Makeville Studio

The other day I sent out emails to some of the local parents’ groups list asking if their kids would be interested in taking classes in woodworking and building stuff. I got enough of a response to make me seriously consider designing some classes.

It seems there’s not much available in NYC if your kids want to learn woodworking. I’ve heard Lowe’s and Home Depot have occasional kids’ classes. And some private schools include a little woodworking in their cirriculum.

I did find a great program for kids in the Bay Area (San Francisco) called Kids Carpentry, and if I do end up creating a kids program I will probably model it on this one. I really like their “mission statement” :

“By building a variety of fun projects, children learn a wide range of valuable carpentry skills such as measuring, fractions, sawing, drilling, rasping, fastening, sanding, shaping, assembly, and painting. Hand in hand with the practical skills goes a wide variety of other worthy concepts such as abstract reasoning, applied mathematics, problem solving, craftsmanship, fine motor skills, respect for tools, and patience.
The success of Kids’ Carpentry is largely due to its ability to capture the children’s attention. While the children build fun and exciting projects they are also empowered to become independent thinkers - building confidence, self esteem, and a repertoire of practical skills that will last them a lifetime!”

Who wouldn’t want that for their kid?

The most popular class so far here at Makeville is the Workshop Certification, where you come and learn how to use all the tools in shop so you can work on your own projects. Some people have started with zero woodworking experience and are now handling the table saw with confidence, others are excited to be learning new techniques and tricks.

One of the fun parts of all this for me is assisting with people’s projects. One of the more unusual projects going on right now is Chris’ custom speakers. He’s building the “boxes” which will house some high-end speaker components, which will involve use of the table saw, router, drill press, and biscuit joiner. This weekend he got all of the side pieces cut to size and mitered the edges.

One of the other interesting projects is a shelf system made with Dakota Burl, an eco-friendly composite sheet material made out of waste sunflower seed husks. It has an interesting burled wood appearance and machines easily, similar to MDF. As were doing many cutting runs on the table saw last weekend, the studio was filled with the scent of safflower oil.

Thanks to everyone who made it to the open house on the 12th. It was great see all the familiar faces and a bunch of new ones. We got lots of good feedback on class ideas and it was especially fun to hear about all the projects people want to do–everything from backyard playhouses to custom bookshelves to lighting fixtures. It was inspiring to say the least!

Sometimes when you’re caught up in the middle of a whirlwind, you don’t notice how fast you’re actually going and the damage that’s being done around you. Okay, bad analogy. But I looked around the studio the other day and was surprised to notice how much has gotten done in just 2 months of part time, fit-it-in-when-you-can work.

And everything works. I had a bunch of rough lumber (structural lumber salvaged from this very building) that needed to be squared up and finished for a mission-style table I was working on. The jointer, planer, and table saw made quick work of that.

Aside from tool setup, the space is really coming together nicely as well. I don’t know if it’s the light or the high ceilings, but I’m happy to say it’s very pleasant to work in there and should be very nice for classes.

I finally have enough buildout done to commit to a “grand opening” open house date. Things are in pretty good shape–all the tools set up, classes getting organized, gallery area cleaned up. I even had time to put together a nice little invite…

I slogged down to the studio today through the 6″ of still-accumulating snow. Delta finally shipped my new table saw, after waiting a month for backordered parts, and I wasn’t about to reschedule the delivery. The good news is those freight company guys managed to get the 400 lb crate onto the sidewalk. Now I had to get it up the stairs. Actually 3 really strong guys (thank you craigslist) got everything up there in about 20 minutes.
I unpacked everything and even got the table wings assembled when I realized that the rails for the fence system were missing. That’s what you call a good stopping point, and so I closed up for the day. On my way home I snapped this picture of the Gowanus.

We finished assembling the new drill press and band saw last night. Both are surprisingly quiet for such powerful machines. And they cut through wood like butter. It takes hardly any strength at all to overcome the slight resistance of the wood against the band saw blade. Even the old drill bit I threw in the drill press bores through a 2×4 effortlessly.

A lot of woodworkers like to build their own workbenches–it’s sort of a right of passage as you set up your own workshop, and I suppose if you know exactly what kind of stuff you’ll be building, it’s a great design/build exercise too. It’s also a lot of work, and even though it would probably save a few bucks to make a workbench myself, I just don’t have time right now. So, after much research into ready-made workbenches, I bought a cheap one form Grizzly ($275).

It’s surprisingly sturdy and was really easy to assemble. I think I’m going to add a trestle style base on the legs at each end to give it added stability, but other than that it’s great.

Back in December Leslie and I found these cool old crates out on President St the night before big garbage day. I knew I would find a use for them, and they are now in the process of becoming wall-mounted storage cabinets in the studio. They’re the perfect size for organizing small hand tools and parts.

Update - 3/1/08. Finished some of the first cabinets…

Last week I received the first shipment of big power tools–a bandsaw, planer and jointer. Unlike some (ok, many) woodworkers, this is not a fetish of mine, but it was exciting nontheless to realize that with just these 3 simple tools you can basically turn a rough log of firewood into nicely finished pieces of dimensioned lumber.
Yes, I am aware of how geeky that may sound, but it is actually very satisfying to mill lumber and if you are skeptical, you need to come take a class at Makeville in how to do this and see for yourself.
Shameless self-promotion aside, I will also mention that if you’re in the market for these type of tools, the bandsaw (Delta 28-475X) and jointer (Delta 37-275X) I purchased were very easy to assemble and setup. I’ll have to post later on the performance aspects.