MEMBER PROJECTS NEEDED FOR DISPLAY!!

WoodFest is an annual celebration of woodworking to recognize high school student achievements and is held at Sedro Woolley High School as an official event of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. High Schools from all over Washington State are invited to enter projects in the competition. NCWA has participated in this event for many years by helping judge the competition and displaying member projects. Everyone in our club has projects they are proud of and this is an excellent place to show your work! Please sign up to bring your work, small or large, new or old. Your projects can be for sale or just for display. We will have two booths set up, one for the club projects, and one for Toys for Tots displays. Setup is from 7:00 – 9:00 a.m. on April 11th, and doors open to the public at 10 am. Contact Jerry Couchman at (360) 255-1984 or sofa01@hotmail.com to sign up for displaying and manning shifts at our booths. You can also sign up at our next membership meeting at FastCap. This is a fun event and you will be blown away by the incredible skill and variety of the high school projects!

Loss of a good friend! On Thursday, January 23rd NCWA member Steve Durkee passed away. Steve joined the club in May 2010. Steve loved his favorite pastime – woodworking. He would often share his special skills with the membership during bring-and-brag. Steve incorporated inlays into many of his woodworking projects. He enjoyed putting the inlay class together and teaching many NCWA members how to create detailed inlays. Steve’s family is planning on having a Celebration of Life gathering in the next month or so at the Hillcrest Lodge.

This month’s presentation is by George Knutson, one of our new members with a lot of talent. George will give us an overview of some of the uses he’s found for a vacuum pump. There’s the usual – veneering flat or curved surfaces, but you can also clamp straight or bent laminations (with the form inside the bag or outside the bag). And you can secure a work piece to your workbench or hold your work piece to a jig or fixture. George plans to demonstrate some of these applications and talk about the types of pumps that are available. George uses many of these techniques in his shop in Renton building primarily Greene & Greene style furniture, live edge slab pieces, recycled/reclaimed lumber projects, and some welding thrown in for variety.

MEETING CHANGES

The date for our March meeting has been changed to the second Tuesday, March 10th and the location will be at the new FastCap facility just north of Bellingham on I-5. This meeting will include a tour of the facility and a short presentation by president and owner, Paul Akers, a veteran woodworker and cabinet maker. FastCap specializes in innovative tools and products for woodworking.

Ok, who hasn’t bought a new tool or made a handy shop jig over the past year? Well, now is the time to show the rest of us what you spent your hard earned money on or got for Christmas. And while you’re at it, show us that new jig you thought up to solve a woodworking problem or simply make it safer and more efficient. We’ve done this kind of meeting almost every year in the past, and there are always new tools and jigs to see. You may have an antique wood plane that you have tuned up to work perfectly, or a brand new tool – it doesn’t matter. We like to see them all. If you bring one of your jigs, please bring a few copies of the plan that you used to make it, too. Thanks for your participation and Happy New Year!