High School Woods Course: Woods 101--TOPICS??

[Charley Preston]

William - do you have more info, links, or photos to the airplanes and rockets you mentioned?

[Bill Dufour]

How about a small lathe and make car shift knobs, candlesticks, trophy holders etc.
Bill D

[Bill Dufour]

In my high school wood class we made a simple ? project out of 1x6 pine or maybe it was 1x4. It had to be ripped to an exact width. One corner round to a given radius, another one concave to the same radius. A mortice on one side and a tenon on the other, exact mating sizes. Once completed the teacher cut it in half and test fitted the joints for a grade. We had to draw up plans for every project before we got to cut anything.
Bill D

[Bruce Wrenn]

Teach them how to read a rule! Very few kids, or adults can read a rule. When I taught shop, Lufkin (as in tape measures and folding rules) made me a print of one inch that was about three feet long. You might find someone to do a CAD drawing for you. Even cooler would b a CNC cut inch, with all the calibrations, made from Baltic birch plywood. Eye protection is the most important safety item, right after attitude. Make sure that all machines have working guards, esp table saw. One of the first things I did was to build a Biesemeyer type fence for table saws. That was over 25 years ago. Two shop teachers later, they are still in use.

[Frederick Skelly]

You guys realize this thread is 18 months old, right?

[Bob Jones 5443]

Thanks Lee,
I took the photo with my phone, downloaded to my computer, rotated the photo and saved it. When I downloaded to SMC, it went back to it's original position????.

Thanks again for rotating the picture. Have a good day.

Von, do this with photos:

1. Save your photo on your computer as a .jpg with a recognizable name in a folder you can easily locate.
2. Close the photo file (important).
3. Open the photo file from that folder.
4. Rotate the image 90º at least one time, and then as many times as needed to make it land right-side-up.
5. Save the file as its normal name.
6. Close the file.
7. Start your post in SawMill Creek.
8. When you want to attach the photo use the “Insert image” icon and “From computer.”
9. The photo will go into SawMill Creek right-side-up.

I'm going to post these steps as a new thread.

[Bill Dufour]

You guys realize this thread is 18 months old, right?

I bet their is at least one new shop teacher somewhere in the English speaking world this fall. I think the only real change in decades is they no longer make much in the ashtray and cigar box departments now a days. Look at the ancient Egyptian wood furniture and you see the same joints and basic chairs, stools, boxes of today. Just no plywood or modern glue/paint.
Bill D.
The chair below has the original linen seat, looking like a rush seat sort of. looks better then my stuff will in 3,500 years. I have had to recover the chair I made for my nephew only 30 years ago. Not even a tenth as long.
This chair was outside the tomb so I assume the stuff inside was better made and preserved.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/543868
I have read they would paint the inside of the tomb last, after the owner dies, in a rush job and not bother to move the furniture to paint behind it.

[John Jardin]

John, your response is exactly spot on and its like you took the words right out of my mouth.
Last week I spent a day with my daughters nephew, 11 years old, working in my shop. I was careful to ask if he made things at home and his eyes lit up that yes he and his dad were always making something.
When he arrived I spent a lot of time like you talking about trees growing and the stresses which eventually must be dealt with when using wood. The structure of the wood like straws and how they loose and gain moisture and how that process should always be in your mind, and how to deal with that constant change in wood measurements.
Our project for the day was a docking station for his cell phone, I pad and lap top computer. He is mechanical and quite possibly a future engineer. I will send pics shortly

[John Jardin]

Pics of Caulins day in my workshopzCuemMuOSYKBpmJOEV+Tiw.jpgIMG_0355.jpg

[Roger Feeley]

Back in my teaching days in the early '70s, speaker cabinets were all the rage. I had the kids building tuned port bass reflex cabinets. There were all sorts of good things to learn. We used a book by Badmaieff and Davis. In addition to all the measuring and veneering and stuff, I had them calculating the electronics. They determined free air resonance of the woofers which dictated the volume and the length and size of the port. They chose crossover frequencies. But my situation was sort of special. I taught in a junior high where you hade to be expelled from at least two other schools to get in. I had a class size of 6. Most of the kids were there because they were gifted and bored. One kid was there because he was going bald and was teased so he beat the crap out of pretty much everybody. We let him wear a hat. They were also well off. Their parents were thrilled to see them spending time and money on something besides dope.

I guess my point is that you should figure out what excites them.
Go get some past issues of Make Magazine. Consider multiple disciplines like involving some kind of motion or electronics.
--How about a wireless phone charging stand. A lot of phones charge wirelessly now.
--What about those game consoles that run on Rasberry Pi where they've ported over hundreds of the old original games. The kids could build the game console for the buttons, joysticks and screen.
--When my daughter was in middle school, they had no shop at all. The teacher had them building rubber band powered airplanes from kits. I was really impressed at what the kids got out of it.