Author Archives: nawcc.chapter47@gmail.com

January 8th is the next mart

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Presidents Message
I will be presenting an option for a new meeting place.  This candidate venue has a much lower rental rate.  It offers an opportunity to keep our costs in line with our current membership levels.  Be prepared to view the presentation and discuss.  The membership will then vote on if we want to move forward with this new meeting place.  Come and participate in the discussion.

The educational talk for November was given by Bill Galinski.  He showed some photos and videos of cutting out the raw material for hands from cow bone.  He freezes the bone first and then cuts slices on a band saw.  The bone is then dried on cardboard for approximately 1 month flipped over every day to equalize the drying. 

He demonstrated copying hands by tracing the outline with a sharpie.  Then holes are drilled for attachment to center arm and for easier access for the jewelers saw.  A jeweler’s saw  with wire blade is used to cut out the bone.  Then the bone is filed to final shape.  Cutting on bone does release some odors reminding us that the raw material came from a living animal.   Attendees were allowed and encouraged to try their hand at cutting out a hand and some of us gave it a go.

At our next meetings the presentation will be “Restoring a French Lantern Clock by LeBel of Orbec Normandy” by Craig White.  Replacing missing side and back doors will be shown.  Also casting and machining missing side frets and making custom screws.  All this and more will be shown in a PowerPoint presentation. 

Additional talks planned for 2023 are as follows:

  • February 26 – Mark Frank will give a presentation on his recently completed astronomical clock.
  • May 21 – Mike Dempsey will be presenting using a CNC mill
  • September 17– Danno will make a presentation on Renaissance and other clocks at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

We still need volunteers for talks and/or demonstration for one more event for 2023.  Please contact Harry Schultz or myself with ideas or suggestions. 

Free tables!!  A free silent auction table will also be available.

Hope to see you all there. 
Thanks,
Craig

We are looking for a volunteer to help out the club.
We are looking for someone to take over the position of Secretary.  The duties involve putting together the newsletter and taking notes at board meetings.   The newsletter involves putting together the presidents message, treasurer’s report, taking photos at the mart and writing some sort of interest piece to fill out the newsletter.

Our Next Mart is November 13th

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At our November meeting  Bill Galinski will present a workshop on how to make clock hands from bone. See the presidents message below for details.

Note from the Treasurer. 
Just want to let everyone know that there will be an increase in admission rates for 2023. Admission will be going from $3 to $5, and the price of a Gold Card will go from $10 to $15. The board reached this decision after a discussion about our expenses and income. In an effort to remain financially viable, we decided this was the best course of action. Expenses are rising, hall rental for 2023 is going up by $50 a mart, and I am sure everyone is aware of the overall rise in prices due to inflation.  In my last trip to Chicago’s Chapter 3 mart, admission at the door was $12 and prepaid admission was $8, so at $5 I feel we are still a bargain.  We have had some very generous donations from club members in the last couple of years that have helped immensely with the chapters finances. Membership is down slightly from pre-Covid times, hopefully we will get more people returning as things return to normal.  If you think you know someone who might be interested in what we do, please bring them along to the mart, maybe we can get them to join.
Treasurer, 
DannO Osterud.

Presidents Message,
Next meeting is November 13, 2022. 
The educational talk for September was given by Craig White.  I showed the restoration of an Illuminated Alarm Clock.  Slides and a video showed how the clock wakes you up with clanging on a bell and lighting an alcohol lamp.  Goal of coarse was also to not burn ones house down in the process.  I also managed to not burn down the hall.  As always there were some lessons to be learned to get the mechanism to work properly. Type of matches and match strike surfaces turned out to be an unanticipated hurdle, but Amazon to the rescue.
At our November meeting  Bill Galinski will present a workshop on how to make clock hands from bone.  To give it a try bring the following tools:
1) Small table clamp vice or drill press vice (3 inch jaw), or a small Jorgenson clamp.
2) Exacto knife.
3) Fine Sharpe
4) Dental picks.
5) Set of needle files (5 files contoured or not).
6) A small scrap piece of wood to work on.
7) Jeweler saw or coping saw with a wire blade.
8) Broken hand and/or the dial if you want to make a replacement hand. You can also make a hand just for the purpose of learning. Prepared bone material will be provided.  

We still need volunteers for talks and/or demonstration for 2023.  Please contact Harry Schultz or myself with ideas or suggestions.  
Free tables!!  A free silent auction table will also be available.
Hope to see you all there.
Thanks,
Craig

Next Mart is September 25th

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May 2022 Presidents Message,

COVID seems to be subsiding and mask guidance from the CDC have been reduced.  Masks will not be required for those of us that are fully vaccinated and boosted.  Please continue to be considerate of others and wear a mask covering your nose and mouth if you have not received all your vaccinations.  Thank you for your help in this.

I hope you all are practicing your new miner’s techniques when out at mart tables looking for great horological finds.  Thanks Mike for your talk on “Digging for Gold”.  We all learned some tips and tricks on what to look for in and out of a mart room.  You need to look at things others are not looking for.  Grow by looking for things you are not used to be looking for.  Learn by asking and reading.  The emphasis was on watches from the 1600’s until the 1950’s that most of us have never seen before. 

The educational talk for September will be by Craig White.  I will be showing the restoration of an Illuminated Alarm Clock.  I will show how the clock wakes you up with clanging on a bell and lighting an alcohol lamp.  Goal of coarse was also to not burn ones house down in the process.  As always there were some lessons to be learned to get the mechanism to work properly.

We still need volunteers for a talk and/or demonstration for 2023.  Please contact Harry Schultz or myself with ideas or suggestions.  

Free tables!!  A free silent auction table will also be available.

The November Educational talk will be by Bill Galinsky.  Bill will be demonstrating carving Cuckoo clock hands.

Chapter 47 is in charge this year of the 2022 Midwest Watch and Clock Mart in Antioch IL.  I need a few volunteers to help with checking in non-members and table holders.  Please let me know if you can help me out on Saturday October 1st.  Send me an email at cswhite5@yahoo.com or call at (414)712-0129 if you can help.

Hope to see you all there. 
Thanks,
Craig

 

Upcoming Events

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Sunday September 18th- Chicagoland Chapter 3 mart.

Sunday September 25th– Chapter 47 ‘s next mart.

Saturday October 1st– Chapter 47, Chapter 3 and Chapter 171 Joint One Day Mart in Antioch Il. (This is the Combined mart for Chapter 3, 47 and 171. It is on Saturday, not Sunday.)

May 1st is our next Mart.

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Presidents Message,
COVID seems to be subsiding and mask guidance from the CDC have been reduced.  Masks will not be required for those of us that are fully vaccinated and boosted.  Please continue to be considerate of others and wear a mask covering your nose and mouth if you have not received all your vaccinations.  Thank you for your help in this.

I hope you had learned a tip or two from my presentation.  Being locked up in my workshop for a couple of years during the pandemic did lead to improvements in my shop and tools.  Having lots of time allows one to think of improvements and having the time to get them done was useful.  Not my first choice of how to spend a couple of years but glad I have a hobby that keeps me busy and entertained.

We still need a volunteer for a talk and/or demonstration for December 2022.  Please contact Harry Schultz or myself with ideas or suggestions. 

Free tables!!  A free silent auction table will also be available.

Educational Talks Scheduled:
The May Educational  talk will be entitled “Digging for Gold” by Mike Dempsey.  Learn some tips and tricks on what to look for in and out of a mart room will be discussed. Featured will be watches from the 1600’s until the 1950’s that I am sure very few of you have ever seen before.  Photographs and descriptions will be shown in a PowerPoint format.  Sure to be very interesting even if you are not a watch collector.
Bill Galinsky will demonstrate making clock hands November 13.

Hope to see you all there. 
Thanks,
Craig

Note from the Treasurer
Dues for 2022 are now due. If you haven’t already paid, please pay today.  We have had fewer renewals than usual for this point in the year, and in order to keep holding these meetings we need people to pay their dues.  Even if you aren’t planning on coming now, if you want to be able to come in the future, we need people to pay their dues. 

If you have any questions about whether your dues are paid, or how much you owe, please contact Danno at NAWCC.Chapter47@gmail.com.
Thanks,
Danno Osterud
Treasurer

Chapter 3 is holding a Tailgate Mart on May 7th.

Admission is free, reserving a parking space is $15.
“Chapter 3 will be conducting a special TAILGATE MART on Saturday, May 7, 2022. Parking spaces will be ready for reservation at the April 3rd meeting. Due to the expected high turnout of sellers for this event, it is suggested to place your reservation ASAP. Sellers from Chapters 47, 83, and 171, will also be invited to participate in our tailgate mart.”
Location: Robert J. Coulter Jr. American Legion Hall-
900 S LaGrange Rd (5100 South) LaGrange Il.60525

Our next mart is on March 13th

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Presidents Message
Masks will be required to reduce everyone’s risk on COVID-19.  Please continue to be considerate of others and wear a mask covering your nose and mouth.  Thank you for your help in this.

I hope you had some fun learning about lost wax casting clock case parts.  I had fun learning about how to do what has been done for 6000 years.  Luckily I am persistent, because even with our modern tools I had some learning to do before successfully making some brass castings for clock cases.  The adventure is half of the fun though.  The other half is telling about how big the fish was that got away

We still need a volunteers for a talk and/or demonstration for December 2022.  Please contact Harry Schultz or myself with ideas or suggestions.  

Free tables!!  A free silent auction table will also be available.

Educational Talks Scheduled:
March’s talk will be given by Craig White.  Title – “Tools – What I did During COVID”.     Many short different ideas will be presented from vacuum hoses, thread cutting, Argon back filling of varnish and many more.  Talk will be a power point slide show.   Some are bound to be of interest to most of you.  During long periods of confinement to my shop in the basement I came up with many new tools and concepts to use.  Come see what is new in the White shop.

May’s talk will be on Old and Unique Pocket Watches by Mike Dempsey.  I am sure very few of you have ever seen watches like these.  Photographs and descriptions will be shown in a PowerPoint format.  Sure to be very interesting even if you are not a watch collector.

Bill Galinsky will demonstrate making clock hands November 13

Hope to see you all there. 

Thanks,
Craig

Our next mart is January 9th, 2022 at 9:00am.

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President’s Message

Masks will be required to reduce everyone’s risk on COVID-19.  Please be considerate of others and wear a mask covering your nose and mouth.   Thank you for your help in this.

I hope you all enjoyed the best talk and demonstration of the 2020’s.  This one was special with great introduction and a chance to see some old tools in action that I am sure most of you have not seen before.  Thanks Mike and Danno. Danno showed many photos of horological tools from the 17th, 18th and 19th century and the toolmaking industry that made them.

So, we had 39 people attend this mart, 4 new members joined, which is  awesome.  We had 7 guests, 5 of which was their first time here, and at least one said he was going to join in January.

We need volunteers for talks and/or demonstrations for 2022.  Please contact Harry Schultz or myself with ideas or suggestions.  Bill Galinsky will demonstrate making clock hands November 13.

Free tables!!  A free silent auction table will also be available.  We received $110 in donations from sales at the silent auction table at the November meeting.

January talk will be on Lost Wax Process to Cast Brass Clock Case Parts by Craig White.  I have step by step instructions on how I cast parts.

Hope to see you all there.

Thanks, Craig

 Horological Trivia and Tidbits

Many of us have shelves of horological books, but how often do we use them?  Each issue we will feature a repair tip or historical tidbit taken from a common reference book. 

From Abbott’s American Watchmaker and Jeweler by Henry G. Abbott on Galileo:

A celebrated mathematician, born 1564, who discovered the use of the pendulum.  It is related that one morning he was in church and saw a lamp which was suspended by a silken cord from the ceiling, swinging to and fro after having been carelessly struck by one of the attendants.  He noticed  the regularity of the swing, comparing it with his pulse, and concluded that, by reason of its regularity, a simple pendulum might become a valuable agent in the measurement of time.

Next meeting is November 14, 2021.

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Presidents Message,
Hope everyone enjoyed the well-made video on the amazing Strasbourg clock.
Masks will be required to reduce everyone’s risk on COVID-19.  Please be considerate of others and wear a mask covering your nose and mouth.  Thank you for your help in this.

Come for the best talk and demonstration of the 2020’s.  This one will be special with great introduction and a chance to see some old tools in action that I am sure most of you have not seen before.
Danno will be taking a brief look at 18th and 19th Century horological tools and the tool making industry that made them.
There will also be a display of early tools and Mike Dempsey will be giving hands on demonstrations of how they work during the mart.

Ed Buc is stepping down from his secretary position which he has helped us for the last 10+ years.  Thanks you Ed for all your work!
Karyn Critelli has volunteered to take on the secretary, position.  Thanks Karyn for your help.

See 2022 dates for our meetings, no conflicts with Chicago chapter 3 so all should be able to attend.
September meeting had 21 people attend, a good start after a long pause in meeting.The chapter had received a tool donation and got donations for the tools for a total of $390. Free tables!!  A free silent auction table will also be available.

You will be given credit on your dues for the missed meetings in 2020.  If you already paid dues for 2020 at $25/year you will be given a $20 credit towards 2021 and 2022 as we only had 1 out the 5 scheduled meetings.  The dues will be only $10 for 2021 as only 2 meetings are planned.

Hope to see you all there. 
 
Thanks,
Craig

September 12th, 2021 will be next mart.

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September 2021 Presidents Message,
Well, it is time for us to restart our chapter 47 meetings beginning on September 12 at the South Milwaukee Knights of Columbus.  Let’s start with a large mart.  Bring all those items that have been collecting dust waiting for us to restart or bring lots of money to buy clocks, watches and tools you have been yearning for.  

Masks will be required to reduce everyone’s risk on COVID-19.  Please be considerate of others and wear a mask covering your nose and mouth.  Thank you for your help in this.

We have been given a donation from the family of Lewis Wienske of tool boxes filled with tools.  Lewis was a watch and clock repairer and a former student at the MATC Horology class.  The items will be sold to members at the meeting.  Proceeds will go to the chapter.
Free tables!!  A free silent auction table will also be available.

I will be giving our educational talk in September on the Strasbourg Astronomical Clock, certainly one of the world’s greatest clocks.

Congratulations to Ralph Ferone for receiving the NAWCC Fellow award.  Well-earned and deserving. Thanks Ralph for all you do!

A November meeting is planned for November 14, 2021.
You will be given credit on your dues for the missed meetings in 2020.  If you already paid dues for 2020 at $25/year you will be given a $20 credit towards 2021 and 2022 as we only had 1 out the 5 scheduled meetings.  The dues will be only $10 for 2021 as only 2 meetings are planned.

Hope to see you all there. 
Thanks,
Craig

Chapter 47 Marts will resume in September 2021.

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April 2021 Presidents Message,

Well it has been quite a year for all of us.  The COVID pandemic has been hard on all of us, some more than others.  Horology has been good COVID free activity for me and hopefully the rest of you too.  My shop has never looked so good.  I got some clocks fixed and tools made that would have been on list for many more years.  Even my garden had a low weed count never seen before.

But now with the vaccine here things are gradually coming back.  The NAWCC National Convention is planned for July 15-18.  I will be giving a talk on the Ferguson Clock at the British Horology meeting during the convention.

The South Milwaukee Knights of Columbus has started having meetings in the last couple of weeks and BINGO returns on April 5.  Masks are required but attendance has been high.  Possibly due to some pent up demand to meet and enjoy your hobby.

Chapter 47 has planned our first meeting back for September 12 at the South Milwaukee Knights of Columbus.   We have been given a donation from the family of Lewis Wienske of some tool boxes filled with tools.  Lewis was a watch and clock repairer and a former student at the MATC Horology class.  The items will be sold to members at the meeting.  Proceeds will go to the chapter.

I will be giving our educational talk in September on the Strasbourg Astronomical Clock, certainly one of the world’s greatest clocks.

A November meeting is planned for November 14, 2021.

You will be given credit on your dues for the missed meetings in 2020.  If you already paid dues for 2020 at $25/year you will be given a $20 credit towards 2021 and 2022 as we only had 1 out the 5 scheduled meetings.  The dues will be only $10 for 2021 as only 2 meetings are planned.

Hope to see you all there.  Masks will be required!!!

Thanks,
Craig