I'm almost ready to teach (again)!

Good morning!  It's Thursday, April 9 and "school" officially starts again on Monday.  Yes, I do plan to teach you some new things.  No, we won't be doing meaningless projects.  I'm still not 100% sure what I will be teaching, but here are some ideas:

• The difference between a drill and a driver and how to use them.
• Different kinds of fasteners.
• Basic home inspection and repair.
• How to select and use wrenches.
• How to use various measuring tools.

The list goes on...  If there's something you'd like to learn about, tell me and I'll put it on the top of the list!  If you're first to make a suggestion, you can also include the style you'd like me to teach in (wardrobe, accent, background, etc.)

If you want to see what "class" will look like, go to your Schoology page and look in the "Distance Learning" folder.  There's an intro page with a video.  I'll have a more comprehensive run-down on Monday showing you how to do everything.  (I still have to figure it out for myself!)

Some of you have been overwhelmed by the number of messages I've sent out, so here's what I'm going to try for communication.

• Remind messages will only go out when there's an important message.  (Unless I have not connected with you, in which case, I will continue to message from you until you respond.)
• E-mails will go out once a week to highlight new material or changes.
• The newly redesigned web page will be static (other than addition of new topics as I develop them).  This is your go-to for skills, activities and projects.  My assignments will be menu-driven.  Pick something applicable to you and do it!
• I'll use Instagram to showcase your work and random content from me.  Send me pictures of your work and I'll post it.  If you post on your Instagram, be sure to tag @RHSWoodshop!
• I have a Twitter account.  I haven't been good about posting to that.  Maybe I'll set Instagram up to cross post.
• I still have a Facebook account, mainly to maintain my cringe factor for the younger generation.  People still look at it.  Really, they do!

Here's my plan for today:

• Make two skill lessons.  Probably drills and screwdrivers-- something simple.
• Post reading material and assignments for students who want to get a couple of assignments out of the way.
• Call the people I haven't heard from yet.
• Finish boring a hole under my driveway so I can get water to my garden.

I'm currently listening to John Cougar Mellencamp on Pandora for anybody needing a musical nudge.

Have an excellent day!

Cutting Boards

It's the end of the semester and time to highlight some of the more challenging cutting boards that were completed. 

This one shows true skill in aligning boards intersecting at right angles. In order to make this work, the joints must be cut at exactly 90 degrees. 

A lot of planning went into the pattern of this board. It is difficult to cut narrow boards accurately. 

This board shows true patience and persistence. Each successive layer had to be individually glued and re-squared. A small planer mishap almost derailed this project but the artist persisted. 

Many skills went into this project. The artist had to learn to cut the inside shape accurately and master the CNC machine. 

This is what A work looks like!

The Curse of the Dual Drum Sander

It begins with a piece of machinery that always breaks.  This is our beloved Dual Drum Sander, often the last power tool to be used before the finishing process begins.  When this breaks, all work seems to stop.  We've spent hours fixing this thing only to have it break again.  The drums go round and round, but the table doesn't want to go up and down.  That seems to be a simple enough task for it to accomplish, so why does it keep breaking?

This piece provides a clue.  That should be a flat piece of metal, but it shows obvious signs of erosion, especially as it is filed down flat.  Something must be digging into this causing it to seize up.  We could repair this piece, but what caused the damage in the first place?

The threaded rod is supposed to turn inside this plate.  This one isn't.  A large burr has formed and frozen this in its tracks.

Here's the lift assembly as it came from the factory.

Time to make some new parts.  Rather than steel on steel, I'm going to machine a bronze bushing.  While I'm at it, I'll dress all of the original parts so that they are true and free of burrs.  In addition to the bushings, I'll have to modify the original parts to fit and add a retaining washer to keep it from falling off.

Here's the finished end with the modifications.

And the plates with the pressed-in bronze bushings.

The finished assembly is complete.

And ready to put back in the machine.  I think I'll send this to PowerMatic as an upgrade suggestion.

CNC Cribbage Board

Somebody mentioned making a cribbage board and the idea has been on my mind for awhile.  The biggest challenge, I thought, would be arranging 360 holes along a vector.  As it turns out, Aspire makes this quite easy.  Here's a short tutorial I found on how to do this.

Here's my first attempt.  It was pushing midnight and I'm short five holes.  I discovered that tight curves don't make for friendly cribbage paths.  My solution was to delete the holes in weird places, but then I ended up short.  This is one of those projects that's going to take you some fiddling to get right, but has the potential for a very cool project!

Update:

I'm getting the hang of this now.  One thing that I've learned is that oval or rectangular tracks are the best to keep the holes from bunching up in the tight corners.  My latest iteration is below.  Total machine time is 25 minutes, but there's the whole process of how to paint it without messing up the alignment.

Let's explore developing and selling these!

Resources

Now that the shop is clean, I can concentrate on putting resources online for your reference.  (Thank you all for your amazing efforts!  I couldn't have done it on my own!)

Until I get the actual web page up, look here for resources.

General Resources
(Includes time cards, syllabi, and project evaluation forms.)

Exploring Woods Resources
(Includes all of those long, pesky workbook packets!)

Woods I/II Resources
(I've lumped these together this year, but that will change next year... just wait!)
Be sure to look at the end of semester requirements and first semester grade requests.

Tortilla Press

Abel wanted to make a tortilla press and I suddenly remembered that I had started one years ago. Together we came up with a design. Here's what I started with. Stay tuned for the finished product. 

Wood for your project?

Can you think of a use for this piece of wood?