Amish Lumber

O n Saturday, February 4th there will be a trip to purchase lumber at an Amish mill in Medina County. We will meet at the Dunkin Donuts on Route 18 just east of Rt. 71. When exiting Rt. 71 head east and it is located in the shopping center with the Antique Mall.

Hand-cut Joinery

 J anuary's meeting there was an oppurtunity to practice hand cutting mortise and tenon and dovetail joints. These skill could be useful in the next challenge project.

Challenge Project

O ur next challenge project will be to make a storage box. You are free to make one of you own choice or work along with other members who are making versions of a fine tool chest featured in WoodSmith magazine #151.

February's Meeting

F irst we will focus on the next step in making our tool chest. I will provide the information you need to perform the basic casework. We will be discussing the through dados, the stopped dados, and the mortise and tenons needed to build this case. We will also discuss a jig I built to make the mortises using a router. I expect this presentation to take about thirty minutes.

For the remaining time we will be discussing and demonstrating how to build your own wooden hand planes. The cost of good quality hand planes is out of reach for many woodworkers. I have discovered that it is quite easy and enjoyable to build your own planes. We will walk through the process step-by-step. You will not believe the results.

Included is the diagram for the planes. Please feel free to glue up some blanks and bring them to the meeting. You should edge join your boards with the grain running vertical for the body of the plane. Then glue the sole to the body of the plane (this is not the way most people build their planes but I have gotten great results with this approach) I have already made two of these planes, one out of walnut with an ipe sole and the other out of cherry with a wenge sole.

                                                      Jeff

Deadline for March's newsletter is February 21^st