GWA at the 20Fine 3 Woodworking Show

Every year the GWA attends and displays at "The Woodworking Shows" and this year was no exception. For 2013 the show moved to the Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Georgia (formerly it was at the North Atlanta Trade Center). Im not quite sure why but there seemed to be a heightened sense of excitement this year. I also got to attend a seminar by Paul Sellers (someone who Ive found quite interesting online - hes just as gracious and charming in person as he is in his popular videos). 

The GWA booth was near the center of the large room down the main entrance. We had many items on display and also had stations for lathe and scroll saw work with volunteers in attendance. For the first time Ricky Alexander and some others set up notebook computers and demonstrated the work the SketchUp SIG has been getting into. Weve found that doing these shows is a great way to meet new people, discuss new methods and garner potential members. Here are the photos I took at the show.

GWA Member Ted Baldwin doing a demonstration at the Woodworkers Guild Booth...

Ted Baldwin at the Woodworkers Guild Booth

Some of Ted Baldwins Work

In the main lobby area was this table for the "Show Off Showcase" - not many entries this year...

New signage at the GWA booth this year - normally were against the wall so this year we chose to do tall vertical banners...

Hans Meier at a scroll saw station...

 

Gerry Jones at a lathe....

 

A shot of one of the new banners...

Mickey Hudspeth demonstrates his skill at chip carving...

Steve Carmichaels fantastic "Kiss" weathervane...

Some puzzles by Karl Taylor...

Some of George Norths segmentation work if Im not mistaken...

Ricky Alexander doing magic in SketchUp...

GWA founder Ron Brown had his own booth this year...

Some beautiful club-made boxes (Rob Brokaw I believe, featuring a bit of marquetry)...

Some turned items by the Turners SIG...

A whimsical intarsia piece...

I spotted this chair in another booth and had to take a couple of stills...

And that wraps up the photos that I took...

-- John

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A Bicycle Built of Wood

Michael Thompsons wooden bike has no chain but uses a series of gears to transmit energy from the pedals to the rear wheel.
Photo: Courtesy splinterbike
And now folks, a first in the annals of personal transportation and an inspiration to mechanically minded woodworkers everywhere.
British woodworker Michael Thompson has constructed the first of its kind, all wooden bicycle. Weighing in at 71 pounds, the ingenious two-wheeler is made primarily of birch plywood. Thompson used lignum vitae for the bearings and bushings and a bit old broomstick for part of the handlebar assembly. There is no metal or rubber in it, and no playing cards in the spokes, either.
Thompson built the bicycle to satisfy a bet with a friend, but the pair are seriously hoping to set a speed record (for wooden bikes) once the cycle is up and running. Will it be fair to say the cycle is "lumbering" up the track?
Thompson said it took about 1,000 hours to design and build the bike.
For more photos and a video, check out the splinter bike web page.
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Butterfly tables by Michael Fortune

Works with any base. The table in the magazine had a standard base, but this table has one thats definitely non-standard. Still, the same technique for making the leaf was used.
Photo: Michael Fortune
I have one of the best jobs in the world, at least if you love furniture making. And one of my favorite parts of the job is working with our authors, like Michael Fortune. His design chops are first rate, but Im even more impressed by his technical skill in the shop. He is a true master of the craft. Thats why his article in FWW #220, "Finest Way to Expand a Table," is such a wonderful contribution to furniture making. Not only is the tables aesthetic design elegant, its technical design is exquisite, too. He has taken something which could be a nightmare to figure out and presented it in a way that all of us can understand. Before this, the butterfly table was something only the most advanced furniture makers could execute. Hoewever, its now something that just about all of us can do, because he has clarified and simplified the most complicated part: figuring out where to put the pivots. And even if you cant do it now, its certainly within your reach not too far down the road.
The reason Michael is able to present the technique in a clear and easy to understand manner is that hes done all the hard work, making a lot of butterfly tables and learning his lessons. Id thought it would be nice to show you some of his other work. Enjoy.
(By the way, Ive always found that the truly gifted people are those who can take complicated material and present it in a way that makes it seem easy. Thank goodness for Michael Fortune and all of the other wonderful authors writing for FWW! Id be a worse furniture maker without them and the craft would be far less healthy.)
posted in: blogs, michael fortune, butterfly table
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Tough Going with Follow Me

The Follow Me Tool has been one of the most reliable and effective tools in my design of furniture in SketchUp. After all, I like furniture with turnings and moldings so Follow Me has been frequently used with successful results. So I was surprised recently to run into some difficulty with the tool.
I ran into the problem while working on this Philadelphia Lowboy. The Top has a molded edge, but note the unique curved corners in the front.
Here is a close-up view of the front corner of the Top. I wasnt expecting any difficulty making this shaped edge, so it was quite a shock to see funny results with Follow Me. This set me back several hours as I began to experiment with alternative ways of using Follow Me. I knew that it could be done with a plug-in, but I was stuck on making Follow Me work.

The following are some of the steps I used to finally achieve an acceptable result.
Step 1: Here is a plan view of the Table Top corner along with the profile shape. Using the Arc Tool, I drew over the top of the shape shown with red edges and blue face. The angle at the corner is of course 45 degrees, so I placed an angled guideline with the Protractor.

Step 2: Expecting some difficulty with small facets, I scaled up the size of the corner shapes by a factor of 10. Then I placed the profile shape onto the flat shape as shown below. I selected the Follow Me Tool, clicked on the profile shape, and began to drag my mouse along the front edge.

Step 3: Here I am dragging the mouse along the front edge and watching the profile shape extrude the molding step-by-step. Of course, you can operate the Follow Me Tool differently by selecting the path, then clicking on the profile shape. But in this method, it is more difficult to see how Follow Me works and how the profile moves with respect to the path. Note that the profile always positions itself perpendicular to the path.

Step 4: Here Ive completed the Follow Me along the entire front edge across the corner. And you can readily see the problems at the corner. This is caused by the path turning in at the corner so that the profile rotates back on itself.


Step 5: Next I restarted the Follow Me, but this time I used the back edge as the path.

Step 6: Even though there were again problems at the corner, I could see a smooth and proper curved face through the corner. The extra edges were a result of face geometry created within the envelop of the molding shape. So I set out to edit and clean-up this area of the corner.

Step 7: I created a cutting plane at the 45 degree angle. Then I selected all geometry and executed Intersect Selected. After cleaning up with the Eraser, here are the results.

Step 8: Using the Push/Pull Tool, I extended the straight portions of the molded edge.

Step 9: I created one-half of the Top by closing in the top and bottom faces. Then I copied and flipped this half to make the whole Top piece.

I suspect there are easier ways to accomplish this difficult shaping (with Plug-ins), but now I know it can acceptably be done using Follow Me only.
Tim
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