On February 21, 2009 Jerry Jaeger and I had the opportunity to visit the Minn-Dak Woodturners of Fargo/Moorhead for their annual Tool Day.  The chapter holds this event every year as their major fund raiser to fund chapter activities through out the year.  The Chapter makes mainly hollowing tools to order for area woodturners.  The event, which is well organized, is chaired by Jim McTavish, who also serves as the Minn-Dak Woodturners Webmaster.  Based on orders, plus enough for a few extra tools, the raw materials are ordered and then the Chapter members gather at Minnesota State University in Moorhead to fabricate the tools.  Below are photos of the event along with a few comments.  

For more information the activities of the chapter you can visit their web site by clicking on the following link.

http://www.minndakwoodturners.com/

Dennis

(click on image for larger photo)

Station setup for turning tool handles	DWT member Jerry Jaeger, left, and Ron Eberle, President of the Lakes Region Woodturners of Detroit Lakes, MN inspect finished tools	Grinding and machining operations
Drilling and tapping station.  Note the gentleman on the right is Don Wattenhofer who will be demonstrating at our April 2009 Symposium	Chairman Jim McTavish going over the order list and checking on progress	Jim McTavish, center, and Ron Eberle, right showing off some of the finished tools
WHAT...A woodturner on a metal lathe?  It requires all kinds of expertise to produce woodturning tools and Minn-Dak Woodturners appear to have an abundance of talent available	Assembly area for "Texas Toothpicks" and "D-traps"	Heating and bending station for small hollowing tools

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Written by Dennis Schwind  -  Photography by Spud Gruman and Dennis Schwind                         Last update - 01/12/2010