February 2003 Newsletter

When: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 Time: 7:00 p.m.

Where: 5610 Crawfordsville Rd., Suite 15, Speedway

(see Map on Page 6 of Newsletter)

Environmental Management Institute, Inc, Training Room.

Program: Watco products: What they are and how to apply them

presented by Pete Serrahn, Area Manager, Rust-Oleum Brands.

WATCO products are an easy-to-use family of oil finishes that penetrates deeply into wood. WATCO enhances the natural grain pattern of wood and gives you the luster of an old-fashioned, hand-rubbed wood finish without all the work. WATCO was acquired by Rust-Oleum Brands and they continue to market these easy to use and innovative wood finishes. The presentation will give an overview of the various WATCO products and a demonstration of finishing techniques on member supplied wood articles. To learn more about WATCO, visit their website at www.watco.net To learn more about their parent company, Rust-Oleum Brands, including their famous rust-fighting paints and other product lines, visit their website at www.rustoleum.com

Our speaker will be Peter Serrahn. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois and has been the Area Manager for Rust-Oleum Brands for two years. He has been involved with woodworking for over 15 years. He makes cabinets, furniture, and does trim work in new construction using WATCO products in all these applications.

Our March meeting is March 19, 2003 at 7:00. Location: Environmental Management Institute, Training Room, Speedway. Topic: Wood Carving Techniques  Adding a New Skill to Enhance your Wooden Projects. Presenter: Dennis Maddox

- Club Booth at The Woodworking Show and The Lil Builders Workshop -

Our club had a strong presence at Indianapolis Woodworking Show, January 24 - 26, 2003. Besides our booth with its display of our community service work, the Christmas Toy Project examples, we had member projects on display, and a good selection of flyers about various aspects of our club. Our sign up sheet attracted approximately 40 signers.

The club purchased new videos at the Show. Watch for them to appear in our video library soon.

In addition, our club operated the Lil Builders Workshop on Saturday and Sunday. Our members introduced children to the experience of using a scroll saw to create a project they could decorate and take home with them. Parents stayed with their children during this experience and enjoyed it as much as their children did. See our website for a copy of an appreciation letter we received from one parent and pictures. We instructed approximately 125 future woodworkers. The money collected from the $3 donation was donated to The Boys and Girls Club of Indianapolis.

"Saturday Hands On" for Spring 2003 Hand Skill Techniques with Marc Adams

Date: March 22, 2002, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm

Location: Marc Adams School of Woodworking, Franklin, Indiana.

Cost: $45 per person, includes all materials

(payable to Tom Meeker by March 1, 2003)

Lunch: A pizza pitch- in. Cost of $5 per person or bring your own lunch.

Marc will be teaching a class for Home Craftsmen Forum members only. The class is on hand skills and will include sharpening, cutting dovetails -- both though and half bind -- and veneering. By the end of the day, participants will have the knowledge to sharpen their tools and apply them to cut dovetails and veneer. A list of tools that you will be required to bring will be sent to those that sign up at the beginning of March along with a map to the school. The class will be limited to 40 people. The sign-up dead line is March 1st. Contact Tom Meeker if you want to attend or have questions.

A sign up sheet will be passed at the February meeting.

- New Members 

Welcome to Wes Baltzell Sr. and James Pate. We hope you enjoy your time with us.

***

- Video Tape Library -

The videotape library is available at all meetings. This is a free service to members. You are encouraged to make use of this valuable service but please return any tapes you have borrowed. All borrowed tapes are to be returned at the next month's meeting. This will allow others to enjoy this service too.

A complete list of videotape titles is available on our website. A printed catalogue is available for review at each meeting.

Do you have videos that would be useful for the library? . . . . . Let us know.

If you have questions about the video library, contact Bob at 253-8771 or at rbeckerich@iquest.net.

- Video Tape Delinquencies-

The following members are requested to please search hither and yon and return the tape (or tapes) you borrowed.

þ Don Claffey - checked out Aug. 22.

þ Bill Jones - checked out Oct. 16.

þ Tom Meeker  checked out Oct 16.

þ Ron Cruze  checked out Oct 16.

þ Glenn Jable  checked out Oct 16.

þ Herm DeHart - checked out Nov. 20.

***

- The Clubs "Special Thanks to You"

Lloyd and Joyce Ebert  Donation of wood. Lloyd and Joyce own Craft-E-Family which they started in 1980 when they retired and combined their hobbies, tinkering with wood and painting, to form a business. You can visit their website, www.craft-e-family.com, to learn more about their wooden blocks, calendars, and personalized picture boxes.

Sinbad Glue  For donation of four of their glue kits, one for each of our group toy shops. Sinbad glue occupied the booth next to HCFs at the woodworking show. See photo of our booth on the previous page. You can see their sign.

All members who worked the Woodworking Show: Dale Lechlitner, James Price, Harold Matthews, Clet Meyers, Bill Finney, Joe Miller, Dick Brown, Bill Stillman, Jim Shaver, Nan Schulte, Bob Beckerich, Dick Harrold, Joe Schmidlin, Roger Domina, Lew Lundberg, John Lundberg, Jim Muccigrosso, Larry Buttrum, Don Melloy, Bob Hall, Darrell McConnell, Dick Ellis, Sam Phillips, Everett Barnard Jr., Everett Barnard Sr., Bob Hammond, Tom Meeker, Bob Chiplis, Bob Shaw, Chris Kammerling, Glenn Jable, Fred Staggs, Perley Roberts, Jim Pate, and Bill Jones,

***

- Member News 

HCF mourns the death of long time member, Robert (Bob) Champion, from Alexandria, IN. Bob died Jan 26th 2003. Funeral services were January 29^th at Alexandria Cemetery.

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- Christmas Toy Project 

The Christmas Toy Project is one of HCFs community service projects. Club members produce wooden toys for children. Individual toy projects are referred to as "Box Projects"  the club provides a member with a box of supplies and the member returns a box of wooden toys by December. The group shops are referred to as the Toy Shops or the Shops. The toys are delivered to over a dozen agencies in early December each year to be distributed to children in need.

We are now gearing up for our 2003 Christmas Toy Project. Darrell McConnell will again be leading our club in this effort. The Toy Committee needs your help. Please look through your patterns and files and plans for possible toys we can produce this year. If you can make a prototype of the toy for others to see and build, that is even better.

If you have any suggestions, and/or plans, or completed toys, please bring them to the February meeting, or send them to one of the Toy Committee members: Darrell McConnell, Bob Shaw, or Nan Schulte.

***

- Looking ahead 

Nomination Committee is being formed. If you can serve on this vital committee or are interested in being an officer, please contact Lew Lundberg, president.

Club Picnic in June  We are planning our annual picnic for the third Wednesday night in June at Camp Belzer located on Boy Scout Road in Indianapolis.

Special Projects  The club will be expanding our community service aspect. We will start by doing repairs to furniture at Lutherwood.

Skill Building Competitions  We havent decided exactly what this will be but the title sounds good. Give us your input on what you would like this to be.

Saturday Hands-On Experiences  Opportunities for more in-depth learning than the 2 hours of our Wednesday night meetings. One will be in March at Marc Adams School of Woodworking. Another will be this fall at American Sycamore Woodworkers Retreat.

HCF Project Focus 2003  Our annual club competition for member-made projects. Judging will be at our May meeting. Prizes are awarded in six categories: Inlayed Item (intarsia or marquetry), Furniture, Scroll Saw Projects, Toys, Turnings, and Misc. Rules are: Members may enter as many categories as they wish. Projects must be built after June 1, 2002. Builder must be a member of the club.

Start on your projects now or pick from your recently completed projects that item or two that will win the judges nod.

***

- Program Committee -

The Program Committee met on January 8. A program schedule was set through July. Look for programs coming on woodcarving, band-sawn boxes, computer use in woodworking, and portable sawmills. The spring "Saturday Hands On" will be March 22, 2003 at Marc Adams School of Woodworking. The topic will be Hand Skills. The fall Saturday Hands On will be at American Sycamore Woodworkers Retreat. The topic will be routers.

Other business addressed: reviewed the Survey results (our programs are being tailored to your input) and creation of a checklist for planning a meeting.

The next meeting of the Program Committee is March 12, 2003 at 7:00 at Gibraltar Design conference room. 9102 N. Meridian Street, Suite 300, Indianapolis.

Results from the Program Committee Survey: See last page of Newsletter. Due to lack of space in the Newsletter this month, the suggestions for programs submitted with the survey will be printed in the March Newsletter.

***

- Executive Committee Meeting 

The Executive Committee met on January 29 at Lew Lundbergs house.

Due to the great publicity it afforded the club, the committee voted to reimburse Nan Schulte for remaining out of pocket expenses for the Tee Shirts she provided for members to wear at the Lil Builders Workshop at The Woodworking Show. Nan had donated the shirts to the cause of promoting our club. Most recipients of shirts had previously made unsolicited contributions to Nan to help cover her expenses. The Exec Committee voted to cover the rest of the expense.

The next meeting is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on February 26, 2003. Location to be determined.

***

- Minutes from January 22, 2003 Forum meeting 

Meeting presided over by Lew Lundberg, President.

Visitors: 4

Video Library  Bob Beckerich

We recently purchased several new tapes that will be available to members soon. Some of you are overdue on returning your videos. Your names will be in the next newsletter! ! !

Video Library policy  when we buy a tape, we make one copy to circulate and retain the master.

Toy Project  Darrell McConnell

We provided 1787 toys to 15 organizations in 2002. We are looking for toy patterns for this year, especially for little girls. We also need help with making prototypes.

Program Committee  Don Melloy

Working on the Shirley, Indiana, trip for this spring to The Door Store. Sign up sheet for Marc Adams Woodworking School "Saturday Hands On" class was passed.

Newsletter Update  Nan Schulte

Keep your addresses up to date with the club. If you have suggestions for improving the newsletter, let Nan know.

The Woodworking Show in January  Bob Shaw

Still openings for manning our club booth and the Lil Builders Workshop. Sign up sheets were passed.

Speaker  Phil Tennant spoke on Art Furniture.

Phil is head of the Furniture Design department of the Herron School of Art associated with IUPUI.

Phil presented a slide show showing the evolution of Art or Studio Furniture. Art Furniture is the synthesis of furniture design, craftsmanship, and contemporary art that relates to a sensitivity to form and shape. Books on Art Furniture can be purchased through the Furniture Society website www.furnituresociety.com Many slides in the presentation were taken from their books. The presentation ended with a tour of the Herron woodshop and the option to tour through the art show opening that was being held that night at the Herron School.

Newsletter editor: Nan Schulte

newslettereditor@homecraftsmenforum.com

Home Craftsmen Forum Web Page: www.homecraftsmenforum.com

You can contact our webmaster, John Lundberg, at webmaster@homecraftsmenforum.com

Results of Program Committee Survey

Map to Meeting

5610 Crawfordsville Rd, Suite #15, Speedway

Environmental Management Institute

(about 1 mile west of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, across from the Pizza Hut on the corner of Crawfordsville Road and 22nd Street)

Need more detailed directions, go to http://envtlmgmt.spea.iupui.edu/ and click on "Maps to the Institute."

Home Craftsmen Forum

A membership organization having as it sole object the presentation of educational programs and demonstrations of machines, tools, and processes adaptable for use in the home workshop.