to warm up the wax to be able to get
it onto the paper towel and I don‟t lose the feeling in my feet due to the cold garage floor.
For Northwest Woodturners, that usually means a slower pace for turning activities.
There are usually fewer demonstrations and members are gone on vacations gathering exotic woods from far and wide for the August wood auction; or, as I like to call it, Tom‟s
Open Air Shearing of the Flock and Barbeque. This year may be the exception.
We have a lot to enjoy before TOASF&B. NWWT will have the pleasure of hosting the
Battys, Allan and Stuart, June 3 through 7. There are still a few places available in the
Thursday beginners‟ class as well as the Friday and Sunday classes. Give me a call or drop
me an email if you want to reserve one of those spots. Also, the Saturday demo, June 6th,
will be a great opportunity for all of us
to benefit from the diverse outlook of
these two world-famous turners.
Because of the Lyle Jamieson visit in
July, please note the change of date for
the July club meeting. This is shaping up
to be a major event with two days of
demonstration and a two day hands-on
class. Sign up sheets will be available at
the June meeting. By all accounts,
Jamieson is an interesting demonstrator
Amy Lowe’s - first bowl
with very clear ideas about how thinks
are best accomplished. It‟s sometimes refreshing to have clear guideline for turning techniques.
The August wood auction is always fun. For new members, you‟ll find a great array of
woods, tools and other items to be had at really bargain prices. You‟ll learn quick enough
not to make any sudden moves during the bidding. The wood auction is one of the major
reasons NWWT has the generous budget to work with, allowing us to bring in an enviable
schedule of nationally and internationally known woodturners as well as the very good facility we have for demonstrations and meetings. In all seriousness, the wood auction is an
event not to be missed. Who knows what treasures you might discover. The grub is
pretty good too, so mark August 6th on your calendars and start getting those donations
gathered up.
We need to start getting an idea about interest in classes and demonstrations for Michael
Hosaluk (September, http://www.functionart.com/AM/Artists/HosalukM/
HosalukM.html ) and Cindy Drozda (October, http://www.cindydrozda.com/ ). There
(Continued on page 2)
Northwest Woodturners
meetings are held on the 1st
Thursday of each month at
7:00 PM. See
www.northwestwoodturners.
com for details and map.
Next Meeting:
June 4th
Turning Challenge:
Travel Mug
S TAFF
President
Mike Meredith
(503) 522-0531
[email protected]
V. President
Joe Jedrychowski
[email protected]
Secretary / Treasurer
Owen Lowe
(503) 538-5325
Board of Directors
Walt Brown
Jim Hall
Fred Kline
Bob Mach
Mike Stalder
Librarian
Chris Dix
Raffle
Tom Willing
Supplies
Tom Helzer
Newsletter & Web
Scott Blackman
V OLUME 14, I SSUE 6
P AGE 2
P RESIDENT ’ S M ESSAGE
(Continued from page 1)
will be signup sheets at the June meeting. Class dates have not been set and the number of
classes will depend on the number of interested members.
Last and surely least, this month we will finish the process of adoption of the new By-laws for
NWWT that will get us through the incorporation process and back to wood turning. There
have been some suggestions and a couple of points to clarify. I hope to get this done fairly
quickly and get us on to the evening‟s demonstration. I see light at the end of the tunnel and I
don‟t think it‟s a train coming.
See you on June 4th.
Tom Helzer
A W INE T OUR ….S ORT OF
Last month our very own Don Woodward amazed the club
with a wonderful demonstration on making wine glasses. It‟s
easy to make one, but try making multiples that have to
match.
Much like turning pawns for a chess set, making multiple wine
stems that match takes some practice. Don showed the membership how it‟s done and delivered it with his usual humor.
The demonstration was being recorded for future development for a commercial use. We hope the best for you Don
with your efforts. Keep up the good work.
H AVE Y OU S EEN M E ?
July meeting
rescheduled for
July 9th.
Due to the Fourth of July
Holiday.
If you have this, please contact Scott Blackman @ (503) 8078100 or by email @ [email protected]
V OLUME 14, I SSUE 6
P AGE 3
L YLE J AMIESON - D ON ’ T M ISS T HIS O NE
In July, we are pleased to host Lyle Jamieson for our demonstrator. Lyle is known in the turning community for his hollowing
tools; but he is also a master sculptor and hollow form turner. If you haven‟t seen his work, visit it online at
www.lylejamieson.com Lyle will be doing a two day demonstration (July 11 & 12th) and then a two day Hands-on class (July
13 & 14th). A sign-up sheet will be available at the meetings.
Two Day Demonstration Outline
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"First Cut" evaluate wood log, chain saw the grain to the best use.
Lathe tune-up.
Green wood handling, shrinkage, pith, turning, finishing, and drying.
Turning natural edge bowl, mounting without chucks, keep it simple methods.
Dynamics involved to preventing catches.
Modified swept back grind uses, roughing cuts, outside cuts, inside cuts, shearing cuts, slicing cuts, and shear scraping
cuts — all with the same bowl gouge.
Grinding (a must see) for safe and fun turning, freehand and jig usage.
Presentation on creativity with slide show.
Instant gallery design, form and finishes discussion.
Reverse chucking and bottom applications.
Turning a "Seed Pot," two piece hollow form with glue joint using bowl gouge and conversation about similar technique for lidded boxes — again with no chucks.
Dynamics of hollow form turning, preventing catches, and discussion of the “90 degree rule.”
Turning a hollow form using Jamieson stabilizing handle for the Stewart type tools Hollow forms the easy and fun
way.
Design and use of laser light hollow form measuring device.
Demonstration of Lyle‟s multi-axis torso hollow forms.
Discussion of topics from advanced techniques.
Two Day Hands-On Advanced Techniques Class
Fundamentals of hollow form turning, hollowing the easy way.
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Captured boring bar set up.
Captured boring bar usage techniques.
Chucking procedures.
Application of the 90-degree.
Hollowing techniques.
Laser measuring system set up.
Laser measuring system usage techniques.
Using the laser to control cuts through waste block of vessel.
Laser with template guide.
Lyle Jamieson - Ovation
Individual instruction to explore creativity.
www.lylejamieson.com
The emphasis will be on making hollowing easy and fun thereby stressing individual attention on design and developing forms. Students will learn to turn hollow forms with fingertip control and no stress. The fun
will open the path to creativity and design options and encourage exploration.
Show your NWWT Membership Card to receive a discount of your purchase at Gilmer‟s, AllSharp Sharpening Service & Sales, Rockler, Woodcraft, Woodcrafters, and Crosscut Hardwoods. Membership has benefits.
V OLUME 14, I SSUE 6
P AGE 4
H OW I L EARNED T O L OVE A ND R ESPECT M Y C HAINSAW
Brian showing which end to hold.
Photo by Andy Johnson-Laird
OK. I admit it. Every time I pick up my
chainsaw the thought goes through my
head: “I‟m a computer programmer.
What on earth am I doing with a chainsaw in my hand? This thing is really dangerous!”
And it was that underlying selfish reason
that motivated me to approach Brian
French, an arborist with Collier Arbor
Care (http://www.collierarbor.com/)
and member of the Ascending The
Giants group (http://
www.ascendingthegiants.com/), to see
if he would allow a few NWWT members to invade his back yard with our
chainsaws and safety gear so that he
could put on a chainsaw safety class for
us.
So, on May 23rd, six of us did just that.
Brian started by giving us a chainsaw
anatomy lesson which included field
stripping our chainsaws, removing the
bars, removing the chains, cleaning everything and then putting it all back together with no pieces left over.
That was worth the price of admission
right there. There were places and parts
of a chainsaw that I never realized existed. I discovered an air filter, a gas filter, the front sprocket, chain guides and
several other parts that I mentally
dubbed “thingies.” All seemed to be
Really Important Thingies, though.
To equalize the wear on the bar, Brian
recommends that every time you remove the bar to check for wear that you
turn it over along its long axis—there
are two bar oil feed holes so the bar is
actually designed for this. So, please,
when you see my chainsaw and you see
STIHL upside down on the bar, do not
giggle. I know. It was deliberate. (Check
the photo to the left! Brian does it too!)
We also spent several happy minutes
sharpening our chains, learning when to
sharpen, what to sharpen, and how
much to sharpen. That‟s when I discovered what a chain depth gauge is, and
when Mike Meredith discovered what a
blunt chain was. Mike spent more happy
minutes sharpening than the rest of us
put together because he uses his chain
saw more than we do (so he said).
BUT IT STILL SCARES ME !
causing Really Bad Things to happen. So
says the fine print in the manual.)
The grand finale of the class was actually
cutting some logs. For safety reasons we
only had one chainsaw running at a time,
so it was a bit daunting for me to have a
small, but highly critical audience, as I
tried to cut a round in half without getting kickback and/or trashing the chain.
As it happened, all went well and the
words and tune of Monty Python‟s “I‟m
a lumberjack and I‟m OK” started to go
through the back recesses of my mind.
Perhaps the single most important thing
I learned during the class was that it is
both OK and desirable to bring the chain
to a sudden stop by flicking one‟s left
wrist forward to operate the kickback
brake. Brian recommends that everyone
release the throttle at the end of a cut,
and immediately flick the chain brake on
before withdrawing the bar. In other
Brian then led us through general stratewords, if you‟re not actually cutting
gies for cutting trees with plenty of adwood, the chain brake should be on!
vice of the form “Do not do this if you
want all your body parts to stay atSo that‟s how I learned to love and retached!” He showed us the best stance
spect my chainsaw. The wild, irrational
(kneeling to one side of a log on the
fear that I had before the class is now
ground) so that we can see the blade tip, wild, entirely rational fear. And, thanks
but keeping the aforementioned body
to Joe Jedrychowski, I now know a
parts off to one side and clear of the
chainsaw joke: “This European (Joe se“firing line” of the chain should it break. lected the land of his last name‟s origin)
(Most chainsaws have a chain catcher
gentleman goes to buy a his first chainthingy that will prevent the chain from saw and the sales person says, „Yes, Sir,
whiplashing if it breaks and otherwise
you can cut wood twice as fast as your
old hand saw.‟ So the guy buys the
chainsaw, takes it home and tries it, but
discovers that it cuts the wood at exactly
the same speed as his hand saw. So he
takes the chainsaw back to dealer and
complains. The sales person says, „That‟s
impossible, Sir….let me show you…‟
So they both go out behind the dealership where there is some wood and the
salesman starts up the saw. At which
point the guy shouts, „Why on earth is
This is where the loud noise comes from, Joe.
the chainsaw making that loud noise?‟”
Photo by Andy Johnson-Laird
- Andy Johnson-Laird
V OLUME 14, I SSUE 6
P AGE 5
S HOW AND T ELL
Roy Ackley
Bob Mach
Bob Ivey
Joe Jedrychowski
Tom Helzer
Gene Shaw
Don Woodward
Joe Jedrychowski
Stan Postma
Joe Jedrychowski
Lee Parks
Gene Shaw
Roy Ackley
Steve Newberry
Jim Hall
V OLUME 14, I SSUE 6
P AGE 6
S AM M ALOOF 1916 - 2009
Master woodworker Sam Maloof, a major figure in the California modern arts
movement, died Thursday evening at his
Rancho Cucamonga home. He was 93.
Mr. Maloof was one of the region's best
known artists, although he much preferred being called a woodworker. Some
of his work is on display at the Riverside
Art Museum. His pieces are in the collections of New York's Metropolitan
Museum of Art, the Boston Museum of
Art, the Los Angeles County Art Museum and the Smithsonian Institution.
"I would say the exhibition was one of
the most popular and most satisfying that
we've ever done," Broun said. Among
the exhibit pieces was an unfinished chair
that people were allowed to sit in.
"People would line up for a chance to sit
in a Sam Maloof chair," she said.
and a coffee table out of scrap wood. In a
story on the new phenomenon of tract
homes, Better Homes and Gardens
magazine featured the Maloofs' home and
furniture. People were attracted to the
combination of utilitarian structure and
fine lines, and Mr. Maloof began taking
orders. Soon it was a full-time job.
Mr. Maloof, she said, was instrumental
in elevating the craft of woodworking.
But she, too, shies from calling it art.
The Maloofs later bought land in a Cucamonga lemon grove. Mr. Maloof built a
basic house and added onto it over the
"A lot of Americans say fine art is not for years, creating an 8,000-square-foot
home that eventually was designated a
them," she said, "but no American
national historical landmark. In 2000, the
doesn't like a Sam Maloof chair."
home was moved three miles to make
His work regularly sells for tens of thouUtilitarian Beginning
way for the Foothill Freeway.
sands of dollars. A rocking chair he
crafted brought $140,000 at a charity
Mr. Maloof's career began out of neces- Although he was courted by manufacturauction.
sity in 1948. He and his late wife, Alers who wanted to mass produce his de"For so many decades he was considered freda, had purchased one of Southern
signs, Mr. Maloof turned them all down,
the premier wood craftsmen in this
California's first tract homes, but on
insisting on turning out each piece by
country and the world," said Betsy
Sam's meager salary as an assistant to
hand in his workshop. He never used a
Broun, director of the Smithsonian
well-known Claremont College artist
tape measure, penciling in the lines he
American Art Museum, which held a
Millard Sheets, they couldn't afford to
wanted to cut freehand, constructing the
retrospective of Mr. Maloof's work in
furnish it.
rough piece and allowing his three-man
2001.
Mr. Maloof built a dining table, chairs
(Continued on page 7)
Gene Shaw
Gene Shaw
Lloyd Johnson - Hatcher Example
Gene Shaw
Jim Hall - First “Pho” Style piece
P AGE 7
V OLUME 14, I SSUE 6
S AM M ALOOF 1916 - 2009
(Continued from page 6)
team of longtime assistants -- whom he referred to fondly as
"the boys" -- to do the finish work. In a good year, they might
turn out 45 finished pieces.
While that may seem like a small
number, Mr. Maloof was famous
for his energy and long work
hours.
"I'm very pleased that I can still
work," he said in an interview last
year, talking while he built a chair.
"I don't move around as fast as I
did, but I'm still working eight,
nine, 10 hours a day, six days a
week. If you love what you do, it
really isn't work."
Some of his pieces will be featured
in an upcoming show at the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art on
California design from the mid20th century.
California, said Mr. Maloof, whom he visited with just a few
days ago, had an even greater impact on the people he
touched.
"I think everyone admired Sam,"
Erickson said. "He never sought
attention. He did everything in
such a quiet soft-spoken humble
manner. I think he was a role
model for all of us."
Knox Mellon, of Riverside, is a
board member of the Sam and
Alfreda Maloof Foundation. He
met Mr. Maloof in 1950 as a student at Pomona College.
"In addition to being a giant in
terms of arts and crafts, he was, in
many ways, a giant as a human
being," Mellon said. "He was a
lover of life. He was a lover of the
arts. He encouraged people who
were starting out in the arts."
Mellon said Mr. Maloof had been
"He was perhaps the most influenill in recent months.
tial California furniture crafts"He apparently died peacefully,"
Sam Maloof - Inspiration for the modern day woodworker
man," said Bobby Tigerman, the
he said, adding that Mr. Maloof's
museum's assistant curator of decorative arts and design.
second wife, Beverly -- Alfreda died in 1998 -- was at his side,
along with other family and friends.
Humble Giant
Mellon's wife, Carlotta, is a past executive director of the
Daniel Foster, president and CEO of the Community Founda- Maloof Foundation. She said Mr. Maloof was greatly strengthtion of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, was director of ened by his second marriage but never fully recovered from
the Riverside Art Museum when he got to know Mr. Maloof. the loss of his first wife, whose headstone is just outside his
bedroom window.
"Its hard to imagine that he's gone," he said. "It's only a few
months since I saw him, and his mind was alive with wonderful "One of the thoughts I had," Carlotta said, "was how happy he
ideas for projects for the future. It's a great loss nationally.
must have been to see Freda again."
"He was one of the seminal artists that helped bridge the gap
Mr. Maloof is survived by his wife, Beverly, a son, a daughter
between craft and art," Foster added. "He would always say he and a stepson. Services have not been announced.
wasn't an artist, he was a woodworker. But I think one of the
biggest impacts of his career was bridging that gap."
Reach Mark Muckenfuss at 951-368-9595 or [email protected]
James Erickson, vice chancellor emeritus for the University of Story provided by http://www.pe.com
L OCAL E VENTS , C LASSES ,
Date
Class/Demo
AND
D EMO ’ S
Location
Instructor
06/13
Beginning Lathe Turning
Woodcraft
Bob Tuck
06/14
Basic Bowl Turning
Woodcraft
Bob Tuck
06/20
Turning! Pens, Blowls, Blanks….
Rockler
Staff
06/21
Pen Turning
Woodcraft
George Hays
Jun/Jul Woodworks, Things of Use and Beauty
www.wrvmuseum.org/
06/29
www.woodturner.org/
2009 AAW Symposium
Many other fine classes and demos are available from your local stores:
Woodcraft Store at (503) 684-1428 Email [email protected]
Rockler Store at (503) 672-7266 Email [email protected]
Woodcrafters Store at (503) 231-0226 Web page: http://woodcrafters.us/
E DITOR ’ S N OTE
Submissions to the newsletter are due by
the 20th of the month. Articles, tips, web
links, classified ads, or other items pertaining to woodturning are welcome.
Scott Blackman
Newsletter Editor
Phone: (503) 807-8100
E-mail: [email protected]
All other business should be directed to:
Northwest Woodturners
13500 SW Pacific Hwy, #185
Tigard, OR 97223
C LASSIFIED A DS
For Sale: 30 gal, 2-HP Compressor, Craftsman, 2 cylinder, 220V. Older model, but runs great. $95. Hitachi Router TL-12
$25. Isolated Variable Transformer, 120V in, Zero to 140V out. Used to reduce speed on equipment. $30. Can bring all but
compressor to meetings on request. Contact David Williams, (503) 997-2541 cell, [email protected]
For Sale: Legacy Ornamental Milling Machine. This machine was purchased by my father-in-law about 15 years ago when he
was some 90 years old and he only used it for three short spells. The machine has been in storage ever since. As a result, it is
in an almost new condition and my father-in-laws eldest son is now wanting to sell it. The machine is a "Legacy 1200" which
now markets for $3,095. You can see the machine and its details on line at: www.legacywoodworking.com/
products.cfm?product=5. They are asking $1,000 for it and along with the machine there is a Hitachi router to operate on
the machine along with about a dozen 1/2" drive router bits. If you are interested or have questions regarding the machine,
please call Jim Hall at 503-655-1716.
Guidelines for Classified Ads: Ads will run for three consecutive months. Please submit your ad by the 20th of the
month. The Editor takes no responsibility for spelling or grammatical errors. All woodworking items, for sale or wanted, are
welcome.
13500 SW Pacific Hwy, #185
Tigard, OR 97223