Woodworkers' Guild Dump Pile

At our September meeting our members decided we wanted to have a Dump Pile to use as a way to barter, sell or just get rid of woodworking stuff and materials we no longer want. This might include hand tools, power tools, shop machines, extra wood, cabinet doors and drawers, old woodworking magazines, instructional videos, anything you can think of.

The first few items in the Dump Pile are just for samples of how our pile will look once people start adding stuff.

If you would like to participate in the Dump Pile, please send Maureen your email address and you will be invited to become a member of our Woodworkers Dump Pile, which is actually a wiki (explanation of exactly what a "wiki" is, will be forthcoming at an upcoming meeting.) For now, once you get the invite to the dump pile, just follow instructions and you can add your items, or respond to anyone else who has items for free or barter.

You will also be able to participate in discussions, ask questions and answer other guild members' questions, and upload files, photos and documents to our wiki. That means you will be able to add your email address, your phone numbers and shop addresses to our master-members-list. This will be immensely helpful to our communications.


Also, if you sign up for email updates at the DumpPile (see screenshot, left) you will get notices when someone wants your items, or when someone puts up a new item.

Please add items as soon as possible so we can get this going.

I will eventually put the dump pile logo/badge in our website sidebar so it will always be handy to click on and see what's new in our dump pile.

Thanks for making our guild website and our guild a vital, dynamic club/online network.

New Guild Officers

At our September Meeting, the Helena Woodworkers Guild officially recognized our new and continuing officers. Mike Flanagan (left) is now our Secretary and Bill Pratt(below left) takes over from Priscilla Bode as Guild Treasurer.




Thank you to Priscilla and to Lance Seaman, outgoing Secretary, for all of your hard work over the last couple of years.

And thanks for sure, to Tim Carney, for agreeing to continue as Guild President. Tim has really brought the guild in a good direction since he became president a couple of years ago.

The Helena Woodworkers Guild continues to grow and evolve, every year we greet lots of new members and figure out ways to function as a source of woodworking education, networking, and support for all of Helena's woodworkers. If any of our members know of someone who is not already coming to our meetings, or aware of our activities, please invite that person to attend our meetings as your guest. We are also very interested in welcoming young woodworkers and youth who might be interested in woodworking as a career or hobby.


Good Luck to our new officers and again, thanks to our outgoing officers.

A Few of Our Guild Members

To see larger versions of these photos, click on the names below:

1. Tim Carney 2. Mike Flanagan 3. Bob Zimmer 4. Priscilla Bode 5. Mike Bode, 6. Will Rex 7. who is this? 8. Dan Baugher 9. Bruce Ewals 10. Caleb Coder 11. Bill Brown 12. John Layton 13. who is this? 14. Lance Seaman and Tom Basso 15. Pete Donovan 16. Gary Duval demonstrating his lathe

If you would like to see the photos as a really cool slideshow, click here.

Swinging Tool Rack Design by Bill Pratt

Congratulations to Bill Pratt, one of our Guild members, for the inclusion of his innovative swinging tool rack in Fine Woodworking's Jan/Feb 2008 issue.

Bill designed and built the tool rack to utilize shop space that would otherwise be wasted in front of the overhead door in his shop. His design was included in Fine Woodworking's Methods of Work section.

To read the entire article online, you must have access to FW's online community or sign up for a free 14 day trial membership. You might find the membership well worth the small fee, since you can access all of Fine Woodworking's archives online. Or you could get the magazine ...

Here is an excerpt from the article:

The double-car garage door severely limits wall space in my garage/woodworking shop. So I created a 4-ft. by 5-ft. swinging tool rack for hanging hand tools, clamps, and accessories. Mounted in the corner of the front of my garage, it can stay against the garage door until I have to get in or out that way. The rack does not interfere with storage on the adjoining wall.

I made the rack out of 2x4 and 2x2 lumber. Two heavy-duty fence hinges are bolted to two 10-in.-wide stand-offs to hold the rack away from the wall. The stand-offs, which can be any length, are lag-screwed into a stud in the garage wall.

Anyway, not only is Bill's idea published in a nationally popular magazine, he is also the subject of a feature article in the Helena Independent Record.

Great press, Bill.

Note: photos are copyrighted. Top photo by Bill Pratt. Center image (sketch) from Fine Woodworking article and bottom photo by John Harrington, for the Helena Independent Record.

Your Time, Helena IR article about Woodworkers Guild

Our guild members got some great publicity in the Helena Independent Record weekly arts publication, Your Time.

Reporter and YT editor, Emily Donahoe, interviewed Dave Carlson and Tim Carney about the history and purpose of the guild and about the large number of talented woodworkers in Helena. Excerpts from the YT article:

If a piece of handmade furniture is no less than a work of art, then there are many artists among us.

According to Helena Woodworkers Guild president Tim Carney, however, a lot of them are still, shall we say, hidden in the woodwork.

The Helena Woodworkers Guild is a group of professionals and hobbyists who meet once a month to share tools and techniques, and a potluck dish or a few. The guild is exhibiting a variety of work at the Myrna Loy Center through the end of November.

Seated in an elegant, sculptural rocking chair he made himself, the tall, soft-spoken Carney and his physical opposite, the compact Dave Carlson of D. Carlson Woodworker Fine Furniture, discussed their craft and the wealth of talented woodworkers based locally.
Read more

Dave Carlson and Tim goofing off in Dave's shop

all photos in the YT article and in this blog post Copyright © Maureen Shaughnessy