August 2025 Newsletter

Meetings

Jon Behnke conducted an interesting and informative demo using GluBoost as a finish for pens and pendants.  He demonstrated adding color to the glue then applying it to the work. He compared and contrasted this product to standard CA glue.  Jon then turned a pendant using layers of blue tape held together with CA glue to hold the blank to a wood glue block.  He then demonstrated offsetting the pendant, using tape and CA, to make the off center hole in the pendant.

Our next meeting is September 8, when a panel of MAWT members will present the topic, Selling Your Work.  This includes selling at galleries, craft fairs, art shows, and online marketplaces like Etsy.

Upcoming Pen Makers Club Meetings

Sunday Sept 7 Noon at Woodcraft

German Fest

Randy Shilling, Mary Schwaller, and Greg Wimsey demonstrated turning, sold their work, and promoted MAWT with a large banner, flyers, and discussions about turning and MAWT.

Wood auction

The Bardenhagen wood auction is live on our website with one last batch of wood up for auction.  The auction closes on August 15.

Members who helped make it happen: Harold Solberg, Dave Lane, Dennis Motl, Tony Rozendaal, Eric Jaeger, Jim Knoerr, Tom Hipsak, Ron Zdroik, and George Wawrzyniak.

Sally Ault weekend. 

This was a fun and educational weekend with Sally, learning about embellishing your bowl lids with a paint pour and making lidded boxes.  Members who helped make it happen; Leigh White, Dave McBride, Tony Rozendaal, Greg Wimsey, and Steve Fosticz.

If I forget someone who contributed to these events, you can remind me that my recall abilities are not so great.

Empty bowls

Bring in your Empty Bowls donations at the September meeting.  They will be delivered to Nourish Milwaukee for use in their fundraiser event on October 5.

Tips and Tricks

Submitted by Greg Richter

I use my lathe and a Jacobs chuck to drill my blanks. I seem to get better straight through holes.

A transfer punch set (Harbor Freight $13) is an all around shop tool for pen disassembly, alignment of various projects and holds a blank square for sanding the ends of blanks.

The punch sizes will fit just about any size of brass tube.

Uncured Epoxy cleans up nicely with denatured alcohol. Additionally, a bottle of hand sanitizer works as well and can be kept handy for easy use.

It was noted that acetone will clean up epoxy as well but I would avoid it on acrylic as it may dissolve the blank.

If you have a tip or tick to share, send it to me in an email.

Kevin Seigworth,

MAWT President