WSC Designs

Tool Primer: How to Finish Your Project: Film Finishes

This is the third Tool Primer article on finishing your woodworking project. You can find Part One: Sanding here and Part Two: Penetrating Oils here.

In this article I will discuss the film finishes available for woodworking projects at most local big-box hardware stores. The first step is creating a clean, dust-free uniform surface by sanding all a parts to a high grit. I detailed my process in Part One. The finishing process is the difference between a good woodworking project and a heirloom piece of furniture. When I want to really knock a project out of the park, I focus much of my energy on choosing and creating a proper finish.

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This Week In the Shop: The Simple Cutting Board

They say when it rains, it pours. For the past six months, I’ve inundated myself with cutting boards at every turn, in every one of my woodworking shops. At home, I made cutting boards as Christmas presents. At work, cutting boards as a fundraiser. At TX/RX Labs, I’ve tweaked my intro course to include a woodworking project – cutting boards.

My wife took the time to photograph some of the latest to come out of the shop with her new fancy camera rig.

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These cutting boards are dead simple to make. First, mill strips of lumber from different species. Next, glue and clamp them together. Remove glue with a chisel or sander, then send through the planer until the board is flat-ish. Sand to 220 grit, then finish with mineral oil.

I sell them for thirty bucks a pop at work. Or you can take the class for nearly the same amount.

Make it safe & keep the rubber side down this week. Thank you for visiting my practice zone and project showcase. If you wish to lend your support for this site, please like WoodshopCowboy on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. If you are interested in making and education, why not check out Work Notes, a curated set of articles from the web, published every week?

This Week In the Shop: Dining Bench Made from Upcycled Bed Frame

The newest piece to walk out of my home workshop. A dining bench up-cycled from a bed frame. If you are interested in seeing plans, drop a line to me, my contact is below.

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This Week in The Classroom: The Simple Coffee Table in Spalted Red Oak

Earlier in the year, the great folks at Canyon Mesquite donated a number of spalted red oak boards to make furniture out of. It took a while, but we finally made some great use of them. Finished with Howard’s Feed-N-Wax.

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Making a Makerspace: Top Five Materials in an Educational Makerspace

This is part four in my “Making a Makerspace” series. You can catch the other articles here.

Makers use stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. Sylvia Libow Martinez & Gary Stager dedicated an entire chapter to the various materials necessary for a makerspace to function in their book, Invent to Learn. I’m just going to go for five: the top five materials in an educational makerspace!

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Tool Primer: How to Finish your Project: Penetrating Oils

This is the second Tool Primer article on finishing your woodworking project. You can find Part One: Sanding here.

In this article I will discuss the finishes available for woodworking projects at most local big-box hardware stores. The first step is creating a clean, dust-free uniform surface by sanding all a parts to a high grit. I detailed my process in Part One. The finishing process is the difference between a good woodworking project and a heirloom piece of furniture. When I want to really knock a project out of the park, I focus much of my energy on choosing and creating a proper finish.

Keep reading for the breakdown and uses of the common penetrating oils found in your local big box home improvement and hardware stores.

Continue reading “Tool Primer: How to Finish your Project: Penetrating Oils”

This Week in the Classroom: Build Your Own CO2 Rocket Cars & Launching System

When I look at the popularity of CO2 rocket cars in STEM programs, its ubiquity and age hide a lot of potential for makers and project-based learning opportunities. The biggest drawback, as I see it, is the high cost of entry. Launching systems cost somewhere in the hundreds of dollars, tracks take up teaching space (60 linear feet for a good one) and wind-tunnels impress upon me the fine line between awesome and inappropriate. At a basic investment of $1000 to $3000 from the big companies. We still haven’t covered the cost of a classroom pack of car building supplies.

Betcha I can do it for less. What’s a makerspace for, if not developing your own infrastructure?

In order to incorporate CO2 racers into your Maker curriculum, you need three things: cars & parts, the launcher & track space. I’ll tell you how I made mine after the jump.

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Community Watch: TX/RX Labs’ New Woodshop Build

In a few short years, TX/RX has grown from a small collective to one of the largest hackerspaces in TX, if not the US. It holds spring and fall semester classes in all sorts of cool subjects: computer programming, electronics, fabrication, crafts, art, etc. You can see the whole list at www.txrxlabs.org/classes.

Last Sunday, a group of volunteers came together to build seven workbenches. Check back to see our progress over the next few weeks.

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If you want to join in the build, or sign up for classes, scoot over to www.txrxlabs.org to catch all the news.

Make it safe and keep the rubberside down.

This Week in the Classroom: Aerial Photography via Balloon for Under $30

This quarter, my students have been building an incredible number of STEM-based projects in preparation for a show-and-tell science fair in March. Every year, I often recycle two or three projects, assigning particular journeys to particular students for particular reasons. And every year, I try to introduce something new. This year, a student suggested unmanned flight. I don’t have a quadracopter handy, so we settled on balloon flight.

Just like in the 1800’s. We were hoping for something that looked like this:

Aerial Balloon Photography from the 1850’s

We were able to capture this:

Stay on after the jump to see the rigging and get instructions to build your own balloon photography rig for under $30.

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This Week in the Classroom: The Simple Coffee Table

Some quick pictures of coffee tables that the kids and I built at school this fall. We sold six of these pieces at $60 each as a fall fundraiser for my classroom. With the proceeds, we were able to buy mounds of safety equipment, a new drill press and some VOC respirators for finishing.

This project offers a lot of customization for the builder. The top can be sourced from nearly anywhere: old shutters, heavy duty lumbar, salvaged pine boards, etc. Lowe’s and Home Depot sell Parson’s Table Legs which can be pressed into service, or you can buy squared lumber.

Or you can have a full woodshop and go Fine Woodworking on this one.

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You can get a SketchUp file and plans for the Simple Coffee Table after the jump.

Thank you for visiting my practice zone and project showcase. If you wish to lend your support for this site, please like WoodshopCowboy on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. If you are interested in making and education, why not check out Work Notes, a curated set of articles from the web, published every week?

Continue reading “This Week in the Classroom: The Simple Coffee Table”