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4th
annual Owl Prowl fund-raiser
Date: Friday, Oct. 25, and
Saturday, Oct. 26
Time and place: 6:30 p.m. at the
Illinois Raptor Center, 5695 W. Hill Road, Decatur
Cost: $15 per adult; children
half price (includes prowl and refreshments)
Prowl rain or shine. Bring a flashlight
and dress appropriately.
Call (217) 963-6909 to make a
reservation or send an e-mail to
barnowl@illinoisraptorcenter.org.
This year the Illinois Raptor Center is
also offering private owl prowls for organizations and businesses
Oct. 21-24. To book a private prowl, call (217) 963-6909 by phone or
TTY or e-mail
the center.
[News
release] |
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[SEPT.
21, 2002] Lee
Gurga will present a haiku lecture and workshop at the Japan House,
2000 S. Lincoln Ave. in Urbana, on Wednesday, Oct. 9, from 7 to 9
p.m.
Dr. Gurga, a Lincoln dentist, is past
president of the Haiku Society of America and editor of the journal
entitled Modern Haiku. In 1998 the Illinois Arts Council awarded him
a poetry fellowship for his work in haiku. Two of his books have won
first prize in the Haiku Society of America’s annual book awards.
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Workshop participants will be given a
brief introduction to the art of Japanese haiku. Participants will
also have a chance to write their own haiku and share insights with
others. Haiku is a social art as well as a literary art, and sharing
is an important part of the haiku tradition. This sharing allows
both the writer and the listener to grow.
The
registration deadline is Oct. 4. For more information call Japan
House at (217) 244-9934.
[News release] |
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"At my house my shop is my sanctuary,
my little kingdom, the place I go to unwind and tinker," writes
author and woodworking enthusiast Jim Richey. During his tenure as
editor and illustrator of the "Methods of Work" column in Fine
Woodworking magazine, he has assembled a wonderful collection of
submissions from woodworkers across the country. The collection
contains a variety of topics pertaining to home shop strategies,
including how to set up a shop, workbenches and sawhorses, tools,
measuring devices, and other components found in a woodworker’s
shop.
Shop
setup
Proper setup of a shop is the key to
efficient use of its space, tools and materials. Richey includes
instructions on installing or making your own space-saving devices,
including shop organizers, lumber storage systems, hardware storage
racks and eye-protection cleaning stations. One of the more
interesting projects is the construction of a shop moisture gauge
built from wood.
Workbenches, vises and sawhorses
These interactive devices play a
pivotal role in any project. Workbenches and sawhorses provide safe
work surfaces necessary for working with wood; vises are used to
secure materials in place while you work on them. Depending on their
purpose, vises can come in many different types and include bench,
universal, horizontal and portable. The same is true for workbenches
— such as for sawing and assembly, rolling two-level and outdoor.
Although basic sawhorses are a staple of any shop, the frame and
foot sawhorse is useful for supporting cabinets or laying cuts in
long boards.
Shop-made
hand tools and hand tool fixtures
After setting up a shop the first
projects to consider are shop-made hand tools and fixtures. Richey
includes instructions for making a wooden mallet, hammer shield and
triangular scraper. For the more ambitious woodworker there are
plans to build devices for dovetails — pin markers, two modified
dovetail saws and dovetailing chisel.
Sharpening and grinding
Any woodworker will tell you that tools
are only as good as the condition in which they are kept. Richey
offers several methods and devices for keeping tools in optimum
condition. Grinding wheels, honing tools and sharpening stones are
just some of the things used for tool maintenance. For those who
have damaged the hardness in carbon-steel-edge tools while
sharpening, Richey has a simple three-step process that will
reharden the edge and increase the tool’s performance.
Portable
power tool fixtures
Power tools are a common fixture in a
shop; they can also be expensive. It is important to properly
maintain them and maximize their use through the right tool fixture.
Power tool fixtures that should be a part of any shop include stop
blocks, circular saw templates and drilling jigs. One tip that will
be beneficial to electric drill users — use a masking tape flag
around the bit stem for a depth stop.
[to top of second column in
this review] |
Measuring, marking and layout
Precision measuring is the secret to
achieving perfection when working with wood. There are many tools
that aid the woodworker in perfecting the fine detail required in
many projects. These devices vary depending on whether the project
calls for straight lines, curves or both. Among the most useful are
the preset mortise gauge (for chairs), overhang marking gauge, guide
for drawing parallel lines and ellipse drawing aid. Richey reminds
us to always keep an open mind about tools that may be helpful in
the workshop — he includes a cloth dressmaker’s tape (used to
measure curved items when a metal tape is impractical).
Sanding,
gluing, clamping
The remaining chapters discuss some of
the tricks of the trade employed when using sandpaper, glues and
clamps. Sandpaper can be manipulated into many useful functions:
curved or flat sanding blocks, two-faced slabs, and hand or belt
sanders. To incorporate glue into your projects you need some kind
of injector system, mixing bowls and pot heaters for mixing. If you
add too much glue to a clamped joint, don’t worry — simply scoop up
the excess glue with a piece of paper and rub some sawdust on it.
The sawdust will create little balls of glue that remove all traces.
Anyone who
enjoys working in their shop or is contemplating building a shop at
home should become familiar with Jim Richey’s "Workshop: Methods of
Work." These tips are the culmination of 25 years of experience in
the woodworking field from people all across America. Richey writes,
"Every once in a while we have a clever idea, a solution to a
long-standing shop problem that makes us smile … it’s these clever
ideas that this book is about." This book is recommended for anyone
who has enjoys the art of woodworking or is considering adding an
at-home workshop.
[Richard Sumrall, Lincoln Public
Library District] |
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If
you like audio books, you can listen to them in your e-mail by
signing up for the audio book club. This is a great way to discover
great books if you are too busy to visit the library or cannot visit
the library because of a disability.
Each day, Monday through Friday,
the library e-mails subscribers a book portion that takes about five
minutes to read, and subscribers can read three chapters during a week.
Each week the club features new books,
and with seven book clubs to choose from, there is something for
everyone. Patrons can read fiction, nonfiction, romance, business,
good news and teen books. Soon there will be a mystery book club.
The Talking Books online book club is
delivered to you through a service provided by
http://www.chapteraday.com.
Chapter-A-Day founder and CEO Suzanne
Beecher said, "It’s an honor to welcome Talking Books to our e-mail
online book clubs. Talking Books helped me through a difficult time
in my life. I have an eye disorder, and for a while I walked with a
red and white cane and spent many afternoons on a sofa in my sunroom
listening to Talking Books. They were my lifeline to a better
quality of life for me at the time."
[to top of second column in this
article]
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Readers can sign up for the service at
http://www.chapteraday.com/library/mitbc/.
For more information on the
program or for an application, call 1 (800) 426-0709 or 1 (800)
537-1274 toll-free.
The Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center
provides free library service including books and magazines on tape
and playback equipment to individuals unable to read regular print
because of a visual or physical disability.
The Talking
Book Center is funded by the Illinois State Library, a division of
the Office of Secretary of State.
[News
release]
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