Eco-Woodworking at "the Great Re-Skilling".

I recently spent a whole Sunday doing woodwork with both kids and adults concurrently at "The Great Re-skilling" which was held at CityFarm in Perth Western Australia. It was a big day, and heaps of fun.
Organised jointly by Permaculture WA, Transition Towns WA and Perth City Farm, the Great Re-Skilling was a day dedicated to reclaiming sustainable lifestyles, creating resourcefulness for a low carbon future, building community and shared vision and celebrating 30-plus years of Permaculture in WA.

Why “Eco-woodwork”? (not my term, but it fitted pretty well.) I guess it relates to the fact that all of the timber we used was waste – recycled and pre-used, offcuts from building sites (the pine), plywood from old drawer bottoms and packing boxes, jarrah from old pergolas and wall framing, etc. Also most of my benches are made from recycled materials (mostly jarrah), and all of the work at the event was done using hand tools and good old fashioned hand skills. No electricity, just muscle combined with a few tool techniques I passed on to the participants. It was a real hit. I had all my benches there and one volunteer helper. Thanks Liam!We were flat out, with 12 kids vices and 12 adult vices, but often more than 12 kids on the go at any one time. A very popular corner of the gathering...


   

Most adults made wooden spoons, while learning to use a range of traditional hand tools including gouges, spokeshaves, rasps, english bowsaws, coping saws, scrapers, mallet, panel saws and saw stools. The kids mostly used hammers and nails, though many also used tenon saws, and some even  used hand drills and a brace and bit.

I love these pics of a couple of kids using tenon saws with bench hooks. Great technique!
While the adults made wooden spoons at their benches, and the kids made whatever took their fancy from the pieces of wood available to them. I had a mountain of bits of timber for them to chose from... Pieces of pine, pieces of ply, bits of broom handles, etc. Fortunately I managed to take a few pics with my mobile phone amid the chaos.

There were so many wonderful parent/children moments throughout the day. It was delightful. Some parents held stuff for their kids, others succumbed to the temptation to take over!
It was the first time my new small kids benches have been road tested (other than by my grandkids Ronnie and Katana), and these proved to be a real winner from my perspective. It was also the first time I had used my short legs on my normal benches. They went very well too. It was a good opportunity to learn a few more things about doing this stuff with young kids - which is something I am hoping to do a lot more.

There seemed to be a theme of airplanes and spaceships amongst the creations made my the kids.

The smile tells it all...

Another Successful Woodworking Activity with the Belmont Alternative Learning Program.

I recently completed my third program with the students at the Belmont Alternative Learning Centre. (BALC)

The projects I offer sequentially introduce new skills and reinforce previously learned skills, which the participants apply in the building of their projects.
Last time I worked with the BALC students, they each made bedside tables. This time, the project involved some more tricky skills and maths, as the participating students each made a bar stool. In addition to angled legs and components, this project included the upholstering of the tops, which the students also undertook themselves.

Making the Bar Stools.
The following sequence of pictures help tell some of the story:

The measuring, marking and preparation of the angled components required good accuracy.

The use of dowelling jigs still requires care and accuracy for a good result.

The glue-ups are always a high pressure event as we race to beat the fast drying glue!

Glue-ups are best done with people working in pairs. Once clamped up, the excess glue is cleaned up.

The glue-up takes place in two stages: the two ends are glued up first, and when these are dry they are then glued together. This glue-up has been completed and cleaned up.

The upholstered tops first needed their plywood bases to be prepared.

The plywood bases were glued to the 50mm HD foam, and then the surplus foam trimmed off.

Students next helped each other apply the 12mm peeled foam to their seats.

The surplus peeled foam was then trimmed from the underside.

The calico was then stretched over the foam layers and fixed to the underside of the base.

The final task in making the upholstered tops was the trickiest – fixing the black vinyl cover.
This required considerable patience to get the corners right!

The students applied Danish Oil to their completed frames.

Once the frames and seats were completed, they were screwed together, completing the project.

Some of the participants with their completed stools.

A great job done by the students. Well done, Gang!!

Each time we have worked together, the BALC students have used their basic woodworking skills and learnt and applied new skills. It is a sequential process. What will be make next time? It will be interesting to see... I suspect we may make something which will benefit the local community. A bit of carpentry. Let's see what happens next term!