wood for club auction

Re: wood for club auction

Dick Strauss

JKJ,

I don't know if your club already does this but we do a wood and other misc items raffle at every club meeting to raise funds for the club.

Raffle or auction?

John K Jordan

>>>I don't know if your club already does this but we do a wood and other misc items raffle at every club meeting to raise funds for the club.

Both clubs I attend sell tickets for a raffle every month and raise a few dollars. The raffles are usually for donated wood, mostly log sections. We have separate raffles for scholarships to Arrowmont and John C Campbell. One club also auctions miscellaneous items which sometimes bring in a few more dollars.

The annual wood auction in Knoxville is a larger and more focused event - we dedicate the entire evening. Last year I think we raised over $1600. Much of the total was due to the volume since individual lots usually go for reasonable amounts. (I combine things into lots on the fly with an eye on the clock.)

Unlike the monthly wood raffles, we are more strict on what can be donated - for example, no logs, no firewood, no junk. Those of us who donate bring useful blanks ready to mount on the lathe.

JKJ

Re: Raffle or auction?

mikeee12345

You should try a tool auction once a year, don't know of too many wood turners that can resist buying another tool that they don't have. Most everyone has a few tools laying around that they never use and there might be a person at the meeting that can't live without it.

Tool auction?

John K Jordan

>>>You should try a tool auction once a year...

Does your club do that every year? How much has it brought into the club in say, the last 5 years? Maybe some other clubs do this every year and can provide some numbers.

I don't think it would work well around here, at least not every year. I suspect we would not get enough high-quality donated tools to make it worthwhile year after year. I personally would have nothing to donate - all my "spare" tools have long been sold, given away, or sold at benefit auctions, some right here on WoodCentral. Might be different if chucks and CBN wheels grew on trees.

Spare wood in the "forest belt" is different since it's free if you have the time and energy. It's the processing into turning blanks that makes it valuable, the thing some turners can't easily do.

And the darn woodturners around here have a nasty habit of turning a beautiful blank into sawdust then wanting another. Yikes, it's a viscous cycle!

Re: Tool auction?

mikeee12345

John,

There is an organization that can help you it's called "TOA" Tool Owners Anonymous

each month at the meetings you stand up and give your name and admit to having a

tool problem. We tell everyone we don't have a tool problem and we use every tool in

our shop that has never been out of the box or out of the drawer in ten years or has

dust covering the tool in the corner of the shop. :-)

Re: Tool auction?

John K Jordan

I had this discussion with a student the other day. She kept pointing to tools and asking "Why do you need that? When did you use that last? What's the reason for six grinders?" All had been used in the last year. She didn't know to check the weld shop or the barn loft or the storage room on the end of the chicken house or the storage shed behind the peacock house, though. I remember something about a 6" jointer and a new 8" jointer still in the crate in that one.... No problem here.

JKJ

Re: Tool auction?

Bruce Schoenleber

I do have a tool problem. I am still two, maybe three tools away from greatness. Furthermore, that is just turning tools, I also do some flatwork and I figure I am still about a dozen tools away there just in the hand plane department.