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President’s Letter — May 2021
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Well, the official Guild Wooden Mallet has been passed from our amazing now Past President, Wayne Humphrey, to me. I am honored to be moving into the President’s chair and continuing the many great initiatives the Guild is part of. I want to take a moment to thank Wayne for his leadership these past two years and all that has been accomplished. We’ve certainly been through difficult times and I believe we’ve come out stronger. |
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| We’ve got a great year ahead of us and I’m excited to work with our Board and get to know more members.
For my first President’s Letter, I thought I’d share a little bit about myself and what I hope to contribute to the Guild in the coming year. I took an early retirement from AT&T where I was a Corporate Architect and moved back “home” to St. Louis from Dallas in 2014. I’ve always been a hands-on person with many interests and hobbies. I joined the Guild in 2015 with the expectation of developing woodworking skills, meeting new friends and giving back to the community. I’ve accomplished all of these things and more with a great deal of satisfaction.
I’m most impressed with the generosity of Guild Members for the over 75,000 toys made, being teachers and mentors, patiently answering questions and sharing their wonderful projects. For those new to the Guild, I know you’ll be glad you joined and for those who’ve been long-time members, thank you for your involvement and knowledge sharing.
One of the goals I hope to accomplish this year is to increase the diversity of the organization. I believe the more diverse an organization, the healthier it can be. Diversity can inspire creativity, drive innovation and increases skillsets of members. I’ve asked David Schindler, who chairs Membership, to provide more demographics about the Guild. The information will help us to continue develop meaningful classes and programs and support our mentoring program.
In the meantime, if any of you have friends or family members who might be interested in being part of a great group, please invite them to attend a few of our meetings and meet your amazing colleagues. |
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| Vickie a.k.a. – 1abWdWrkr |
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We Made It!
Our first in-person meeting will be in June and as promised, Cake and Ice Cream will be served.
Hope to see you there!
Look for meeting details on the SLWG Website and in the next Newsletter.
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THIS MONTH’S PROGRAM
(Online Presentation)
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The May 20 meeting will be a Zoom presentation; hopefully our last fully online meeting for a while. The meeting will include Committee Reports, Show & Tell, and will feature Ron Bontz, Saw Sharpener extraordinaire, who will demonstrate the fine points of sharpening hand saws.
Ron makes beautiful, custom made hand saws and mallets in Edwardsville, Illinois and can be reached at CustomSaws@BontzSawWorks.Net .
Guild Members: Watch your Inbox this week for the Zoom meeting invitation. |
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The April 15 meeting was a presentation on the subject of Pen Making with Guild Member Jeff Nasser. Jeff has been turning for over 60 years and making pens for over 50 years. View the presentation on the SLWG Website HERE.
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Swap Meet / Flea Market
Saturday June 12
We hope you have had a chance to do some spring cleaning in your shop and found some items that you no longer use or need. While we usually have an Annual Silent Auction to help you get rid of these items, this year we are going to have a Swap Meet/ Flea Market event to help you get rid of your stuff and find treasures someone else is getting rid of.
- This event will be held at Faust Park on June 12th from 9 am to noon in the parking lot directly to the north of the maintenance building. (In front of the barn, not the music school.)
- There is no fee for members to participate and the Guild will not have any involvement in the transactions between members.
- The Guild will not provide any tables and all parking must be done on the hard surfaces.
- Items must be removed from the area by 1:00 pm.
Guild Used Equipment Sale
The Guild will have some used equipment for sale on the concrete pad in front of the barn. Equipment will be evaluated, priced and moved to the concrete pad.
- A price will be established for equipment. Sale will be on a first come, first served basis. If an item is not sold, bids will be taken after 11:30 am and sold to the highest bidder at 12 pm.
- All items must be removed from the area no later than 1:00 pm.
- All sales must be cash or arranged payment. No credit card payments.
If you have items of significant value, you may want to post the items in the forum on the website in the week prior to the event. This will allow potential buyers to evaluate the items and create interest.
Lunch
Lunch will be provided by the Guild about 11 am at the shop.
We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to buy, sell, or swap your items.
If you have any questions, please contact Wayne Humphrey at 314-440-2173 or wehumphrey@hotmail.com
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MEMBER FORUM
Just a short reminder that the FORUM on the SLWG Website (Click HERE) is the perfect place to ask a question about woodworking, share interesting finds, advertise when you have lumber or a tool that you would like to buy/sell/trade or have a helpful hint to share. Make sure you have opted in to receive posts.
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| Editor’s Note:
The St. Louis Woodworkers Guild encourages its Members to share their projects in the Newsletter. Please send items you would like to showcase in future SLWG Newsletters to grady.vaughan@gmail.com.
GV |
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| Alan Brown has had several projects going on this spring. |
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Made a thumb reader (to hold open a book with one hand) for my wife yesterday. Designed in Carbide Create and cut on my Shapeoko 3XXL. Finished with hand rubbed tung oil.
Nice little project to use small scraps, plus very helpful for elder readers. |
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I know it’s not a wood project, but here is pair of leather moccasins I recently made for a newborn. |
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Sanded smooth, oiled and finished with 10 coats of tung oil. Also had to finish underside edges and overhang. |
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My family bought a maple butcher block table in Cleveland in the the early 80’s. Since then it has served as our dining room table, outside on our screen porch and most recently been stained dark and served as my son’s dining room table.
Since he now has a farmhouse table, they wanted it sanded to original maple, sides cut flat, and cut down to serve as a top for their kitchen island.
Mission accomplished |
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| Latest project, a gift for my wife’s birthday, a towel holder using reclaimed antique glass door knobs. |
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| Mark Koritz has been taking a break from woodworking for a bit and instead doing a lot of painting. Go to his website at www.markkoritzart.com and see what he has been up to. |
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Mark donates all of the money from the paintings to the St. Louis Mens Group Against Cancer. |
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| Collin Preftakes new puppy, Canela, obviously appreciates the dog bed that he made for her and looks like she is becoming a great shop dog. |
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Paul Bailey writes:
Here’s another recent project which I built for my daughter
The required under-structure made this construction much more complicated. The wood used was 2×6 and 2×8 construction white pine with 2×4 support structure pieces.
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| I found this plan on a site called “remodelaholic’ and bought the plan. I received the plan via email as a pdf. Overall the dimensions in the plan were accurate and I only had to make small adjustments for the vagaries of construction grade timber. |
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Needless to say, this is a VERY heavy table. Note the photo of the underside which has a lot of construction. Legs are simply 4×4 pine and stained and finished the same way as the top.
I’ve never used so many KREG screws but the plan design helped designate where to put them and it helped a lot! |
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| The table is 75×40 inches and 30 inches tall. The finish is American Walnut. I used a Varathane urethane/stain combo. However, since the table will be outdoors nearly all year long, I also added three coats of spar Urethane for preservation. |
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| It’s a picnic table, but not just a table. In the center are two recesses which hold what are plastic window boxes (found at Home Depot). |
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| Lately there has been some weathering/swelling/shrinking so I may need to make some ‘adjustments’ in the fit of the lids over the boxes, which by the way are intended to hold ice etc. for drinks/ and other food stuffs needing chilling. It was a nice project and the plans were quite precise and elaborate and helped a lot with construction. |
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Bob Meyer writes:
My Grandfather used this boring machine when he helped build barns, drilling 2” diameter holes for pegs. I’ve had it for 40 years, always planning on refurbishing it, finally getting around to it. He had it for I’m not sure but figured 40 or more years. Click HERE to see it in action! |
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| I cleaned the wood up, glued some splitters back in, lightly sanded the wood. Used Purple Power, degreaser and Evapo-Rust to get rid of the rust on the parts, then lightly wire brushed all the metal parts. Finally I sprayed all the metal parts with WD-40 to give it protection. Used Polyurethane to finish the wooden base. The wooden box that I got it in, I took completely apart, cleaned, sanded and reassembled using brass screws, leaving a lot of the old defects. When done I tried it out, the first hole drilled in say 70 or more years. Click HERE to see the action again! |
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Dan Lender writes:
I recently made (2) mobile carts for my shop. They are not complete but are functional.
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The router cart has a Kreg table, Kreg fence, JessEm Mast-R-II lift, 15-amp Milwaukee 5625 3-1/2 hp router and a Rockler switch. In the bottom drawer I am housing my Porter Cable 4216 Dovetail jig system. |
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My future plan is to provide additional dust collection and improve storage for router bits and accessories. |
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The 2nd cart supports my Delta 10” Side-kick sliding compound miter saw. The saw has built-in extensions. In the bottom drawer I am housing my sharping equipment. My future plan is to improve the storage functionality. |
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| I have been making progress on my violin. The ribs have been removed from the mold and the linings have been installed. Linings and corner blocks still need to be trimmed. Started carving the outside of the maple back. This carving is slow and tedious. Only half of the outside of the back has been carved so there is still a lot to go. After carving with gouges, the next step is using thumb planes and that followed by a scraper.
Bill Schuchat
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Violin ribs removed from the mold
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Violin Back Rough Carving
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Mike Peery made a couple of really cute action toys, a hedgehog and an armadillo. Click HERE to see them in action on the SLWG Website. |
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3D PRINTED WOODWORKING AIDS
Don Snyder April 2021
In the March 2021 meeting Show-and-Tell, SLWG member Brian Ellison mentioned that he has a 3D printer, and he briefly showed a coupler he had designed and printed for a connecting a dust-collection hose to some equipment. In a show-and-tell last year (Sept. 2020), I mentioned some 3D printed woodworking aids I had designed and printed; see my discussion of them in Item #12 on my website [1]. Perhaps other SLWG members may have 3D printers and would be interested in knowing about woodworking aids they can print. I have done some searching on the internet for sites where ideas and designs are available, some including STL files for printing the aids as designed and some including design files so designs can be adjusted to suit a particular purpose and then printed. Following is what I have found.
- 3D Printed Woodworking Aids (see Item #12). Given are designs for an aid for setting saw-blade angles accurately, an aid for sharpening straight and curved scraper blades, and an aid to secure Bridge City Kerfmaker and Tenonmaker devices to a table-saw surface using a magnetic switch.
- 3D Printed Gadgets for Woodworking. 13 gadgets: clamping brackets for mitered corners, knobs, rounded corner layout templates, mortise layout templates, 90° corner brackets, angle gauges, height or cutting depth gauge, miter-slot bars, bandsaw insert, various magnetic-switch jigs, dust-collector adapters, and a center marker.
- More 3D Printed Gadgets for Woodworking. 14 more gadgets: corner-clamp pads, specialty clamp-pads, band-clamp pads, supports for bar clamps, supports for pipe clamps, spacers for pipe clamps, connector for bar clamps, mortise/tenon drill guide, dowel center finder, bar gauge, trays for drill bits, miter gauge for a belt or disk sander, contour sanding grips, tri-glide buckle.
- A video showing several 3D printed items, such as clamps and connectors for a cyclone dust collector and a variety boxes designed to hold small tools of various types. Click here to view it.
- Top 10 3D printing projects for a woodworking shop. Has a video and links to STL files for the projects. Click here to view it. Items included: holders for sanding strips, hole guide for Lamello distance plates, keyhole hangers, shims, corner clamps, clamp pads, hose adapters, trimmer for edge banding, router guides, and knobs.
- 3D printed aid for making box joints with a router. Click here to see this aid.
- 3D printed holders to support a rotary tool. Click here to see this aid.
- 3D printed jig for sharpening Forstner bits on a drill press. Click here to see this aid.
More 3D-printable woodworking aids can be found with an Internet search on terms like “3D printed woodworking jigs”. An STL file for printing an aid is often provided and can be used directly to 3D print the aid if no modifications of it are desired. Aids can suggest modified or customized designs. For this, some design software is needed to create the new design and produce an STL file for it. My preferred design-software is OpenScad, which is free and can be downloaded from the Internet. Tinkercad and FreeCAD are other choices of free design software; there are additional choices that are not free, such as Fusion 360 and SketchUp.
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Aid for setting sawblade angles |
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Aid for sharpening cardscrapers |
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We are looking for videos of interest to our Guild Members. Please send us links to your favorites and we will publish them here. These can be videos that you upload yourself to our website or see on another site.
GV
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| Here is a link to a site that lists safety recall notices for woodworking tools. LINK |
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COMMUNITY
St. Louis Woodworkers Guild contributions to the local community
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Desks for Kids Program
Twenty desks were built by Guild members and delivered in May. They did not stay in the warehouse long. The thirty desks built so far under the program were given to kids at the North Side Community School. The school staff distributes them to second and third graders based on need.
Thanks to our volunteers, we were able to complete 10 desks at each of our last three sessions. Our goal is to build ten desks per Group Build event. We have been adjusting things processes as we go. On Friday, May 14th we worked our first four hour shift and were able to complete the desks. We feel this is the way we will continue to schedule our days.
REMINDER – participating in group Group Build Days at the shop is a great way to increase skill levels, meet fellow woodworkers and give back to our community.
Our next Group Build day is Tuesday May 25th. Normally, reservations are made on the Guild Website Events Calendar HERE. However, if reservations are closed, that means we have a full slate of workers so keep checking back on the calendar for the next scheduled Group Build Day. We plan to have 2 Group Build Days per month until we reach the planned number of desks.
Thank you to the 20+ members who have participated to date. A special thank you to Dan Lender for generating the plans and specs. and to Charles Schrock for helping to rough cut and organize the bundles of wood. Two sheets of plywood and fifty-five bf of lumber are used for each Group Build event to make ten desks.
Please contact Tom Tierney (314) 412-1817 if you have any questions. |
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A web page has been created for our Ranken Jordan projects.
Check it out HERE.
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Toy Committee Update
We will be at the Faust Park Guild Shop on June 8, 2021 from 9:00am to 10:00am for the June Toy Drop off and sorting of Toys, or you can bring toys to the in-person Guild Meeting scheduled for Thursday, June 17, 2021
At this time we have a large supply of toys for our partners and requests for toys are still low but growing. The Toy Committee would like to encourage the Guild members to make a toy for the mid-November 2021 Toys-for-Tots program hosted by the USMC. Usually, the toys made for the Toys-for-Tots and our new recipient, LifeWise are more complex and larger in size than the toys we have previously been receiving for children at hospitals. You are encouraged to finish these larger toys with bright colors for the holidays.
Invitation to new Toy builders:
The Toy Committee would like to invite each of you to build toys. Every new toy builder will be eligible for a random drawing at the end of June. Two $20 gift cards will be given away. You may be the lucky winner.
If any of you would like to be a part of the Toy Committee, please contact me. Thanks again for your support.
Rick Weitzman
Toy Committee Chair
314-920-7867
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Collected
May — 460
YTD — 2,628
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Delivered
May — 65
YTD — 1,620
Since 1994 — 76,897
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2021 Toy Program Major Contributors
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Over 700 Club
Bill Meuth – 710
Over 500 Club
Wayne Humphrey – 569
Linda Turner – 546
Over 400 Club
Rich Sanders – 450
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2021 Target and Challenge
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| Target for Delivered Items: 6,000 |
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| 10% Member Participation Target |
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Toy Pattern Library is Growing
Keep checking the website for new patterns throughout the year as well as the schedule for donating seasonal items. We’ll continue to add new and interesting patterns for all levels of woodcrafters so check back often.
Find patterns at: https://slwg.org/community-involvement/toy-program/ |
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Organizations that we currently donate toys to include: |
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Rick Weitzman, Chair
Paul Bailey
Vickie Berry
Hal Donovan
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Dan Lender
Steve Mettes
Bill Schuchat
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| Please contact us with comments, suggestions or if you need to arrange pickup or delivery of toys. Individual contact info can be found on the Members Only section of the SLWG website. |
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Bring Me A Book Team News
BMABStL was very busy in April. Kids at SLPS Oak Hill Elementary/AKA Sorority tutoring program received 15 book boxes with 7 books each. Also, 135 boxes with 5 books each were given to kids at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic School. Great news for the kids and the program.
BMABStL continues to work to get additional events scheduled in the coming weeks and months. The program’s inventory of book boxes has been dramatically reduced. We should be building boxes again soon. An announcement will be forthcoming.
Tom Tierney
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Tom Tierney: (314) 412-1817
Jack McKay: (314) 435-2232
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Charles Schrock: (314) 822-3709
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Check out the Events Calendar on the SLWG website HERE. |
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Woodworking Classes
Held at Faust Park Workshop |
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Woodworking Classes
Upcoming Classes
See the Schedule on the SLWG Website HERE.
Next two months:
Date Teacher Subject
19-May Alex Gerberding Advanced Sketch Up Class
29-May Ron Bontz How To Sharpen A Handsaw
30-May Mike Sistek Finishing with Oil & Shellac
2-Jun Alex Gerberding Advanced Sketch Up Class
3-Jun Wayne Watson Safety Class
5-Jun Dave Windus Making Small Boxes
6-Jun Wayne Watson Collecting Antique Tools
(at his home)
14-Aug Jay Nofsinger Shorty Bandsaw Class (rescheduled from Aug 7)
Recent Classes
Date Teacher Subject
1-May Jeff Nasser Pen Turning
2-May Bill Schuchat Build Toy Trucks from a 2×4
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Faust Park Workshop Information
SEE NEW SHOP MANAGER’S LETTER FOR REVISED SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS DUE TO THE PANDEMIC
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- To participate in the Workshop Safety Class or use the shop, you must have paid the current year Guild dues and have your current membership card with appropriate marking.
- To use the Guild Workshop during open hours, you must have passed a Workshop Safety Class.
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June Shop Hours
June 8 & 9 10 am – 2 pm
June 12 & 13 9 am – 5 pm
June 15 & 16 10 am – 2 pm
June 19 & 20 9 am – 5 pm
June 26 9 am – 5 pm
Safety Class attendees must register online and bring their current Guild membership card.
Directions to the shop on the SLWG website HERE. Limit of 4 per class.
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Next Shop Safety Class
When:
Thursday, June 3, 6:30 pm
Where:
Faust Park Workshop
Duration:
Plan for 3 Hours
Cost:
$20 for Current Members
Visit the SLWG website for Safety Class Signup HERE. |
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The Shop is OPEN!
The NEW Faust Park Shop Rules
Keeping in line with the latest CDC guidance the following rules are being relaxed if you are Fully Vaccinated for the Covid 19 Virus.
Effective as of May 15th 2021, fully vaccinated Members will no longer be required to wear face masks while in the shop.
Safety glasses will continue to be required as in the past.
Maximum occupancy limits are also being lifted.
If you are not fully vaccinated please be advised that vaccinated individuals will be present within the woodshop without facemasks.
Wayne Watson
Shop Manager
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Join or Renew your Guild
Membership Today!
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Annual Dues Renewals
Remember that letting your membership lapse will result in having to retake the Safety Class ($20) prior to using the Open Shop at Faust Park.
Annual membership renewal is available online (click on button below) with PayPal or any major credit card, or mail a check for the appropriate amount with member’s name in the memo line to
St. Louis Woodworkers Guild
P.O. Box 411766
St. Louis, MO 63141-9998
Current membership status is required for use of the Faust Park Shop.
Annual Membership Dues:
Basic Membership $40
Full Shop Membership $75
A Basic Membership entitles the member to four (4) uses of the Guild Shop during the membership year.
A Shop Membership entitles the member to unlimited use of the shop during open shop hours.
Member benefits also include:
> Discounts at Guild sponsors
> Access to Project Workshops
> Access to a local community of woodworkers
> Access to the secure portion of the website
See the SLWG Website for signing up! |
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WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS
Lisa Adams
David Blount
Jacob Harris
Kelan Nee
Eduardo Ramirez
Andrew Rapp
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If you are a current or retired Boeing employee you can now contribute to the St. Louis Woodworker’s guild through the Boeing Gift Match program. The guild is now an approved charitable organization with the Boeing program. As an employee participant, your donation of $25.00 USD or more or the equivalent volunteer hours of 25 hours or more will be matched 1:1 by Boeing. The maximum individual contribution is $6,000.00 or 6,000 volunteer hours. Your contribution is tax deductible as long as you follow three simple steps:
Step 1: Eligible Boeing employees or retirees first make a contribution directly to the guild
Step 2: After making your donation go to Total Access and click on My Community Giving – GIVE – Gift Match on the Boeing Gift Match page.
Step 3: Register your donation whether it’s monetary or volunteer hours and select The St. Louis Woodworker’s Guild and enter the total amount and the date of the contribution.
It’s that easy, you get a great tax break and it benefits the guild directly. If you have any questions, please email Wayne Humphrey at president@slwg.org and if I don’t know the answer, I will try to find it for you. |
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The St. Louis Woodworker’s Guild is now listed with Amazon Smile.
AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support your favorite woodworker’s guild every time you shop at no cost to you. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, you’ll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to the St. Louis Woodworker’s Guild.
Simply go to smile.amazon.com and select the St. Louis Woodworker’s Guild as your organization that you want to receive donations from your eligible purchases. The AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price from your eligible AmazonSmile purchases. You don’t make the donation, Amazon Smile does. It truly is at no cost to you. Just make sure you go to smile.amazon.com instead of amazon.com. If you have any questions on how the program works, just send an email to Wayne Humphrey at president@slwg.org . |
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SLWG Officers, Board Members and Committee Leaders |
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President:
Vickie Berry – 972-741-1944
Vice President:
Bill Schuchat – 314-406-1823 |
Secretary:
Adam Connors – 314-495-1772
Treasurer:
Tom Tierney – 314-412-1817 |
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Directors:
Jay Noffsinger (exp. 2024)
Dan Lender (exp. 2025)
Dan Sudkamp (exp. 2022)
Don Turner (exp. 2023)
Immediate Past President:
Wayne Humphrey
Marketing & Membership Chair:
Wayne Watson
Membership Coordinator:
David Schindler
Woodworking Show Coordinator:
Wayne Watson
Book Box Committee Chair:
Tom Tierney
Outreach Coordinator:
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Newsletter Editor:
Grady Vaughan
Librarian:
Al Carlson
Toy Committee Chair:
Rick Weitzman
Shop Manager:
Wayne Watson
Classes and Workshops Coordinator:
Bill Schuchat
Web Master:
David Zemon
Media Coordinator:
Bob Fuerman
Legal Counsel:
Bill Hobson |
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Our Sponsors
The St. Louis Woodworkers Guild relies heavily on sponsorship to execute on our mission statement of education, community service, and local development. Please support our sponsors.
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(In-store only)
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