March 31, 2026

Rick, Jason, Paul, Miles, Jimmy, Lawrence, Francis

Jason brought a beautiful unique bowl made by his late father, Jim Hiltz.

We each were puzzled as to how Jim did this piece!

Rick brought a spectacular spruce burl bowl, intricately turned to perfection. I noticed that the inside of the bowl was perfectly turned.  

Miles demonstrated his solar heating panel, made of an array of tin cans, painted black, with openings cut in the ends. They are joined end to end with silicone bond, The photos explain this better

MAIN EVENT:

Lawrence conducted a workshop on how to prepare boards for a glued panel-specifically a table top.

He stressed choosing the wood carefully, looking for warp, twist, wind, cupping, bowing , grain pattern, knots and defects.

Paul had brought some butternut to restore the top of a small desk/table.

The boards should be cut with adequate extra length and width for proper jointing and matching of grain pattern.

Site down the edge to reveal deformity 

Cut strips so that defects are eliminated or minimized

Arrange the boards on a surface in the way that they will be assembled and glued up

Carefully joint the faces. It is often necessary to pass just the end of the board over the blades for a short distance until the surface is flat enough to pass the board fully over the blades

Put a pencil mark down the length of each board in the direction that the grain should travel across the cutting knives

Joint one face of each board

Then use the thickness planer fo finish up

Pass the boards through in the opposite direction from the jointer cuts-i.e flip the jointed surface end to end

As the board passes through, mark a line at the end to indicate which end goes back through the planer

For the next pass mark a double line and for the next a triple line etc

After successive passes use circles or triangles etc to mark the sequence and direction of the cuts

This is important if you have many boards that need to be planes

Once the boards are planed flat, the edges can be jointed:

TO BE CONTINUED!

Assembling boards for jointing

Mile's Solar panel

Cross cutting the members

Mr Hiltz's bowl

 Paul's table  is 35 1/8 long  x 23 1/8 wide  x  11/16 thickness

It has two drawers.

The top is held with threaded inserts through enlarged holes to permit some movement in both directions, The inserts and bolts are 1/4 inch. The bolts are 1/4 x 25 threads/in

The top is a glued panel: 23 1/4  x 37 3/8  x 11/16 thickness

Paul's Birch bowl

March 2, 2026

Attendance: Francis, Arno, Jason, Paul, Rick, Miles 

Today Rick brought in the old  table that he mentioned at the last session. It was a simple end table with a clean , uncluttered ,  aesthetically elegant design. He got it from a schoolhouse in Louisbourg. He used it as a template to build an identical one of his own,  downsizing the dimensions a little. The top was held on the aprons using "Buttons" that fit into the rails and stiles to allow for some dimensional movement without splitting the top. Jason decided that he might use this design to build a long, slender coffee table which has been commissioned by his wife and therefore has to be done expediently! (Get cracking on that Jason!)

Rick also had a piece of wood that he found in his shop and passed it around for identification. The consensus was that it was "Whitewood", a type of American Poplar which is often used  for the hidden members in furniture construction.

Lawrence showed his almost finished painted, Gold Leafed vase. It was quite a beautiful piece. He said that he had trouble with the Gold Leafing but it certainly was not obvious to me!

Francis discussed his progress with Radon Proofing his basement and home. His radon radon readings have plummeted since hs vented from under the basement floor to the outside.

Bottom view

It was agreed that in the next session we address how to do a glued up table top.  Paul suggested we might consider a session on how to read measurement tools such as Micrometers and Verniers.

Lawrence's vase

The Original  School table

Top Left is Original school table: Right is Ricks end table project

Whitewood (American Poplar)

Rick's Spruce Burl

Mahogony insert on bottom of bowl

 Woodwork Topics

Jointer/Planer use

Milling/Glueing/Scraping/Sanding

Scrapers

Finishing-brushes etc

Sanding Papers

Hand planes

Lathe basics

Sharpening lathe tools

Chisels:how to sharpen

Wood identification

Wood drying

Grinding wheel use

Shop machinery

Safety and cleanup

Measuring

Drawing Plans: How to read them

Hand tools adjustment

Types of furniture

Bending wood

Raised panel doors

Dovetails

Car-case joinery

Gold Leaf

Patterns

Sharpening

Laying out work

Veneering

Clamping

Carving basics

Types of abrasives

Shop techniques

Mortice and tenon

Glues-uses

Stains-uses

French Polishing

Making shop tools

Spraying and Finishing

Preparation of the workpiece or surface is one of the most important things

Remove any plane marks with a scraper before sanding

Start sanding with #80 , then 100, 120, 150, 180.  Finer than this leads to burnishing the wood. Clean off the dust before going to the next grit.

Ceiling tiles make good sanding blocks.

When the surface is ready you can start the spraying eg lacquer, varnish

If staining, it can be applied with brush, rag, spraying.

Start by applying with the grain and then with a rag go across the grain. The final application should be with the grain.

Spraying equipment

A good spray gun is important. One with a regulator to adjust the air flow and finish flow (eg paint, varnish, lacquer). The compressor should have an air reservoir so that you can adjust air flow.

Types of Lacquer

Nitrocellulose lacquer is what one usually uses.

It comes in three sheens: Gloss, Medium rubbed, and Flat

These lacquers are made from ??? with an acetone base(thinner). It dries by evaporation off the thinner which would be volatile ( acetone for example).

On the other hand varnishes dry by polymerization.

Spraying should be done at about 40 lbs pressure.When spraying inside a closed surface ,eg inside a drawer or cabinet, the pressure should be??????

Make sure that the lacquer is thin enough to spray” too thick will clog the gun and too thin will it will run n on the surface being sprayed. Hole the gun about eight (8) inches away from the surface. Always spray with the grain if possible. Spray beyond the ends of the workpiece so that you don’t get a build up of product at the ends. let dry. Sand between coats. Generally one applies 2-3 coats at least.

Use Stearate sand paper with Varsol to sand between coats and clean with rags and vacuums between coats.

For a polished finish one can use 600 grit wet paper followed by rottenstone and a light wax as a final step.

February 17, 2026

Miles,Paul,Rick,Francis,Jim MacLean,   Lawrence

Miles's Scroll saw project

Rick-Spruce Dish

Rick Spruce,-Birch

The meeting today was excellent.

Lawrence demonstrated a charcoal pouch he made to use with the perforations carving template he showed us at last session. He used a lump of charcoal from the fire place and pulverized it and wrapped it in  cloth. One dabs it on the paper template and when the paper is removed one connects up the dots which are left on the workpiece.

Lawrence discussed the salient issues with respect to spraying finishes:

1    Use a good spray gun, one that has a regulator to enable changing the spray field.
2    Make sure ventilation is good so that the air is evacuated as needed
3    Use a good face mask to trap fumes: one with filters that are replaceable is best
4    Spray beyond the workpiece and with the grain pattern
5    Before spraying, sand the workpiece with 120, 150 paper. Using finer grits is usually not needed
6    Let the piece dry-20-30 minutes before proceeding to a new coat
7    Lay down lots of coats
6    After each coat, cut the last layer with finer sand paper and Varsol lubricant
Rick brought several of his burls and discussed how he goes about turning them...paying strict attention to grain patterns and preserving intricate patterns and knots etc

Francis discussed the issue of radon gas in a home. He has been getting high readings and has had to get a ventilation system installed.  The Passerini Company is local and will do a 90 day radon detection analysis at a cost of $500.(Paul's information)

He also had questions about the use of several chucks-The McNaughton coring system and the Barracuda type chucks. Lawrence was able to explain  how to use the systems.

Lots of discussions about the late  Leo Macneil's expertise and teaching skills and some of the past (deceased) members woodwork skills.

Lawrence demonstrated several pin chucks made of wood and jam chucks.He also demonstrated several turning tools which he made from Vehicle struts!

Lawrence took Paul's bowl out of the refrigerator kiln. The humidity was down to 10-15 % in various spots. He had coated the bowl inside and out with white glue diluted with water to prevent too rapidly  drying the wood.

Rick suggested he bring in an old school desk and use it to go through a finishing session.

Some Canadian Sources:

Bandsaw Blades 

Tufftooth blades

Woodessence

Finishing Supplies

Exotic Hardwoods Canada

Burlington Ontario

Above:  Paul's  improvised Polishing system

Sharpening-some new Picts

Lawrence's carving template

Made a wooden adaptor to attach the polishing wheel

Honing disc attached to Taig Lathe

Bowl buffing wheel

 

Woodworkers 2025 Renewal

   

                       

Pen Blanks(Apple)            Carving design /Template(Lawrence)    Birch Bowl Blank-20% Humidity

Carving/Guilding Jig

                                    Image of the week: Lawrence's jig for carving/Gold Guilding

February 3,2026:

Attendance:Paul  Murphy , Arno Raymakers Jason Hiltz, Jim MacLean, Lawrence Martell, Rick MacDonald

The group began a renaissance of the biweekly meeting in mid 2025. The meetings are held  from 1 pm to 3 pm at the workshop of Lawrence Martell in Howie Center. So far the membership is limited. The first few workshops discussed:

A home made refrigerator kiln. This was demonstrated by Lawrence during the first session and was an ingenious project.

Sharpening hand saws and bandsaw blades was discussed in the second session

Carving basics was the topic in the third session

Pen making on the Taig lathe was the fourth session

Gold Guild techniques was the topic for today. Lawrence went over the use of Moawk sizing to lay down the gold and did a demo with a small piece that Paul brought. It was a "coaster" made of either plastic of metal and had grouped squares with  a recessed design. It worked very nicely. The trick is not to apply the gold until the sizing is just a little tacky and once applied stipple the gold in by dabbing the brush into the workpiece if it is three dimensional. Use a brush  or forceps to pick up the gold. Rub the brush into your hair and the static electricity will pick up the gold. A pencil eraser works as well. Lawrence made a jig to hold a vase securely for carving and guilding -See image above

Lawrence also demonstrated how to trace a carving design  onto a workpiece. Draw the image first on paper. Use a sharp awl to put small spaced holes along the drawing lines.Apply the paper to the wood. Push the awl into the wood at the location of the holes.  Then use a pencil to  connect the dots on the wood to create the image . Refine the image. Apply several  coats of finish like lacquer before starting to carve.Then use a sharp carving tool to cut out the design. Slow a steady is the  rule.  Use a small  curved file to sand out the design smoothly. Lawrence also discussed the types of paint to use on a vase before doing the gold fill part. Acrylic paint is good: One can buy it at Michaels Arts store. One has to sand each coat to a fine finish before applying Lacquer. 

Paul had a birch bowl turning that had some defects like cracks and small voids . It was 20 degrees humidity. He convinced Lawrence to try to dry it in the fridge lathe! We also discussed various epoxies to use for filling voids in wood. Some dry rapidly with an exothermic reaction (the epoxy gets hot!). Others dry slowly:eg Boat repair epoxy which is very porous and seeps deeply into wood. It takes 72 hours to cure.

Paul had a silicone tray he uses to bathe the wood in epoxy to fill defects and fissures in small wood pieces for pen turning. The epoxy stabilizes the wood for turning so that chip out is avoided. See photo above.

Arno demonstrated the use of the Veritas MK2 Power  sharpening system. It provides a simple way to get a razor sharp edge and micro-bevel on an edge. The machine is compact but the down side is that it is expensive.

Jason Hiltz brought some  lathe tools he bought at Canadian Tire and we discussed their use. NOTE: Gently soften/round the edge of the flat tools (Scrapers and skews) so that the edge does not dig into the tool rest.

Jim MacLean demonstrated and distributed to each member some ear rings he made from Canadian coins.

We agreed to add using spray guns to our topics for upcoming sessions.

Other topics for our meetings: 

Basic grinding of tools—best grinders, various profiles and grinder safety
Bring an unusual/obsolete tool for discussionTuning the table saw -basics
Jigs : Jigs for hand tools; (eg the miter jig-how to build one that is task specific); table saw jigs for specific tasks:  bring the jig and demonstrate it eg: crosscut sleds of various types
Crown molding jigs (Lawrence!)
Sanding tips
Painting tips
Melting  and forming metal for jewellery (Jim)

Morticing table saw

Jim Hiltz, Jim MacLean, Shawn, Keenan, Arno, Miles, Rick, John, Lawrence, Paul

Leo demonstrated finishing a piece of Mahogany using the Spray -on vs Paint- on Shellac technique
Half the board was done with each technique.

Spray on a thin 4:1 dilution of Blond shellac
Alternatively paint on the shellac. Use a dry brush method. i.e Apply a layer of shellac and keep brushing the surface until it becomes almost dry

Let it dry

Then apply a small amount of Methyl Hydrate (Methanol best but hard to get) and sand the surface to produce a beading or peeling as it melts the shellac and then add a little paint thinner and sand this shellac peeling into the grain
Build up 3-4 layers or more
Do this in a low humidity room . If it is humid , water will bead on the surface. (This also applies to Lacquer)

Once the grain is filled (after a few coats) , then start sanding to produce a finished surface
Start with 280 grit and sand using paint thinner  (not water)
Go up to 2500 gradually:  wipe off each time with paper towel before going to the next grit
Then use a rubbing compound (car waxing rubbing compound)
Then use Cesium Oxide (this will still cut the surface)
Then use Carnuba wax-small amount (this does not cut)  and again paint thinner to rub it on
The result is identical whether you spray or brush on the shellac. Spraying has the advantage of allowing you to do irregular surfaces better, but the disadvantage of having to clean the spray equipment thoroughly.


We then went to the Table project. This is a long-term learning project.

Some people had drawings prepared, John and Arno in particular
Arno brought a good supply of Maple and Birch boards for everyone.

Step 1: The top:determine the thickness and dimensions

If you want a thickness of 3/4 inches, the boards have to be dressed to 13/16 to glue up
They will then be planed to 3/4

Assess the rough boards for suitability.
Choosing wisely, Cross cut the long board into shorter pieces that will be sufficiently long to make the top dimensions that you have drafted

Then one rips these pieces into narrower boards
It is usually necessary to rip off various widths so as to avoid defects and knots.
The result is an assembly of narrow boards to glue up. One can use shorter segments of the "bad" pieces for the drawers, runners etc.

In glue-up, Pay attention to end grain orientation. The end grain of each board should be in opposite directions so as to avoid "cupping". Nonetheless, one has to sacrifice this "ideal" approach so as to get the best match for the top surface of the finished glue up. One has to play around with the boards to get the best result.
•••Remember that the surface grain should go in the same direction as well so as when planing, tear out is minimal. That means that you need to know how to figure out the grain direction of a board !

Tips:

Use chalk -not pencil-to rough mark boards for initial cutting
If you need to get three boards from a piece that is pretty narrow ( eg for the legs), mark out the leg tapers on a cardboard template and then apply this to the stock piece and cut it with a band saw. This can optimize the use of your stock.

Keenan and John..letting on that they know what they're doing

Arno's design in the rough

John's design-clearly the best in the drafting phase (so far!)

John, Paul, Jim Hiltz, Jim MacLean, Shawn, Keenan, Arno (Rick was ill tonight)

Paul had a long 1.5  x 1.5 inch bed support and asked how to match up a series of 26 drilled holes from the original (broken) piece, to the new piece

Leo suggested using dowel pins. This worked well.

Shawn brought a turned oak bowl-wood salvaged from a Louisbourg cannon mount. Leo showed how to use a wire cord to burn a decorative line near the top of the bowl, which highlights the turning

We discussed the wisdom of doing a Table project and everyone was interested in this. This involves making a small end table. The whole process brings many woodwork skills into play.

1 Decide on the dimensions: height, length and width  of the top , drawer opening
2 Make a drawing -three projections of the project (Orthographic drawing)
3 Select the wood and make a material list eg 4 legs of 30 inches  each would need 120 inches of that wood dimension (finished length )


Leo discussed the Golden Ratio  (10/6) and Fibonacci number series: 1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34 etc ( the previous two numbers are added to get the next number). The Golden ration and Fibonacci series are seen in nature eg. length of the leaves on a fern, length of the bones in a man. The 10/6 dimensions seem to be most pleasing to the eye :eg the typical picture frames, desk and table tops  use this ratio

Leo discussed filling wood
Cherry, Maple,Beech need no filling
Most other woods need filling as the grain pores are open

Shellac can be used to fill--(epoxy is good as well)
Sanding blocks made from layers of ceiling tile glued together work well
Apply a thin coat of shellac to the wood
(Use shellac flakes dissolved in Methyl hydrate in a 4:1 ratio -4 volumes  of the methyl hydrate to 1 volume of the flakes)
Once dry, dab on methyl hydrate and sand the shellac layer until it begins to peel-roll
Then  dab on Paint thinner and sand the rollings back into the wood to fill the grain
Do this repeatedly until the grain is filled

***Minutes from 2012-The Table Project

We began work on the table project.

Step 1 Sketch a design
Eg top 18x16,, drawer, leg shape

Step 2 Material list

Choose stock for top: 6-8% moisture content is best

Leo chose a large board of cherry and cut it into 18 inch pieces--three for the top
Flatten one side on the jointer, choosing grain direction to minimize tear out
Flatten the second side on the thickness planer again being careful with grain direction

Leo demonstrated a jig to use the jointer as a thicknesser..see photos:

When one side is flattened, run the board along the table saw to make a cut along the top and bottom edges; there will be a rough section left in the center; run the board along the sled jig to remove this section until that side is flat and it should be parrallel with the opposite face now.




Next joint the edges of the boards.
Place the first board “marked side” in to the fence and the next board “marked side” out so that any discrepency in the jointer fence is cancelled out as the boards meet.

When boards are planed, align them with the end grain patterns alternating up and down if possible but the main thing is to get the top surface matching for pattern and grain direction.
Line them up and draw a reference mark along the top so that they can be reassembled correctly.

Glue up the panel , making sure the edges are flat and the joints flush.
Pinch together one end of the panel with a clamp. If the opposite end separates, the joints are not good.
Leo demonstrated his new jig for bowl turning.
He went over carbide blades, describing microcrystalline manufacturing.

Leo described how a thickneser works.
There are rollers that drag the wood through and the cutter rotates on top of the board.
The rollers tend to tip the board as it enters and leaves, leaving snipe at both ends.
The best machines have four rollers..two at each end so that the board is kept level as it rides along two rollers on entry and again on exit. Click the picture below to see a sketch of what this means!

From Table project

We need to make the panel and turn four legs by next session.

Table project