High school woodworking class – day 4
Fourth day of class today. Even though it was a little damp and chilly, the kids got right to work. Unfortunately I was down two adult volunteers, and I forgot my camera. These pictures were taken with my cell phone. Good enough quality, but it requires two hands for a steady photo. Without help taking pictures, I was unable to get everything.
I did not get my son Adam turning his pen, but I did get the assembly.
He brought his own piece of wood for the project, a nice piece of redheart. Paired with the pearl colored hardware, it turned out really nice.
While Adam worked on his pen, the rest of the class got to work assembling the box of the frame, with pocket hole screws.
We used a bit of glue and some screws. When the boards slid a bit, they smoothed out the edges with the orbital sander.
By the time Adam finished up his pen, we were just finishing up the box. Time to start cutting the trim.
The teens each took a turn cutting the miters on the trim.
We discovered a big problem, half way through. I had cut the two longer boards 1″ too short! They were actually long enough last week, but I trimmed them down to make them easier to haul around. I misread a measurement.
Since that is the last of my custom-made trim, we couldn’t get more. We had to fix it… I cut a 1″ long piece from the off-cuts of the short sides and glued it to the end of the trim. I used a couple of brad nails to hold the chunk in place, then sanded the trim to mix sawdust in with the glue. Hopefully it will not be too obvious.
With the first piece fixed, we started installing them.
They applied a thin bead of glue, then screwed the trim on from the inside of the frame.
After repairing the second long piece, we finished lining everything up.
With just a bit more glue and screws, the frame was on.
While we were finishing up the trim, the second student started on her pen.
Tracie explained how to adjust the face mask, and set up the first pen blank.
With a little practice, Savannah was cutting and shaping away.
A little sanding and a bit of friction finish and both halves were done.
Her pen was walnut with gold trim. She seemed very happy with the way it turned out.
We were down two adults and two students today, but we made some good progress. Since the frame will no longer fit in my car, it got moved to the storage building.
We ran out of time though, so after the class left and we cleaned up, I put a coat of stain on the frame. I hope to be able to put on a coat of polyurethane this week sometime, so they can sand and apply the second coat next week and hang the picture on the following week, since that will be the last class.
I really wasn’t happy about having to add an inch of wood to the long sides of the frame, but the frame will still look good and the teens will have something hanging in church that they made, so they can be proud.
Midnight Woodworking 
It’s looking good Lawrence. Probably more fun than most of the classes I had in high school. As much as you hated “stretching” that molding, it was refreshing to see that even someone with far more experience than me makes those kind of mistakes once in a while. Someone once told me that experience just makes it faster and easier to hide mistakes better. No one will ever notice.