May Meeting Highlights

– Good news to the group!!!! SAFE PASSAGE AUCTION———-

The Mendo Furniture Makers will have their show at the Odd Fellows Gallery from July 6- July
29.    They will have a silent auction upstairs. They will be happy to have the items in the auction from the Woodturners Guild with proceeds from those items going to Safe Passage. They will design a bid sheet of a different color, with a different header, for those items. They suggest there should be 20 items for Safe Passage.

Education Report – Michael Issel presented a scientific explanation of Amphiphilic Surfactant Molecules. In short – Why the soap mixture that was discussed at an earlier meeting, as a means to use the solution on wet wood and then turn the item within a short period of time, with the result being a finished item without cracking. (See the addendum to this newsletter.)

Demo – Brian Schmacher presented the process one would use to produce a segmented piece. There were several recommendation he made during his presentation and I only hope I can explain it as complete as he did in the meeting. This is one of those cases, if you wanted to know how to produce a segmented piece – you should have been there.

1. Use graph paper when laying out your segments.
2. The formula for determining the angle of the cut on each piece. First determine the number of pieces you want and divide that number into 360 (the number of degrees in a circle) then divide that number  by  2,  which  will  give  you  the  angle on each end of the piece.  (example 12  pieces  divided  into  360  equals  30  –  divided by 2 equals 15.  So 15 degrees is the angle on each end of the segment. )
3. Now you have to determine the length of each piece. The formula for that is Diameter divided by pii, divided by the number of  segments. (Example for  a 9 inch diameter bowl – 9 divided by 3.14 divided by 12 equals 2.356 inches, so each piece would need to be that length.
4. There was lots of discussion about either using a floating bottom or a solid bottom in the bowl. I will leave that for you to research, or call Brian and discuss.

Ed Howard shared that without all that math you could purchase a computer program for about
$40.00 and it would do all the calculations for you.

Show and Tell:

Here are some turnings from Russ

Our next meeting will be an ALL DAY turning on June 12 in Russ’s shop, 18510 Estel’s Court. Bring your lunch, some wood to turn and if you have a mini lathe bring it too. Russ and Kathy will provide coffee, water and who know what else. Wood turning is a hungry event, so if you bring a treat I am sure it will be eaten. We should have 6 or 7 lathes going most of the day. There will be a short safety discussion, sharpening techniques, and specific tool use demonstrations. We will try to pair up a more experienced turner with a less experienced turner to make it a real learning day. Safety is always the most important priority.

SAFE PASSAGE DEADLINE
You should be thinking about what you are going to turn and donate to Safe Passage Auction. All items will be due to Laura Welter no later than July 5th and preferably the week before, so arrangements and delivery can be made to the Odd Fellows Hall.

some reading material about wood that you might find interesting.

WOOD FAQS:

Facts About Wood & Trees

Really this article was stolen from the Redwood Turners newsletter written by Dave Peck who took it – From: Cook Woods website (for more info contact: 4info@cookwoods.com)
The lightest and softest wood in the world is Balsa. It’s average specific gravity averages .16. The heaviest and the hardest wood in the world is Snakewood. It’s specific gravity averages 1.30. Not all species of wood floats in water. In order to sink in water the specific gravity of the wood, has to be 1.00 or more. These 17 sink, African Blackwood, African Ebony, Black Ironwood, Brazilwood, CocoBolo, East Indian Satinwood, Ekki, Greenheart, IPE, Kingwood, Lignum Vitae, Macassar Ebony, Marblewood, Satine {Bloodwood}, Snakewood, Sucupira and White Topped Box.

The whitest wood in the world is Holly. The blackest wood in the world is Gabon Ebony. The only species of wood that can be used for holding liquids {other than acids} is White Oak. This is because the pores are filled with tyloses. This substance does not allow liquids to penetrate it.

Up until a few years ago, the world’s oldest living tree, a Bristlecone Pine, named the Methuselah was in California. It is approximately 4,600 years old. Now there may be at least two trees that are older. The usual way of calculating a trees age by counting the annual rings in the trunk or by carbon dating, are not accurate when it comes to Yews because a Yews trunk tends to hollow with age, while it continues to grow by rooting its branches and wrapping them around itself. There is even documentation of the formation of aerial roots growing inside the hollow trunk. Another reason are Yews have been known to stop growing for long periods of time, {documented 325 years}, thus having no growth rings for that period.

The trees with the largest leaves are Teak. The leaves can be 10 inches – 20 inches long and 7 inches – 14 inches wide. The world’s tallest standing tree, a Redwood, is in Humboldt State Redwood Park California. It is 368 feet {almost 37 stories} tall. The world’s largest diameter tree, a Redwood is in California. It is over 90 feet in diameter. Its root system is spread out for more than an acre.

The world’s slowest growing tree is a White Cedar located in Canada. After 155 years, it grew to a height of 4 inches and weighed only 6/10th
of an ounce. The tree can be found on a cliffside in the Canadian Great Lakes area. The world’s fastest growing tree is the Empress tree. This tree can grow up to 20 feet the first year and some have been documented growing 12 inches in 21 days! The tree with the world’s largest root system is the great Banyan tree in the Indian Botanical Garden, Calcutta, India. It covers an area of 3 acres. It has 1,775 supporting roots and dates back to 1787.

The world’s largest living tree, and this is because of its volume is the General Sherman Giant Sequoia, located in Sequoia National Park, in California. It weighs a little over 2.7 million pounds. Its largest branch is 6 foot 9 1/2 inches in diameter.

The town of Flagstaff Arizona was named when On July 4th 1876; lumberjacks stripped the limbs from the tallest Ponderosa Pine and then flew the American flag from it.
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