Toy Workshop @ Rick's Shop -- 11-22-2014

The final toy workshop for 2014 was held on Saturday November 22nd at Rick's shop from 9 am to noon.  We helped Rick finish his rocking chairs and tractors.  Tugboats were delivered, counted, tagged and placed in storage. Holes were drilled in Ring Toss games and readied for string/ring assemblies.  A number of empty boxes were received in preparation for toy packing on Dec 6th. 

Attendees (12):

Rick, Richard, Ed, Kathie and Bob, Frank, Harley, Darwin and Lauree, Rollie, Grant, Gary G

Tasks:

Tractors completed: 60

Rocking chairs - 15 assembled; still need spray finishing.

Ring Toss - 12 ready for spray finish and string/rings

Remaining tasks:

Tractors - assemble - pack and store.

Rocking Chairs - sand parts and assemble; spray finish; pack and store.

Today we assembled Rockers.  Parts were made using a CNC for the two side pieces, and a scroll saw/table saw for the seat and back.  We found that we needed to use a slightly bigger hole than the screws in order to easily align the parts for assembly.  Grant troubleshot our early damage problems and got us going on the proper path to success.  Teaming up was Richard, Ed, Bob, Grant, and Rick to finish about half of the rockers.  The remaining half still needs some sanding before assembling.

Rick had cut, sanded, assembled, and spray finished the lot of 100 tractors before the workshop.  The remaining task was to install front wheels with a dowel axle and the back wheels with axle pegs.  Harley, Kathie, Lauree and Darwin teamed up to finish 60 tractors, count, tag and package them for storage.

Frank finished the ring toss games by final sanding the sticks, and drilling holes for the strings/rings assemblies.  These will require a final spray finish before adding the string/rings.  Frank also brought in two completed cradles that he had worked on at his shop.  The cradles need final finish spraying, and quilts and baby dolls added before packing for storage.

Steve Larson completed the cutting, sanding, assembling of over 100 tugboat last weekend.  Bob and Kathie put on a sealer coat, sanded that, and sprayed on the final finish earlier this week.  The tugboats were counted, tagged, packaged and brought to the storage area today.

Bob brought home a set of parts for a rocking chair to use to scan a pattern for use by others who may want to build a rocker without using a CNC machine.  This pattern is now available on the TOY Documentation page of our website.

Rollie Lynde and Darwin and Lauree Buus brought in several empty boxes in preparation for the Toy Packaging day on Dec 6th at the Club for Boys shop.

Upcoming Shop Tour - January - 2015 - Gary Grave's Shop - watch for date and time.

Storage area:

Over 165 toys were packaged on Nov. 22nd and moved to storage.  So, as of Nov 22nd, 99% of our goal for 2014 toy program has been reached.  We are almost there and will plan to repackage and distribute the toys officially on Dec 6th, 2014 at the Shop at the Club for Boys.

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

sdguildrcwa2

				sdguildrcwa2 Main website of the Rapid City W

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Toy Workshop / General Meeting 11-15-2014 @ CFB Shop

There was a bunch (~6" to 10") of light fluffy powder on city streets this morning as 13 members and two guests met at the Club for Boys Shop in Rapid City for another Toy Workshop and a make-up session for the postponed Nov 2014 General Meeting of the Rapid City Woodworkers Association.

The temperature at game time was a whopping 8 degrees, so trips carrying boxes of completed toys to Rick's truck required parkas and hats and gloves!  Nevertheless, all the basketball games, caterpillars, and cradles were finished, packed, labeled, and loaded into Rick's truck today.

All 2013 Toy Recipients were notified this week;  updates for 2014 were requested.  A final tally of toys requested will be available by next weekend.

Attendees (13) today included:  Julian Wigen, Darwin Buus, Al Oines, Ben Shatraw, Rick Weisbeck, Grant Coffin, Frank DiCesare, Ed Pike, Wes Murphy, Steve Larson, Gary Graves, Kathie and Bob Buchanan.  Guests from the Northern Hills Woodworking Guild included Corky Witt and Wayne Jeffrey.

Tasks today included completion of Basketball Games, Cradles, Blocks, and Caterpillars.

The last of the basketball games were milled, sanded and assembled by Larry Borg last Saturday at Larry's shop by he and his wife Barbara.  Then on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, before the deep freeze arrived in the Black Hills, Kathie sealed them and sanded them in our garage.  On Tuesday and Wednesday, Bob assembled the hoop sub-assembly to the base sub-assembly in the comfort of the warm kitchen.  On Thursday and Friday, Bob heated up the shop and sprayed the final finish coat of lacquer on them.

Matched basketball game sub-assemblies

Sealing the basketball parts using fixtures made at the morning toy workshop

Applying the universal shellac sealer to the basketball game sub-assemblies

  

Sealer drying on basketball game parts and caterpillars

Assembling the Hoop Sub-assemblies to the Base Sub-assemblies using handscrews

Spray booth in the shop

At the workshop today, a crew of stringers added the string/ball sub-assemblies to the basketball games.  The location of the ball in the bowl of the Wendy's spoon is critical to a successful basketball game.  Julian, Al, Ben and Darwin carried out the tedious alignment procedures and completed all 100 games.  Then Kathie packed each game with two Wendy's spoons (launchers) into 10 boxes for moving to the store room.

Sharp basketball alignment crew

Adding two Wendy's spoons, and then packing the completed basketball games

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At last Saturday's workshop, Richard returned 13 completed cradles.  In the afternoon, Bob took them to his shop, and sprayed a final finish of lacquer on the cradles, in the driveway (on a comfortable 55 degree afternoon, also prior to the deep freeze in the Black Hills.) 

After adequate drying time, Kathie added homemade quilts to the cradles, plus the special small (Target) dolls, and tied them all up with a ribbon, ready for delivery.

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Today, Rick Weisbeck added wheels to 20 caterpillars.  These were the last of the 2014 wheeled toys to be made by the collective toy workshop crews.  These were then packed, labeled, and loaded into the red truck for movement to the storage location. 

The Rocking Chairs are one of the remaining toys to complete.  Rick Weisbeck has been cutting the sides of the rockers on the CNC machine, a very time-intensive operation. The sides and backs were traced last week by Richard and cut on the scroll saw and sanded by Bob during the past week.  Frank drilled the holes in the sides and backs today at the workshop.  Then the sides will be attached to the the sides and back.  This assembly work will be done at Rick's shop next week.

Other 

Over 135 toys were packaged on Nov. 15th and moved to offsite storage.  So, as of Nov 15th, there are 1987 toys in our completed inventory storage room.  Once again, thank you all for giving of your time, resources, and talents!!!

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

sdguildrcwa2

				sdguildrcwa2 Main website of the Rapid City W

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General Meeting - Nov 10th, 2014 - Postponed

The regularly scheduled general meeting of the RCWA will not be held this evening.  It will be held during our Saturday workshop on Nov 15th, 2014 at the Club for Boys Shop.  The workshop will be from 8:45 am to noon.  If you don't normally come to the toy workshops, please come at 10 am and we will take a break and have our general meeting.  

For those receiving this as information only, the temperature yesterday was 58 degrees; it is  currently 18 degrees with snow still coming down; icy conditions, winds and cooler temperatures are expected as the day goes by.  So its not a good day to be traveling.  

We will be needing about 15-20  xerox paper size boxes on Saturday.  If you  have one or two please bring them on Saturday.  Thanks.  We'll see you on Saturday!

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JUST FOR THE RECORD:

Pennington County WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY:

Issued at: 7:41 am MST on November 10, 2014, expires at: 5:00 PM MST on November 10, 2014

...Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect until 5 PM MST this afternoon... A Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect until 5 PM MST this afternoon.

Timing...snow will continue through this afternoon.

Main hazard... snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches is expected.

Other conditions...areas of blowing snow will develop with gusty northerly winds. Wind chill values will drop to around 5 above zero this afternoon.

Impacts...hazardous travel conditions will develop. The drastically colder temperatures will affect temperature sensitive outdoor operations. Precautionary/preparedness actions... A Winter Weather Advisory means snow...freezing precipitation... wind...and cold temperatures will create hazardous conditions. Use caution when outdoors or traveling.

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

sdguildrcwa2

				sdguildrcwa2 Main website of the Rapid City W

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Toy Workshop - 11-8-2014 @ CFB Shop

Attendees (11) at the Nov 8th, 2014 Toy Workshop at the Club for Boys Shop included:

Julian Wigen, Rollie Lynde, Grant Coffin, Al Oines, Ed Pike, Bel Felix, Harley Schmadeke, Rick Weisbeck, Richard Rasmussen, and Bob and Kathie Buchanan.

Tasks today included wheeled vehicle assembling, jig building, rocking chair tracing, turtle bank building, helicopter rotor final assembly, Ring Toss games, cradles, packaging, marking and inventory.

Harley Schmadeke, Ed Pike and Bel Felix made up the wheel assembly line today.  Wheels (784) were added to cars, racers, PT Cruisers, caterpillars, and buses.  Julian drilled holes for axles in caterpillars and overall support for the assembly line correcting oversights, moving inventory, and keeping wheels on hand.  Kathie led the shipping department team by packaging, marking, and inventorying the completed items in preparation for storage at our off site facility.

Al Oines drilled rotor holes in 35 helicopters and then installed the 3 bladed rotors.  These were inventoried, marked and packaged for storage.

All turtle banks (53) are now completed.  Rick Weisbeck and Richard Rasmussen nailed circular plexiglass pieces to the front and backs of the turtle bodies.  These were then inventoried, marked and packaged for storage.

Rick Weisbeck is working on rocking chair parts in his shop.  He brought patterns in to the workshop, and Richard traced them on 1/2" pre-finished birch.  These will be cut on the scrollsaw, and sanded in preparation for assembly in Rick's Shop.

Basketball games were sanded and assembled by Larry and Barbara Borg at their shop on Saturday morning.   Rollie Lynde prepared jigs to hold the partial assemblies to dry after sealing with shellac by drilling a series of 5/8" holes in 2x4s for that purpose.

  

Bob picked up 60 games from Larry Borg's Shop on Saturday afternoon.   Kathie sealed the basketball games on Saturday afternoon.  Larry Borg brought the remaining 40 games to Bob's shop later on Saturday evening.  Kathie sealed the remaining 40 on Sunday morning to try to beat the fast approaching winter storm and colder weather.  

Work remaining includes sanding after sealing, and final spraying of a lacquer finish.  Then the hoop/backboard sub-assemblies must be installed in the launcher/base sub-assemblies to complete the basic basketball game assembly.  At the workshop next week, we will add the string/ball subassemblies, and spoons (from Wendy's).  The string and ball assemblies must be carefully attached, positioning the wooden ball perfectly in the center of the bowl of the spoon.

Wes Murphy has been turning the sticks for the ring toss game in his shop.  The majority of them are finished.  At the toy workshop, Julian Wigen drilled holes for strings.  Then we all  worked to install the string/ball sub-assemblies, and put them in zip lock bags.  These were then inventoried, marked and packaged for storage.

Richard Rasmussen spend last week building cradles using parts built by Rick Weisbeck over the past few months.  The cradles need a finish to be applied, then hand made quilts, and baby dolls will be added.    Bob sprayed a finish on the cradles on Saturday afternoon, just ahead of the cold weather, and Kathie will be readying them for packaging this week.

Bel returned a box of worms which she worked on this week by drawing eyes using wood-burning tools.  Kathie sealed them Saturday afternoon.  They will need to be sanded after sealing, and a finish sprayed on.  Then they will be ready for wheels to be added.

Steve Larson is currently working on tugboats in his shop.  Gary Graves is also working  in his shop building several types of fine - wheeled vehicles.

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Over 330 toys were packaged on Nov. 8th and moved to offsite storage.  So, as of Nov 8th, there are 1851 toys in our completed inventory storage room.  Thank you all for giving of your time, resources, and talents!!!

Nothing beats a full truck!

Rollie cleans up!

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

sdguildrcwa2

				sdguildrcwa2 Main website of the Rapid City W

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