March Guild Meeting: Becoming Guild-Website-Literate

Our March guild meeting is scheduled for 5:15 pm, Monday, March 16 at the Lewis and Clark Library. As we did for our February meeting, we have the computer lab scheduled from 6-8 for our evening's presentation, and we'll have dinner in that large conference room from 5:15 to 6:00 pm.

The Guild is providing the entire meal, including beverages. We'll eat in the large conference room off of the library's new lobby. Again, please do not bring your own beverages this time -- the library does not allow alcohol on the premises. The meal is on us!

Our February meeting was fantastic -- Bill Daigle did a great job of teaching us the basics of a simple, free CAD-like program, Sketchup. Maureen was scheduled to show us how to get around on Facebook and our guild website, but she was stricken with a nasty flu and wasn't able to make it. She'll be here at our March meeting to try it again.

Maureen will give us hands-on practice using the Guild's websites and Facebook network (left)

Basics to be covered by Maureen will include setting up online photo storage, uploading photos, setting up simple websites for members who do not have an online presence, and registering for your own Facebook page so that you can participate in the Guild's Facebook activities and announcements. Please consider checking this out even if you don't think you'll spend much time on Facebook or the guild's website. There are many ways you can make use of the Guild's online offerings, not only for participating in Guild activities, or to promote your woodworking hobbies or businesses. With your own web site or Facebook page, you can share your woodworking with your friends and families.

Please come -- we'd like to see a great turn-out. If you're not a member but want to know what we do, or how to use the internet to further your woodworking interests, you are welcome to attend.

LINKS:

• Lewis & Clark Library, Helena, Montana
• Flickr -- to set up your own FREE online photo storage account
  

You know you're a woodworker if

You cut yourself with a chisel and you’re more concerned about not getting blood on your workpiece than you are about the laceration.

You inexplicably find sawdust in your drawers. And I’m not talking about furniture.

You have dropped to your knees and looked beneath a table in a museum, a gallery, an historic home, or a friend’s house.

You cannot resist the temptation to lift the lid on a wooden box.

You can talk to your partner/spouse/significant other for HOURS about woodworking despite the glazed over look in his/her eyes.

You can spend an entire day in your shop, accomplish little if anything, and thoroughly enjoy it.

You know exactly where everything is in your shop....except for a pencil.

You have built more projects in your head than in actuality.

Your spouse/partner/lovedones/pets know not to bother you, and sometimes choose to run for cover, when you are gluing up a project.

You remove more splinters from your hands in a month than most people do in a lifetime.

You can correctly pronounce Padauk and Lignum Vitae.

February Guild Meeting: Sketchup & Making Use of our Websites

Our February guild meeting will be held late in the month this time -- we are scheduled for Monday, February 23 at the Lewis and Clark Library. We have the large conference room scheduled from 5:30-8:30pm and the computer lab scheduled from 6-8 so we'll be in both rooms after our social time and meal.

The Guild is providing the entire meal, including beverages. We'll eat in the large conference room off of the library's new lobby. Please do not bring your own beverages this time -- the library does not allow alcohol on the premises. The meal is on us!

Bill Daigle will demonstrate the basics of Sketchup, which he uses to design his woodworking projects. The library will have the software loaded onto computers in the lab, so we can follow along with Bill on the overhead monitor.

There are 10 student stations in the lab, so plenty of computers for us to share. Even if you don't know how to use a computer, you might like to see what can be done with computer-aided-drafting/drawing and design.

Maureen will have at least two computers set up in the conference room, to give us hands-on practice using the Guild's websites and Facebook network (left)

Basics to be covered by Maureen will include setting up online photo storage, uploading photos, setting up simple websites for members who do not have an online presence, and registering for your own Facebook page so that you can participate in the Guild's Facebook activities and announcements. Please consider checking this out even if you don't think you'll spend much time on Facebook or the guild's website. There are many ways you can make use of the Guild's online offerings, not only for participating in Guild activities, or to promote your woodworking hobbies or businesses. With your own web site or Facebook page, you can share your woodworking with your friends and families.

Another simple SketchUp sketch with the final product below:

LINKS:

• Sketchup Graphics showing workbench and exploded view of tv cabinet © Design Click Build
• Fireplace Sketchup Rendering and Photo © by Wizum
• Lewis & Clark Library, Helena, Montana
  

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January Guild Meeting: the 32mm System for Cabinetry

Our January Guild meeting will be held at Tim Carney's shop at 3025 East Bozeman Avenue on Monday, Jan. 19th at 5:30 pm. Tim will provide a main dish.

Members, please bring a side dish (salads, garlic bread, dessert) or something to drink.

Tim will demonstrate the 32mm system (European system for cabinet making.)

He also has a table for members to view and critique. The table will be featured in the upcoming Live Auction benefiting the Florence Crittenton Home at it's annual black-tie fundraiser, Pink.

Directions to Tim's shop: Heading east on Highway 12, pass Walmart and turn left (north) on Carter Drive. Go over the RR tracks, turn right (east) on Bozeman Avenue. Tim's shop is 3025 East Bozeman Avenue. You'll see all the trucks unless you're the first one there.

December Guild Meeting: Sharpening Demo

Our December Woodoworkers Guild meeting will be held at Mike Flanagan's shop at 2925 Castle Rock Rd, on December 15th at 5:30. Mike will provide a spaghetti main dish. Members, please bring a side dish (salads, garlic bread, dessert) or something to drink.

Mike will be giving a sharpening demo.

Directions to Mike's: Head east on Canyon Ferry Roadd from Costco about 4 miles to Wylie Drive. Ttake a left heading north 1-1/4 miles to Castle Rock Road. Take a left and an immediate left again, heading back to the shop. The shop is a large green building with a white roof.

To see a map of Mike's address, double-click on the Google Calendar in the sidebar (right) on the Dec. 15th square and it should take you to our Guild's calendar where you can see and print a map.

Just a quick update on our November event -- the Art of Wood Guild Exhibit during the Downtown Helena ArtWalk was the hit of the evening. Held in the Placer building which is being remodeled as condos and an elegant lobby with fireplace, soaring ceilings and balconies and tile floors, we had a huge crowd coming in off of the walking mall. Our legendary refreshments and wine were nearly gone after the first hour. And the woodworking exhibited in the show was exceptional. Our exhibit just keeps getting better and better. Maybe we should consider doing it twice a year -- the Spring ArtWalk is always fun ... :-)

Here are a couple of shots from the exhibit evening. I'll try to post an article with more photos as soon as I have time. Thank you to everyone who participated and helped.

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.

Handcut Dovetail Template & Calculator

We recently received a tip from Greg Tarrant of Australia, an online handcut dovetail template & calculator. (screenshot, left)

Give it a try and let us know what you think of it by commenting below this post.

The Blocklayer website (Greg's site) has a long list of online construction calculators, which might come in handy for any of our members. The site is unfortunately full of ads, but if you are careful where you click it looks like it might be useful.

To get a list of calculators related to woodworking, do a search in the upper right of this page and the results take you to a short-list.

Enjoy!

October Woodworkers Guild Meeting

Our meeting last night was hosted by Tom Doland in his (very organized and clean) woodshop. Tom had cooked a delicious stew -- reminiscent of chili, but better -- on his shops wood cookstove.

As always, our meeting started out with informal chewing the fat, catching up with each other and checking out some of Tom's woodworking.

Later, Tom showed us a huge chest-full of tools he had inherited from his grandfather, some of which we passed around so we could figure out what they were. Anyone know what this tool is?

The business part of our meeting was mostly about the upcoming Art of Wood Exhibit which will take place November 14th during the Helena Fall Art Walk. This year the show will be up for only one night -- November 14th, and not the entire month of November as it has been in the past. This is because the Myrna Loy Center is undergoing renovations and we had to find another venue for our show.

If you weren't able to attend the October Guild meeting, below are some important dates and facts to know. If you have any questions, please contact one of the exhibit committee members, or Tim Carney.

ART OF WOOD set-up and reception:

• The exhibit will be held at the Placer Building on the Walking Mall downtown Helena (see map below.)
• The ArtWalk runs from 6 pm to 10 pm.
• If you would like to put a piece in the show and haven't already turned in your entry form, please contact Tim Carney at 461-8621 or Mike Flanagan at 459-6580. Please do this right away.
• The entry fee is $15 for the first piece and $10 for any subsequent piece.
• Those participating in the show must bring their pieces to the Placer Building between 10 am and 12 pm on November 14th.
• It will take longer to set up the show this year. We need to install lighting because the Placer does not have the gallery-type of lighting we have enjoyed at the Myrna in the past. Please plan to stick around for at least a couple of hours if you can, to help set up the show.
• We will have to take the show down after 10pm that same night. So be prepared for that. We do not want to leave pieces in the building overnight.
• All guild members are asked to help by bringing a platter (or 2!) of hors d'oeurves for the reception. The Guild will provide punch and wine, cups, napkins, tables, tablecloths
  

ART OF WOOD promotion & preparation
We are printing up 4x6 announcement cards for guild members to invite their friends to the show. Watch the website for when they are ready.

Other guild business:

• Guild members who have not already done so need to pay their dues ($25) right away. Mail your check to Bill Pratt, our new treasurer, at 1035 Avian Rd. Helena, MT 59602.