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Instructor: Greg Engemann
Help paint a Tiny House for one of the Tiny House Villages that are providing warm, secure shelter to homeless people in Puget Sound communities.
BARN is partnering with the Low Income Housing Institute in Seattle on this community service project. LIHI, a non-profit organization, is providing plans and materials; BARN will provide the volunteer labor. LIHI currently operates eight Tiny House Villages with 442 houses in Seattle, Olympia and Tacoma. Five more villages with 173 units are scheduled to open this year in Skyway, Bellingham and Seattle.
The houses are insulated and dry, but they don't have kitchens or bathrooms. Each village provides shared dining and bathing facilities.
Project leader: David Grant. If you have questions, please email him at David.Grant@bainbridgebarn.org
To use the shop, you will also need to attend our free one-hour Orientation to the Woodshop class.
Woodshop Tool Safety 1 will qualify you to use the following tools during Open Studio time and in classes that require certification in these tools:
Want to make an electric guitar, a wooden sign with engraved letters or a sculpture or toy with interlocking parts? Or do you want to precision-cut wooden parts from expensive wood while minimizing waste? The Woodworking Studio's CNC router is the tool for you — but for many woodworkers, using it can be daunting.
By signing up for a Custom CNC Router Project class, you will get one-on-one help (or two-on-one help if you want to team up with a friend and share the cost) in carrying out your project. The help available will be tailored to what you need. If you have nothing other than a pencil sketch, you'll be matched with a BARN instructor skilled in design and use of the Fusion 360 or VCarvePro design programs. If you already have a design in a digital program and just need help in translating that design into the code that controls the CNC router, securing your work, and running the router, that's the help you will get.
Custom CNC Router Project classes are set up for an initial two-hour session. If you already have a design in Fusion 360, you may be able to complete your project within that time. If you are starting from scratch, the initial session may not be enough but you will get a better idea of the scope of work involved and you will be able to schedule the additional time you need.
Because every project is different, please email woodcnc@bainbridgebarn.org and give an idea of what you want to do. Include a sketch if you have one. Other times are available, so if this scheduled class doesn't work for you, please include in your email several times when you are generally available.
Instructor: Charles Sharpe
Learn whittling — the art of using a single sharp knife to turn a piece of wood into a character rich with detail. The material and tool fit into a pocket or a purse, making this craft an ideal way to be creative during otherwise empty minutes, such time spent waiting for a ferry or between appointments.
In this class, you will learn how to mark a blank, safely whittle it to shape, and add the final details that bring your pieces to life. You will also learn how to keep your knife sharp and how to select good wood for whittling.
He was taught early on that he could make anything from wood and he is still trying to prove that statement wrong.
Learn to use woodworking tools safely, efficiently and with precision while you build one or more projects of your own design. The pictures show just a few of the possibilities, which also might range from a cutting board or a cell phone amplifier to a shoe organizer or a jewelry holder. Or you could make a toy to give to a child. If you don't have an idea for your project, don't worry: We'll provide ideas to get your creative juices going.
This class will focus on hand tools and a couple of portable power tools, such as a cordless drill and a jigsaw. You will learn how to "read" a board to choose the best places to cut specific parts, how to use measuring and marking tools, how to choose and use the appropriate saw to cut out parts, how to smooth the parts, how to assemble pieces, and more. This isn't an "assemble-a-kit" class. You will be cutting, planning, gluing and finishing — and, we hope, getting excited about woodworking.
Projects are subject to the instructor's approval.
Participants will also learn about the leadership structure within the shop and about opportunities to participate in helping everything run smoothly. Volunteer jobs range from serving as safety monitors to helping on Maintenance Mondays.
Instructor: Jeff Williams
* This class has prerequisites. Please see below.
Make two bowls 6 to 7 inches in diameter in this two-session class as you build your woodturning skills and learn some of the special techniques and insights needed for bowl-turning.
The best (and most fun) way to hone your bowl-turning skills is to use green wood for the blanks. In this class you will turn two green-wood bowls, working on smooth and efficient cuts. In the first session, you will learn the best bowl shape for a novice turner, how to safely mount the blank on the lathe, and how to use of a scroll chuck and bowl gouge. You will also learn how to maintain even wall thickness, and how to treat the bowl to prevent cracking while it dries. In the second session, in addition to turning a second bowl, you will learn the basics about balancing grain and which Northwest woods are best for turning.
By successfully completing these two sessions and turning two bowls, you will have a good understanding of the process and techniques, and be qualified to turn bowls of this size independently during Open Studio time in the BARN Woodworking Studio.
While this class is oriented to novice turners, it is also appropriate and useful for experienced turners who have predominantly used scrapers and wish to acquire or improve their gouge skills.
Photograph by Joy McCallister Photography.
Instructor: Bruce Claiborne. He has been actively turning wood since 2007 and has taken lathe workshops from Kirk DeHerr, John Jordan, Richard Raffan, and others since that time. He has been teaching at BARN since 2015.
* This class has a prerequisite. Please see below.
Because they cut fast and loud, routers can be one of the scariest woodworking tools. But they are also one of the most versatile. With a router, you can create your own molding for picture frames, cut joints, detail edges, create inlays, make multiple matching parts, and much more. Whole books are written about routers and what they can do.
This class focuses on the basics and safe practices so you can confidently set up and use both hand-held routers and table-mounted routers. The class is limited to four students to ensure hands-on time for everyone.
At the first session, you will learn how to use the router table safely. You will change router bits, adjust the fence, and run softwood and hardwood samples, to see how the effects vary. While the class won't focus on creating a project, you will wind up with skills that you can use later to create picture frames or other projects.
The second session will focus on hand-held routers. You will learn about the different types and will install and adjust edge bits. You will shape edges and create edge rabbits.
Instructor: Don Johnson has been using routers for more than 30 years to create a variety of furniture pieces and table stands. He especially appreciates the way using a router adds a level of sophistication to any wood project He's found that routers are perfect for creating rabbits for glass or stone insets.
Instructor: Jeanne Huber
Instructor: Mike Morgan
Build a sturdy picnic table for your family's yard or deck as you learn woodworking skills you will be able to apply to many future projects.
Starting with a plan for a table 6 feet long and 5 feet wide (including the seats), you will learn:
In addition, the class will repair at least one picnic table that has become very wobbly over time. By exploring why that happened, you will learn several key points that will help make your table and future projects more durable.
Instructor:
David Grant is a founding member of BARN and has been a woodworker since his introduction to the craft as a teenager. He has taught a variety of woodworking classes at BARN and worked on numerous community service projects, including the oak benches at the Kitsap Humane Society's new reception center and the Torii gates that will be installed in the haiku garden at the Bainbridge Island library.
Get started on your woodturning adventure with this three-session beginner's class, where you’ll complete small spindle projects as you learn safety, tool control and how to create the basic shapes involved in spindle and bowl turning.
By successfully completing this class and our free, one-hour Orientation to the Woodshop class, you will be cleared to use the wood lathes for spindle turning during Open Studio. You will also be eligible to take a bowl-turning class, although it is strongly suggested that you spend time turning in Open Studio a few times before you enroll in that class. (Note that you still must take Tool Safety Classes before using other power tools in the Studio.)
**This workshop will be live streamed via Zoom.**
Share your woodworking successes and challenges and learn what others in the BARN woodworker community are doing in a new series of online meetings.
These sessions will usually begin with a small bit of prepared content, such as pictures of projects that members want to show, or interviews with local pro woodworkers, or tours of home shops — whatever content members of the group suggest. After the prepared content, we’ll have a chance to touch base on areas of interest with each other. You can ask technical questions, share lessons you've learned, suggest classes you'd like to take.
If you have pictures to share or a topic to suggest, please email woodclasses@bainbridgebarn.org.
Hand planes are invaluable for smoothing, squaring up and fitting pieces of wood, even for woodworkers who depend on power tools for many tasks.
In this one-morning class, you will learn the basics of these invaluable tools: the different types and their purposes, how to adjust them, how to sharpen them, and how to use them. The focus will be on block planes and jack planes.
This is not a "project" class, but it is hands-on. You'll work on practice boards and make piles of thin, curly shavings.
Tuition assistance is available. Click here to apply.
Instructor: Ted Newman. Ted studied woodworking and has assisted in classes at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine. He is active in BARN's woodworker group and volunteers as a safety monitor.
Learn the basic features of VCarve Pro, a popular program used to make signs, engravings, intricate inlays and imported 3D shapes and models on computer-controlled routers. VCarve Pro is easier to learn than Fusion 360, the other 3D design program taught at BARN, and can be used for projects on both the large CNC router in the Woodworking Studio and the small CNC router in the ETA Lab.
This class focuses on how to use the program to design a project. You will learn how to create a CNC job, design vectors using basic shapes and basic text, edit and transform vectors, import 3D clipart and models, create tool definitions, create and manage toolpaths, and save g-code for machining on a CNC router. You will not run the router, but this class does qualify you for future studio-specific classes using CNC routers. If you want to go to the next step as quickly as possible, you may wish to register for Making Inlays Using VCarve Pro and the CNC Router, which will be offered the following week. In that class, you will design an inlay project in VCarve Pro and then cut it on the CNC router in the Woodworking Studio.
Please note: To take this class, you must have use of a laptop computer with a mouse and a working copy of VCarve Pro 10 already downloaded to that computer. Download a free trial at www.vectric.com. The software requires a PC or a MAC that has Windows installed. There is no time during the class to download the program. If you have questions or run into problems downloading the program, please email WoodClasses@bainbridgebarn.org to contact the instructor for help.
There are 4 spots available for this class to maintain safety protocols. Please click "Join Waitlist" if this class fills. If a spot becomes available we will notify you via email.
Please read ETA's specific safety protocols here.
BARN will be practicing safety measures for the health and well-being of all participants, in accordance with state and CDC guidelines. Students and instructors will be required to wear masks, wash or sanitize hands frequently, maintain a distance of six feet between individuals, and stay home if they are sick. More details can be found here.
Instructor: Al Ebken is a retired ocean engineer with many years of computer and computer-aided design experience. (In the picture, he's using the Woodworking Studio's CNC router to make parts for face shields to protect against coronavirus infection. Using VCarve Pro, he also made the hummingbird inlay shown in the top picture.)
* This class has prerequisites. See below.
Build a small, Shaker-style table suitable as a lamp stand or night stand as you learn to take a project through all of the steps from initial idea to finished project.
This class is designed for students who know the basics of using hand and power tools but want to develop those skills more under the guidance of an experienced instructor. This class includes:
Dovetails started out as a practical solution to keep drawers from coming apart as people tugged and pushed them in and out. Today, they still serve that purpose. But, in an era when there are also machine-assisted ways to join wood at right angles, projects with hand-cut dovetails are also a code for fine craftsmanship.
Learning how to make these joints is a sure way to build your woodworking skills, because the process involves the fundamental steps common to all hand-cut joinery. In this class, you will learn how to design, lay out and mark dovetails, and how to cut them accurately and efficiently using hand saws and chisels. You'll also learn the tricks to getting them to fit perfectly.
There won't be enough time in this class to complete a project, but you will go home with one completed corner, which you can use to refresh your memory later about which parts to cut and which to leave. It's surprisingly easy to get that mixed up if you haven't cut dovetails for a while, so having a reference piece can save you a lot of grief.
Details
**This class will be held at BARN under the canopy in the back.**
Build your own sea kayak, using well-tested plans from Chesapeake Light Craft. This class was originally posted for teens 14-18, but it is now open to adults as well.
In this 10-session class, you will learn from an expert how to build a 14-, 16- or 17-foot kayak, depending on the model you choose. You will use the stitch-and-glue technique with epoxy to assemble the hull and deck, then finish the boat inside and out with fiberglass and epoxy resin, and install hardware and the seat. And finally, you will brush on marine varnish to help protect your boat from damaging ultraviolet rays from the sun. You will use power sanders and a variety of hand tools.
At the completion of the class, you can expect to take home a sea kayak that will give you years of pleasure as you explore the waters around Bainbridge Island and beyond.
Special details:
Instructor bio:
Robert Niclas' passion for artisan woodworking started when he was quite young. His father was an artist, musician and photographer but was employed by an oil company, so the family moved often. That exposed Robert to a great variety of art forms while they were living in the Middle East, visiting the Mediterranean, Scandinavia and other parts of Europe, and the Western States. Robert also traveled around the Far East while he was in the Navy for six years.
Currently Robert operates his own shop at home, where he makes furniture, wood carvings, small craft (canoes, kayaks and row boats), and electric violins and cellos. See his work at robertniclas.com.
This class has a prerequisite. Please see below.
Learn to use the VCarve Pro software program to design and cut inlays on the Woodworking Studio's CNC router.
Each student will attend three of the five sessions shown as class dates. For the first session, the full class will meet in the Electronics & Technical Arts lab to review VCarve Pro, discuss inlays and start design.
The remaining sessions will be in the Woodworking Studio. The class will be divided into smaller groups to avoid too much waiting in line. The specific schedule will be finalized at the first class session.
At its second session, each group will review/finalize designs, learn safe operation of the CNC router, set up the projects, cut the materials (walnut and maple), and glue them up. At the third session, students will cut off excess inlay material and sand the inlays.
