Saturday, February 7, 2015

February 9, 2015 - General Meeting of the Rapid City Woodworkers Association





















Click on the link below to learn more about the Rapid City Woodworkers Association activities on the main page of the website:


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Toy Workshop - 2-7-2015 at the Club for Boys Shop

Thirteen toymakers attended the Feb 7th, 2015 Toy Workshop held at the Club for Boys Shop in Rapid City, SD from 8:45 am until noon.  Attending were Grant Coffin, Richard Rasmussen, Lon Gose, Rick Weisbeck, Al Oines, Darwin and Lauree Buus, Kathie and Bob Buchanan, Frank DiCesare, Ed Pike, Rollie Lynde, and Gary Graves.

Custodian Mike from the CFB unlocked the shop (on his day off).  Julian Wigen prepared for the workshop by making a Dakota Kraft wood run, and then spent a day in the shop planing the 2 by stock to be ready for tracing.  Unfortunately, Julian picked up a bug Friday night and was unable to function, so Bob and Kathie picked up the lumber from Julian's shop early Saturday morning before the workshop.  Thank you Lois for calling!

Also during the week, Bob retrieved several wood supplies from the pole barn for distribution to other toy makers for various toy projects, and for tracing activities today.

Today was the final day of tracing templates onto the planned wood.  There were also exchanges of toy parts that were worked on in home shops during the previous weeks. Wood for other toy projects was retrieved from the pole barn and distributed to various toymakers.

Today's workshop was the third held in 2015.  We continued last week's workshop theme as we started TRACING - Day 3.  Today we traced 433 toys on 2" material, and 120  critters on 1" material.  After today's efforts, we will need to trace about 53 more vehicles/toys on 2 inch and 1 inch material for 2015.  At the end of the day, we had traced 98% of the traceable toys needed for the year.  Other toys which require different efforts besides tracing are being worked as well.

Rollie brought in a large box of cutout batman cars (61).  Grant finished cutting out a box of tugboat hulls (87).  Rick took home two boxes of locomotives to work on, Darwin loaded up four boxes of various toys to cut, and Rollie loaded his car with about 7 full boxes for cutting.

Rick took home airplane cutouts, and some large pre-finished wood for making toy parts on his CNC machine.  Bob took home several prototype toys to do a low rate initial production run, including bouncing rabbits, swimming whales, hungry-hungry hippos, a new helicopter with two rotors, and several extra large OLDIES cars.  Lon took home a good supply of 3" pre-finished wood for making the paddles for the paddle games.



Click on the link below to learn more about the Rapid City Woodworkers Association activities on the main page of the website:


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Thursday, February 5, 2015

Remembering Roger

Many of us attended memorial services yesterday and today for one of our long time members, Roger Bares.  Roger was a friend and a mentor to us all.

Roger Bares
1941 - 2015



Roger was one of the charter members of our group, joining in the summer of 2008.  He very soon established himself as a mentor to us all.  He had a passion for woodworking and toymaking specifically.  The first order of business for Roger was to make a sign to tell people who we were.   
His first toy for the toy program was a John Deere Tractor.  He liked them so much, he made 300 for part of our first year's toys.  Some lucky kids at the Club for Boys were very happy on that Christmas Day!



   

   
Pastor Ray helped with the first toys as well.

Roger soon started a splinter group to talk about the techniques of Scroll Sawing.  He held these meetings in his shop.






On Nov. 21st, 2011, Roger showed us the technique for making signs with free-standing letters. Remember that one?

Read more about this in the December 2011 newsletter - the Cutting Edge



Time went by and it became obvious that Roger was deserving of our newest award, Master Toymaker.

Wednesday evening, November 21, 2012, the Scrollsaw Special Interest Group gathering was held in Roger Bares shop.  During the event, Roger was presented with somewhat of a lifetime achievement award for his involvement in the Toy Program for the Rapid City Woodworkers Association.  Roger has been a key figure in the production of hundreds of toys since 2008 when the Toy Program was started.


Roger Bares receives the Master Toymaker Award

Click here for more about this award.



Click on the link below to learn more about the Rapid City Woodworkers Association activities on the main page of the website:


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