High School Woodshop

[SGalley]

Just curious. What did you guys make in High School Woodshop? if you took the elective. First on was a fishing rod rack out of oak that was going to be entered into the craft fair, but got the chicken pocks before I could put the finish in it (It's still on the wall in my old bedroom). Made a few Maple Billy Clubs on the lathe out of scrap. Made a few things you can smoke out of (only tobbaco:wsmile Made a segmented plate out of oak and walnut. A wolf carving (the front legs kept giving me fits trying to make them even and ended up like toothpicks). A walnut framed marquetry rose that my Mom still has on the kitchen wall. A stereo stand that I never put together because the oak was still green. My late Dad put that one together about 15 years later with finishing nails.....the horror!! I remember getting everything ready for assembly and my teacher making me sand and sand and sand. Guess he was trying to eat up the rest of the marking period. Went by my old school over the Christmas holiday and it looked like the shop was gone. Times have sure changed for the worst:saw:.

 

[Tar Heel]

In 8th grade shop I made a gun rack that had space for three rifles/shotguns out of walnut and a lamp made out of pine. All with hand tools. Made a bookcase out of pine in 12th grade shop (skipped shop from grades 9-11). I still have and use all three.

 

[Mike Davis]

I took drafting, but I helped build a display for VICA club competition, we got 2nd place at state because they said it looked too professional. I guess the backlit lexan signs were a bit over the top?

Yeah, I can laugh about it now. :rotflm:

 

[ErnieM]

I've got two memories of woodshop in 7th grade (the only grade I was able to take shop). First, I remember being given a plane and a hunk of wood 6" square (probably was a lot smaller than that but the years have made it grow just like the fisherman's first fish). My job was to plane that hunk of wood down to 3/4" x 3/4". After two and a half months of planing that hunk he said I was ready to make something but there wasn't much time left in the school year - so, I ended up with a crank lamp. I remember loving the smell of wood but, to this day, I'm not real fond of planes.:no:

Ernie

 

[Trent Mason]

I took Shop in 8'th grade at Randolph Middle School. I'm pretty sure that's the only time it was offered (Charlotte/Mecklenburg public schools in the early to mid 90's). Still, it was my favorite class to date. I can see the instructor's face but can't remember his name. :icon_scra I remember making some sign with my name routed on it freehand. Turned out ok I guess, but I don't thing my parents still have it. :eusa_doh: I do remember that we had the "bridge made out of popsicle sticks" competition in that class and I won by a mile. Good times, good times.....

The same year, in a different class we had the "build a contraption to keep your egg from breaking when it is dropped off the edge of the building" competition and I won that also. :thumbs_up:thumbs_up

Now, here I am, 30 years old and unemployed. Looks like all of that talent paid off. :rotflm::rotflm::rotflm:

 

[blazeman45]

7th and 8th grade was the only years I took it but are some of my fondest memories before high school. We built CO2 powered cars and raced them... It would start with a block of 2x4 and time on the bandsaw following a pattern I had drawn. Then came lots of sanding!! We would work all year to build different cars and fine tune a car that would qualify for the state competition... I went to State both years but never won at that level! :nah:

Imagine a pinewood derby car attached to a string with a hole bored in the back and CO2 cartridge inserted... Discharge the CO2 and it was FAST!!! There are videos of these things on You Tube

Guess I know where my love of racing came from also!!

 

[ncguy77]

It's funny as heck that I cant remember what I made but I distinctly remember that I had to beg and plead to wood shop teacher to make a special case to let me into Sophmore woodshop since Freshman weren't allowed shop. Pestered him to the point that he let me in with a waiver signed by my parents.

So of coarse thru the high school years I took "senior shop" in my Junior year and therefore the shop teacher had to make a special "independent woodshop studies" class for my senior year.

I however do know what I made in my 1 year of metal shop. A 6 foot diameter chandalier with 12 lights on it and a couple hundred feet of hand bent scrolls. Sold it for a bargain ($300) to some doctor and bought a junker 72 puke green Nova . Twenty+ years later I made a duplicate of it and it hangs in my foyer.

 

[MrAudio815]

I made the Speakers in my signature in 9th grade. And brought them to my uncle's house and he bought the speakers for them. He ended up keeping them for 3 months because he loved the sound of them so much.

That started my desire of building more Tower speakers.

 

[Guy in Paradise]

A long time ago

There were several woodshop classes a student could take. Now, in the school I teach at, only a design and simple project class is for middle schoolers.

However, that said, 32 years ago, my first project was to carve out a wood horse, then make a laminated skateboard, and finally a simple box, in a semester. I got more confidence out of the drafting course during the second semester.

During my introductory woodworking course we could not use power tools. Class often started with 5 minutes of the teacher talking, then leaving us alone at a shop table for the entire rest of the period, while he stayed in his office, or helped the advanced students on the power tools. Maybe that is why I got my own Dad to show me how to use what he had, radial arm saw and power hand tools.

 

[red]

Re: A long time ago

I made several small projects including a nice coffee table. My big project was a trestle table. It came out pretty good. I remember the wood was still a little green and that gave me problems. My Mom still uses the table today, some thirty years later. It was my favorite class in high school and my teacher, Roy Slater, was great. He was the one that gave me the woodworking bug and I thank him for that.

Red

 

[woodstarfarms]

In my high school, shop class was a breezer. Most kids took it for an easy grade. I remember actually working in the shop while all the goof offs played wall ball behind the shop. Our teacher only required 1 project for the year. Most kids built bluebird houses the first couple of weeks and then coasted the rest of the year. The teacher pretty much left me to build whatever I wanted since he knew the cabinet shop owner I worked for after school. I built several barrister bookcases, blanket trunks, and a couple of clocks. It is a shame that alot of the schools now have stopped having shop, at least for those kids who actually have an interest. I enjoyed having the time to work in the shop then, which made my career choice easier.

 

[McRabbet]

Back when I took woodshop, we used stone axes to cut wood; a bow drill for making holes, a deer hide with beach sand for smoothing; red ochre in turpentine for stain... not! We actually had some good tools 54 years ago when I took shop -- my best project was a light-tight plywood enclosure for a 2-meter path spectrograph I designed and built for the HS Science Fair -- made my my own carbon arc light source for it and won First Place in Physics at my school and at a six county regional Science Fair. Can't remember other stuff except a wood gun rack like Stuart described.

 

[SawBuck]

The traditional vocational ed. courses have been dropped at my old high school for some time now too. It's sad. I made a presentation to the city school board when I was senior to try and change their mind about dropping "shop class". A couple of years later it was turned into an applied science class.

On a positive note, some of my best high school memories were made in my woodtech classes. I made a Queen Anne tea table my sophomore year that placed first at state competition. I made a Chippendale chest of drawers my senior year that placed first at state and nationals. Those experiences really changed my life.

-Lonnie

 

[toolferone]

I took shop in 9th grade at Ligon junior high. The teacher was James Madrey. He is a member of the NC wood turners club that meets at the NCSU craft center. It is so cool that he is still at it. He was a regular customer at the Woodcraft I worked at. I think I might have even taught him a few things when he came to the store.

The 2 items I remember are a maple and willow cutting board my folks used for many years. I remember him teaching us about how strong the glue was. When it finally broke it was the wood that split, not the glue joint. The other as a practice spindle turning of coves and beads. I remember turning a captive ring (with out special tools). I had the piece for a long time and then dropped it and broke the ring. I threw it out after that.

BTW this a great thread, good idea!

 

[SGalley]

I took shop in 9th grade at Ligon junior high. The teacher was James Madrey. He is a member of the NC wood turners club that meets at the NCSU craft center. It is so cool that he is still at it. He was a regular customer at the Woodcraft I worked at. I think I might have even taught him a few things when he came to the store.

The 2 items I remember are a maple and willow cutting board my folks used for many years. I remember him teaching us about how strong the glue was. When it finally broke it was the wood that split, not the glue joint. The other as a practice spindle turning of coves and beads. I remember turning a captive ring (with out special tools). I had the piece for a long time and then dropped it and broke the ring. I threw it out after that.

BTW this a great thread, good idea!

Exceeded my expectations. This is very interesting.

 

[Gotcha6]

7th & 8th grade shop was all I got. Basic courses with subjects like internal combustion engines, transmissions, drafting, and then some shop time. We got to build a shoe shine box & a sports or gun rack. 9th grade saw a new 'junior high school' built & the curriculum turned away from a lot of those things. I got plenty of wood working with my dad building houses. @ 18, he put me on the saw bench cutting everything from floor joists to rafters to plywood. I got 'infected' there. Never did enjoy an office.
I think the problem we're seeing with today's WWing industry is that we've told everyone that had a 4 digit SAT they needed to go to college & wear a white collar. It has really 'dumbed down' the perceptions of WWing as a profession when the opposite should be the case. With cabinet shops & fabrication shops setting up CNC routers & saws, the industry needs people with the hands on experience it takes to make these things work.

 

[flyrod444]

I had shop from 7th grade through 12th. My first project in 7th was a very simple jewery box made of wormy chestnut. I made a simple gun rack my 8th grade year. In high school I made a ton of projects from two coffee tables to some very nice bowls turned on the lathe. Including the period I was an assistant for my shop teacher I had shop 4 periods a day my senior year. My love for shop in high school pointed me into the direction of becoming a shop teacher for a career. Two more years teaching high school shop and I will retire to my home shop which will help suppliment my retirement income.
Jack

 

[Glennbear]

Despite having a lineage of woodworkers in my family traceable back to the 1800's, in my youth I had little interest. When given the option during my mandatory semester of wood shop to design my own project I jumped at the chance. I designed an arrow rack for hunting arrows, two uprights and two shelves with the top shelf having holes to allow passage of the heads to rest on the lower shelf. 99.5% of my time in wood shop that semester was spent either drilling holes in #1 pine or waiting for a turn at the drill press .:rotflm: Despite my best effort at skating by with my project it turned out well enough to be displayed in the shop case in the school lobby. :embaresse

 

[SGalley]

I had shop from 7th grade through 12th. My first project in 7th was a very simple jewery box made of wormy chestnut. I made a simple gun rack my 8th grade year. In high school I made a ton of projects from two coffee tables to some very nice bowls turned on the lathe. Including the period I was an assistant for my shop teacher I had shop 4 periods a day my senior year. My love for shop in high school pointed me into the direction of becoming a shop teacher for a career. Two more years teaching high school shop and I will retire to my home shop which will help suppliment my retirement income.
Jack

Way cool!!

 

[Gofor]

I only took wood shop in 8th grade (1/2 century ago). Don't remember making much but the one lesson that did stick with me was to respect the table saw. The shop teacher was ripping a board on the tablesaw (no guards) and was distracted by a couple of miscreants. Turned his head to see what was going on and ran his thumb right over the blade. Grooved the bone from the tip down past the joint. His thumb never worked right again.

I use the blade guard whenever possible and quit if I can't stay focused.

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