Workshop Classes

This is probably the best location to put consistent information about the workshop classes that I am currently doing.  Information will probably changes and adapt as covid regulations increase or decrease.  

I am holding workshop woodworking classes in my garage about twice a month; at least that is the plan starting in January.  I will be posting links on Facebook and NextDoor.  I am working on a google sheet for sign ups so that people can sign up for the project and date.  I have space for two people at a time for the smaller projects and only one for the larger projects.  All tools and supplies will be provided.  Currently everyone will need to come with a face mask or shield.  Shields are preferred because they do not fog up the safety glasses.  Classes will range from 1-3 hours in length.  These projects are on the simpler side to teach basics of nailing, drilling, cutting, sanding, and assembly.  It will not go into fine woodworking joinery and furniture.

Here are a list of potential projects.  Not all the designs have been vetted out so I don't have pictures of all of them.

• Construction trucks - 1-3rd grades
• Napkin holder - 1-3rd grades
• Holiday luminary - 4th grade and above
• Christmas Ornament - 4th grade and above
• Cell phone holder - 4th grade and above
• Bird House - 2-6th grade
• Cradle - 9th grade and above
• Scroll saw basics - 4th grade and above (prerequisite for many of the other classes)
• Catapult - 4th grade and above
• Name Plaque 1-3rd grade
• Puzzles - 4th grade and above
• Car launcher - 3-4th grade

To sign up for the workshops please look for the posts on social media sites and respond via email.  This is a first come first serve basis.  I will have some priority for new kids for the younger classes.

Workshop Classes

 I am starting up classes again.  I am running these a little differently,  It is not a 14 week class but a couple of ours.  Right now I am only having 2 people at a time because I have two work spaces for separation.  My first two classes were for kids 1-3rd grade.  We made a name plaque and a tow truck.  They painted and put them together.  Sorry I forgot to take pictures of the tow truck.  Each class was about an hour long.  I will be working up to larger projects but I also want to include projects for the younger kids also.  Overall, I think the kids had fun.  It is easier for me to let other kids do projects than let my kids do it on their own.  These classes are promoted through facebook groups and the next door app.

Color experimenting

 I am working on putting together workshops for kids to learn and make some things out of wood.  My struggle has been the painting.  Young kids really like painting and coloring there stuff so I need to come up with a solution.  

Here are the things I have thought about:

• 
  Markers - may not be very messy but also not very affordable.  Wood and markers also don't go together well because wood is more abrasive than paper and will wear down the tips quickly.  On the positive side they do not make a mess and they will clean up with water.  They also dry fast.
• Acrylic paint - It is a lot more messy, stains clothes, and takes forever to dry because kids layer it on pretty thick.  It is also uses more stuff because brushes need to be cleaned and rinsed with water.  On the plus side it is cheap and one bottle can be used multiple times.
• Paint pens - are not affordable and have chemicals that I don't want kids using.
• Food dyes - are thin and dry quickly.  They are too liquid for me to have kids use.  
• Water color pallets - They are about a $1 a piece on amazon so they are affordable if they are reusable.  Mixing colors and contamination is very likely when kids use them

I tried making my own.  I tried two things: drying out acrylic paint and drying out food coloring.  These were dried on parchment paper because that is what I had.  I put aluminum foil under the food dies because I was not sure if it would bleed through.  It did not. Here are some of the key observations that I made.

 Acrylic paint comes in many colors and food dyes typically come in four so I did have to make some of my own colors and I did not have black or white.

• The yellow dye looks a lot like orange
• The acrylic paint dried in about 24 hours.  The dyes did not seen to dry after 72 hours
• The dyes stain my hands while the paint washed of with soap, water and a little scrubbing.
• The acrylic paint rehydrated with some water and a paint brush.  it did stake some work and the colors were translucent and not opaque.

The next step is to see how the parchment paper holds up to kids and painting.  The other nice thing that was nice with the paint was the viscosity.  I could put the paint down and put another piece of parchment on top.  Pat it down a little bit and peel the two sheets apart.  I now had two painting papers.

Puzzle Ornaments

 This is another pattern that I found on the web.  Thought it looked interesting and I had some scrap that I could try them out on.  I like the idea.  My execution and final assembly was not good.  My hole for the ribbon was too big.  I drilled it at 1/4" and I should have made it closer to 1/8".  I think the patterns could have used a little work also.  Not all the pieces lock together.  It is a pet peeve of mine if they don't.  Painting them was not difficult and added a nice touch.  I don't know if I will do these again, but I might actually take the idea to some line art in the web.  I also might consider making them bigger and changing some of the lines.  Again, I liked the idea and the concept is good.  I fault myself on the execution and look.

This Year’s Christmas Ornament

This was a crazy year for me.  I had the nativity ornament already picked out.  The wood choice for the family ornament is poplar.  There is not much special about poplar.  It is considered a hard wood even though it is pretty soft.  This wood is always in stock in my shop because it is what I use to make the toys that I designed for the first time.  It is also what I make most of my toys I donate.  It paints very well and is inexpensive.  Poplar will always have a place in my shop. 

It came clear in April that another ornament would need to be made.  I found a couple designs and saying on Etsy about this pandemic.  The ornaments I found were laser engraved.  I took them and cut out then used paint pens to paint the designs in paint pens.  The lesson learned from this project is that carbon paper does not wipe off with a little bit of water.  It is my first-time using carbon paper where I was not going to sand it off.  I wanted to copy the lettering, but it was not going to work out.  I used my own handwriting than a decorative lettering.  I will not be offering these to the public because I took the design from someone else.  These are going to family and coworkers.  When I started these, the coworkers were not very many so they were made out of solid wood.  I had a team of four and a couple of others in the office.  I was let go due to the pandemic.  After a short time, I was rehired by the parent company of the company I worked for in California.  This made my coworker pool increased a lot.  I took some ¼” plywood and painted one side white.  I then cut out and painted them.  I actually like the white painted ones better then wood ones I made.

That is this year's ornament.

Honey, I Blew up the Toys

I had a fair amount of off cuts of several thicknesses of cherry from the furniture that I have been building.  I wondered for a little bit what to do with it.  My small series was made mostly of 3/4" material so it made since to just double it, sort of.  

The problem was that the lumber I had was not all the same thickness and too small to run through a planer.  I took some liberties on thicknesses and dimensions to make it work.  I only had enough off cuts to make four different models.  I probably like the jeep and the plane the best.  I would like to see what the dump truck would be doubled.  Maybe after a few more projects.

Fun project to double the size.  I needed to enlarge a couple of the templates.  I took a couple of liberties with the dowel placements and widths.  It was also surprised how big they were compared to the originals.  I will probably do this again when I get different thicknesses of lumber.

 

Bug Chest of Drawers

 

My middle child needed a dresser for his room. He had drawers that went under his bed but we lofted the bed so the drawers just moved around the room when he needed space.  I put together a design for a painted chest of drawers that he could help in the color and painting.  

I figured I would use cheaper materials, but I don't know how much cheaper they were.  The side frames are poplar and the rest of the carcass is MDF.  The drawers are the cheap import plywood that is a pain to work with.  I used a stain blocking primer, because I knew there were places in the house that I would need to prime also.  I purchased a quart of flat bright white interior paint and half a gallon of orange acrylic paint.  For the top coat, I used water based polyacrylic.  

Construction is pretty simple.  The sides are a frame and panel where everything was pre-finished.  The only thing that I would have done different would be to stencil the patterns on before assembling the panel.  Th insert panel is MDF that has been primed and painted.  The face frame is MDF and screwed into the sides.  I had some left over poplar so those were made into the back rails.  It has a full back panel and the top is 1/2" MDF.  I should have used 3/4" but I did not want to buy a sheet for just one top.  The top is held in place by construction adhesive.  I would have liked a couple of mechanical fasteners.  

I did have my helper paint.  It was good for him to be part of the project.  He did do all the the stenciling.  I did learn a couple of things with working with my son on this project.  The first and most important is that I cannot do it for him.  He rolled the primer on all the parts and put on the white paint.  I did do some touch up work, but he did do a god job.  I also learned that there is a time limit for how much he will do.  Once the time is up, I can work on the parts of the project that he is not able to do.  It is hard to hold back "suggestions" on how I would like to see it done.  He needed to chose the stencils and placement.  He is a very linear thinker that thinks outside the box.  The stencils are all oriented in the same position, but the color scheme is all his.  I would have liked it a little more symmetrical but he wanted nothing to do with it. he also did not like the scorpion and centipede stencils.  

I think the project works well for my son.  He was extremely proud of what he did and how it turned out.  I would have liked it to be a little cleaner in the paint area but a lot of that was my fault.  He now has a place to put away his clothes, now we will see if his room stays cleaner longer.  

The inspiration for the project was first to have a place for my son's clothes.  After looking at the costs of dressers I thought I could build a better one for slightly over the cost of buying one.  I was looking at around the $220 range. Here is the cost break down and total

hardware	$49.98
lumber	$77.62
tools	$40.17
paint	$48.36
Grand total	$216.13

If you add in labor at $10/hour (minimum wage and easy calculation), the labor cost alone would be $240.  This brings the total to $456.13.  I know that people would say they would buy it for this much to be nice, but in reality they would go for the mass manufactured one about half the price.  When you look at craft fairs and think things are expensive, the makers are not really making a lot of money because most do not add in labor.  I woodwork because I like to create not to make money.