At the meeting the other night I said I would provide a resource for making wig stands. Someone in the meeting mentioned the Central Illinois Woodturners website and they do have excellent resources there.  This first link is to their “How to Make a Wig Stand” page. On that page you will find videos, plus a link to a PDF document that gives detailed instructions on how to make a wig stand. Mike Peace, who has done an IRD for our club, has a video on making wig stands at this link. These are just a few of many resources out there in the internet. Google “how to make a wig stand” and you wi ..read more

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 the meeting room. We finally got the sound to play through the speakers on the laptop, and actually were able to hear quite well. I apologize for those issues and thank you to everyone for your patience. Keith’s presentation was to do a live voice-over of pre-recorded videos. This was very effective as he had the a ..read more

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 meeting is posted on the club’s video page. We should soon have photos of the display items posted on our gallery page. Regardless, it was good to see many of you in person. I counted 33 members in attendance and we had about 7 participating on Zoom for a total of about 40 members. By the ..read more

Here are some items which could and should have been included in the original newsletter: Discount Code for Virtual Symposium – the chapter has a discount code which will save you $20 off the price of the AAW Virtual Symposium, held late May. Reply to this email and I will forward that code to you. I need to keep some control over who gets the codes as I have requested 10 slots and need to go back and request more if those are used up. Sign up by May 4 for additional savings. Events Calendar – A “Calendar View” had been added to the Upcoming Events tab on the website menu – this view includes ..read more

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 we had our March Meeting. We had a remote demo by Donna Zils Banfield who showed how she uses woodburning, carving and a dry brush technique with acrylic paints to create her WOOD FFOLKKES and other pieces. It was a great demo and while she was demoing her dry brush technique, (she mu ..read more

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 line is this – the stated purpose of our club is to provide resources for our members to continue learning and growing as woodturners. If all we do is the same thing over and over again, with no change or improvement, there is no need to come together and share our knowledge and i ..read more

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 that turning blanks were difficult to find. Then, when I found one, I wanted to make the most of it. This led to some problems. I felt like I needed to make a bowl with a profile that matched the shape and size of the blank that I had which was often half of a tree trunk. This could lead to ..read more

The director of Friedens Food Pantries writes: Food Rescue Drivers Needed! Did you know? Nearly 300,000 lbs of our food is rescued from local grocery stores! Friedens counts on a large team of volunteers who pick up rescued food in their vehicles and deliver it to our food center sites 6 days a week. Any type of vehicle will work! This program brings much-needed produce to our shoppers and brings exciting variety to the products on our shelves that shoppers get to choose from. We have a critical need to cover 2 weekly routes: Route 1: Every Saturday at 8:45 AM from Outpost in Bay View (2826 S ..read more

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 here. There are quite a few announcement that were made at the meeting. I will repeat those here for those who were not able to attend: We’re sad to announce that club member Mel Mickey passed away on January 1. Mel was a faithful member of the club and a talented woodturner who was happy to share his knowledge an ..read more

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 meeting we will meet on January 8, as New Years Day falls on a Monday. I will be demonstrating making a peppermill: how to lay it out, drilling the blank on the lathe, and some basic design fundamentals as far as shape and proportion. ANNOUNCEMENTS: There are several important announcements that were made at ..read more