Regular Monthly Meeting

The Silicon Valley Woodturners "formally" meet the first Wednesday of each month (unless it's a holiday, in which case the meeting moves to the following Wednesday), in Rich Johnson's spacious and well equipt turning studio (take the virtual tour). The meeting starts at 7:00 pm so you don't need to rush dinner in order to make it on time. In addition to the Call To Order, Announcements, Old Business and New Business formal stuff, there's Show and Tell, the President's Challenge, a Raffle and usually a demonstration of something turning related, along with time for informal discussions on all manner of things turning.

The Show and Tell let's members show off their latest works, identifying the wood, any challenges the piece presented and typically how it was finished followed by questions from the "audience". Show and Tell is a great way to get feedback on your work while sharing info with other members. Also a great way to "borrow" ideas and pick up an inspiration or two.

The 2007 President's Challenge required that particpants make a piece that uses the first letter of the monthly meeting month - ie "J"anuary - a Juniper bowl, a turned "Jack" (as in let's play Jacks), a natural edge Juglans vase (black walnut being in the juglans family). Members get pretty creative linking their pieces to the month's first letter - some eliciting groans from the audience, few actually rejected. Some energetic members, no doubt after spending hours with a dictionary, come up with multiple uses of the month's first letter - a Nine inch Nail stuck in Nine layers of Nice and Neatly stacked 1/8" aluminum plate stock - or - an Oilovacious Olive dish for One Ounce of Olfactory Oil. Very entertaining - and educational. Participants earn a ticket to a prize raffle, the prize being a $15 gift certificate, maybe a tool, often a choice of recently cut log sections for a bowl or larger form.

February's "F". Herb Green's Fruit basket -with Fruit. Club president Rich Johnson came up with a lame one - a Fixed bowl he'd blown - GROAN!

For a buck a ticket or six tickets for five bucks you can have a chance at a demonstration turning done by the most recent well known turner's day long demonstration. Recently, three lucky winners went home with beautiful turned lidded boxes by Cindy Drozda. In addition to those wonderful prizes, there's typically a tool, or jig or fixture a member has outgrown and donated, packages of an assortment of abrassives in a range of grits, wood, wood and more wood, as well as odds and ends that might be a "treasure" to some turner. Here's a Cindy Drozda piece she did at our demonstration that a lucky raffle winner took home,

There's a 10 to 15 minute break somewhere in here, with time for coffee, cookies or other snack, and conversation - before a presentation or demonstration. Oh yeah - there's a bathroom in Rich's studio.

Presentations or demonstrations are normally about an hour, give or take 15 minutes. Here are just some of the demonstrations in 2007

- Jigs and Fixtures
- Ornamental Mills and Their Uses,
- Everything You Want To Know About Chainsaws, But Were Afraid To Ask,
- How to turn a
. . . laminated rolling pin
.. .a christmas tree ornament
. . .minature bowl, plate and vase - on your kitchen table
. . .lidded "box", with and without a threaded lid
. . . a "winged" bowl
. . . deep hollow form hollowing
- How to Sharpen With a Grinding Wheel & Jigs
- Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Sand Paper And Sanding

With two video cameras mounted from the ceiling, and trained on the Stubby lathe from two differnt vantage points, two large monitor above and on either side of the lathe so everyone can see the details, and video jacks for connecting a laptop to them for Power Point type computerized, presentations, there's no need for folks to crowd around in order to see what's going on. Real handy if you're one of the shorter club members and not quick enough to get In Front.

Though not a regular part of an official club meeting, we often have Pleasant Surprises - someone brings a pick up bed full of fresh cut tree sections, hardwood and exotic "cut offs" from an employer's custom hardwood stairs and flooring shop, a small enclosed trailer full of baltic AND Finish birch ply "scraps" from local cabinet shops (their great for laminating and turning, dyeing being optional), or maybe some ParaLam beam cut offs in 6" thicknesses of turnable sizes.

The formal meeting is usually gaveled to an end (or folks just wander off towards home) around 9:30 or 10:00m pm.

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