In response to my question about avoiding and containing excess glue squeeze-out, I received a thought provoking response from Paul Bischoff. Here is what Paul had to say:

"Regarding your discussion on glue squeeze-out; My preferred method is a toothbrush and bucket of water to remove any glue squeeze-out at the time of assembly. I use the wet toothbrush to remove the bulk of the glue, and then lots of clean water and brushing over the joint to float away any residual glue. I also find that the water helps swell/tighten the joint a bit and have had good success with this method for many years. ...I sometimes use two containers of water - one for the bulk of the glue, and another that is much clearer water to do the final wash. I then use a rag to wipe away the remaining surface water.

Another thing that I would think is obvious to most, but maybe not, is when gluing and clamping a panel and leaning it up to dry, is to make sure it is leaning so that the glue squeeze out flows down along the joint and not out across the panel. In other words, the joint should always be vertical, not horizontal. Seems simple, but I have seen people scraping and chipping away at streams of dried glue across their panels, when all they needed to do was keep it vertical. Usually the simplest solutions are the best."

I agree, Paul, simple is best, and thanks for the suggestions. If there are other questions people may have about any area of woodworking, please send them to me and we will put them in the newsletter with answers as they appear. When the new website comes on line in the very near future, we hope to have a blog on it where these sorts of exchanges can be handled smoothly. Each member will have a user name and password so the blog will be restricted to club members only.

For those that have already gotten a start in Sketchup, but would like to get some experience using some of the drawing tools for woodworking I highly recommend the Swamp Road site, http://www.srww.com/google-sketchup.htm I have done the beginner tutorial and can highly recommend it. I have not yet tried the intermediate tutorial. If you try it, let me know what you think or if you have other tutorials or learning sites you can recommend.

In a recent e-letter from Fine Woodworking, I was amused/terrified by some photos they discovered about dangerous ways to misuse your table saw. If you value your body parts it behooves you to take a look at this link, http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/29720/tablesaw-safety-takes-a-back-seat

I am sure that none of our intelligent and competent members would do any of these things, but it does not hurt to be reminded of the damage that can result from unsafe practices.

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Living Dangerously

Over 25 years ago, we bought some unfinished wooden kitchen chairs which I then stained. The other day, I used it as a step stool to reach something in the closet. (First mistake) The next thing was that I was lying on the bed looking at the ceiling (it needs paint). The chair had collapsed. The left front and back leg collapsed as a unit. Looking closer, I found that the tops of the legs are attached to the seat bottom with dowels. The dowels now had wood fibers sticking up where the dowels had failed. A well-respected pro woodworker at BAWA very strongly suggested that after all these years, the chair should be buried and a new one bought. That's not the way I think and I was determined to fix it. (Second mistake?) Problem was that both the front and back legs were not vertical but skewed in 2 directions. Fortunately, the other side was still there and I could get the angles but how? I don't have a drill press nor am I certain that the drill press table would rotate in two directions to be able to drill the holes in the seat bottom to accommodate new dowels. So I took my drill guide and screwed a ¾" square base to it. Then I screwed in 2 long screws one on the left and one on the right edge of the base. By varying the amount of screw extending down under the base, I could get angles in two directions. Now using my Digital Angle Gauge, I got the angles in two directions for each leg. I duplicated the angles on the drill guide and drilled the holes. I have been sitting on the chair. If you see me at the next meeting in a back brace, wheel chair and several casts on legs and arms, you will know that the repair failed. By the way, we bought a large step stool with a very adequate handhold. Pray for me!

PS-I'm sure that was the "Neanderthal" approach. Any suggestions of a better way?