Message from the President

July 2005

It's July and the warm days of Summer have arrived….finally. Many Thanks to Mr. Terry Korn for demonstrating "inside-out turning" during the June club meeting. For those of you who have seen Terry's "inside-out" spindles incorporated into yarn spinning wheels, it makes for quite a treat.

This month's Challenge Project is an "Inside-Out" turning. For July's meeting, the BSWT Club will be conducting a "Chucking Roundtable". BSWT Club members are encouraged to bring their chucking ideas and innovations to the discussion. I would like to learn more about "vacuum-chucking" if anyone is interested in presenting this topic.

The 2nd Annual Woodturners / Woodcarvers Club Fair will be held on September 17th, 2005 at the Sheldon Plaza Shopping Center, 1530 Coburg Road, Eugene, Oregon. The event will be held from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm in tents in the shopping center parking lot. All woodturning and woodcarving clubs (and individuals not currently affiliated with a club) are welcome to participate. There will be an evening picnic at near-by Armitage Park for participating turners, carvers and their guests. The evening event will also include a raffle for great prizes donated by vendors as well as wood and other items donated by the participating clubs. So, lots of logistics to attend to for the next few months. We are in need of demonstrators for this event, so any suggestions or volunteers would be greatly appreciated.

As I work in my shop I'm continually coping with the problem of wood dust control. I grew up in a woodworking and building family, and back in those days the health consequences of wood dust and exposure to wood toxins were not much considered. My grandfather would mill his own lumber and we children would play in the huge sawdust piles that accumulated after each woodlot harvest. At the end of the day we would look like dust bunnies. Today much more is known about the effects of wood dust and the toxins they contain. I would like to direct BSWT members to the AAW's website: http://www.woodturner.org/resources/toxicity.cfm, which has some very useful and informative data on wood toxicity and the physical manifestations of exposure to various species. To quote:

"Wood Dust:
Listed as a "known human carcinogen" in this report, wood dust is created when machines and tools cut, shape and finish wood. Wood dust is particularly prevalent in sawmills, furniture manufacture and cabinet making. According to the report, unprotected workers have a higher risk of cancers of the nasal cavities and sinuses."

Please take a look at this information and ask yourself if you are doing enough to protect yourself while in the shop.


Parting thought-

"Fashion your life as a garland of beautiful deeds."


-- Buddha

Let The Chips Fall Where They May-

Dennis A. Avery

Vice-President's Corner

Schedule of Events

 by Sam Lee  

 

Hats off to Terry Korn for his inside out turning demonstration during the June meeting. Terry showed well done examples of the process as well as finished projects when common faults had occurred along the way. Terry turned a couple inside out clusters showing the physical step by step process. He also prepared a straight forward handout explaining the process. Well done indeed! This months challenge project is an inside out turning. For the demonstration segment of the July meeting we will have a round table session on different chucking techniques so bring a chuck along and share in the discussion.

September 17 and the second annual Woodturners Faire is quickly approaching. James Burke is providing the space and the opportunity for the Beaver State Woodturners and other statewide turning and carving clubs to interact with each other and the public. During the July meeting we should discuss how we should participate this year. Last year the silent action and wood raffle at the picnic helped cover the expenses for the event. The freedom pen turning brought in a lot of interest from the public as did the individual turning demonstrations. I thought the gallery display that the Beaver state club and the Umpqua club exhibited did well to educate the public. What we do this year as a club can be along the same form or we can try other things. Bring your ideas to the club meeting July 25, 6:00P.M. At the Woodcraft Store.

Happy turnings,

Sam

  • July 25, 6:00PM, BSWT meeting, Woodcraft, Eugene

  • September 17, 9:00AM - 3:00PM, Woodturners/Woodcarvers Faire, Woodcraft, Eugene


    This month's project is "Inside-Out". Bring in any item turned inside-out to win a $15.00 gift certificate! (See the link below for more details).

For photos of Terry Korn's presentation at the June meeting, click on the following link:

June Meeting - Terry Korn's demonstration

 

For instruction on Inside-Out turning, click on the following link:

Inside-Out turning handout

Member Profile

  

This month's member profile is none other than our illustrious president, Dennis Avery.

Hello-
My name is Dennis Avery, and I am the 2005 President for the Beaver State Woodturners of Eugene, Oregon. My lovely wife Leigh and I reside in Eugene. I grew up in the north woods of New Hampshire and remember being with my grandfather pulling logs from forestlands with horses and hitch. My Dad was a builder and I got a very early and long exposure to working with tools. My Dad's Uncle John built the local Dairy Queen, for which I was forever proud of as a teenager.

I just retired from 37 years of flying helicopters. I served as a combat assault helicopter pilot in the Republic of Viet Nam, Tay Ninh Province, in 1969. After Viet Nam I attended Arizona State University, in Tempe, Arizona with my undergraduate studies in Business Administration, and post-graduate studies in Agricultural Industry. The next several years saw me as a marketing manager for a major helicopter operator, but I missed flying and spent several years in Idaho doing a wide variety of flying, mostly in mountainous terrain. The next venture was as a partner in a helicopter charter service and flight school in Mesa, Arizona. My path then lead to my last twenty-two years as an Emergency Services helicopter captain, the last 2 years in Central Coastal California flying a Bell 222. In those years I flew a lot of patients in critical need to life saving treatment. I am very fortunate to have had no accidents, incidents, or flight violations in those many years of flying. Air Evac Services, of Phoenix, Az. awarded me with an 8,000 patient mission award for the nearly 19 years I flew for that company.

I enjoy furniture repair and part replacement; gunstock finishing; routing and various jigs; table saw, scroll saw and bandsaw operations; arts and crafts; and woodturning. Other hobbies include keyboard and guitar, pastels and watercolor, camping and canoeing; and I'm an absolutely rabid history nut.

I've very much enjoyed being your President for the last six months and my life is richer because of all of you.

Our Thanks to Woodcraft

  
We would like to thank James and the staff at Woodcraft for all the help in setting up and allowing us to use the store as our meeting place. When you need turning supplies or other wood working tools be sure to check out Woodcraft and their great selection of tools.