Orange County Woodturners

Member of
Orange County Woodworkers Association
(OCWA)

Local chapter of the American Association of Woodturners.

Visit our open meetings, meet interesting people, see examples of members work, and have fun!

President's Message

August 2008 Newsletter excerpt

A great big “THANK YOU” to Art Fitzpatrick and Jerry Nininger for their efforts in obtaining a gift of $500 for the Pen Program and $500 for the Toy Program. This gift was from the Exchange Club of Newport Harbor that they made a pitch to explaining the clubs activities in support of needy children at Christmas and the pen projects in support of our military personnel in action.

Bob Gibbs was the Turner’s Club demonstrator on July 17th. Bob’s enthusiasm for making pens and not just a plain pen, but different and innovative pens is phenomenal. He uses plastic, paper straws, small pieces of glued wood, epoxy, colors and anything else within reach. Bob had lots of examples of his pens to view; and, handouts of blanks, jigs, center spacers and CDs. Very impressive Bob; thanks again.

Next month’s Challenge will be pens; not more than three each. Come on you makers of pens; it’s your time to shine. The Challenge for July had a total of eleven pieces from three members. Ross Gilroy’s turning was chosen the winner by our judge, Don Scott. Next month’s demonstrator will be George Plummer showing us his techniques in making “Bottle Stoppers”. George’s collection at his home is quite impressive and his demonstration will prove to be very informative.

The new Annual Woodturning Contests rules were reviewed at the July 17th meeting and are being published in this issue. It’s not too early to plan or start your pieces for the November contests. And speaking of planning, it is time to start cleaning out your tool shed in preparation for the Annual Tool and Art Auction to be held in October.

The membership, although light due to the OC Fair activities, voted a show of confidence in support of the professional demonstrators Craig Chambers has been obtaining. About 20 members said they would like to have one more demonstration yet this year if Craig can set one up. Some comments were that we probably should charge a little more, run full page ads in the newsletter, and no demonstrations in June due to graduations and family activities at the time school is out. A good discussion! Five club members traveled to the San Diego Symposium. We attended four seminars, had a great lunch, and enjoyed the Instant Gallery, the Silent Auction and raffle. It was a great day and the location is fairly close to us. Keep it in mind for next year; the third Saturday of July.

The club wants to wish Chester Maharaj and Al Whitcomb best wishes due to their current family and medical problems.

Please note that the Straka Chuck Workshop will be held later in the year; a date yet to be determined.

Of Continued Interest!

Ironman Challenge!!!

New for 2007

The intent of the monthly Ironman Challenge is to get you to try different things! By trying each month's challenge, you'll take your woodturning to new levels. Remember, you DO NOT have to be a master turner . . . you just need to participate!

Meeting Time

as of March 2006

If you haven't attended lately, we changed our start time to 6:30 p.m. to give our demonstrators a little longer to develop their projects.

Freedom Pens!

Ongoing . . .

Ruthe has pen supplies available for those who wish to participate in the making of pens for the Freedom Pen Project.

Nationwide Total to date: 85,109
OCWA total to date: 9,123
Nationwide total for 2008: 4,980
OCWA total for 2008: 1,260

Ruthe's last visit to the Wounded Warrior Battalion on June 25th was to attend the changing of the guards. Lt Col Johnson turned over his duties to Lt Col Martin. She was able to get an updated list of new patients and personel which totaled 50 Marines and Sailors. Because her on hand count was only 20 purpleheart pens she called Bruce Potter, who has been making the purple heart pens for the Wounded Warriors and, as always, Bruce came through with 30 pens in just a few days to make up for the shortage of pens.

The pens are now in the hands of Larry Roth, who engraves the names on the pens. Thank you both for expediting the making of the pens and engraving the names on them. Our troops thank you so much!!! Ruthe will make a trip to Camp Pendelton as soon as Larry finishes the pens.

Ruthe continues to receive emails from service men and women grateful for the gifts and thankful that we care and support them. Congratulations to all involved!

Toy Workshops

Ongoing . . .

This important program is part of our stated mission and impacts our community a great deal. Please talk to Jim Balestreri to be part of this very special good will program.

We are on track for Christmas, 2450 toys are in the warehouse, which includes the 300 plus completed at the Saturday workshop. We are using a new concept of networking, which has increased our productivity. For example, the memory boxes of Ed Smet who tells us he could not turn out half as many if it were not for the networking program. I am referring to 100 to 150 more boxes. Then there are the helicopters of Burt Underwood, his production has doubled. The increase in the toy production in the home workshops is also very gratifying. If you would like some help with your projects please ask for it. I am sure there are toy makers who live near by you who would be more than willing to spend a day or two helping you out. This is the purpose of networking. At Bill's place items worked on were finish spraying trucks, the installation of the string and ball to complete almost 100 basketball games. There were about 80 memory boxes finished with 2 to 3 coats of Deft.

I want to recognize Eric Thorson who took home at least 40-50 of Ross' cameras which were in various stages of being finished from sanding to the final coats of Deft. That is the kind of true dedication this program needs to be a success.

Thanks again to all of the members in the toy program. To those woodworkers who are not in the toy program come join us - it is very rewarding.

The next toy workshop will be at BILL'S SCHOOL AUGUST 9th 9am-1pm.

We still have trunk loads of wood!!!!!!!

Toy Program coordinator - Jim Balestreri

Our dedicated toymakers produced 4451 hand-crafted, wooden toys in 2005 which were distributed to 45 agencies (listed in your December 2005 newsletter). In 2006 over 4500 toys were produced for the toy program. Our toymakers were also featured in the August 2006 newsletter.

See current newsletter on the OCWA site (members only section) for info on the next workshop.

 Good to
Know!

Meeting Time - 6:30

August Challenge - pens

Ironman Challenge

Nov. - Turning Competition
Rules!

Toys!

Freedom Pens