A Club for Carvers, Scrollers and Woodworkers |
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ACWA CONTACT LIST CARVERS: (Vacant), President Callie Ashcraft, Vice President SCROLLERS: (Vacant), President Dave Vasik, Vice President vasak@gci.net Woodworkers: Sandy McKinnis, President akspeech@mtaonline.net Larry Hollman, Vice President holmanlarry750@gmail.com |
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ACWA Executive Board At our March 26th Executive board meeting we chose new Officers. As per the bylaws each club nominated 3 members to the Executive Board, and from that pool of members, new officers were chosen. President Larry Holman holmanlarry750@gmail.com VP #1 Alan Peck alan_peck@live.com VP # 2 Jim Powell jpow1700@gmail.com Treasurer Lisa Lackey acwawebdesigner@gmail.com Recording Secretary Tam Pikey tlpikey@gmail.com Communications Callie Ashcraft tiger86_86@hotmail.com Tam Pikey has been serving as our Web Page designer and will continue to do so. She has graciously agreed to fill the recording secretary position until we can find a suitable replacement. The carvers are underrepresented on the board, and the scrollers are not represented at all. I encourage each and every one of you to step up and get involved with your club. The Executive board takes care of the administrative needs for all 3 clubs. We only meet quarterly. Our next meeting is scheduled for June 11th at 6:30 pm, at the AIH Woodshop 2716 Commercial Dr. Anyone interested in serving as the Recording Secretary please contact one of the officers above. Anyone with business for the Executive Board, please attend the June 11th meeting. The ACWA Executive Board meetings are open to all members. Thank You Jim Powell |
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Update from Carvers Hello Woodcarvers! The last meeting was a blast with our biggest group yet. We had a great time meeting new people and showing them our love of carving. See below for the Spring woodcarving schedule. We will be meeting in April and May at the Commerical Dr. AIH. |
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Last Frontier Woodcarving Schedule for 2023-2024 Location AIH Alaska Industrial Hardware Inc, 8801 Old Seward Hwy, Anchorage, AK 99515, USA or 2716 Commercial Dr (see schedule for details) Schedule 2024 April 13 at 2716 Commercial Dr. April 27 at 2716 Commercial Dr. May 11 at 2716 Commercial Dr. May 25 at 2716 Commercial Dr. June-Aug: no meetings enjoy the summer! We will reconvene in Sept. August - State Fair September 14, 10am September 28, 10am October 26, 10am October 31 Halloween November 9, 10am November 23, 10am November 28 Thanksgiving December 14, 10am December 25 Christmas December 28, 10am |
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Update from the Scrollers club No new updates - Club is currently on Hiatus. |
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Woodworkers Chapter News April 2024 Woodworkers Club Officers: President: Sandy McKinnis, Vice President: Larry Holman; Board Members: Bob Lackey, Greg Lyall, Alan Peck, Bill Poole, Jim Powell |
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April 9 Monthly Meeting: The monthly meeting will be held Tuesday, April 9 at 7 p.m. in our workshop at the Alaska Industrial Hardware (AIH) store located at 2716 Commercial Drive. Please enter by the door around the back of the building. The main front entrance will be closed since the meeting time is after store hours. Arnie Geiger is back to present at our April monthly meeting. Arnie’s association with the ACWA goes back to its founding more than 40 years ago. He will provide a brief history of the club before going into a demonstration of how to tune up a jointer. Arnie has plenty of experience with woodworking machinery as a former school shop instructor. |
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March Monthly Meeting Recap: The Woodworkers Chapter meets the 2nd Tuesday of every month from September to May. Lowell Zercher and Jonathan Snyder were co-presenters for the March meeting giving a presentation on using veneer in woodworking projects. They covered where to buy veneer, and how to store/care for it and the best substrates. They brought in lots of materials and tools and demonstrated different approaches for veneering. Jonathan demonstrated laying up a box sized lid with a 2-way book matched burl panel and discussed how to layout a 4-way book match. Jonathan brought 2 of his beautifully veneered boxes as examples. Lowell discussed his hi-tech vacuum press for veneering and for work holding. His presentation also included impressive photos of his commissions by the One Percent for Public Art Program (meaning 1% of all public construction budgets is spent on public art installations) that are around the Municipality of Anchorage. Lowell’s photos showed veneered projects he has built and discussed the techniques he used. . |
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| | Jonathan Snyder demonstrating the methods he uses for veneering |
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| | Lowell Zercher discussing his approach to veneering with some of the equipment he uses. |
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Open Shop Program: Woodworking Wednesday: The Open Shop Program is typically offered every Wednesday from 3 to 8 p.m. to provide opportunities for members to have access to the workshop and the volunteer shop monitors will be there to help folks with projects as needed. For the month of April, the program is on hiatus, but will begin again starting May 1. You will need to sign up for the Wednesdays in May if you are interested. Please Note: If you want to use the shop, you need to sign up on the website as we can only have a maximum of 4 students in the shop on each date (https://www.alaskacreativewoodworkersassociation.org/book-online). You will need to indicate what you are planning to build, what kind of help you need and the time you will be there. |
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Upcoming Classes: Most of our classes are led by experienced woodworker AWCA members for the benefit of all our members to learn, build and get to know fellow members. A big thanks to those instructors for all the hours they put in preparing for and teaching these classes! There is a lot that goes into each class offering. Classes use of a variety of tools and technologies for beginner to intermediate experience levels. Upcoming classes in April include scroll saw puzzles (April 6), making padauk or wedge chopsticks [plus enjoy eating some Chinese food with your creation and play chopsticks on the piano] (April 13), cedar planter box (April 20), and a choice of a planter box or wooden sign created using a CNC router (April 27). |
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Classes available in May: We are excited about bringing up our guest instructor Deneb Puchalski with Lie-Nielsen Toolworks from Warren, Maine to teaching 2 hand tool classes and to be our presenter at the May monthly meeting. Brief Class Descriptions: 1) “Hand Tools Demystified” teaches how to sharpen, tool setup, how various tools work together. Build simple jigs such as bench hooks and shooting boards. This class is offered as both a day and an evening class. 2) “Core Tools in Use: Build a Tool Chest” takes the concepts taught in the "Hand Tools Demystified" class and puts it to reality through learning scale and proportion and using the tools to build a tool chest. Deneb will walk you through the basics of coarse, medium, and fine cuts, and discuss how different types of hand tools work together. The principles covered in this course will easily translate to future woodworking projects that are hand tools only or incorporating hand tools with power tools. |
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We will also be offering a chainsaw milling class on May 4. |
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| | Elliot sanding table parts |
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| | Doug fitting his table parts |
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| | L to R: Cat Hafley, Tom Lannan (Kneeling), Elliot Dennis, Doug Damberg, Dee Ginter |
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2) Build an elegant Hall Table class on March 2, 3, 9 and 10 with instructor Greg Lyall. |
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| | Cat and her beautiful completed table |
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| | L to R: Instructor Greg Lyall, Pat Gokey, Steve Kaplan, Cat Hefley, and Tom Lannan. Dee Ginter not in picture. |
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3) Splayed Tray class taught by Marc Brown on March 11 and 17. |
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| | Completed tray: class Steve and Tom |
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Mission Statement: The Alaska Creative Woodworkers Chapter is dedicated to the promotion of skill, craft, and excellence in the woodworking community through education, information, and fellowship. |
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General Information (not club specific): |
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Notice to all Current and Past Members The ACWA will be reviewing its membership list and removing the names and contacts of non-current members in September 2024. We want to encourage you to renew your annual membership before then if it is not current so you will continue to receive this monthly newsletter along with the other member benefits. You can most efficiently renew using a credit card through the ACWA website. Alternatively, you may fill out the form at the end of this newsletter and mail it with a check. Your membership is important to us and keeps great programs and opportunities coming your way. |
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Artistry in Wood Exhibit The 20th annual Artistry in Wood (AIW) Woodworking Competition and Exhibition took place February 22 through March 4 at the Midtown Mall (600 E. Northern Lights Blvd.). There were lots of entries in categories under woodworking, wood scrolling, wood turning, and wood carving. Jim Crum’s chair won Best of Show and he shared with us a brief article and sketch about the chair. We thought you might be interested in it too. |
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Building a Rocking Chair with a Chainsaw - Jim Crum 2/23/2024 Building a rocking chair provides many technical challenges with complex roadblocks that can result in a total disaster. With that introduction, we go ahead with the story. The chair I made started from 2” white spruce planks harvested some 40 years ago on the Yetna river in Alaska. The design of the chair incorporates a more robust structure that is needed to support the rope suspension of the seating surfaces. The chair’s frame uses mortise and tenon joints. This strong frame allows the rope supports to be fed through holes in the seat back and seat frame. Small 2”x 3” rope-suspended seating pads provide a comfortable interface between the occupant and the chair. The chair is constructed from two identical structural sides that each form a flat plane making the chair easier to layout and construct. These two structural planes are glued up and are temporally braced in their final positions to allow the three connecting cross ties to be trimmed-to-fit and installed. The front of the chair is wider than the rear rocker tips and the top of the chair back is wider than the rockers. The center of gravity for the chair and occupant must be considered in design and correct placement of the rocker so the chair can be easily rocked. If this concept is not considered, the chair will not rock easily or the chair will tend to rock back and may tip over backward. This rocking chair has reverse curved rockers which prevent a turnover accident. The components of the chair have been shaped with many curved surfaces to be more pleasing to the eye but make the chair more difficult to build. Each tendon and mortise joint is shaped to provide closed margins at the joint. The chair elements were shaped with power tools and fitted with hand tools. The rope used to support the seating surface is a black double-woven 3/8” marine anchor rope that is fed through the supporting structure and the small 2’ x 3” pads. The rope is then tightened, and the final ends knotted and fitted into retaining sockets in the framework. The seating pads are cut from 7/8” material drilled with a 7/16” bit to provide two holes for the rope supports. The pad surfaces were lightly sawed along the grain of the wood with a small carving chainsaw. The final finish used oil stain and acrylic varnish. |
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Classifieds The Treasure Chest: |
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Do you have suggested content or wish to contribute a woodworking news item to the monthly newsletter? Please contact us through the website at: https://www.alaskacreativewoodworkersassociation.org/contact Woodworking: the act, process, or occupation of working wood into a beautiful, useful, and desired form |
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Application for Membership Alaska Creative Woodworkers Association P. O. Box 201796, Anchorage, AK 99520-1796 Date: ________________ Family/Individual membership, $40 per year. Please make checks payable to ACWA. Name/s: ____________________________________________________ Address: ___________________________________________________ City: _______________________________________________________ State: __________________________ Zip:________________________ Telephone (Home/cell): ________________________________________ E- mail: ____________________________________________________ Benefits of membership in the Alaska Creative Woodworkers Association include: 1. Entry into all woodworking, carving, and scrolling classes offered by the club for one year following payment of dues. There may be additional material, instructor or shop fees for some classes. 2. Discounts at Alaska Industrial Hardware stores, Hardware Specialties, and Spenard Builders Supply. 3. Monthly informational meetings. 4. Beginning to expert classes in carving, woodworking and scrolling. 5. Periodic classes offered by nationally recognized instructors from out of state. 6. All tools and materials provided for most classes. |
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