Teaching woodworking again!

Carol Reed

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Coolidge, AZ
Don't know how off-topic this is, but didn't know where else to put it.

I joined Open Source Makers Lab here locally, to make my CNC as I have no room where I live. Besides, they have a really cool lab with tools from welding to laser to CNC to 3d printing and just about anything else you can think off. They want to offer woodworking classes but need an instructor (head of the woodworking lab). That would be me! I will make enough money to pay my dues as a member and buy a few toys as well. Mainly I will use that job to help amortize my own CNC. I also get the help to really make my CNC dance to my tune so that it becomes productive monetarily as soon as possible. Wins all the way around!

Doesn't compromise my main work as that is part-time. Now it really will be!

Happy camper here. I love both lines of work.
 
Thanks go to Darren Wright. He mentioned MeetUps in a post some time ago. I Googled it and found these folks. Went to check it out a couple of months ago. Decided this was for me. Lots of goodies around the labs. Cross technology all over the place. It's where I got unstuck with Arduino with the help of a young man who thought it was cool that someone his grandma's age wanted to learn new things!

My students get to build small cabinets in class that they then can laser or CNC carve the doors and drawer fronts, or whatever! They learn basic principles of furniture and cabinet building AND program CNC machines or prepare programs to laser designs on their creations, if they wish. Team learning and team teaching! I am so jazzed!

Management included woodworking in their brochure but has no real equipment except what had been brought in by a member because of a project for Makers Faire last year. So we are starting from scratch a bit in that area, but that is good.

BTW, Google Makers Faire to see if there is one near your area. If so, go and be amazed, entertained, proud, and notice how many young people are involved and all the stuff they make. It will restore your faith in the future. And there is lots of room for oldsters to be involved in a very fun way. Ours is next October in Balboa Park in San Diego.
 
Carol, this sounds like a real good opportunity for you as well as the school. I'm interested in what you are going to do with the students. I have taught adult classes for a local community college in my shop before, when we still lived in N. E. Arkansas. Now that I've moved and gotten my shop up and running again, I want to get back into that. I've visited with the extension education department at Northwest Technical Institute and they are interested. In fact I have given them a syllabus on four 6 week courses that I have planned. The first is the basic power woodwork machines course, and then a series of 3 courses to be taught on outdoor furniture.

What are your plans? Maybe they are giving you a direction to go in but in any case, what are your plans to do with your students.
 
Beyond what I mentioned earlier, there are no plans until there is interest shown. There is a community college that I taught at a number of years ago that is nearby. We have to present an alternative to it that is attractive price and course-wise. Once we have an idea who would be interested, we can acquire the necessary equipment and do the marketing. The basic idea is to offer classes that require a minimum amount of personal equipment with the idea that a monthly membership in the lab makes more sense. In population crammed Southern California, having real estate that permits any kind of a shop almost does not exist. Many more apartments and condos. Fewer single family residences. Probably not a demographic that fits your locale. Hence the lab in a commercial building where sound and sawdust and mess during reasonable hours is permitted. Different way of living.
 
Beyond what I mentioned earlier, there are no plans until there is interest shown. There is a community college that I taught at a number of years ago that is nearby. We have to present an alternative to it that is attractive price and course-wise. Once we have an idea who would be interested, we can acquire the necessary equipment and do the marketing. The basic idea is to offer classes that require a minimum amount of personal equipment with the idea that a monthly membership in the lab makes more sense. In population crammed Southern California, having real estate that permits any kind of a shop almost does not exist. Many more apartments and condos. Fewer single family residences. Probably not a demographic that fits your locale. Hence the lab in a commercial building where sound and sawdust and mess during reasonable hours is permitted. Different way of living.

Yes totally a different demographic. I'm 1.2 miles outside the city limits of Springdale, AR. A city of 64000 with other fairly large cities for Arkansas all around with a total population in 4-5 cities of near 500000. These all run together and is not even noticable when leaving one and going to another. I should have plenty of draw since there are still plenty of single family homes in need of a good woodworkers touch. I had success before in a city of 6400, and now that I live in a town 10 times as large it should be a snap.

Can you tell me more about the way the lab works as a service offered by a monthly fee?
 
Google Makerspace. There are a number of them around the country. The one I am at has not had a woodworking program before. It is new. So we are starting from scratch. I suspect each is slightly different in terms of the equipment at hand. Hope that helps.
 
Google Makerspace. There are a number of them around the country. The one I am at has not had a woodworking program before. It is new. So we are starting from scratch. I suspect each is slightly different in terms of the equipment at hand. Hope that helps.

Thanks Carol. I'll google it, hadn't even thought of that. Guess I'm just getting old.
 
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