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Rank: Newbie
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Joined: 11/22/2007
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Location: Mission Viejo/Calif.
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I think it might be good ,for those that need new projects and ideas, if everybody put together 5 projects that they have had success with and we each sent each other a packet. I teach junior high and we build small toy projects. I have built a program starting with the Magic belt Holder through 6 projects with increasing difficulty and complexity to "The Old Woody" car which is a 10" long car that looks great when cut and asssembled correctly and terrable if not. My kids over the years love it and many are beautiful( with 3 coats of varnish. What do you out there think?
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Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Member, Moderator
Joined: 12/28/2005
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Location: New Hampshire
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This forum was part of a larger web site developed by Woodcraft. If you look the top of the page there was link for posting projects along with other links. Unfortunately, the forum started slowly and everything except this forum was stopped. I agree with Jeff that project sharing would be an interesting addition to this forum. I hope others take the time to contribute.
My five favorite high school projects are:
1. Oval Shaker Boxes - by far the most popular project with parents. I learned from John Wilson www.shakerovalbox.com.
2. Turned projects using small mini-lathes. The most popular with students. We have 20+ lathes in our shop.
3. Small veneer projects like clocks and clip boards where the emphasis is on veneer layout and design. This required the most patience.
4. A unit on kitchen objects which included salt and pepper shakers, cooking utensils, napkin rings, and serving trays. This required the most creativity by the students.
5. Students were required to participate in a "sale" each year by designing a product line. This event, now in its fourth year generates about $4000.00 in sales in 3 hours (during the school day). This project helped the program the most by making people aware of what the program was capable of making.
Anyone interested in more information about any of these projects can contact me.
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Rank: Newbie
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Joined: 10/15/2007
Posts: 0
Location: Corunna, MI
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I know this started as sharing projects thread, however, maybe Jack could share more details on how his school sale works. Funding is a continual source of difficulty for my classes and I would be very interested in how he gets students to make items for the sale, how it is advertised, who are your target customers, who buys the completed projects, how he determines the price for the projects and anything else you could add, especially what pitfalls to avoid.
As for projects to share:
I have mentioned on prevous threads my "Flight Wings". They are always popular with students.
We make a "Christmas Sleigh". It is equally popular with my students because they take them home to give as a Christmas gift. I have a few students who "mass produce" them and give one to evey female in their life, (mother, grandmother, girl friend, etc.). This past week we completed the sleigh making unit. Just like the retail market, I recommend you work a "season in advance". In other words, plan this project well ahead of Christmas so students have plenty of opportunity to complete them in time for the holiday.
Another very good project that we use in our workshop is Wooden Banks You Can Make, by Harvey E. Helm ISBN-13: 9781565231733. This a re-write from a book he published in the 1980s Making Wooden Banks which is now out of print. I have added to this project. We still use patterns from the book, however, I have increased the scope of the project. I received some very nice animal patterns from The Winfield Collection. The patterns are for minature decorative animals. I am going to show my students how to scale a pattern to make the items larger and at the same scale as the original pattern. They will modify the miniature plans to convert them to a bank using the method as described in Harvey Helm's book.
Key in LACM in the link below where it asks for a product search located in the upper right of the home page to see the miniature animals that we will use to make the patterns.
http://www.thewinfieldcollection.com/
My students make fish landing nets. The nets shown in the link below are not mine, however, our students produce nets that equal these in quality and appearance. These nets are incredibly easy to make and students enjoy making them. As with other projects in our shop, students often make several to give as gifts or sell for profit.
http://www.flyfishingnets.net/gpage7.html
My advanced students make fish carvings. I have bought several items from the site below. There was a steep learning curve for me as well as students. Over several years I have become quite accomplished at how to teach this to students. If fish carving is something that grabs your interest, I suggest you introduce it to some of your more patient, advanced students and later present it as a project to the class as a whole. As you gain experience, you will learn what and how to teach the needed skills and in what order works best for you and the equipment you have.
http://www.fishcarver.com/
We are currently in the process of bringing gun stock carving into our shop. I have several students who are interested and are "on fire" to learn how to do it. So far, it is going very well. We used information from the book shown in the link listed below as a basis for our initial studies. We use scrap, prefinished, hardwood flooring as practice material.
http://www.billjanney.com/
I believe that is more than the requested five items.......;-)
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Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Member, Moderator
Joined: 12/28/2005
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Location: New Hampshire
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The sale, held in December, was originally only advertised to faculty, staff and immediate family of students in the program. The local papers did a couple stories and now about 65% of our sales are from repeat outside customers who bring more and more friends each year. Students in my level three and four classes each produce $350 in product for the sale. Students in level two each produce $100 in product. About 20-25 students participate. Each year 5-10 students are either not ready or have product that is not suitable for the sale (peers help to determine what is acceptable).
• For our first sale each student contributed $15 toward a sanding center. The next couple sales they paid 10% of sales to the shop. The last sale we took 5% of the first $500 and noting after that.
• They pay up front for all of their materials. After the first show they start to understand profit margin.
• They have to justify their pricing to the peers using research to justify their pricing.
• My job was to protect the integrity of the show so people returned the next year.
• I think we were very successful in keeping quality up, pricing competitive and a rotating product line.
• We have a file of every product that was made for the sale; it’s price and how many sold.
Students have to prepare artist statements, price tags, business cards and their table display. It looks and feels like a high-end craft show by the time we open. It is a great experience for the students and the community loves it.
The advantage of having it before the holidays is that anything they don’t sell they can use for Christmas gifts. Although individual sales have been as high as $1400 most sell 75% or more of what they made.
I would be happy to email the student handout to anyone who is interested. You can email me at this group and include your email address. It is a 3 page word document.
If you walked into my school and asked about the woodworking program I suspect the first two things you would hear about from the administration or our staff might be this sale and the awards that students have won at the NE Student Design Competition. Like some of you, I had my doubts if students would rise to the level we needed to pull this off successfully. They did and it made the program and me look real good!
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Rank: Newbie
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Joined: 10/9/2007
Posts: 0
Location: OR
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If someone could find out how to get the projects section back up, I have about 7 or 8 projects that I use frequently that I could scan in and contribute.
Ryan
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Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Member, Moderator
Joined: 6/1/2006
Posts: 0
Location: Randolph,Vermont
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I've talked to the folks at Woodcraft about the projects resource. They found there wasn't much participation and discontinued it. Right now they are supporting this forum and are open to re-opening a project data bank only if there is sufficient interest and participation. Let me know what you think.
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Rank: Newbie
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Joined: 3/16/2006
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Location: Madison,VA
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Count me in also...
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Rank: Newbie
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Joined: 4/4/2006
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Location: Santa cruz, Ca
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Go back and look at the posts on band saw boxes. These allow the student to individually design their own or one desigend for an interest of someone else. Bob M
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Rank: Newbie
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Joined: 11/22/2007
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Location: Mission Viejo/Calif.
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I like the idea of a sale, to support the shop program. I am the sole support for my school right now. I also had an idea that I wasn't able to complete when I worked at a high school, and that was to put a wood shop on line throughthe school video production class. The idea being that some of the better shop kids could put together kits , to build certain projects, and that students who were not in shop could order them through an e-mail and the shop secratry would deliver the kit to the recipient through the school mail. Maybe it would work over the internet kind of like ebay but would help support all our shops to some degree. Also what about a united competition for some of our best student projects?
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Rank: Newbie
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Joined: 9/13/2012
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Location: Macklin
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I have been teaching shop to grades 6 to 12 for 11 years now. I have done a small shelve and CO2 car in grade 6, hope chests in grade 7, night stand in grade 8, adirondack chair in grade 9, sheds to open projects in grades 10 to 12. always looking for new projects to do with the students so keep posting things you do and will share.
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Rank: Newbie
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Joined: 3/21/2010
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Location: Davidson, NC
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I have had great success with doing boomerangs with my kids. I built a entire spring unit around the concept with my level 1 kids. They love it and many have continued to build them on their own.
It is a great opportunity to do a cross curricular unit working in math and physics.
We treat it like a science lab and they test, design, modify, and retest their own concepts.
We conclude with a boomerang "competition" modeled after the real things.
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Rank: Newbie
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Joined: 9/17/2012
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Location: Norfolk/VA
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If anyone is interested in having their students make musical instruments, let me know. I have been making them with students for years and have had success with them as young as 7th and 8th grade.
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Rank: Newbie
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Joined: 8/21/2007
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Location: Coventry, CT
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brlabarr wrote:If anyone is interested in having their students make musical instruments, let me know. I have been making them with students for years and have had success with them as young as 7th and 8th grade.
I make whistles with my middle school students, but any information you have on music instruments would be greatly appreciated.
My email is: burringtonrj@(no spam)mansfieldct.org remove the no spam..
Thanks, Bob
A project isn't finished, until a FINISH is on it....Bob~
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