Our April Meeting Announcement...

Sin City Woodworkers Follow the trail of sawdust to our next meeting... Sin City Woodworkers, a Vegas valley social and networking group committed to serious (and not so serious!) woodworking discussions, meet on the third Wednesday of each month to share everything from techniques and ideas to information about local suppliers and much more.  This month’s meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 17 at 7:00, when Dennis Patchett will share a project that he’s been passionate about lately - making wig stands for cancer patients.  Anyone who knows Dennis agrees that he’s a selfless woodworker - spending hours teaching everyone from boy scouts to wood carvers, generously sharing his amazing talents. He’s recently gotten involved with something new - making wig stands for people who’ve lost their hair, due to their cancer treatment. As we all know too well - cancer affects all of us - each year, 1.7 million people will be diagnosed with it, and and nearly 600,000 don’t make it. They face daily struggles - from fighting the disease to negotiating our complicated medical system. Dennis has discovered a way that woodworkers can actually make a contribution to their fight - by making wig stands for people who have other things to worry about. Dennis will bring one of his carved and turned stands, and suggested a challenge for our group - we’ll discuss making this our Christmas Challenge - making unique wig stands, with the ultimate goal of donating them to people in need.  Curious?  Check out this interesting article about a Canadian woodturners group making these stands:  https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/a-real-community-effort-ottawa-woodturners-make-177-wig-stands-for-cancer-patients We’re in the second month of dues collection for our 2019 season, and like every year - dues are completely voluntary. We’ll never twist your arm for the $20 it takes to call yourself a bona fide Sin City Woodworker, but it sure helps us defray the costs of running our group year round. (BTW - our MeetUp membership just increased!) And the best part - any monies left over go right back into the pockets of our members at Christmastime, so please consider joining us this year. Feel free to bring a project to present at Show and Tell, and as always - you’re welcome to bring a friend!  This meeting will be held at Studio: Wood It Is!, 2267 West Gowan, unit 106 in North Las Vegas. As always, the public is welcome to attend the meeting, but remember - there are a limited number of chairs in the woodshop. Attendees might want to bring a folding chair if they wish to sit during the meeting. If you have questions or need directions, call the studio at 702-631-1870.

Interested in CNCs?

Sin City Woodworkers Follow the trail of sawdust to our next meeting... Been thinking about CNCs but didn’t know where to start?   Wait - if you don’t know what CNC stands for - start here. Sin City Woodworkers, a Vegas valley social and networking group committed to serious (and not so serious!) woodworking discussions, meet on the third Wednesday of each month to share everything from techniques and project ideas to information about local suppliers and much more. Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, March 20 at 7:00, and we’re in for a treat!  Jeff Sher will be leading our meeting this month, and bringing his Shaper Origin  handheld CNC to demo and discuss. As Jeff explained - he did some research and was sold on the Shaper Origin, with its unique advantages of allowing mobile CNC cutting and more.  As Jeff explains - despite some limitations as all tools have, this router has added almost unlimited design possibilities to his woodworking. He’ll discuss his woodworking background and what led up to his CNC research. He’ll also share the story of finding the Origin and how he intends on using it with future projects.  Finally, he’ll show how designs get implemented and used with the tools. We’ll also be starting a annual Spring dues drive, where your $20 donation to the group - which is completely voluntary - goes a long way in funding our woodworking endeavors, such as our MeetUp membership and various charitable donations throughout the year. (As well as allowing us to throw a heckuva year end party in December.) So - please consider throwing a Jackson our way and joining the official ranks of Sin City Woodworkers. It’s the best $20 you’ll spend for your woodworking this year!  Finally - we haven't done a Show and Tell in a while, so if you've made something cool in the last few months, please bring it to the meeting and share it with our group! As always, this meeting will be held at Studio: Wood It Is!, 2267 West Gowan, unit 106 in North Las Vegas.  The public is welcome to attend the meeting, so members - please feel free to bring a guest along. But remember that there are a limited number of chairs in the woodshop. Attendees might want to bring a folding chair if they wish to sit during the meeting.  If you have questions or need directions, call the studio at 702-631-1870.

Some great pics of our last meeting...

There was such a huge BUZZ about last week's meeting on fractal burning that I just had to post a few photos. Everyone pretty much agreed that John's turned lamp segment was the winner of the night, so here's a video of some of the burning of it.... it was done very safely, I might add! 

And here are some detailed shots of the effects the burning produced. 

(John's shop looks very clean and orderly, I might add!)

If anyone's interested in trying to build this burner - please be careful! It's quite dangerous, but our two presenters built a very safe version for burning wood.... here's a link to the one they built.  

Click here.

 Be safe and smart!

Burn, Baby, Burn....

Congratulations are in order - we’re celebrating our ten year anniversary this month! It’s hard to believe we’ve been around that long, and frankly, our meetings just keep getting better and more interesting.  We have a terrific presentation planned this month, so join us on Wednesday, February 20, at 7:00 for a night of sparks and flames!  Sin City Woodworkers, a Vegas valley social and networking group committed to serious (and not so serious!) woodworking discussions, meet on the third Wednesday of each month to share everything from techniques and ideas to information about local suppliers and much more. Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 20, at 7:00 and we’re in for a treat this month - co-presenters Emily Davis and Maciek Jezierski (call him Mac!) will share what they’ve learned about fractal burning on wood.  Curious?  Fractal wood burning is a process of applying an electrically conductive solution on wood and then applying high voltage electricity through a transformer using two probes. When this electricity is applied, it burns in the wood from one probe to the other. The figures that are created are commonly called Lichtenberg figures or fractal burns. The results are unpredictable, the technique is often uncontrollable, but the results are amazing! Emily and Mac learned much of what they know by following DoubleReno on his website:  http://www.fractalburn.com.  (You can follow him here: https://www.facebook.com/FractalBurn/) They built their fractal burner using some of his safer methods, and will share what they’ve learned with our group.   Here’s a sample of what they will be doing...  Emily and Mac will also be bringing some various woods to experiment on, but suggested that members are welcome to bring in a piece of wood to burn.  This technique will create some smoke, so we’ll probably have to have the garage door open… so dress warmly! It’s scheduled to snow on Wednesday! Anyone looking for carving woods? Utah wood dealer Jim Grace will be heading back to Las Vegas with a trailer fill of wood, and will be selling it at Wood It Is on Saturday, March 2 at 10:00 AM.  Jim is planning on bringing 4/4, 8/4 and 10/4 cherry, walnut, ash, butternut, white oak, eastern red cedar and hard maple.  Some of the slabs will be with natural edge.  He’ll also bring a large selection of basswood and butternut in sizes from 1" to 4" thick… so carvers - start planning your next work of art!  As always, this meeting will be held at Studio: Wood It Is!, 2267 West Gowan, unit 106 in North Las Vegas. The public is welcome to attend the meeting, so members - please feel free to bring a guest along. But remember that there are a limited number of chairs in the woodshop. Attendees might want to bring a folding chair if they wish to sit during the meeting. If you have questions or need directions, call the studio at 702-631-1870.

Sin City Woodworkers January Meeting Announcement

Sin City Woodworkers, a Vegas valley social and networking group committed to serious (and not so serious!) woodworking discussions, meet on the third Wednesday of each month to share everything from techniques and ideas to information about local suppliers and much more. 

Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 15 at 7:00, and this meeting will feature Steve Coffey, who will be discussing his woodworking collaboration with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints curators to help restore and build reproduction  furniture in the historical village of Nauvoo, Illinois.

As the story goes …. the population of the city of Nauvoo, Illinois in 1839-1846 was second largest in the state, almost as large as that of Chicago. However, in 1844 when Joseph Smith and his brother were killed by the mob, the vast majority of the residents moved west and settled Utah and Salt Lake City. (You can check things out at: historicnauvoo.net)

Since the 1960’s, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has been restoring the Nauvoo historic district, a few additional buildings and homes at a time. One of the homes they are currently working on to restore is the home of William Weeks, who was the architect for the Nauvoo temple. Steve built a reproduction of the 1800’s architect’s desk for display in this home  (shown below)  and is working on several other projects, such as a bed, a settee, and some parlor or tea tables. Steve’s hope is that some in our group might want to also participate in this project and build a piece to be displayed in these historic homes.

Church curators are consulting with woodworkers, since they don’t know much about early American furniture… it’s a symbiotic relationship - Steve helps them connect with woodworking, and building the pieces have so helping with the research as well as building the furniture has helped him to connect even closer to the people and times almost 200 years ago. Oh - an by the way -  its pretty cool that something that Steve has made will be on display for the next 100+ years too!  

BTW - Steve’s not just a furniture maker - his turned wares were the winner of the Christmas Ornament contest, and his body of woodworking ranges from small to large. 

We’ll have a Show and Tell at our meeting, so if you’ve made something cool, or gotten a great tool for Christmas - bring it by and share it with the group!

This meeting will be held at Studio: Wood It Is!, 2267 West Gowan, unit 106 in North Las Vegas. As always, the public is welcome to attend the meeting, so members - please feel free to bring a guest along. But remember that there are a limited number of chairs in the woodshop. Attendees might want to bring a folding chair if they wish to sit during the meeting. If you have questions or need directions, call the studio at 631-1870.

Join us for our annual Holiday Bash!

Put down your chisels, take off your tool belt, brush off the sawdust - and get ready for our annual Sin City Woodworkers Christmas Party, where we’ll celebrate a productive year and toast the coming New Year! 

Sin City Woodworkers, a Vegas valley social and networking group committed to serious (and not so serious!) woodworking discussions, meet on the third Wednesday of each month to share everything from techniques and ideas, to information about local suppliers and much more. Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, December 19, at 7:00. As usual - feel free to bring a guest or your better half! 

We’ll have some goodies to snack on, and some beverages to share, so don’t feel like you have to bring anything. But if you make an outrageous salsa or artichoke dip, we’d love to try it!

Join us for our most entertaining meeting of the year - it’s all about food, friendship, family and more. They say that Las Vegas is a tough city to make friends in - but anyone who attends one of our monthly meetings knows that we’ve formed some great connections within our group. We’re heading into our TENTH year of sharing tips and techniques, failures and successes, and best of all - new friendships.

A HUGE thank you goes to Andrew and Nic Moore of Reclaimed Secrets, 

who were kind enough to donate a massive Beetle Kill Pine slab for us to raffle off.  

It’s been epoxied with some gorgeous mica, 

and sanded flat. 

All it needs is a little more TLC sanding, add some legs and you’ve got yourself a fabulous table for your home, or to sell. 

We’ll be selling raffle tickets for this slab - one chance for $10, or three chances for $20. All proceeds go back into our yearly fund, which helps finance all of our woodworking throughout the year. So please consider taking a chance on this raffle!

We’ll also be voting on the winners of our annual building context - this year, we chose Christmas Ornaments as our project. We give out great cash prizes, and the winners get bragging rights throughout the coming year. We hope everyone came up with something for our contest!

Remember - any money left over after paying for the party and prizes is given back to our members, via our cash drawings throughout the night. If you’ve been the lead presenter at one of our monthly meetings, your name will go into the hat, too! It’s all about participation, which we greatly appreciate!

By the way - if you have something to donate to the drawing,  please bring it with you to our party.  Maybe someone gave you a woodworking book that you already own, or have some duplicate items sitting around your shop - we will add this to our giveaway table.

As always, our party will be held at Studio: Wood It Is!, 2267 West Gowan, unit 106 in North Las Vegas. The public is welcome to attend the meeting, but remember -  there are a limited number of chairs in the woodshop. Attendees might want to bring a folding chair if they wish to sit during the meeting. If you have questions or need directions, call the studio at 631-1870.

Learn to sharpen like a pro...

Take a break from baking pumpkin pies and head over to our next Sin City Woodworkers meeting …

Let’s face it - ask ten woodworkers their opinion about sharpening, and you’ll probably get twelve answers!  We’ve had past demonstrations on the Deulen system (thanks Jim C!) and the WorkSharp system (thanks, Richard!), not to mention Dennis P’s discussion on sharpening carving chisels and gouges, and Ted’s card scraper presentation… all in all, it’s a subject that has been well covered. 

But if you’re looking for a simple and integrated solution.. then this month’s meeting is for you…

Sin City Woodworkers, a Vegas valley social and networking group committed to serious (and not so serious!) woodworking discussions, meet on the third Wednesday of each month to share everything from techniques and project ideas to information about local suppliers and much more. This month’s meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, November 21 at 7:00, when Vernon Lucero  will be sharing his slick sharpening set-up using this Norton waterstone kit and its integrated Norton IM 83 Waterstone Case.

If you looked up the definition of renaissance man, you might find Vern’s picture.  He’s a man of many interests and talents (woodworking and cooking, to name two!) and frankly, Vern bought this system to sharpen his cooking knives. But when he was able to so easily get keen edges on his kitchen knives, he realized this system would be great on his woodworking tools, too. BAM! - he’d found the perfect solution to getting quick and precisely honed edges on his chisels and plane blades. 

Vern will bring his Norton system, and explain its simplicity and effectiveness for getting tools in tip-top shape. He spent a career in construction, and didn’t have a chance to really explore woodworking until he retired. His love for hand-tool work shows in this beautiful toolbox that holds his hand tools… a true testament to his pursuit of excellence in the woodshop.  You won’t meet a more humble, but wildly talented man than Vern, and you’ll be enriched by what he has to share with our group. 

As usual, we’ll have a show and tell, so if you’ve made something cool during the month, please bring it to share with our group. This is our last meeting before our Holiday Party, and here’s a friendly reminder that you only have about a month left to complete your entry in to our Christmas Ornament contest. We give great prizes to the winners, and we hope to have a good turnout for this year’s challenge. 

This meeting will be held at Studio: Wood It Is!, 2267 West Gowan, unit 106 in North Las Vegas. As always, the public is welcome to attend the meeting, so members - please feel free to bring a guest along. But remember that there are a limited number of chairs in the woodshop. Attendees might want to bring a folding chair if they wish to sit during the meeting. If you have questions or need directions, call the studio at 631-1870.