September 2022 AGM and Meeting

September’s meeting was held at Perth Wood School, which also included our AGM.

The AGM was held and the elected committee for the coming year consists of: Carolyn Ellis, Allan Waugh, Harry Smith, Roger Goodridge, Peter Banks, Peter Bell, Mark Ellis, Steve Harris, Kevin Luff, Shawn Ritchie, Jeff Kenny, Laurie Pearson, and Robert Rankin.

Following the AGM, David gave us his usual very informative and interesting presentation.  This presentation covered several topics. Mortice and tenon joints, and update on a new sanding material, and a reminder on some important safety aspects for using power tools as there has been an increase in injuries over the last 2 years.

We were told that the mortice and tenon joint is one of the most important joints in woodworking due to its strength when executed correctly.

We were provided a potted history of the joint and were told these joints have been used since the Neolithic era, so there is no need for any fancy tools – power tools certainly didn’t exist back then.

David showed us that with a mortice gauge, plunge router, and straight bit that mortices could be quickly and repeatably made.    There was no need for fancy expensive spiral upcut bits or morticing machines, and with today’s adhesives, mortices didn’t need to be more than 25mm deep for joints in most furniture.

To make the matching tenons, he demonstrated that use of a trim router with a matching radius round over bit could easily create matching loose tenons.

He also demonstrated two ways to make integral tenons.  The first was using a bandsaw, and the second was using a router table.  In both cases the tenon had square faces and edges.  For this case, it was as quick to round over the edges of the tenons using a rasp or file (to match the routed mortice) as it was to chisel the ends of the routed mortice square to end up with matching mortice and tenon.

Lastly in this part of David’s presentation, he also told us about a new product from 3M – Xtract Sanding Discs, a new ceramic mesh backed product that lasts longer and completes the task quicker than previous technology that he’s tried – and he’s tried quite a lot of sanding products!

After our coffee and tea break, David told us that during COVID there was a large increase in the number of people using power tools and machines at home, and unfortunately a distinct increase in serious injuries – particularly with the use of table saws and circular saws.

It is very easy for even experienced woodworkers to get a bit lax with safety, so David gave us all a timely reminder about tool safety.

Safety topics covered several areas of saw use.

The first was about kickback and ways to minimise the likelihood of occurrence.  We were reminded that kickback applied to both timber and (in the case of the handheld circular saw) the saw itself.

Other saw related safety topics discussed were where to stand, where to place (and not place) your hands (not always obvious), use of riving knives and splitters, blade height while cutting (or depth for a handheld circular saw), use of overhead blade guards and using the correct blade for the job at hand (and why blade type mattered).

Also mentioned was the amount of incorrect safety information available via channels such as YouTube.