School wood shop update

[Biff Johnson]

Hello all,

Some of you may remember my thread a few months ago detailing the trials and tribulations of our local school wood shop. Thanks to many fantastic members of this forum we received some very generous donations of money, tools, materials and services. I thought all those involved may be interested in an update!

It's been a whirlwind of activity and I'm very pleased with the progress we've made. The new compound miter saw and hand tool donation spurred a rigorous shop cleaning to make room! The kids got involved and we sorted lumber, cleaned out old projects and made a tool wall to properly store hand tools. It's amazing how just the new tools and cleaning got the students to feeling good about their class; you can tell they have began to feel a real sense of pride.

Thanks to some generous lumber donations the kids projects have become more detailed and they are taking the time to finish them nicely. I hope to get some pictures of a few finished projects up shortly. For the first time in four years the lathe was fired up today and an eager student started turning a bowl!

We still have a ways to go with some of the equipment but the momentum is building. People are starting to take notice of the shop program again! This really wouldn't have been possible without your encouragment and generosity. Thank you so much to all those who participated!

PS I'm meeting with a board member next week to discuss resurrecting the metal shop program...wish me luck!

[John McClanahan]

Bill, I'm glad to hear things are looking up. BTW, I still use the metal funnel I made in Jr. High shop class in 1970.

[Tom Walz]

Glad it is going well.

How about some pictures.

Tom

[Augusto Orosco]

Wonderful news!

[George wilmore]

It is nice to see the program going good. The school I teach at no longer has a woodworking or metalworking program. I did make sure I have a well equipped prototype shop for the engineering classes. I have 3 or 4 more years to teach and I do not think I could live without a shop of some kind. I don't get to work in the shop as much as I used too, but a few days are better than no days.

[Biff Johnson]

I will get some pictures shortly. Today I picked up a little bit of lumber these folks donated about 45 miles from us. They are called Urban Lumber and they make some beautiful products! I hope to arrange a field trip to their shop in the near future, they do everything from gathering the lumber to cutting, milling, kiln drying and finishing. Check out their site:

http://urbanlumbercompany.com/

[Biff Johnson]

Just a quick posting of a cabinet a couple of the students and I made to hold power tools. It's no Stickley but we had fun and it worked great! Oak ply with cherry frame. Made from 100 % donated materials! cabinet.jpg

[Jerrimy Snook]

Nice cabinet! Is a saw crib in the works?

[Biff Johnson]

The end of the school year is closing fast so I'm not sure what we will get done. Kids are trying to finish up their projects. I had hoped to get a miter saw station done but that may have to wait. I'm also trying to get the school to offer a metals program for next year. There's never enough time in the day!

[Guy Belleman]

Instead of calling a new program "a metals program" call it "engineering technology" and I suspect it will be approved easily.

[Ed Hazel]

Bill, I'm glad to hear things are looking up. BTW, I still use the metal funnel I made in Jr. High shop class in 1970.

I still use the funnel my dad made in shop class 1948.

Glad the shop is doing well!