This month’s meeting of the Atlantic Woodworkers Association featured a visit and demonstration from the owners and staff of Sasco Products Limited.

Sasco, formerly known locally as ChemCraft, manufactures and carries a full spectrum of environmentally responsible wood coatings and finishes, wood protection and wood preservation for every market.

Owners Sam and Lizzie Sorenson spoke extensively on a wide variety of products, explaining their use and how to apply them properly for best results.

You can find out more about Sasco and their product line at http://www.sasco.ca

There were 30 members in attendance for this informative and entertaining presentation.

Back to the shop…

This month’s meeting of the Atlantic Woodworkers Association featured an informative session with Lee Valley’s Assistant Manager, Kevin Hurst, who spoke to us about hinges, all kinds of hinges.

Kevin, who used to be a professional cabinet maker before working with LV, focused his presentation on the most common questions regarding hinges that they are asked at Lee Valley. Since most of the questions they receive are about kitchen cabinet hinges his talk centered around these types of hinges.

He spoke on decorative butt hinges, European style hinges, lift-off hinges, overlay hinges and more. He also spoke on table hinges, pivot hinges, screen hinges, barrel hinges, SOSS hinges and strap hinges. Each of the hinges that he explained were attached to a cabinet sample which made it very easy to see how they would look in a real application. This also helped in understanding how the hinge worked, in particular the SOSS, table and screen hinges.

Continue reading 'The AWA Gets Unhinged At Lee Valley'

The first meeting for the Atlantic Woodworkers Association’s 2010-2011 season kicked off with a great presentation from member Mike Bielby on the basics of Sketchup, the popular 3D sketching software.

Mike uses the program quite extensively and therefore he is quite familiar with it, and it showed. He took us on an excellent tour through the program, showing us a variety of features, by creating a table and a chair.

While creating these items he explained the extensive menu bar. Each component was quickly created with the push/pull feature and accurately measured to plan. The table even had tapered legs and the chair had an arced back and styled seat!

Using these real-life examples it became clear to us the simplicity of using Sketchup in our woodworking design and why it could be a valuable tool in the workshop. Thanks Mike, excellent presentation!

There was also a silent auction held for a variety of tools. These tools were owned by the AWA and used for the Children’s Workshop that was held each year in conjunction with the Halifax Woodshow, which, unfortunately, is no more. The tools included 5 Ryobi scroll saws, 3 Ryobi bench-top belt sanders, 1 Ryobi 10″ drill press, 3 Ryobi disk sanders, 1 Rigid bench-top oscillating sander and 1 Craftsman scroll saw.

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This month’s meeting of the Atlantic Woodworkers Association was a trip down memory lane with a review of the year’s 1988 and 1992 that featured a video tour of two past exhibitions. Yes, there was even popcorn!

The exhibition held May 17-28 1988 was hosted at the Anna Leonowens Gallery and the exhibition held in 1992 was held from September 10th to November 14th at the Mary E. Black Gallery. This was the 10th anniversary of the club and it was a juried exhibition.

The amateur video was earlier converted from VHS to DVD and although it is showing its age it is an excellent snapshot into the history of the club and clearly shows the professional level achieved by the members.

What really took my breath away when I first saw this video was not only the high quality of the projects but their diversity. There were carvings, both portrait and wildlife, Windsor chairs of several varieties, formal chairs with ball and claw legs, Krenov-style cabinets, tables with gear driven drawers, boxes, toys, all styles of woodturnings and a lot more.

In addition to the video presentation was a quick review of the newsletters from these periods highlighting the following:

Continue reading 'AWA – A Trip Down Memory Lane'