CAMS Review of 22 April 99 Meeting

CAMS

Chesapeake Area Metalworking Society

Review of 22 April 99 Meeting
Fairland Public Library
14910 Old Columbia Pike
Burtonsville, MD

Our group continues to grow. There were 32 people at this meeting, in spite of several regulars being away at the NAMES show. Below is a group shot of most of the folks at the meeting.

The meeting got under way around 7:30 PM. Business came before pleasure. We succeeded somewhat with planning the club's future.

Meeting dates and locations were discussed. General consensus was to stay with our meeting sites at Fairland public library in Maryland and Mason Government center in Virginia. These sites were the winners because people had already seen them, they were less difficult to schedule, and it was considered essential to have stable locations in order to promote the club. Meetings will be scheduled for the third or fourth Thursday in Maryland in even numbered months and the third or fourth Tuesday in Virginia in odd numbered months. Exact dates may vary due to scheduling of facilities and will be posted on the web page.

A suggestion was made, and "the hat" was passed around for donations to cover the costs of registering to use the Fairland library and the cost of registering our web site. Sufficient funds were collected and Ted Fox took charge of getting the money to the right places, all the while saying that he would not be our "treasurer".

The next discussion started on the topic of planning a machinery flea market. Several ideas got tossed around, but the issue of how to secure a location and/or insurance without being an official organization kept arising. After much discussion a group of volunteers was secured to investigate having a charter or incorporating the club. This "charter" committee is not tasked, yet, with trying to make it happen, just to look into what all the ramifications are likely to be. Our "volunteers are: Dan Fox, Carl Bauersfeld, John Davis, Norm Dutton, Ken Knael (nominated in absentia), and Matt Shaver (alternate). If you have ideas, issues, or questions related to this activity, please send them as e-mail to the list server so that the general membership as well as the committee can benefit.

The flea market idea did not die. Several members are going to look into private property that might be used and also a group table purchase at an existing flea market.

Ideas for future meetings or trips were discussed. Some that were mentioned were having people show and tell about their completed projects, having sales reps give product presentations, arranging a casting demo, and arranging a blacksmithing demo.

After a period of general discussion, we proceeded to the three programs scheduled for the evening.

Terry Elder gave a presentation about toolpost grinders. His talk included information about usage, protection of the lathe from grinding dust, types and brands of industrial units, and how to rig a cheap or temporary grinder. Below is a photo of Terry explaining the usage of a toolpost grinder to true up the jaws of a lathe chuck.

Next we had Don Nichols tell about his experience with setting up a Clausing lathe with a bed turret to produce microphone mounting adapters that he had previously been making with his small CNC lathe. Below are photos of Don and of the tools that he was using in the turret.

Lastly Steve Stallings showed lathe chucks and talked about chucks, the different types of spindles, and some hints on usage and mounting of chucks. Sorry, but you do not get pictures of the guy behind the camera!

In addition to the scheduled agenda, there were several other interesting items presented. Jose Rodriguez brought samples from a large batch of tooling that he and a friend hope to be offering for sale to one and all. Below is a picture of Jose and the samples.

Another highlight from the evening was a demo of the free CNC control software being developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Group member Matt Shaver is running a machine using this software and Don Nichols, among others, are hoping to be using it later. Below is a picture of Fred Proctor of NIST showing the demo system.

More info about this project is available at: http://www.isd.cme.nist.gov/projects/emc/emc.html

There were several other items brought for display and discussion, but my feeble mind has already lost this information!

The meeting wound up around 11PM. As always there was lots of informal conversation after the meeting. Close up inspection of the demo items and detailed one on one discussions ensued. The truly addicted hung around until after midnight.

Thanks to Terry and Don for their programs. Thanks to Eric Nystrom and Ted Fox for arranging for meeting places. Thanks to the charter committee volunteers. Thanks to all who made the effort to come.

Cheers,
Steve Stallings