Woodworking 101

Every time I enter the Makerspace classroom my ears are serenaded with the humming symphony of machines whirring and slicing through wood like a hot knife through butter. On arts days many students pile in to learn the ways of woodworking from the master woodworker, Mr. Hunwick. Mr. Hunwick has thousands of hours of woodworking experience and is a wonderful teacher. In woodworking right now, we are fabricating boxes for personal use. The main criteria is that they must be functional and useful. We have to use wood joints to ensure that the boxes are strong and elegant. One of the woodworking students, Christopher B, Rogers ‘20, says, “Woodworking is a valuable skill that I could see myself using in the future. It is practical and I have found the box that I made very useful.” Other projects that happen in woodworking are the toy project, where we made a toy to give at Christmas, and the student’s choice project, where we will make anything we want. We also learned about different types of wood joints. We learned about the dovetail joint, which has high tensile strength, the finger joint, which has high aesthetic appeal and is very strong, and the lap joint, which is very easy and quick to make. Christopher B. says, “My favorite joint is the dovetail. It is a very strong joint with very high tensile strength. It's very good for stuff that will have a lot of stress on it, like tables or chairs.”  There are also very extensive safety precautions that are upheld. Some of them are that ear and eye protection are mandatory when in the workshop. A safety course was also taught at the beginning of the year to make sure that students knew how to be safe around machines. Mr. Hunwick takes safety very seriously. Machines are also cleaned by the students after each use to prolong the lifespan of the machines. Students will spend the remainder of the year designing, sawing, gluing, and drilling their final projects of the year which they will get to choose for themselves. Quincy E, Privett ‘20