Chuck Roberts has apparently been making wood boxes for quite a while.  I'd heard of him through a mutual friend - Jane Burke (Green Tree Creations - Marquetry) - but, until today had never seen his work.  Today Chuck was demonstrating his techniques for making non-linear coopered boxes.  What's non-linear mean in this context?  Well, a coopered circle would end up something like a barrel.  Non-linear in this context means curves with a continually varying radius.  That could be an oval, a hyperbola or any similar shape with a varying radius bend.

Chuck is a good demonstrator, for an electrical engineer that is.  I can say that because it takes one to know one.  His techniques were clearly explained and demonstrated.  Safety concerns in using the table saw were strongly expressed.  The steps from design through glue-up were easy to follow.  And, I found his discussion and answers informative and interesting.  The larger-than-normal GWA crowd seems to really enjoy Chuck's demonstration and we were all very interested in the array of challenging example pieces that he presented.

I would definitely recommend Chuck as a demonstrator for woodworking groups interested in coopering, box making, finding new woodworking challenges, and those just looking for an excellent demonstration by an obvious woodworking professional.

A number of examples of Chuck's work are shown on his website at www.CERobertsOnline.com.

Definitely another great GWA class, thanks to Steve Mellott.

by Paul Proffitt