Home Why Woodworking?
What are classes like? Projects 1
Projects 2
Projects 3
Projects 4
Who teaches this?



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Home Why Woodworking?
What are classes like? Projects 1
Projects 2
Projects 3
Projects 4
Who teaches this?




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What Do Students Make 4? (Projects page 4)


Musical Instruments

    Students have asked to make all kinds of sound makers through the years, including drums and drum sticks, xylophones (more properly marimbas since the bars are of wood), flutes, recorders and whistles, guitars and ukuleles. All of these projects, except maybe drumsticks, require major a commitment and lots of time. I love to do them with students because of the challenge it offers, for both them and for me. There is a very special thrill to playing music on an instrument you have created yourself.

Ava's flute
To make this little flute she had to bore out the center of the hardwood blank, put it on the lathe and turn it so the walls are thin. Hole placement is critical and it was interesting to get the "embouchure hole" (I looked it up)
shaped properly.

marimba
It turned out that this student is a serious marimba player, but I didn't know when we built this instrument.  We were especially careful about tuning the bars!
saraah's whistle
The little whistle, like a recorder, has a "fipple" (your turn to look it up!) that has to be shaped properly so the air, as it crosses the sharp edges doesn't produce a sound that is "windy."


    Stringed instruments are close to my heart since I play guitar and have built a number of them. I studied with an old friend who runs a guitar building school in Vermont, so I've had good training.

    Our fretted instruments are built correctly, not simplified. Guitars have the sides slotted into the necks in the Spanish fashion, though the mandolins and some ukes have bolt-on necks. My innovation is that our curved sides are not steam bent or bent on a hot bar as is standard in luthier shops. Our sides are laminated of two layers of 1/16 inch thick wood, glued together cold in a form. "Glue-lam" sides have been in use for years for strength and efficiency, but
in the literature I've never seen reference to cold bending.  It's good for a school shop because it is safe and the tooling is inexpensive.  During the past few years I've worked to develop reliable and easy to use forms for both guitars and ukes.  It's fun for a student to glue up a couple of thin, flat pieces and, a day later, out pops a well shaped instrument side!

    I'm particularly pleased to offer uke-making in our school since our music teacher, Mr. Hall, teaches a popular class in playing them.  I've worked to make building a ukulele easier and quicker so more students can make them. Currently five students are working on ukes.

    Only a few students build guitars or other stringed instruments.  Candidates for building them are easy to identify by their skill and enthusiasm.  There are lots of good woodworkers who are interested but readily exclude themselves when they understand depth of commitment required. 

    There are many detailed jobs to do to build a stringed instrument and they all must be done well.  One of the last, shaping the neck so it feels right for the player's thumb is a careful work of sculpture for any instrument maker.  Our students give it the time it needs and they get it right!

Click on each of the three images below to see the instruments played and hear what they sound like!
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Dan & Brendon Guitar and banjjo
These instruments were built more than ten years ago: a wooden top banjo and a travel guitar. These guys were serious about playing music together.
uke
She really enjoyed building this uke as you can tell watching her play it!
Zandere's bassHe asked to build an acoustic bass guitar and I had to do a little research to get it right. It has no pickup, but one could easily be added. In the video clip Mr. Hall checked it out and approved!

Erica's guuitarShe did a very careful job on this classical guitar! It plays well and sounds great!
Felix' MandolinI had no experience with mandolins so I built one too, and stayed a few steps ahead of the student. This one has a very small body, but a standard neck and string length. Good sound too!
Bobby's cutawayHere's a small body steel string cutaway with a piezo pickup under the bridge saddle. A neat job!


Turning

    I've always believed that serious wood turners are a separate species of craftsman from those that build furniture or instruments or carve.  When I was developing my turning skills, I knew a lot of professional and serious amateur turners who did no other kind of woodworking.  Turning is different; the wood moves and the tool stays nearly still.  The motions of the tool are slow and graceful while the turner's body moves almost as in a dance.  In our shop, some students take to the lathe immediately while others struggle and never quite get it, even though they do wonderful work on other kinds of projects.

    To be clear, not all the wood turning we do requires real skill with gouges and skews. For some projects, a plane works very well on the lathe to smooth long shapes like a baseball bat, as does a large sanding block. Sometimes we use files to shape details in certain projects. So turning work is accessible to everyone. And our two homebuilt foot powered lathes are low powered and low speed. Here's an article I wrote in Fine Woodworking Magazine, issue 15, (March/April 1979) that describes the second of our lathes.

ll's batHere's a neat mini baseball bat with a nicely burned label, made\ a while ago in the old building.
Jeff's gobletThis sort of goblet takes a lot of time and skill. Fine work by a student who came back to be an Educational Assistant at RMS, some years later.
gavel
Here's a gavel finished recently. Nicely done!
Siobhan's Baseball placqueThe half ball was made on the lathe for this clever project, from a glued-up stack of progressively smaller disks.  When we want a whole ball, we make two halves and glue them together
Justin's sub
You can make submarine hulls on the lathe. This sub is an especially nice job!
Somma's gobletHere's a student who was a born wood turner, and only found out when he got to our shop. He quickly gained skill with fine lathe tools and made many small turned objects from 1/2 inch dowel. I think he bought his own lathe after 8th grade!




   


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