Dean Clasen, Club Secretary

December 2023

We recently hosted the scouts for two different activities. Older scouts spent two nights working to earn their woodworking badges by constructing a step stool. A couple of the scouts needed an additional project so they made a jump-a-peg game last Saturday morning.

Last night (12/18/23) Cub Scouts (or should I say the dads of the Cub Scouts 😊) were in the shop to work on their pinewood derby cars. All left with all of their digits and there was no blood-letting so it was a most successful night!

If you are interested in helping with activities like these, please let me know and I’ll be sure to include you in any project alerts that we have.

An adult woodworking class will begin on January 17. Members can participate for free so if you need some instruction or just some motivation to get to the shop to work on some projects, check out the information on the club website. Also, check on our Facebook page to see some of the projects constructed and some of the other things that are happening in the shop.

If you haven’t been to the shop recently and you have some wood stored there, please stop in soon and identify/mark your materials. We plan to reorganize the wood storage starting on January 10. We have had requests to purchase wood and we’re not entirely sure what the club owns and what individuals own. The club has some ash and walnut wood for sale. It’s priced by the board foot so you don’t always need to buy an entire board.

We are working to find new homes for tools and things that we no longer use and clean out items that don’t work. We recently sold the molder-planer, the old Delta 6” jointer, and a Delta 12” thickness planer that was donated to us. We’ve had other donations that we’ll evaluate so there may be other tools that will be for sale.

I’m working on writing a Humboldt County Community Foundation grant request for some tool upgrades. Grant awards need a 50% match so the grants make it more affordable for us to purchase equipment. We won’t know until late February if we’re successful. The grant application will focus on safety. I’ll share more when we have more information.

If you have suggestions for tools, equipment, or other items for the shop, please send those ideas to me. I have a list of things that we work from for the grant writing.

Thanks to all of you for supporting the shop with your membership. Your continued support allows more improvements to be made. Contact me with questions, suggestions, or comments.

Wishing everyone a joyous and safe holiday season.

Dean Clasen