Helena Woodworkers Guild May Meeting

Our next Woodworkers Guild meeting will be held Monday May 19th. We will meet at John Barbagello's shop this time. This will probably be the last meeting before summer, although I have heard rumors we might have one more meeting in June (they're such fun, heh!)

Joshua, Jonathan and John Barbagello will be showing us mortise and tenon joinery. This will be the last meeting until September, so we need to talk about the Myrna show this fall and any other topics the members may wish to bring up.


Jonathan and Joshua at April's Meeting

Anyway, we hope you all can make it to this meeting -- don't be shy, even if you are not an official member, please come and meet a bunch of great folks.

Date: Monday, May 19th
Time: 5:30 pm til 8:30 or whenever
Place: Barbagello's shop at 840 Silverette Street on the west side of Helena
Agenda: After everyone has a chance to visit and chow down on the potluck dinner, our evening program will begin. Joshua, Jonathan and John Barbagello will be showing us mortise and tenon joinery. Again, this will probably be the last meeting until September, so we need to talk about the Myrna show this fall and any other topics the members may wish to bring up.

Please bring a side dish, appetizer or something to drink -- or, just show up. There is always plenty to eat! Our host will provide a main dish.


Mike Flanagan at April's Meeting

How to get to our May Meeting: John Barbagello's shop is located at 840 Silverette (turn left at the far west end of Hauser Blvd - head south to 840) Here's a map:

View Larger Map

click here for details on the meeting:

all photos in this post © Maureen Shaughnessy. These were taken at the Guild's April meeting at Gary Duval's shop.

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.

Helena Woodworkers Guild April Meeting

Is there such a thing as a woodworker's uniform?

Our next Woodworkers Guild meeting will be held Monday April 14th. I guess we're on a roll with second-Monday meetings instead of first-Mondays. We will meet at Gary Duval's shop this time. This will be the next to last meeting before the summer break so we hope you all can make it!

Date: Monday, April 14th
Time: 5:30 pm til 8:30 or whenever
Place: Gary Duval's shop at 117 Elmwood Lane in Helena
Agenda: In addition to our usual jawboning and eating, Gary will show us his lathe turnings including his intricate ornaments (see photo below and Gary's gallery) Hopefully we'll have time for a demonstration of Gary's techniques too. We'll hear subcommittee updates and take care of some business about the Myrna Art of Wood Exhibit and about our future meetings,


Gary Duval's wood ornaments and kaleidoscopes

Please bring a side dish, appetizer or something to drink -- or, just show up. There is always plenty to eat! Our host will provide a main dish.

Lance Seaman showed us how he made the curved, laminated wood
mantel at our March Guild Meeting

How to get to our April Meeting: Gary's house is located in Sunhaven subdivision. If you are heading north on Benton Avenue, Elmwood Lane is the last left before Custer Avenue and Gary's is the 5th house on the left.

Map:


View Larger Map

click here for details on the meeting:

all photos in this post © Maureen Shaughnessy. These were taken at the Guild's March meeting at the new home Lance Seaman is building for his family.

Member Feature: Lance Seaman; custom entry door and mantel in new house

The Helena Woodworkers Guild March meeting was hosted by Lance Seaman of Seaman Cabinets, at the house he and his wife are building on the east side of Helena. They haven't moved in yet, but that didn't stop us from thoroughly enjoying a delicious potluck set up on saw horses and plywood along with his beautiful woodworking.



After jawboning over dinner, Lance showed us the mantel he designed and created, as well as his new craftsman style entry door (above)



The mantel is from a design by Scottish architect and artist, Charles Mackintosh. Lance's mantel is made of quarter-sawn white oak plywood; the top veneered with paper backed oak veneer, glued with Titebond III and vacuum-bagged. The finish is a red, water-based aniline dye under a vinegar/steel wool solution with a top coat of water-based laquer. Lance showed guild members how he bent the wood for the mantel in his vacuum bag, something that about half of our members had not tried before.



It's this kind of educational opportunities and comraderie that make our woodworkers' guild such a great group. If you know of anyone who is interested in woodworking, as a career, skill or hobby, please invite them to attend one of our meetings and consider joining the guild. We welcome folks of every skill level, experts and newbies alike.

Helena Woodworkers Guild March Meeting

Hi everyone, here's the scoop on our March Guild meeting. Although we generally meet on the first Monday of each month, this month we're meeting on the second Monday.

Date: Monday, March 10th
Time: 5:30 pm til 8:30 or whenever
Place: Lance Seaman's new house at 3052 Early Bird in Helena
Agenda: In addition to our usual jawboning and eating, we'll have a look at a mantle and entry door made by Lance. Also, Tim Carney will lead a discussion on upcoming meetings.
Please bring a side dish or something to drink -- or, just show up. There is always plenty to eat! Our host will provide a main dish.

How to get there: Lance's house is located in the Sunrise Subdivision near Nob Hill. From Helena, take Saddle Drive south and turn right on Morning Glory. Drive to the intersection of Morning Glory and Early Bird.

If you are coming from south of town, take the new interchange exit for South Helena. Exit the round-about on Saddle Drive, go west a bit, then turn left on Morning Glory. Lance's house is at 3052 Early Bird. Call Lance at 442-8459 if you get lost (but you won't ...)

Here's a map


View Larger Map

all photos in this post © Maureen Shaughnessy. These were taken at the Guild's December meeting at Mike and Priscilla Bode's shop.

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.

Do you have an animal companion in your shop?

So, hey, Guild members and readers of our blog ... how about sharing stories and photos of your companion animals, especially animals that spend time with you in your woodworking shops? You can share tales of shop companions in the comments of this post, or send an email to helenawoodworkers(at)gmail(dot)com along with photos if you have them, and I will add yours to this post. Let's get some dialogue going on our website. Thanks -- I'm looking forward to seeing the animals other woodworkers share their shops with.


Kita, one of the sweetest dogs I've ever met, leans in for a "kiss" from Tim. Kita lives with Tracy Hamilton, who works at Timothy's Fine Woodworking. She comes to the shop with Tracy every day.



This is Sadie, who until late winter 2007, lived at Tim Carney's shop. Sadie died in March this past year. She was a victim of some of the tainted pet food that killed and sickened so many other pets in the US. Before Sadie moved to Helena with Tim in 1996, she lived with him in an earth sheltered house in Pocatello, Idaho -- she was an excellent mouser.


Kita greets her old friend, Sam, who used to be the main shop dog before he became deaf. Sam is now 18 years old and stays at home with Maureen, supervising her design business. Sam occasionally visits the shop to greet customers and put up with Kita's licks and frolicking.


For a couple of years, Tim's shop had a resident toad. We never did find out the toad's name. He/she hung out sometimes in the wet spot from a slow leak of the hot water tank. Good place to sit if you're a cold-blooded creature. Our shop toad was a bit on the shy side -- not quite as enthusiastic as Kita is, to greet customers.


Tracey (above) is Kita's human


Kita

Woodworking shop for two

Every once in awhile a body needs to just kick back and have fun.
To heck with meetings, eh?

Well, that's what we did at our December woodworkers' guild meeting: we had way too much delicious food to eat (which caused the more stuffed of us to kick back. uhuh) and -- we all enjoyed visiting with the other woodworkers and a few family members.

Mike and Priscilla Bode hosted the party (oops - I mean, the meeting) at their shop, just off of the alley. With high ceilings, skylights and white walls, the shop is bright and seemingly just large enough for their business, which specializes in furniture. I shot a few photos before I had a couple glasses of wine ... even these are a bit fuzzed, given that I was more interested in partying than covering my usual role of guild documentarian. Well, here's a few shots from our December (ahem!) meeting: