Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst 123
Results 31 to 43 of 43

Thread: Your High School shop from the 70's….

  1. #31
    I remember the Floor was painted a dark green with Yellow squares painted around each tool to show where you were not supposed to stand when the tool was on. Had some gritty stuff in that yellow paint too.

    Also, there was that step to open metal fire bucket for all the shop rags. Also, all the windows had that wire mesh in them.
    Each workbench had cold metal stools to sit at that would creak so much the teacher would have to wait until everyone stopped moving so he could talk.
    ~Everyone has the strength, few possess the will~

  2. I remember a delta cabinet saw by the ped door that you had to take a sheet of plywood in and be almost lean against the office wall to cut a sheet of plywood, and a bandsaw on the otherside of the room that sounded like it was going to blow up,and the work benches across the roll-up door. poor shop planning. also built a desk of my own design sold it to the shop teacher for 200.00,later saw a design for one just like it for a couple grand!
    Last edited by Keith Outten; 10-20-2014 at 6:07 AM.

  3. #33
    I graduated from high school in '69, in junior high I had drafting, then shop, and most of the time we spent squaring up a board with a plane, had to be square on all 4 corners, and straight on all 4 edges. Then we built a lamp. The shop was equipped with one tablesaw, one jointer, and a bandsaw. The mitersaw was manual, and most of the time you stood in line to make a cut. Didn't get a lot done in a period. Kansas went through forced consolidation in the 60's, and as a junior went to a nearby town for high school. There, the shop was for welding, and they had a radial arm saw, and a jointer. The teacher had a general shop degree, so he had 3 hours of woodworking. We spent one period a week in the classroom, which seemed a waste of time to me.

  4. #34
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    NE Ohio
    Posts
    6,983
    1966 - I struggled to understand board feet back then and not a whole lot has changed in that regard over the years .

    Except that now an online board foot calculator is a couple mouse clicks away.
    My granddad always said, :As one door closes, another opens".
    Wonderful man, terrible cabinet maker...

  5. #35
    Thanks for all the great suggestions and memories thus far, I'm making progress and hope to have photos posted soon. This is a post to a different forum in which I have asked the same question...

    "My shop classes usually had a "pull down blackboard" (like a double hung window), and behind the blackboard was a place where all hand tools were located. They also had a red or black outline painted behing the hooks that held the tools. This allowed the shop teacher to spot quickly when a tool was missing and everyone had to work to locate it before we were excused."

    I don't recall this in my school's shop but I like the idea. How to best make a pull down system is eluding me though. I want it to function and look somewhat of the period but I can't take too much time with it, I need to get on with the real work I intend to get done in the shop. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

  6. #36
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    long island,New York
    Posts
    28
    Light green painted block walls. All the rest is similar to what has been said with the exception of the the small circled spot on the cement block wall directly behind the table saw. It seams that it was a carbide tooth from the saw blade that came dislodged and stuck in the wall. ( that was Mr Schneider's story anyway) the sign under the spot read "wear your safety goggles" It is sad that most school shops have been sold off at auction and converted to other uses. 54 years old and came to love wood and all involved with it from that school shop.

  7. #37
    Must have been spoiled.
    PM 66,Unisaw, Oliver 260
    14" DeWalt
    30" Crescent,14" Powermatic Bandsaws
    12" Northfield 8" Yates 6" PM jointers
    20" Max disc sander
    Oliver OSS
    4 PM lathes
    2 PM(?) scroll saws
    2 PM drill presses
    A huge stroke sander

    there was a separate finishing room as well as a pretty nice tool crib for hand tools. I.had attendance problems because I was bored to death with school. They agreed to let me take woodshop 3 periods a day if I promised to show up for the other 4 classes. The woodshop teacher (great guy and really talented craftsman) kept my butt out of trouble and the school got their ADA money from the state. I will never forget that place.

  8. #38
    Jeff, I would love to have gone to your school. Ours was locked up and you could not leave, or I would have taken off.

  9. #39
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Noblesville, IN
    Posts
    25
    I usually don't reply to threads but this one touched a nerve.

    I was a shop teacher in the mid 70's. I taught everything from Auto Mechanics, Metals, Printing, and Woods. All your suggestions for items in the shop are very time period appropriate. One thing that seemed to be particular to all shops was the white metal safety glass cabinet that had a "sterilization light" available to ward off cootie transmission. 16 penny nails in freshly sanded and finished maple workbench tops were also popular.

  10. #40
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Westminster, MD
    Posts
    119
    What an interesting thread! Thanks for starting it.
    I took wood shop in 1964, 65, and 66 in Butler, PA. The wood shop was in the basement of the "Yellow Brick Building". I remember, liske others, the green floor, the many workbenshes with vices at each corner.

    We had options as to the projects we worked on, all made from poplar. To this day I have my puppy lamp (base squared and beveled with a hand plane), my shelf and my stool. I remember a band saw and a lathe but for some reason I do not remember a table saw. Many hand tools, though. I can distinctly remember turning the screwdriver to drive the screws home on the legs of my bench when the bell rang signifying the end of class. The screws were glued in and I had not fully driven a couple of the screws. The shop teacher (I wish I could remember his name) made a point of explaining to the class, the next time we met, to always complete a task. Those screws stand proud by 1/4 inch to this day, and the legs are only a little wobbly after 45 years or so.
    There was a large tool bin at one end of the shop. I remember the metal shop stools.

    Ahhh, the memories.

  11. #41
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Logan, Utah
    Posts
    18
    My recollections of the high school shop I took a class in are quite clear. The shop was large, had 6 workbenches for students, 2 big oliver lathes, a very large planer (I think it was 36"), table saws, and jointers. The thing I recall the most however was the floor. Vertical grain douglas fir that had been treated with something that smelled like wintergreen as I recall (that was in 1962 summer school in Oxnard CA). The thing I remember about the floor was that it did not dull chisel edges or other sharp things when dropped on the floor.

    I did attempt to use a shop in Milwaukee schools in the late 70's and gave up, the jointer blades looked like someone had abused them for years, the unisaw blades were 7 1/4" blades, and the shop was full of great machinery which was in horrible repair and not usable. I attended one day, intending to build something, and never went back.

  12. #42
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    South Central Indiana
    Posts
    220
    I recall a big Mason jar with brush mounted in a makeshift plywood cap, full of shellac, and that was the finish for just about any small project (If you were building a piece of furniture and actually cared about it, you bought your own finish).
    We had safety goggles (this was 1977-9), the clear sticky rubber kind which fog up and leave a red ridge across your nose. They lived in a metal wall cabinet which had a UV light on a timer which was supposed to sterilize them between classes. That would be an interesting bit of kit for a shop if you could find one, but who would really want to use those goggles?

    If you want to dress properly for the shop, you should have a blue lab coat with button-down shirt and tie, preferably a clip-on tie for safety.

  13. #43
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Dublin, OH
    Posts
    13
    Here's a link to, I hate to say it, what looks like the liquidation of a somewhat local high school shop. For what it's worth it gives a view of some of the classic things remember in this thread. Not as clean as the school shops we remember, but has the classic benches and maybe a few good deals for those that are local to southern Ohio.

    http://www.lovelandmagazine.com/2014...nd+Magazine%29

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •