Holiday Party – December 8, 2018
The Guild met for its annual holiday party – this year at the Stage House Tavern in Scotch Plains, NJ. The food was great. The company was great. There was the annual auction. Fun was had by all.
November 14th, 2018
Bob Garay of Take a Dip Tools gave a presentation on restoration of vintage hand saws – The presentation focused on restoration of vintage hand saws for the woodworker. It covered what to look for in a good useable saw and how to evaluate their qualities. Bob reviewed the procedure for total restoration including handle removal and restoration, straightening and cleaning the saw plate, and sharpening and setting the teeth. Bob actively demonstrated many of the techniques he uses weekly to restore the many saws he sell to woodworkers for everyday use as well as historical collections. Members in attendance were encouraged to bring in saws with questions Bob might be able to help them with.
Among the vintage saws Bob brought, was a “musical” saw complete with its own micro bow!
October 17th, 2018
This months Guild meeting was held at the Taj Mahal workshop of member Joe Corigliano. Joe graciously bbq’d for the members. Nice change from the more typical pizza fare. We had a great turnout for this months meeting. About 15 regular members plus about 3 new members attended. Also in attendance was esteemed lifetime member Frank Klausz. The presentation portion of our meeting was given by Dr. Wayne Bender, Exec Director of the Penn. Dept of Agriculture. Wayne is a world renowned wood expert. His presentation covered the forest products industries promotion of wood as the “greenest” building material. He also discussed a few of the invasive insects facing the industry, specifically the Spotted Lanternfly, recently found in two counties in NJ near Philly. For the business portion of the meeting, a few important topics were covered. 1) Time to pay your annual Guild dues. 2) Our Christmas party will be held on Saturday, December 8th. More details of the party will be given at our November meeting. 3) At next month’s Guild meeting, we will be holding elections to fill the current executive positions. We need to elect new officers for the Guild as the current Guild officers have been in position for several years now (especially Matt!). If we cannot get other current members to assume the positions of the executive board, we may be bringing the 38+ year guild to its final end. So, if your interested in being a Guild officer, now would be a good time to announce your interest.
September 19th, 2018
The meeting was great, it was huge, it was tremendous! (It was lightly attended).
We’re making woodworking great again! Bill Hall, our resident web master, talked a little bit about the guild’s website and how a business owner can boost his/her rankings on the web by linking to other websites like Houzz and Yelp and improving their own website.
Dominic the lacquer specialist of Atlantic plywood had to cancel because of
personal reasons.
Matt Weiss, host and President, showed off a couple projects that he was working on.
A bench made out of reclaimed lumber that had been eaten away by termites and was petrified by polymer’s. Also showed off wooden storm windows that he was making for a customer and how we specialize storm windows would work on the house with special hardware.
The Faithful gather at Matt’s Shop
June 20th, 2018
The June meeting was hosted by Scott Nelson at his place of business, Antiques Plus of Rockaway, NJ. About a dozen members attended. The business portion of our meeting was led by Guild President Matt Weiss. He reviewed some of the upcoming events (the picnic). Tyler Merson has generously donated the use of his property to host our July picnic. Please RSVP so we know how many members and their families will be attending. Guild Secretary Dave Pollak described the great time that he and other guild members had while attending the annual EAIA conference in Bethlehem PA. David encouraged everyone to attend next years EAIA event which will be held in Lowell, Massachusetts. Our Web Developer, Bill Hall, mentioned that he will be making some improvements to the Guild Web Site to improve its web/SEO presence. Bill also mentioned that he had corrected issues we had with Google so the Guild did not appear to be located at Matt’s shop.
The Presentation portion of the meeting was conducted by Scott Nelson. Scott described some of the jigs and tools he uses for doing his repair work. He also went into some detail about the kind of repairs he’s typically tasked to complete and the challenges he must overcome to fix the issues with the furniture that is brought to this business. His presentation was very interesting and enjoyable. Good job Scott!
May 17th, 2018
The May meeting was held at the workshop of our Revered President Matt Weiss. Matt reported that thousands of woodworkers showed up to help Make Woodworking Great Again. It was a HUGE event. Dennis DeBaise from Mohawk finishes did a presentation on how to fix scratches on cabinet doors. Matt spoke about different toners in shades and about color matching.
According to Matt, the food was great: Pulled pork sandwiches and Genesee cream ale.
We currently have nothing planned for June and we have as of yet nothing planned for that July’s picnic.
April 18th, 2018
The April meeting was held in Joe Corigliano’s newly constructed woodworking shop. The turnout for this meeting was one of the largest in recent memory. Joe explained his process for building his new shop and answered questions about the new facility. Joe then gave a excellent presentation on hand planes. He discussed the various types and uses, breaking down a plane into its basic parts, and reassemble it ready to make shavings. He also discussed some of the finer points of how to make planes perform at their best and be a useful friendly tool. It was a great meeting, and included our distinguished member Frank Klaus, who also happens to live very close to Joe’s place.
March 21st, 2018
The March Guild meeting was cancelled due to severe weather.
February 21st, 2018
The February meeting of the guild was hosted at the workshop of member Dan Catizone. There was a decent turnout for the event. President Matt Weiss discussed the upcoming Woodworking show (March 2-4). This year’s show is moving to the Meadowlands Expo Center since the Somerset location is no longer available. Matt was asking for volunteers to host our booth at the 3 day show. I believe we now have all slots covered. Just like last year, Tyler will be providing the materials for members to help show participants build bird houses. This was a huge success at last years show, so we are doing it again this year.
In addition to the upcoming Woodworking Show, there are several other upcoming events that would be of interest to Guild members: the Craft Show on February 23-25 in Baltimore, Md – 2018 American Craft Show, and the Early American Industries Association (EAIA) Annual Meeting, May 23-26, in Bethlehem, Pa. – EAIA Annual Meeting.
For the presentation portion of the meeting, our host Dan Catizone gave a great demo of how to do steam bending and laminating. Dan had already set up his steam equipment in advance of the meeting, so he had some pieces of wood ready to be bend. Dan described where he got his equipment (Lee Valley), as well as repurposing an old pressure cooker for generating the steam. He also had some wood strips prepared to show how he does laminating. Here are some pictures from the event.
January 17th, 2018
The first Guild meeting of the new year was held at the workshop of Tyler Merson. We had a great woodworkers meeting at Tyler shop. For those who did not show up, we voted Yes to participate in this years “The Woodworking Shows”. The show runs from March 2nd to the 4th at a new location. Please note this years show will be held at the Meadowlands Expo Center, 355 Plaza Drive, Secaucus, NJ 07094. Tyler will make tool boxes (maybe we can get someone to donate the wood again?). I believe Tyler has contact info, if Tyler can make the phone call to the show organizers and ask for a booth and pass along the contact info. We need to send out an e-mail asking people to volunteer for half day at the show It shouldn’t be hard to fill up the time slots
At the Steering Committee portion of this month meeting, it was pointed out that membership needs to focus on getting more professionals into our group and more of our members to get involved. We really need to utilize social media a little bit better , especially facebook. There is a new social site out for groups it’s called mygrove. Something we can definitely utilize, and should also consider starting a woodworking focused facebook group.
Past Meetings Archive