What's In The Newsletter?

• Presidents Report & Program Info
• Dues
• Upcoming Trade Shows
• Safety Info Article
• January 2020 Board Meeting Notes
• Product Review - Evapo-Rust
• Woodworking Product Distribution Changes
• Museum Resources

From the President ...

I can remember back in high school in the 60's, we were required to read the book 1984 written by George Orwell in 1948.The book dealt with what the future would look like in 1984. Many of the things forecast actually happened and Orwell saw what would take place by that arbitrary date, 1984.

Now what does this have to do with the Guild?  When it was first formed, there probably were many projections as to what the Guild will look like in the future.  We may not know exactly what was stated in those earlier years, but more than likely, much of that early discussion has come to fruition.  My first exposure to the Guild was at the Shopsmith store on Northampton Boulevard, next at the Henry Walke Company in Norfolk and now at the Woodcraft Store.  Since the early days, the Guild has been a forum for discussion and education and has evolved into the outstanding organization we all know.

As the new president of the Guild, I want to thank all of you for continuing to be an active participant in the activities of the Guild.  At our recent Board meeting, we talked a lot about the future and there was much positive discussion of what we may be doing this year.  This will be presented at the meeting on January 27.

The Guild is your organization and the Board wants to continue to offer programs and activities that are both wanted and relevant.  The program at the next meeting will be dealing with the important topic, safety.  Details about this program will come out in the weekly e-mails prior to the meeting.  That's all for now.

Keep it With the Grain

Fran

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2020 Dues

It’s time to pay the piper for 2020.  The annual dues fee of $20.00 is due starting at the January meeting and must be paid by the 4^th Monday of February to keep your status marked as “Active”.

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Upcoming Trade Shows

Interested in a trade show in our area?  There is a show in our area starting in late February.

The Woodworking Show will be held at the Dulles Convention Center from February 28th through March 1, 2020.  Please note that in 2020 February is a leap year month.

This 3 day events is worth attending.  There are 3 days of various seminars, both free and paid plus about 50 exhibitors with various products to sell and demonstrate.  For more information click on the link http://www.thewoodworkingshows.com.

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January’s Safety Notes

As the guild members come back to the normal monthly meeting from the holiday break, we usually make January our safety meeting along with collecting our yearly dues and catching up with items you built since November.  In this article I thought it would be a nice refresher to look at our safety in terms of sight, hearing and the air we breathe.

Sight –

I imagine that we all have safety glasses in our shop.  Do we always use the safety glasses?  I won’t answer that question myself.  Remember you only have one set of eyes and you should do everything possible to protect them!

For our eye protection we can break it down to basically 3 types of eye protection for the shop:  safety glasses, safety glasses with magnifiers and face shields.  Another thing to consider when purchasing safety glasses is the use of a respirator to keep out the dust.  Sometimes they do not work together.

In terms of safety glasses your selection depends upon whether or not your wear prescription glasses.  If you do wear prescription glasses you might want to consider either the “NoCry Over Safety Glasses with clear anti-scratch wraparound lenses, adjustable arms, side shields and UV400 protection.  They sell for around $13 to $15 each and have been top rated by woodworkers for the last couple of years.  Another choice for the prescription glass wearer is the Gateway Safety 6980.  There not as robust as the NoCry glasses but they are under $10 so it might be a good choice if you are tough on glasses or do not wear them that often.

If you do not wear prescription glasses then you have lots of choices to choose from.   Dewalt, from one of our tool manufacturers, has a couple of safety glasses to look at.  The DPG55-11C sells for about $6 to $7 while the DPG82-11CTR lists for around $10.  NoCry also has a highly rated safety glass that sells for about $11 for those who do not wear prescription glasses.

Now we get into safety glasses with magnifiers or for the older group in the guild, safety glasses with readers built into them.  I have these safety glasses in my shop in two different versions, the bifocal version and the full magnifier type.  I need the magnification factor (and lots of light!) but these are my cons of both types.  I don’t like the bifocal version when working on the table saw as I am also looking over the magnifier section to see the table saw blade and then having to look down into the magnification area to see the details of my line or where my fingers are in relation to the blade.  I also own a pair of safety glasses that are full magnification throughout the whole lens.  The two big draw backs to this safety glass is that things outside of its magnification area tend to be out of focus and it also gives the impression of some sort of parallax which makes my square piece of wood look trapezoid in appearance.  My selection of which type of safety glass I will use depends upon what I am going to be doing.

          Bifocal Safety Glasses @ $4                      Full View Safety Glasses @$16

Another eye protection option for the woodworker is the full face shield.  I have seen these available on the web from as low as $4 to over $400!  Face shields are great for protecting your whole face, not just your eyes.  Things to look for in a full face shield are plastic lenses that do not scratch or fog up.  Some are also available, but more expensive, and include full respirator protection.

            Inexpensive Face Shield @ $4                   Face Shield With Respirator @ $240

Hearing –

As mentioned earlier, you only have one set of ears and you should do everything possible to protect them!  The other thing to remember about hearing loss is that is cumulative!  If you can remember back to your college days, sitting in a car with your friends and drinking beer (before drunk driving was an issue) with Led Zeppelin cranking on the car stereo as loud as the 8-Track tape player could muster then this was the start of your hearing loss!

It is hard for most people to get their head wrapped around sound levels because scientists measure sound on a logarithmic scale rather than a linear scale.  For sound measurements they use the decibel or dB scale.  The scale starts out at 0 dB which is the quietest sound perceived by the human ear.  From there every increase of 3 dB represents a doubling of sound intensity, or acoustic power.  The threshold of pain is somewhere around 120 dB.

Another way of looking at sound levels is to do a quick comparison of some of our shop tools to each other.  Most of us perceive one sound to be twice as loud as another one when they are about 10 dB apart; so take our shop vac at 85 dB and compare it with the router at 95 dB.  The router will sound twice as loud to you as the shop vac but this 10 dB difference represents a 10 fold increase in intensity!  A chop saw at 106 dB will sound about four times as loud as the shop vac but in terms of acoustic intensity, the sound it makes is 100 times as powerful.

A couple of more things about sound levels before getting onto hearing protection.  You may also see dB’s referred to as dBA and dBC.  These are weighted dB readings based upon the human ear.  dBA are decibel scale readings that have been adjusted to attempt to take into account the varying sensitivity of the human ear to different frequencies of sound.  dBC is sometimes used for specifying peak or impact noise levels, such as gunfire our your air compressor suddenly starting up.  OSHA allows 8 hours of exposure to 90 dBA but only 2 hours of exposure to 100 dBA sound levels. NIOSH would recommend limiting the 8 hour exposure to less than 85 dBA. At 100 dBA, NIOSH recommends less than 15 minutes of exposure per day. 

Typical Noise Levels From Power Tools

■  Shop Vac – 85 dB

■  Orbital Sander - 90 dB.

■  Table Saw - 93 dB.

■  Planer - 94 dB.

■  Belt Sander - 94 dB.

■  Router - 95 dB.

■  Metal Shear - 98 dB.

■  Hand Drill - 99 dB.

■  Circular Saw - 101 dB.

■  Tile Saw - 102 dB.

■  Impact Wrench - 103 dB.

■  Miter Saw - 103 dB.

■  Chop Saw - 106 dB.

■  Chain Saw - 109 dB.

■  Hammer Drill - 114 dB.

■  Protect your ears from any sound at 85 dB or higher.

Your choice of hearing protection can basically be reduced to 3 different types of protectors.  These include the basic ear plug, the ear muff, with or without radio, and noise cancelling headsets.

When hearing protection is worn, your level of exposure to noise is based on the NRR (Noise Reduction Rating) rating of the protection device being used. Keep in mind, however, that while the NRR is measured in decibels, the hearing protector being used does not reduce the surrounding decibel level by the exact number of decibels associated with that protector’s NRR. For example, if you are at a rock concert where the level of noise exposure is 100 dB and you are wearing earplugs with an NRR 33dB, your level of exposure would not be reduced to 67 dB. Instead, to determine the actual amount of decibel deduction applied (when decibels are measured dBA which is the most common), you take the NRR number (in dB), subtract seven, and then divide by two. Given the previous example, your noise reduction equation would look like the following: (33-7)/2 = 13. This means that if you are at a rock concert with a level of noise exposure at 100 dB and you are wearing a hearing protector with an NRR 33 dB, your new level of noise exposure is 87 dB not 67 dB. If you are wearing a product with an NRR of 27 it would deduct 10 decibels (27-7/2=10).

How does wearing dual hearing protectors change NRR?

When hearing protectors are worn in combination (i.e. earplugs AND earmuffs), rather than adding the two NRR numbers together, you simply add five more decibels of protection to the device with the higher NRR. For example, if you were using earplugs with a NRR 29 rating and earmuffs with a NRR 27 rating it would provide a Noise Reduction Rating of approximately 34 decibels.

The most cost effective and most efficient ear protection is the basic ear plug.  My favorite is the 3M banded style hearing protector shown below.  It fits right over my neck when I am not wearing it and its light weight.  It is also easy to find (unlike my safety glasses) when I am ready to use it as it is tight around my neck.  Ear plugs typically give you a NRR of about 32 dB and are very cheap, around $0.20 per pair.  The banded hearing protector gives me a NRR of 28 dB.  Cost is about $6.

                  Basic Ear Plugs - 32 dB NRR                            Banded Hearing Protector - 28 dB NRR

The other ear protection I utilize is the 3M ear muff with AM/FM radio built in.  Newer models also include MP3 and Bluetooth capability.  These ear muffs only provide about 24 dB of NRR but they are my go to hearing protection when the shop vac, air filtration system and random orbital sander are all going at once while watching the grass grow (my terminology for sanding a piece of wood!).  They tend to be heavy after a while and my ears get very sweaty.

Ear Muff Protection With AM-FM Radio - 24 dB NRR

The final and ultimate hearing protection are ear muffs with noise cancelling circuitry.  They are battery driven and usually incorporate some type of differential amplifier circuitry in them to cancel out the noise.  The big ones I see a lot are made by BOSE and you see people wearing them on airplanes but there are many available for woodworkers.  Good ones are pricey, will north of $100 but you get what you paid for.

Air –

The final thing that we need to look at in terms of safety in our shop is the air we breathe.  It’s not the saw dust we see on the floor that is harming us but the invisible saw dust floating around the shop.  The stuff on the floor will be filtered out by the hairs in your nose.  The invisible stuff is what gets past the nose and gets into the lungs and causes the problems.  In this safety article we will deal with dust masks and respirators with a smaller emphasis on air filtration systems.

When you are looking at dust masks or respirators be on the lookout for the following labels:  N95, N100, P99 and NIOSH.  NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) is the organization in charge of reviewing, inspecting and testing respirators for approvals.  Filters on the NIOSH approved respirators will have a number (usually a letter followed by a number) to indicate their efficiency.  A N95 respirator will trap 95% of the airborne particles passing through it while the N100 will capture around 99.97% of the airborne particles or it has an efficiency level of 99.97%.  The letter N means that the respirator will be useful in trapping particulate aerosols that do not have oil. For the P100 filters, it symbolizes that the respirator is 99.97% effective against all particulate aerosols including the oil-based one.  95% is also the minimal level of filtration that NIOSH will approve.

Please note that dust masks do not come with a NIOSH approval!  They are disposable filtering face pieces that you should wear when dealing with non-toxic dust nuisances such as when mowing, sweeping or dusting.  It is important for woodworkers to note that even the best dust mask for woodworking will not be ideal for filtering out toxic dust and vapors because they are not respirators.  A respirator, on the other hand, must have NIOSH approval and a number to indicate the efficiency. And although in their basic form they will look like dust masks you can always tell the two apart since respirators will have a NIOSH label and most will also have two straps.

In my shop I have been using the MSA 817664 respirator that I got from Woodcraft about 5 years ago.  It cost about $30 and is OSHA & NIOSH P100 compliant.  It is recommended for scraping lead paint, working with asbestos, toxic dust and mold.  The things I like about it are that it is comfortable to wear, it will not fog up your glasses and even works with a mustache!  The only thing you have to be aware of when putting the mask on and off is where the safety glasses are.  The mask goes on first then the safety glasses.  When finished the glasses come of first then the mask.  If you take the mask off first, the glasses fall to the ground.

MSA Safety Works Toxic Dust Respirator

The best thing you can do for your lungs if you have a large enough shop is an air filtration system.  These hang on the ceiling like you see in the Woodcraft shop and they do an excellent job of filtering out the dust particles down to the micron level which is you want.  They range in price from around $170 to over $800 depending upon the capacity you require.  You can also make your own air filtration system and there are lots of ways to do this on YouTube.  For my shop I originally considered making one of these units myself but after checking on the pricing all of the parts I found it cheaper to just purchase a unit.

For the smaller shop you might want to look at the Axiom PORTABLE air filtration system called Stratus.  It makes a lot of sense if you do not have a lot of space to work with and when you are done with it, just move it out of the way.  This unit starts at about $500.

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Tidewater Wood Workers Guild Board Meeting

When: January 7, 2020, 5:00 PM

Where:

Woodcraft Store

5802 E. Virginia Beach Blvd

Suite 152

Norfolk, Va 23502

Board Members:

Fran Foster - President

Jim Francis - Past President

Greg Guertin - Vice President

Don Newsome - Secretary

Chris Zuchristian - Treasurer

Other Attendees:

Lawrence (Larry) Cameron - Membership Chair

Gary Stephens - Newsletter and Web Master - Past Vice President

Ed Bunker - Past Membership Chair

Meeting Minutes:

Fran provided attendees with a copy of his meeting agenda. Attached to the agenda was a list of the past meeting programs dating back to the year 2016.

Agenda topics:

1.            Welcome and thank you

2.            Programs

3.            Survey

4.            Website – Woodworking links, new members, and calendar

5.            Raffle

6.            Membership

7.            Guild Publicity

8.            Meeting Length

9.            Brochure

10.         Shirts

11.         Community Projects

12.         Amazon Smiles Donation

13.         Dues (half/full year)

14.         Christmas Toys

15.         New ways to thank Woodcraft

16.         Other

Welcome and Thank You:

Fran opened the meeting by thanking the participants for their attendance. He stated that he was looking forward to working with the other elected officers, (Greg Guertin, Don Newsome, and Chris Zuchristian). He also thanked Ed Bunker, Gary Stephens and Lawrence (Larry) Cameron for their support and valued their input. Fran was very appreciative of Jim Francis’ service as the past President and thanked him for his leadership and input as a Board member. Fran was looking forward to working with everyone and hoped to continue with efforts to make the Guild a success.

Programs:

After Fran’s welcoming remarks, he referred to the list of past meeting program topics.  There was significant discussion on future demonstrations/topics that may be of interest to the membership. These discussions also included the survey; however, those discussions can be found below under the heading titled “Survey”:

Fran asked the Board “what does the membership want to see at monthly meetings?’. He also wanted to know if weekly e-mails to the membership were valuable. He mentioned that he enjoyed the weekly e-mails from our past President Jim Francis and thought it was a good way to communicate to the membership. Fran thought is was a good way of keeping our members informed. The Board agreed.

Jim mentioned that it may be valuable to ask the membership about what types of current and future projects they would be working on and center demonstrations around the required skills to do those projects.

Ed asked if we had thought about focusing on small group skills. He also mentioned that the Tidewater Turners do what is called a “Turn-A-Thon” where several stations are setup with various types of operations being performed. Members participate as well as observe. We could do something similar except focus on our interests.

Chris suggested that we could create a competition among members through various challenges like gift boxes.

Ed said we could also focus on items centered around the holidays. He also mentioned that another type of challenge could be a 2X6 challenge.

Another suggestion by Jim was to do a gift store challenge.

Gary stated that there are over 70 different types of woodworking joints used to join wood and we could do a demonstration on the various joints.

Greg mentioned that we could even focus on joint cutting and cut different joints at a meeting and possibly do it by groups.

Larry mentioned that we should consider giving Gift Cards to winners of challenges. Board members were supportive of this idea.

Survey:

In the past, the guild has used surveys to capture feedback from the membership on the kinds of things they would like to see presented at monthly guild meetings. The question was asked “Is a Survey beneficial?” The following feedback was provided:

Fran mentioned that perhaps we could use an index card for feedback.

Don mentioned that the Tidewater Turners just distributed a survey to their membership which will be collected and compiled during their January meeting. They spent several weeks constructing the survey. Focused on their specific goals but we might want to review it see if there is anything we could use.

Ed mentioned that the guild has a survey and we should consider using it. It’s a single sheet that was usually collected at the beginning of the year when dues are paid.

Larry mentioned that the Survey is part of the website and he provided a copy to the Board for review. He also said that he would have forms available at the next meeting.

Website:

Gary provided the following information regarding the Newsletter and the website:

The newsletter is usually published one week in advance of the meeting date. In January that means Monday, January 20, 2020.

This month’s newsletter currently contains info on dues, safety (hearing, sight and breathing), trade shows (The Woodworking Show in Dulles). Will also include the president’s report and maybe more.

The minutes of this executive board meeting should be published in the January or February newsletter.

The treasurer should make the yearly financial report to the club and have it published in the newsletter.

The newsletter is read along with tips. For example, we had 67 hits on the November newsletter, 56 for the October newsletter and 231 hits on the September letter.

Karl’s Scroll Saw Offset Holiday Christmas Tree generated 203 hits while the 2019 Source Reference Guide has generated 298 hits.

Caning With Ken has generated 276 and 312 hits with the two articles being published.

The newsletter and web site are being used but we need to work on the proposed flyer to generate more interest in the guild.

Karl continues to host our web site page through his Little Biz Webs. I believe we pay him $150 each year to host the web site but you should check with the treasurer for the exact amount.

I have learned to generate the newsletter using Joomla (web site program) and HTML (language of the web) over the last year. I am still restricted to doing internal postings on the web due to a lack of program mastery and software programs to accomplish this. Thankfully Karl helps out with these issues.

Would love to have more feedback on the types of articles that would be of interest to the guild.

Not utilizing our AV equipment. Batteries in the AV equipment should be removed before they start corroding the contacts. Looking for volunteers to help me.

Fran mentioned that we need to keep reminding the membership about the website.

Raffle:

Fran asked if we should continue a raffle during the meetings. There was a short discussion regarding raffles but there was no decisions made on this agenda item. It will be revisited at the next board meeting.

Membership:

Fran asked Larry to provide the Board with info regarding membership. Larry provided the following: as of Dec 2019, the Guild had 68 members, 9 of which were new. Larry said he keeps the membership list on an Excel spreadsheet.

Fran followed up by asking “How can we increase our membership?”

Larry mentioned that we could advertise at the Woodcraft store.

Ed mentioned that we could also advertise at grocery stores. It’s a simple matter of approaching the store manager and asking for permission. Ed also mentioned that we could advertise in the newspaper.

Guild Publicity:

Greg asked the question “Do we want to keep and maintain the Guilds FaceBook page?” Fran would like to review this at a later date.

Meeting Length:

Fran wanted feedback on the length of our meetings. He asked if we should keep it as is. It was decided that the meeting length should not be changed.

Brochure:

Ed said that he has some brochures.

Jim had also given some to Gary a while back and it includes some history of the Guild.

It was not decided whether brochures should be maintained, changed, or eliminated. The Board should follow up on this agenda topic for the next Board Meeting.

Other (Safety):

Although safety was not a declared agenda topic for the board meeting, it was discussed. Safety is usually a main topic at January meetings as a way to promote safe working practices going forward. The following was discussed:

Fran asked if the January Guild meeting would be focused on Safety.

Greg said that it would and Gary said that it would also be covered in the January Newsletter.

Next Board Meeting:

Fran had to adjourn the meeting due to time constraints and therefore the remaining agenda topics will have to be pushed to the next Board Meeting. It should be scheduled sometime in early February. 

Remaining items to discuss:

Shirts

Community Projects

Amazon Smiles Donation

Dues (half/full year)

Christmas Toys

New ways to thank Woodcraft

In addition, the three unresolved agenda items that were discussed should be revisited during the February Board meeting. Those are:

Survey

Raffle

Guild Publicity

The first TWWWG Board meeting of 2020 was adjourned at 5:50 PM.

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I have been utilizing a rust removal product called "Evapo-Rust" to remove rust from several old tools. So far, I have used it on a Stanley/Bailey #5 hand plane that was pretty rusted up and a few lathe cutting chisels that looked pretty ugly.

I was amazed at the fact that the product did not stink up the shop, you don't have to wear gloves or a respirator, it is reusable, you can dispose of it down the drain, and it’s easy to work with. Usually 1 to 12 hours is all that’s needed to remove rust but I found that it really depends on how rusted the item is before you start. It is a tad pricey though but considering you can reuse it, that's not too bad. You can get it in many size containers but I couldn't find it locally. Home Depot and Walmart sell it on their websites but don't carry it in their stores. I haven't looked elsewhere to see if anyone sells it locally. I purchased a 1 gallon container from Amazon and they delivered it in two days.

In case you missed it, Home Depot is no longer selling the Minwax stain and polyurethane products.  They have switched the Minwax product to Varathane products.  Varathane falls under the umbrella of Rust-Oleum which is owned by RPM International.  Minwax is owned by Sherwin-Williams.

The other change in distribution noted is that Wal Mart is now selling the General Finishes products.  Note that these products are only available on line and not in the store.

Museum Resources

If you want to explore furniture styles, forms or details but from the comfort of your couch, check out these opportunities:

■  Colonial Williamsburg collections.  This site can be searched by keyword, builder,      etc. and provides details on items that may not be on the floor in the museum.

■  Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA).  Do the same kind of search of MESDA's collection.  Just a tremendous museum and capability!

■  Also check out MESDA's journal; an almost endless wealth of historical information.