I will be walking you through how to build the simple bench project, start to finish. As TX/RX so elegantly put it:
Build a simple bench using both hand tools and power tools. A perfect intro to woodworking, we will cover basic tool usage both hand and power along with learning the basics of crafting with wood. All participants will complete a handsome rustic bench as part of the class, theirs to take home upon completion.
You’ll become familiar with the bandsaw, powered miter saw and all the hand tools stuffed away in the tool chest. I’ll run you through stain, varnish and paint as finishes for pine. If you take your time, I’m hoping yours will outshine mine.
Last week, I showed everyone the biggest project sitting on my workbench. This week I completed the footboard just in time for Valentine’s Day. I celebrated its completion by buying my wife a dozen roses, and taking her on not one, but two, dates in one weekend.
Completed footboard. Click on the picture to see the Sketch Up file and examine the construction.
But I’m back in the doghouse, I mean, woodshop now.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I designed the footboard with dovetailed (and splinted) carcass, rear panels from birch ply floating in dados, solid wood support beams on the ends.
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Finishing this guy was an adventure in and of itself. I discovered a rule about shellac: never use shellac when it’s raining. The humidity causes a white-ish blushing. I had to wipe off the shellac with a rag soaked in alcohol to solve the issue…which caused most of the unevenness you can see in the photos. It’s not terribly noticeable in real life, but the flash brings out the worst.
Make it safe & keep the rubber-side down this week.
In my Applied Mathematics class, woodshop has put the shop in applied. During a unit on fractions, I asked students to build a number of these try squares, all different shapes and sizes. In order to assess my students ability to read a ruler and calculate fractions, I made all the dimensions wonky. No 8″ cuts for my students! Dimensions looked like 8 3/4″, 4 3/8″, 5 “1/16 and all sorts of foolishness. Once I felt my students had mastered the build process, we took our show to Houston’s Mini-Maker Faire!
Click here to download the File from Sketch Up’s 3D Warehouse
The construction process for a tool like this can be as complex as you want, something simpler, or something you can complete in five minutes. The five minute version sounds like this:
1. Cut your beam from straight-edged 1″or 3/4″ x 1/4″ thick stock. I like mine about 8″. You can get thin stock like this at Home Depot or Lowe’s, but I’m not sure on the widths available.
2. Cut three 6″ lengths to become your try square stock.
3. Use a speed square set the interior angle while you clamp the four pieces together with carpenters glue. The middle piece of stock should stick out of the center by the width of your beam.
4. Wait until the glue dries. Carefully use a chisel or file to remove the squeeze out.
5. Check accuracy.
“Be Square With the World, Take Good Care of Your Tools” – The Carpenter, Guy Clark
At the end of every square build, we tested the accuracy of our try squares. I used this pdf to explain the process and try to introduce proportions to my young charges. We successfully created a handful of accurate try squares. We created way more inaccurate try squares. I know, you could use those other plans and have a perfect try square. You could build ten of mine and come away with three working models!
I’ve found this is a great project for medium-sized hands. With the smaller students (or quicker builds) we screwed the stock and beam together.
How accurate will your try square be?
Make it safe & keep the rubber-side down this weekend!
You may have noticed a distinct drop off in the frequency of posts here on WoodshopCowboy since the beginning of the year. In that great crucible of life, demands of life has reduced my shop time.
Mostly, though, a majority of woodworking time has been caught up in a commission from my wife: a bed.
I’m chasing the look of Crate and Barrel’s Atwood platform bed in a queen size. It looks something like this:
Crate and Barrel’s Atwood Bed
And here’s what I have so far – racked in clamps. I’ve dovetailed the corners of the case. The back panels and frames float in a 1/4″ groove across the piece. The large supports on each corner are 2″ square birch posts, offering (I hope) substantial support for the bed frame system I’ll install later.
I’ve tackled long-term projects like this before (my woodworking tool-box, for starters) but this one has taken both my “blogging” and my “logging” energy. Check back soon – I’m hoping to have the foot board installed in the next few weeks. I have a few gaps to fill.
A wise woodworker once said, “Every woodworker has bad dovetails in them. The question really is how fast we work through them.” I’m still a work in progress.
You can take a look at the Sketch Up model below to see the dimensions for yourself.
Footboard of New Bed in Google Sketch Up
Make it safe & keep the rubber side down this week.
In support of my Mathematics and Technology and Computer Applications: CAD courses, I’ve offered a number of Sketch Up projects for students to complete. In Mathematics and Technology, my students created eukaryotic animal cells while in Computer Applications the students created square, triangle and hexagon – based tessellations and designs. Two resources I used heavily in the design and implementation of these projects: Google Sketch Up 8 Hands – On: Student Coursework and the GeomeTrick series both by Bonnie Roskes of www.3dvinci.net.
Ms. Roskes projects have a real wow factor in the classroom. My students would shout my name to show off their work, get frustrated during transitions away from the computer and talk incessantly about how awesome the class is going during lunch.
You can see some results of modified projects below. She wrote her manuals in a clear, concise and picture-heavy style suitable for high-school and collegiate level work. My classes skew to the younger range, about fourth through seventh grade, of reading comprehension so I found them less useful as step-by-step guides. I mainly used them for my own growth as a CAD draftsman and a source of inspiration.
Enjoy the student’s work!
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Make it safe & keep the rubberside down this week. Eat some turkey.
It’s taken me a few years, but I’ve begun accepting commissions. A friend of mine came with a project I couldn’t refuse. He wanted a chest to haul around the merchandise related to his rock band. He said he wanted something that light up the event and highlighted the band’s name. I knew just what he wanted!
I started with this SketchUp draft:
It has room for CDs, t-shirts, bumper stickers and t-shirts. My final design veered a little from this, but the basic shape was there.
I began with a 30″ long, 18″ deep, 7″ high box. I chose box joints as the joinery. I recently acquired a table saw (Jet Supersaw with sliding table) which made the production of those joints easy. I shot a dado down both top and bottom to fit the 1/4″ plywood top and bottom panels. I dry-fitted the box, dissembled it, then ripped the top and bottom apart on the table saw.
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Next up came fitting the nameplate. This took a little finessing. I decided on a 2″ by 20″ removable nameplate fitted into a frame and panel type groove with a piece of acrylic as protection. I ripped the front face apart into four sections: a 1″ wide top rail, about a 1.5″ bottom rail and two stiles. After reassembling the piece to check the joinery, I needed to make a dado groove for the faceplate and acrylic. The groove necessary was just a hair (and I mean a hair) over an 1/8″ of an inch wide. So I went to my router table (oh, I should mention – this step meant I had to build a tablesaw/router table combo machine first. Nothin’ like buying and building 1000 dollar tools for a 100 dollar project) and shot a stopped dado down the rails and stiles. In order to get the faceplate to fit, I made a starter groove just a hair off center, then reversed the parts to get a centered groove. (If that doesn’t make sense to you, watch an episode of Norm) Finally, I glued up the bottom half of the front face and attached the top rail via #8 Phillips-head wood screws. If the band name changes, so does the display.
The interior partitions came together next. The front compartment, which holds the lighting assembly, is simply a horizontal cross piece with a plywood top attached via three small hinges. I ripped matching dadoes across the cross bar and rear face of the box. 1/4″ plywood creates the CD racks. A piano hinge flips the top, while a hobby chain keeps the top constrained. Last but not least, a pair of latches keeps everything tied down for transport.
I went with a simple black acrylic base and polycrylic topcoat. Sprayed it on with a Critter spraygun. Hope you enjoy the results.
If you have a rockband I’ve got a little something for you…call me, maybe?
Expect some new “In the Classroom” posts: the boys are back in town!
Computers don’t actually make a Maker classroom, computer access does. In the past to years, I’ve developed an instinct, capability and ability to integrate the technology into our science and math-based classroom activities. Not every project needs computer (for example, the spirograph build) but many projects can be enhanced with its use. My students use a computer almost everyday; researching the day’s project, finding working examples and interactive demonstrations online or better yet, actively engaging with their small corner of the online world. A Maker’s classroom without computers can still work, but becomes harder to facilitate.
9. Alice Programming Environment
Currently in beta, developed in part by Randy Pausch and sponsered by Electronic Arts, the Alice Programming Environment provides a free, useful sandbox for students to learn the basics of computer programming. No, its not a powerful, high-level language like Python, nor does it have many applications outside of a the program itself (like say, Arduino’s sketchpad) but students learn logical thinking, loops, conditional structures and the like. This high-level of abstract thinking immediately transfers to other areas of life. My students often have to use conditional structures when planning a get-together (if I invite John and he doesn’t like Stacy then I can invite one OR the other) or completing multi-step, sequential projects (finish step 1, move on to step 2, check during step 3, go back to step 1). This type of abstract thinking comes naturally with age and cognitive development. When you teach a population challenged by exectutive functions like I do, any tool which allows students to practice these skills in an explicit way gets on my personal top ten.
8. Google Sketch Up
If you are looking for the most bang for your buck, find a way to incorporate Google Sketch Up in your room. I use GSU8 as a baithook, as a reward for strong academic performance, as a product creator, a academic break activity, as a curriculum enhancer, as the “cool” homework, as “can you believe this, parent? Look how competent your child is!”-bragging rights maker. I bait the kid with computer time and hook’m into learning geometry concepts, I reward twenty mulitplication problems with five minutes of worktime. My students create castles and learn spatial skills placing firing arcs from the catapults. My students create designs for headphone holders and houses and Borgian libraries. My students thrown tantrums and ten minutes designing furniture calms them down. My students turn in homework when I say the fateful words, “build it on Sketch Up”. My parents shake their heads in disbelief and new wonder. Familiarity with a program like GSU translates to coursework in college, into certificates in industry, into a career.
Perimeter/Area/Polygon Exercise in Google Sketch Up
Bang for your buck.
7. The support of community experts
Despite what my students may think about me, I don’t know everything. But I know a lot of people who do, and if I don’t, I know people who know a guy. Community experts mean I can do more with less and I can do more than I know how to do. I just have to ask and listen. I just become a facilitator, rather than a traditional teacher, for my own kiddos. I get the opportunity to occupy a different, more equitable and just as powerful space. My classroom thrives.
For those in Houston, look out for my Community Watch tag. I try to give credit when credit is due.
6. The woodworking tool box
Last summer, I started working on this toolbox. It holds various hammers, chisels, squares, sliding bevels, saws, tools and supplies for four to six students to build nearly anything with wood. This box contains magic. Absolute magic. If I can’t make it with the contents of this box…
…then it is beyond the scope my middle school curriculum.
5. A blog
Once a student is done listening to a lecture, performing an experiment, finding a solution and wrestling with a problem the student must process their new-found knowledge. Communication – whether short answer on a test, long essay on a bulletin board or oral presentation – provides the best opportunity for a teacher to evaluate their student’s learning progress. Student-centered blogs provide a quicker turnaround, leverage a student’s love of technology, allow practice zones for literacy skills, support multimedia integration and boost parental engagement all at the same time. The Math/Sci program produced roughly 80 posts this year. Some 2000 page views. We had twenty students contribute to these articles. That’s four essays on math/science learning per child. I teach science…but my kids can write. That’s a whole lotta communication.
4. A team of expert, engaged, bad-mamma-jamma professional educators
In the words of Arlo Guthrie – “One man singing a bar of Alice’s Resturant, then that man’s crazy. Three men singing it…that’s a movement”. Teaching is an art, a craft and a sweet science. Artist need muses, craftsmen need tools, sweat and wood. And boxers need to be knocked around a little to “season them”. If you do this alone, you burn out. You do this with a crew of people you can rely on, you change the world.
And I’ve gotta helluva movement marching with me.
3. Eyes and Ears
I carry a camera with me at all times. The camera records my students’ smile, my students’ learning, my students’ simple moments of success. If I don’t record it, I don’t share it, I don’t put it in my students hands and say “Remember this. This is important,” then it didn’t happen. The camera preserves my students’ success.
My colleagues use the discontinued Flip cameras to record video. We edit the video in MovieMaker and move it over to a YouTube channel. Other teachers can see our work, parents can look over our shoulder, the boss-upstairs can say “this is what our teachers do.” My eyes and ears give context and visual ooomph to any project I can develop.
2. WD-40, Hot Glue, Vice Grips & Duct Tape
Use them in this order. Always works.
1. A school which provides the space, curriculum and materials for exploration
My plea for you – especially if you are not already engaged in education – is to find a school which promotes Maker values and Maker projects and support those programs the best you can. Lend your expertise, donate used tools, put your dollars and voice behind hands-on education. Individual teachers, like myself, can only do so much inside a classroom. We need support on the streets, on our speed-dial and in the hearts of our parents. Hands-on, project-based, maker-centric education works and we need your help to get it to the next level. Keep talking, making and setting things on fire until our principals, superintendents and school boards sit up and take notice.
Make it safe & keep the rubber side down this weekend.
You’ve been to a science fair, right? Tri-fold boards, volcanoes and blue ribbons. This month, my colleagues and I shepherded the “STEM Fair” into existence. The STEM Fair is a showcase for any Science, Technology, Engineering or Math project our students produced over the course of a month. My school produced forty to fifty blog posts, hundreds of digital pictures, a dozen two minute videos, thirty presentations and about ten individual physical showcases. I have a room filled with Japanese art-chemistry, rocket cars, rockets of various propulsion methods, a small robot, a Lego-Branded robot, paper gliders, a seesaw and more. How can a teacher show off his students work to parents, grandparents, etc who may not be able to attend the event physically?
The Digital STEM Fair.
I have I ever told you this is my other…other….other blog? I have a handle at Lumberjocks, I blog here and I blog at school. Well, my students blog. I facilitate the school’s Website Committee. Last year, I revamped the committee’s operation – launching a WordPress-powered blog. This year, I opened the site to the various other parts of school – student newspaper, various academic classes and clubs. This week, I will use this student-centered, student-owned tool to create a digital gateway into the Math/Sci department at my school.
The Plan:
A splash page which directs parents to the different classes. The classes will link to STEM Project Proposals, Updates & Final Posts. All of this can be sorted by a strong tagging system. WordPress also makes certain posts “sticky” – meaning they always lead the blog’s front page. I’d like to “farm” this work out to my students, but most likely I’ll need to do this, as I have administrator access.
Next, I’ll have the students upload their videos to a web-hosting service and embed those videos into the posts itself. I use Youtube as a video host, so I need to turn of the “suggested video” option. If a “suggested video” happens to be controversial, we don’t want people thinking it’s the school’s issue.
Lastly, my students will create a inclusive slideshow of the work they did, embedding this into the splash page.
Our school does have some rules which I should be aware of -
1. Each kid’s parents/guardian signs a media release.
2. Only use first names.
3. Any video is unsearchable & password protected. WordPress can password protect individual posts and many sites like Youtube have an unlisted option.
4. Don’t put anything up which shows the school in a bad light…
5. Last but not least, turn comments off.
I like these rules – if you blog about children, take them into account. Teacher Tom only posts pictures of kids hands and keeps the screen squiggly. Other bloggers do the same. I tend to only take shots of the finished products. Unlike my examples, the student blog has a kid-driven focus – its intent is to show our students and their competence. I try to keep that in mind as I put student work “out there”.
I will be walking you through how to build the simple bench project, start to finish. As TX/RX so elegantly put it:
