Category: Meeting Review

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…

Board News The board approved a request from the Empty Bowls event organizers, Nourish Milwaukee, to demonstrate bowl tuning during their event in October. Next Meeting – No Monday evening meeting on July 7 On July 19 and 20, Sally Ault will be here in person from California to do a Saturday demo on dirty…

Board News The board was made aware of an opportunity for MAWT to promote the club and demonstrate turning at two events.  They are Germanfest and Folk Fair.  One or both of these events could replace our outreach that had been done via the Woodworker show which is no longer held.  Let someone on the…

Mike Wendt demonstrated proper tree felling on a Saturday, March 29 field trip.  It was quite a thrill to see a 24 inch diameter Black Walnut tree hit the ground.  About twenty MAWT members went home with some beautiful Black Walnut to turn.  Mike shared some great information on how to safely use a chainsaw…

Jay Guiliani and Mark Trenier presented this month on the topic of organizing your shop. Jay spoke to electrical considerations and offered to help advise anyone looking for solutions to electrical questions. Mark shared a presentation on the many ways and devices he uses to organize his shop to get the most efficient use of…

Leigh White demonstrated the turning of a Weeble bowl at our February meeting. Actually, she turned two of them. A Weeble bowl, Leigh’s name for them, is a bowl that’s been turned, usually with some kind of interesting top rim and/or bottom ornamentation, cut in half and then re-glued so that the bottom becomes the…

We had a great meeting last Monday night (November 4). The Fabulous Fearsome Foursome Finessed Finishing. Ron Zdroik began by talking about enhancements (carving and painting), Terry Alby gave a quick demonstration on dying, Steve Fostecz did an excellent remote demo on finishing and finally, Kevin Seigworth talked about products to use for various types…

We had a great meeting last Monday evening. After the break I counted over 50 in attendance. I don’t know how many we had on Zoom. Jim Andresen gave us a great demo packed full of tips for segmenting. From designing the piece to cutting, gluing and final turning. It certainly inspired me – I’ve…

We had a great demonstration with Keith Gotschall on Monday night (6/3/24). We had 26 or so members in the meeting room and 12 or so on line for a total of about 40 in attendance. Those who attended on Zoom may not have realized that we were having technical issues with the sound in…

This was written over 10 days ago and I never got it published… It was good to have a somewhat normal meeting this month. The “somewhat” is because the scheduled demonstrator could not be there because of circumstances beyond his control, so we decided to hold an extended show and tell. The recording of that…

Hi – it’s been too long since we have published any updates about the Milwaukee Area Woodturners. Since the last newsletter, a number of things have occurred… Welcome new members!! – between the Woodworking Show and the Alan Lacer weekend we have gained a few new members for 2024. March Meeting – In late February…

Thanks to Dennis Motl for some sound woodturning advice at the February meeting. Although Dennis touched on many subjects, much of the knowledge he shared was good basic stuff. I have written about one particular line that he used in another post which will be part of the email that shares this newsletter. The bottom…

One of the things that Dennis mentioned really rang a bell with me personally, which is “Don’t let the person with the saw determine the size (and shape) of your project.”  I know that when I started turning, sourcing wood was one of the largest concerns that I had. I was under the mistaken impression…

We had another good turnout for our January meeting and I know we had a number of participants on the Zoom meeting. We had a number of Instant Gallery items – Tom Hipsak took pictures – we will be posting those when he gets them processed. The meeting was recorded – to view it click…

I’m sorry I ran out of time for the demonstration Monday night. Here are some highlights of my thinking that you may find useful. I think the challenge of making a peppermill can be divided into three parts: layout, drilling and design. Each comes with their own challenges. Layout The primary challenge to laying out…

Hi Everyone: If you weren’t able to attend the 2023 December Holiday Party you missed a great time! We had a great turnout with lots of great food and fellowship! There was a gift exchange and a door prize drawing. If you were there it was great to see you!  NOTE: For our January 2024…

November Meeting: We had a great turnout for our November meeting – between those present at the Woodcraft meeting room and the online participants we had almost 60 people in attendance.  Terry Alby, Kevin Seigworth, Ron Zdroik and Steve Fosticz made a very enjoyable and informative presentation. From finding wood, to cutting it up and…

Our meeting date came early this month – on October 2! Coupled with the late date last month due to the Labor Day holiday – the two meetings came close together. The club was active this past month, however, with two events occurring between the two meetings. First, on September 23 we had a Workshop…

September Meeting We had a great meeting on September 11. David Landers did a great job of helping us understand how to think out of the box and how to use bowtie inserts (pewas) for both structure repair and for decorative purposes on turned hollow forms. I have been putting a lot of thought into…

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Show-N-Tell at the meeting on August 7. The meeting was recorded and the recording is ready for viewing at the top of the Video page. I know Tom Hipsak took pictures of most of the items and they will be added to the Gallery when they become…

June Meeting Thank you to Dennis Clayton for an in-depth coverage of photography at our club meeting in June. Dennis showed a number of different techniques, all aimed at recording your wood art with artistic photography. I’ll be trying some of his techniques with my photography. Dennis’ presentation reminded me that photography is an art…

Can you believe it is May already? We are already over a third of the way through the year! This should have come out this morning (Sunday, 5/7/23) but I forgot to “publish” it so you will be seeing it Monday morning at the earliest. If you weren’t able to join us for the May…

We had a successful open workshop on April 15, with several participants and the perfect number of mentors, and even a couple observers. We shared the space with the Guild and made a lot of (mostly yellow) wood chips. Here are a few cell phone snaps of some of the participants. We plan to hold…

I apologize for taking this long to get the newsletter out. I’m not sure if it is an excuse or a reason, but we had a busy Easter weekend and then the weather turned beautiful and we have been busy in the yard and the garden. However, if I don’t get this done soon, it…

There are a number of items I forgot to mention in the Newsletter 2023 AAW Symposium The Symposium is in Louisville Ky, right at a 7 hour drive from Milwaukee. I know we have some members going. If we can register 10 or more chapter members (who must also be AAW members) we can get…

Wow!! What a great attendance for our March meeting – I counted about 55 persons in attendance and there were over 10 on the Zoom meeting. It was great to see everyone. Jim Stephan made a great presentation on using different sizes of the skew chisel to make a gnome. I expect to see lots…

The Video for the February Meeting is posted at the top of the Demo Videos page.

Greetings everyone! It was nice to be able to participate in the meeting the other night. I have heard there around 50 people in attendance at Woodcraft!! And there were about 10 attending through Zoom, including myself. I couldn’t see who all was there in person, but I saw at least one person in attendance…

Happy New Year!! January Meeting – We had a great meeting in January 2023 with a number of announcements and the theme of an “Extended Show and Tell.” We’ll cover some of the important announcements later in this newsletter. I was very pleased at the number of people who participated in the Show-N-Tell – it…

Happy Holidays!! I hope every one of you have an opportunity to spend time with friends and family during the upcoming holiday season. I hope you have a heated shop and get to spend some time in it at during any breaks from work that you may have coming up. Here we are near the…

Wow!! I was beginning to wonder whether or not we would have a meeting in November. First Chris Kraemer contacted me in late October to ask if we could postpone our meeting for a week. After checking with our scheduled demonstrator and the MAWT Board members, we rescheduled. Next, the Friday before the meeting our…

Hello Everyone; I am very late getting the Newsletter completed this month. Between the late meeting we held (9/12) and health issues here in my family time has slipped away. If you missed the demo last Monday night by Jim Andresen, It is now up on video. Jim did a nice job explaining and demoing…

Hi everyone: Here we are – almost half way through the year. By the end of the month we will officially be in the Summer season! It’s the time of year to be preparing those blanks that you want to turn when the weather forces us indoors this coming fall and winter. Whether or not…

Hi Everyone; It’s May! It’s hard to believe that we are more than one third of our way through 2022. After a cold and wet April, I’m ready for some May flowers – how about you? If you weren’t able to participate in the meeting last Monday night you missed a terrific demonstration. Curt Van…

Hi Everyone! It’s April, although the state of Wisconsin doesn’t seem to have caught up with the calendar just yet. We had our April meeting last evening which featured a remote demonstration by Jason Clark, who turned a “Saturn Bowl” for us. Personally, I really enjoyed Jason’s demonstration. He took time to thoroughly explain each…

Hi Everyone! It was great to see and visit with a number of you in person at the meeting this past Tuesday (March 7).  We’re beginning to see a few folks that we haven’t seen for quite a while! Demonstration – If you were not able to attend the meeting, Ron Bukowy demonstrated therming. Therming…

Hi Everyone; I am reflecting as I write this “Newsletter,” is there any real “News” to be had? Sometimes I feel like we are stuck in a holding pattern (for you aviators and frequent flyers who read this). We are waiting for the Covid runway to be cleared so we can resume normally scheduled flight…

The February 2022 meeting is planned to be on-line only. There will be no face-to-face meeting at Woodcraft. This is to accomodate the Woodworking Guild as they make changes to the meeting area. We have John Jordon scheduled to present via Zoom for this meeting. We are announcing this now and will repeat this announcement…