August 2014 Meeting

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This month’s presentation titled “CNC Routing” presented by Lyman and Kent Hannah was extremely well done! Lyman is a retired Industrial Technology Professor from the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg and currently he and his brother do CNC consulting for school districts and industry. Kent is an industrial technology teacher in the Eldon, Missouri School District. Kent presented several interesting projects that he and his students had designed and manufactured using a computer controlled router. Kent pointed out that students quickly caught on to the design and manufacturing processes. He also explained how this technology is very useful in creating interest and holding a student’s attention while stimulating their creativeness. The precision in this woodworking process is more akin to what we typically seen in machining metal. However, Lyman explained the need for a different degree of tolerance when producing mating parts used in woodworking. Several sidebar comments from fellow guild members included how great it would be to use this technology in building extremely accurate gigs and fixtures for their shops.

In conclusion, the entire presentation was very informative and clearly demonstrated the connection between the skills being taught in today’s classrooms and their direct application to industry. The Hannah Brothers are obviously two professional presenters who know how to teach and hold the attention of an audience. This humble reporter wonders what it would have been like to be a “fly on the wall” while these two were playing pranks on each other as they grew up on their Missouri family farm.

Show and Tell continues to highlight the skills of our members. Monthly, we’d like to showcase a couple of members’ projects in an effort to recognize their craftsmanship and inspire others to bring their works-of-art to our meetings. For a several months, Curt Tyhurst has participated in show and tell and continues to amaze us with his flawless decorative boxes with the inlayed silhouette. In addition, Mike McReynolds has shared his turnings and this month’s segmented project is again beautifully crafted. Finally, Gary Ellsworth share a segmented bowl made by the deceased Clifford E. Kintner, formally of West Plains, Mo. The turning is beautiful but what makes it so special is that Clifford was blind when he created it. Be sure to check out the gallery for photos of current and past projects. Many thanks to Mel Bryan for taking photos and updating the gallery this month and thanks to everyone who shared their work with the group!

Jay S. Helland