Mark's Musings
Mark Bronkalla
July Meeting:
The July meeting is the annual Show and Tell session. Sign up at the June
meeting if you want to show something in July. Each show and tell is a brief
10-20 minute demonstration or presentation of a project, jig, tip, technique.
We will also have a tool swap. Bring in you hand tools, portable power
tools and smaller stationary items. If you have outgrown or replaced a tool
or your collection just needs a bit of a thinning, bring in your items.
Logfest:
We have a home for this year’s Logfest! George Henderson has volunteered
to host this event at his farm at 3201 N. Britton Road, Union Grove, WI.
Now we need more volunteers, trailers, logs, etc. Contact Ken Bahr to volunteer.
We will announce in the newsletter and at the coming meetings when things
are set up to start bringing logs in.
Workshops:
This fall and winter we want to have a series of “Basics Workshops”. The
goal is to have these taught by guild members, either individually or as
teams. I particularly like the teaching team approach (as Scott Stanwyck
and I did for the inlay class). It helps show some of the variety of methods
that can be used and also provides the ability to let the group split into
a cloud of different areas of interest if needed.
The Basics Workshops will balance the more advanced workshops for which
we bring in outside presenters. What topics are you interested learning about?
What topics are you interested in teaching? For many of the Basics sessions,
I would expect them to last 3-4 hours. This will allow both weekend morning
session (or back to back topics) as well as evening sessions. Send suggestions
to Workshop Director, Ken Bahr ( or myself.
Based on questions at the last couple of workshops, I plan on teaching
a few: Shellac Finishing; choosing, preparation and application. Shellac
is one of my favorite finishes – quick to apply, easy to repair, solves problems
and is beautiful.
Stock Preparation for Finishing. How to scrape, sand, remove mill / planer
marks. How achieve a
uniform wood surface and judge if it is ready for
finish application. How to prevent splotching, streaks and how to recover
from finish defects found during application.
Epoxy for Woodworkers. How to work with epoxy as an adhesive; use of fillers
and additives; coloring matching; coating for finish; use as a filler and
for repair. I started using epoxy when building the boat, but now use it
frequently for regular woodworking as well.
There was also interest in another inlay class, including Colored Epoxy
Inlay.
In the Shop:
This month, has been boat refinishing time. The varnish had not held up
as well as I had hoped. Each coating was only lasting one and a half summers
. Since I don’t want to revarnish every year, the whole boat got stripped
(3 gallons of stripper and endless scraping) and will now get sprayed with
clear Imron. Imron is a catalyzed polyurethane finish that is
commonly used on trucks, airplanes and custom boats. My new forced air respirator
has arrived, so now I can apply it safely. The warnings on this stuff make
almost any other product look harmless (which is why I did not use it the
first time). Hopefully this will last 5-6 years before needing to be recoated.
The surface preparation for this finish needs to be quite meticulous. The
boat gets scraped lengthwise sanded with 220 grit across the width and 320
grit lengthwise. By changing the direction of the sanding strokes, it is
much easier to see how uniform the scratch pattern is and ensure that the
entire hull gets sanded evenly with both grits. Advantages of the direction
reversal include: faster sanding – cross sanding allows faster stock removal;
better control - since this is wet sanding, it is very hard to see the scratch
pattern and judge progress visually. With cross sanding, the SOUND of the
sanding changes and is the cue to move on. This helps dramatically with eliminating
sand-troughs; better final leveling of the finish. Cross sanding helps avoid
adding
hollows and missing humps / ridges.
The boat should get the finish sprayed on over memorial day weekend. Hopefully
it does not get too hot out until I’m done. The lack of bugs so far makes
finishing much more pleasant. I don’t need another moth embedded “spread
eagled” in the finish.
Board Briefs
Jeffrey M. Nebel
President:
Mark Bronkalla received two suggestions recently from other members. One
was to suspend Guild meetings for the summer months. The other was to have
some workshops held during weekdays. After a brief discussion, no action
was taken on either idea. The need for a second volunteer to serve refreshments
during Guild meetings was discussed. The refreshments were on hand at the
last meeting but no one knew it to take action.
Vice-President:
Dick Yezek distributed a current list of workshop sign-ups. The String Inlay
Workshop ended with seven paid attendees. The June 14 Wood Bending Workshop
with Lon Schleining has five paid so far. Total gross income from workshops
in 2003 is $2,550.00 so far.
Treasurer:
Liz Rohde distributed the latest financial report. The treasury was $5,717.65
on May 7th. She also distributed additional bar charts showing income vs
expenses for each year from 1996 thru 2002 and monthly for 2003.
Programs/Workshops:
Ken Bahr reported Tim Fenner of Boehm-Madisen will speak on lumber for the
September meeting program. Ken is in need of the forms generated some years
ago for program and workshop expenses. Mark asked if a tool swap would be
part of the July Show and Tell meeting. A notice will be placed in the newsletter.
Jeff will write the newsletter report on the June 14 Wood Bending workshop.
Exhibits:
Don Berger reported he expects 73 pieces to be delivered to Lutheran College
on May 18th. The grand opening is set for Saturday, May 24th at 6:00 to
8:00 p.m. The show will run thru July 12th. Approximately 30% of the items
displayed will be for sale.
Publications:
Si Farmer reported the Publications Committee met recently, with assignments
given so no meeting will be necessary for July or August. New typesetters
are being trained. The Guild website has been temporarily shut down by the
ISP because of payment issues. The board agreed the past due amount should
be paid, however Liz will discuss moving to another provider with Brian Halligan.
Toys Program:
Ron Hinderman reported receiving a bag of stuffed animals. Dolls are still
needed. He has an opportunity for a load of free masonite in Marshfield.
A means of transporting it is needed.
Old Business:
The church board meets on May 20th. Si will discuss with them the details
of holding Guild meetings in the Fellowship Hall and storing the Guild material.
Storage cost would be on a per foot and per month basis and is presently
unknown. The state of the churches sound system is also unknown. Board members
will be polled via email when more is known.
Next Board Meeting:
The next board meeting will be held June 19th.
Program
The June Program has been changed
to an explaination of epoxy glues by Mark Bronkalla.
Raffle
Alan Clapp
The winner of the May raffle prize was Lee Weberg.
The raffle prize this month has been donated by Henry Wang, inventor and
owner of Micro Jig Inc. Henry has donated a very unique and versatile pushing
jig for table saw, router table and jointer use. Several of us saw the GRR-Ripper
model GR-200 demonstrated at the Woodworking Show in February.
In addition to providing safety features for sawing and routing operations,
the tool improves the control and therefore the accuracy that is especially
beneficial when cutting smaller pieces.
Talking with Henry, I learned that his company is working to solve real
problems by inventing innovative tools for the woodworking community. The
GRR-Ripper tool is available locally at Rockler and Woodcraft. Details of
the use of the tool are available at <www.microjig.com>.
Reflections
Tree Farming with Woody Barton
Mary Anderson
At the May meeting we were introduced to Woody Barton. Woody is a nationally
recognized tree farmer who lives near Bloomington Indiana. He was an electrical
engineer for over forty years. The tree farm that Woody and his wife have
is over 448 acres; this includes the house that he and his wife share. He
has fond memories of playing and helping his grandfather on the farm during
the summers he stayed there. 
Woody purchased the original 58 acres in 1953, and then purchased the next
278 acres in 1980. He then had his first sale in 1984 and started to work
with the foresters to help conservation. Woody doesn’t sell Christmas trees.
He tries to maintain a natural diversity, and tries not to warp nature. His
goal is to maximize the benefits without bringing in the bad. He also is
involved with trying to convince other landowners that land stewardship pays.
Land stewardship is where you try to cut only the trees that are ready to
be cut and leave the rest to grow. They will be cut later. This ensures that
there are going to be trees in the future.
The major players in tree farming are the landowner, accountant, forester,
timber buyer, logger and sawmill. When they harvest trees, they take about
10 trees per acre and harvest every 12 – 18 years in each area. A tree that
is cut will be between 80 and 130 years old. They inventory trees with a
diameter typically of 12 inches or larger. This all depends on the maturity,
competition and market of the trees. When they take the diameter of the
tree it is taken at breast height, typically about 4 feet from the ground.
When the time comes to sell the trees, the timber buyers look over the
trees and make a bid on them. The trees are marked with a blue paint strip
to show the timber buyers which trees to bid on. They tally all the bids
and they go to the highest bidder.
When the trees are cut, they paint a blue dot on the stump and leave the
stump in the ground. The stump stays with the tops and after harvesting
Woody cuts firewood from them to heat his home.
Woody also keeps really accurate records of how many trees he has on his
farm. This has increased the forests around the southern part of Indiana
from 1.2 million acres in 1900 to 4.3 million acres in 1998. There are 23
million acres in the total state area of Indiana. By selective cutting, Woody
is preserving the forests for future generations.
Classified
For Sale
Small Cyclone with 1 hp Dayton Model 4C108 Blower with
controls. $450
Wood: Aromatic Cedar, Oak and 50 bf Hickory . $1.25 bd ft. Dale
Lagerman
For Sale
Planer, Dewalt DW733, New!, 12 1/2in., heavy duty, with Dust Hood, DW7336,
unopened, original carton. $300
Bernard Schlaefer