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.