Tag: sketchup

This Week In the ShopLeave a comment

This Week In the Shop: Queen-Sized Bed

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It has been a while since I’ve shared a completed project from my bench.  I haven’t been particularly inactive, just an inactive blogger.  Recently, I completed a queen-sized platform bed for my wife and I.  I completed the footboard over last winter break, and this summer I took on the headboard.

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The headboard and rails are put together with pocket hole joinery.  The headboard, made out of solid birch and poplar, is way too heavy for the light rails.  Instead of raising the height of the bed and creating thicker rails, I used a french cleat in my wall to hang the headboard.  The bed is rock solid now.  Finished with amber shellac and wax.  Check out the Sketch-Up drawing for more info. Continue reading “This Week In the Shop: Queen-Sized Bed”

This Week In the Classroom1 Comment

This Week in the Shop: Ceramic 3-D Printing via Shapeways.com

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DSC02480In the late 1800’s and into the  early 1900’s, a number of furniture makers, craftsman and artisans reacted against the massive mechanization and industrialization of (their) modern world to create a type of furniture called Arts & Crafts, Craftsman or Mission style furniture.  Gustav Stickley in New York, the Roycroft community and others created furniture, which to my eyes, can’t be beat by anything that’s ready-to-assemble.

While I find my heart and soul called by Mr. Morris’s chair, other artisans were getting in on the action.  With so much intellectual rebellion running about, some energy had to flow into pottery, right?  I’m not a big pot fan (yep, that reads differently than it did in my head) but I do appreciate the art tiles.  I just had to find a way to make one without using actual clay.  I don’t have the sculpting skills, tools, a kiln or materials for such work.

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So how did I do it?  I used some of the latest and most innovative prototyping methods known to man.

Continue reading “This Week in the Shop: Ceramic 3-D Printing via Shapeways.com”

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This Week in the Woodshop: Footboard, Pt. 2

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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. 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. Finishing this guy was an adventure in and of itself.  I discovered a rule about … Continue reading This Week in the Woodshop: Footboard, Pt. 2

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Classroom Project: Try Squares

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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! The construction process for a tool like this can … Continue reading Classroom Project: Try Squares

CAD Lab, Classroom Project, Education, This Week In the ClassroomLeave a comment

This Week In the Classroom: Sketch Up Projects at the Middle School Level

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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 http://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, … Continue reading This Week In the Classroom: Sketch Up Projects at the Middle School Level

This Week In the ShopLeave a comment

This Week in the Shop: Merchandise Display

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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 … Continue reading This Week in the Shop: Merchandise Display

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Woodworking Plans: The Kid’s Bed Frame

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Last year, I posted a quick project: The Bed Frame.  It has since become the most searched for post on this website, garnering a little over a thousand views with no publicity.  People like to build beds. It’s taken a while, but I’ve put together a small PDF which outlines how I make my simple bed frames.  You can catch the goodness here:  The Kid’s Bed Frame Plan If you build it…send me pictures at woodshopcowboy @ gmail.com!  If you have critiques, send them to a different address…I mean, send them over too. Remember to like WoodshopCowboy on Facebook and … Continue reading Woodworking Plans: The Kid’s Bed Frame

Classroom Project, Education, Outdoor & Environmental, TechnologyLeave a comment

Technology in Education: The Digital STEM Fair

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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.  … Continue reading Technology in Education: The Digital STEM Fair

CAD Lab, Classroom Project, Education, Technology1 Comment

STEM Project: The CO2 Rocket Car

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This is my favorite project from this month’s STEM Fair.  A student of mine decided to build CO2 Rocket cars.  I loved building one of these in middle school.  I distinctly remember my simple teardrop design coming in last and remarking – well, that’s unfair.  I didn’t know I could do THAT! – when I saw the winners thin, stretchy, leggy thing.  I looked like a duck next to a greyhound. Last time, my teacher bought a kit.  This time, I chose a simple design for this piece – a pine wedge cut from a 2×4, 1/4 inch dowels as … Continue reading STEM Project: The CO2 Rocket Car