WT SIG 5.31.2023

 The Wood Turning Special Interest Group (WT SIG) was held on May 31, 2023.  

All RCWA members and guests are welcome to attend.  It is on the calendar for the last Wednesday of each month at 1 pm. It is held in Jim and Maggie’s Shop at 2879 Spotted Fawn Lane, Rapid City, SD 57702.

Thank you to Jim and Maggie for hosting and preparing today's Woodturning SIG.  

Members (13) attending included Al Oines, Ken, Jim Brown, Maggie, Jerry, Rick, Keith, Grant, Stu, Bob, Kathie, Mike Howard, and guest.

Today Maggie demonstrated how to turn Bottle Stoppers.  Maggie ordered a group of Bottle Stoppers for members to purchase at $6 and make their own.  Several members participated and made bottle stoppers.  Maggie provided the walnut oil to finish the stoppers.  

Maggie suggested accessories needed for turning the bottle stoppers. These include a bottle stopper chuck mandrel, and a bottle stopper Tap set.

Rick said you can find the tap set for flat bottom holes at Knecht Home Center.

Grant and Rick said you could make a chuck mandrel using a bolt (3/8" x 16 NC threads) and a face plate and some epoxy.

Maggie also fielded questions about the topic of the previous WT SIG:  BOWLS.  A related topic - tools used for making bowls was discussed - bowl gouges.  Bob brought his bowl gouge purchased almost 20 years ago.  Maggie recommended re-grinding the gouge to remove the wings on the corners to give it a fingernail shape.  This would reduce the potential for catches.  She setup her grinder and one way jig and got me started on the re-grind.

Bottle Stopper chuck mandrel

Bottle Stopper Tap Set

Instructions from PSI

Finished Bottle Stoppers by Al O

 Several people brought their homework for further finishing.

For more information, go to www.rapidcitywoodworkers.com.

RCWA

Shop Tour - Ray Tree Farm - 5.27.2023 2 pm

It was a beautiful day to visit the Ray Tree Farm near Nemo SD.  Mike Ray invited members of the Rapid City Woodworkers Association to the Ray Tree Farm to learn about the daily operations and to watch a demonstration of their portable Hudson saw mill.

The Ray Tree Farm is a family owned small business which provides blue pine slabs for sale from their small 27 acre tree farm near Nemo, SD.  Mike Ray demonstrated one of the tools (a Hudson saw mill) used to cut slabs from blue pine or Bug wood trees. 

Several slabs of Russian Olive were on display.  These slabs were cut earlier that day for Wes Shelton.

Attendees included Lon, Keith, Al, Rick, Maggie, Jim, Jerry, Patsy, Wes, Ken, Kathie, and Bob and Mike Ray and friends.

 Photos from the Shop Tour:

Group Photo

For more information, go to www.rapidcitywoodworkers.com.

RCWA 

Toy Workshop (TWS2023-09) 5.27.2023 (9 am to noon)

We held our ninth Toy Workshop (TWS) for 2023 on Saturday May 27, 2023, from 9 am to 12.  This was held at the Wood Shop at 910 Wood Ave in Rapid City.  The shop is in the basement of the annex to Our Redeemer Lutheran Church.  This was a regularly scheduled Rapid City Woodworkers Association (RCWA) workshop and held on the fourth Saturday of the month.

Today's Activities:

We traced a straggler today:  tugboat hulls.  Tracers today were Kathie, Grant and Patsy.

Other activities today including drilling windows, drilling holes for axle pegs, and cutting toys to shape using scrollsaws (Jerry, Ed, Rick, Nick, Russ, and Darwin).

Harley, Keith, Rick and Nick put blades on the new simple miniature helicopters.

Activities outside included cutting toys to shape on the bandsaw and sanding toys with the Rigid sanders and Jet spindle sander.

As a result of all previous activities with cutting and drilling, we still have a good backlog of  rough sanding, routering of edges, and finish sanding (with mouse sanders) left to do.  Several boxes of toys are ready to be sealed.  Only a few boxes of 2" toys + almost all critters need to be cut to shape.  There are 16 boxes of toys ready for finish spraying.

Attendees (23) included Lon, Keith, Al, Rick, Maggie, Jim, Jerry, Patsy, Russ, Ed, Denni, Ken, Kathie, Bob, Nick, Harley, Darwin, Laurie, Don, Mary Jo, Grant, Julian, and Tony.

Photos from the workshop:

Darwin brought a large group of 1/2" plywood to Rick for rockers.

For more information, go to www.rapidcitywoodworkers.com.

RCWA

Shop Tour - Dave Maude - 5.24.2023

 Dave invited members to come and see his shop on Wednesday May 24, 2023 in Black Hawk at 1 pm.

Dave displayed his collection of reclaimed, restored and working tools.  He has been working with and on these tools for many years and from many sources.

Among those people attending were Harley, Nick, Jim, Maggie, Dave, Al, Lon, and others.

Dave passed out homework consisting of toy top blanks for turning practice and for the toy program.

For more information, go to www.rapidcitywoodworkers.com.

RCWA

SS SIG 5.18.2023

 Attendees:  Rick and Rollie

A small turnout but this didn't stop the group from discussing projects for next years silent auction as well as a plethora of other interesting topics.

For more information, go to www.rapidcitywoodworkers.com.

RCWA

Toy Workshop (TWS2023-08) 5.13.2023

 Attending today:  Al, Rick, Cori, Grant, Ken, Jim Brown, Maggie, Keith, Harley, Nick, Julian, Mary Green, Jerry, Lon, Patsy, Mary Jo, man and young boy, young boy.

Activities:

Sanding, hand sanding, routering, bandsawing, scroll sawing.

For more information, go to www.rapidcitywoodworkers.com.

RCWA