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In this culminating segment of BARN's Beginning Woodworking series, you will build a small, Shaker-style table suitable as a lamp stand or night stand that incorporates some of your own design elements.
You will learn to take a project through all of the steps from initial idea through finished project, including:
Details:
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Short-sleeve or tight-cuff tops and close-toe comfortable shoes are required. No jewelry other than "button-type" earrings for women is allowed, so no rings, bracelets, necklaces. Long hair must be tied back.
* This class has pre-requisites. Please see details below.
The chair is often considered the Holy Grail of woodworking. It isn't really that daunting — but it is a challenge.
In this class, you will build a chair that the instructor, noted Bainbridge Island furniture maker Bob Spangler, designed specifically for this class. He will discuss design and what it takes to make a chair that is structurally robust, comfortable and pleasing to the eye. You will work with patterns and jigs, then use the bandsaw and the shaper to create parts that are accurate and repeatable. You will learn vacuum forming to bend the pieces that make up the back of the chair. All joinery for the chair will be mortice and tenon and you will use the Festool Domino so that you may produce the chair again at a later time with the Domino at BARN or your own shop.
Everyone will leave the class with a complete chair and patterns to reproduce the chair or a set at a later time. You will need to upholster the chair seat on your own, but the instructor will describe how to stretch leather for a seat cover.
Did you ever wonder how to get a really professional-looking finish on your woodworking project? In this hands-on class, you will learn about different types of wood stains and clear finishes and get a chance to experiment with them on a sample board that you can take home and use for future reference.
The class is four sessions to allow drying time as you go through all of the steps, from preparing the surface to applying stain and finish, to rubbing out the finish. You will learn how to prepare the surface to help ensure an excellent finish, which stains and finishes work best on different types of solid wood and plywood, and which tools and techniques to use when applying stains and finishes by hand (ie, without spraying). You will also learn which products are compatible with one another — and which ones aren't.
"With her professional background, Carol provides you with information that takes you beyond the easy way out of Minwax products at the big box store to the world of waterborne finishes vs alcohol-based or petroleum-based products. You get to see and work with a variety of wood species and grain patterns using penetrating and topical finish products and — what was most exciting — dyes. Most importantly you get the instructions in what not to do as well as what works for you. This is a level of information and hands-on trial that every serious woodwork needs to experience."
— Jeff Williams, former BARN woodshop lead
Instructor: Carol Fiedler Kawaguchi is a professional woodworker who specializes in restoration of antique furniture through her business, C-Saw, on Bainbridge Island. She also makes custom furniture, including the slab coffee table in the Commons at BARN.
* This class has prerequisites. Please see below.
Effective and enjoyable woodturning is dependent on sharp tools that have quality profiles. Learn to sharpen the tools you need to turn spindles, bowls and other projects on the wood lathe.
This class is strongly recommended for students enrolled in Introduction to Woodturning and is required for any turners who wish to use BARN turning tools on an ongoing basis. You will receive hands-on training for sharpening gouges (spindle and bowl), and a brief overview of sharpening other tools such as parting tools, skews and scrapers.
Instructor: Jamie Straw has been turning wood for several years, working on both spindle and bowl projects, and has taught woodturning at BARN since July 2017. She also serves as coordinator of BARN’s woodturning classes. She is past Vice President for Education and Training for the local chapter of the American Association of Woodturners. Her focus is on helping students build skills progressively as they design and create their woodturning projects.
Designed as a user's guide to BARN's Woodworking & Small Boatbuilding Studio, this free orientation session is required for all who wish to work in the Woodworking Studio. It will cover everything from shop etiquette to specifics of how to use the shop's dust collection and compressed air systems. Overall BARN policies, as well as shop-specific ones, will also be covered.
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.
This class is free, but please register so we know how many to expect.
Instructor: Jeff Williams
* This class has prerequisites. See below.
Gain confidence in using a wide array of power tools safely in this three-week component of BARN's Intro to Woodworking series.
You will build a sturdy, two-step stepstool of solid wood and plywood. The project was specifically designed to give you experience with the most common stationary and portable tools in the woodshop:
You can hang your screen, about 18 by 24 inches, in a window or skylight and enjoy the way sunlight filters through the translucent paper, or adapt your screen as a cabinet door. If you want to create a sliding door, the traditional use of shoji, you will need two or three screens and will need to make the others on your own, using what you learned in this class. You can also use shoji in a set of three to create a freestanding, folding screen.
Instructor: Gary Bella grew up in western Pennsylvania. After college and art school, he moved to the Bay Area in California and began working in Marin County with several firms in residential construction. Later, he specialized in finish carpentry while developing a design/build business. He took classes with traditional Japanese teahouse carpenter Makoto Imai and later worked primarily with Makoto building traditional houses and tea houses in California, New York and Washington. After he moved to Bainbridge in 2003, he continued to build Japanese-inspired projects for private clients. He was among the craftsmen who restored the Japanese guest house at the Bloedel Reserve.
Get a good foundation in carving techniques, including push, stop and draw cuts. In this three-session class, you will learn the basics of safe handling and use of carving knives the first night, then go on to learn how to deal with changes in wood grain, hollowing techniques, and other concepts as you make a spoon and carve a figure during second and third sessions.
This class is open to both beginning carvers and those who already have some carving experience. Each time BARN schedules this class, the carving projects are new.
Instructor: As a third-generation woodworker, Jeff Iller learned about woodworking tools and knives early on. By high school, he was winning ribbons with his wood carvings at his hometown fair. Around 1996 Jeff found room for a shop and he has carved ever since. He’ll carve most anything, but prefers to innovate with the working tools to carve multiple parts inside one piece of wood and to make physically detailed and accurate carvings of women's faces. Carvings on the entry sign to the BARN Woodworking Studio shows the quality of his work.
Iller says he was taught early on that he could make anything from wood. He is still trying to prove that statement wrong.
Learn to give plane blades and chisels a razor-sharp edge so you can experience the joy of doing fine woodworking by hand. Having sharp tools, whether they’re BARN’s or your own, is not only safer. It’s also key to dramatically improving the quality of your work. In this single-session class, you will learn:
How to flatten and polish the back of the blades (and why that's important). How to shape the lower front edge to the required angle, using BARN's WorkSharp tool. How to polish the bevel using water stones. How to hone a polished edge to razor sharpness. How to flatten a waterstone using a diamond pad.
Bring one or two plane or chisel blades that need sharpening, if you have them. If they are in really bad shape, you might not have time to get them fully tuned up during the class. If you don’t have tools to bring, no problem. You can learn on BARN’s tools. BARN’s tools must be sharpened according to specifications that the studio has adopted. You can use other angles or processes for your own tools. The sharpening systems are also available for use during Open Studio times, provided you have first taken our free, one-hour Orientation to the Woodshop class. Open Studio is free for members and $20 for guests.
Instructor: Todd Butler, assisted by Mark Bixby
* These sessions have a prerequisite. Please see below.
Beyond the speed and noise of power tools, there is a whole world of woodworking done with hand tools. Whether you’re a luthier, a wood carver, an inheritor of old hand tools or just generally interested in honing your hand woodworking skills or tools, you are invited to this weekly gathering in the bench room. Share tips, ask questions, get inspired.
NOTE: These sessions may need to be canceled occasionally. Check the woodworking calendar for any updates.
No experience necessary. We will be on hand to help as needed.
Start a project, finish a project, or just play with wood and see what happens. We will have some extra wood available or bring in your own.
Join others who are learning to use Fusion 360, a program that BARN participants can use to design projects for the new CNC router in the Woodworking Studio, the CNC milling machine or plasma cutter in Metal Arts, or the 3D printers in Electronic & Technical Arts.
The users group meets from noon to 2 p.m. on the first and third Sundays of each month to give people a time and place to work on their Fusion projects or simply to develop their Fusion skills. With many people meeting and working together, we’ll be able to share knowledge and increase all of our skillsets. The group is intended as a followup to BARN’s introductory Fusion classes, but people who are learning Fusion on their own are also welcome.
This event is free for members and $20 for non-members. Please register so we know how many will be attending.
Learn basic safety principles of key woodworking power tools with the goal of being checked out to use them during the BARN Woodshop's 30 hours a week of Open Studio time. This is a hands-on course and students will be given a piece of wood to cut and shape according to specific measurements. (This is a companion to the Woodshop Tool Safety Checkout 2 class. The Woodshop Tool Safety 2 class may be taken before or after taking this Woodshop Tool Safety 1 class. Please see the calendar for more details.)
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:
Get checked out on the Woodworking Studio’s major power tools not covered in the Tools 1 safety class. This Tools 2 safety class may be taken without first having taken the Tools 1 safety class. Provided you have also attended our free Orientation to the Woodshop class, completing Woodshop Tool Safety 2 will qualify you to use the following tools during Open Studio time or in classes that have this as a prerequisite:
Instructor: Mike Morgan
Add sailing capability to a nutshell pram. This three session class covers building the daggerboard, rudder, tiller and mast step.
To take this class, you must have taken Orientation to the Woodshop, Woodshop Tool Safety Checkout 1 and Tool Safety Checkout 2. If you have not taken these classes, please register for them before you sign up for this class.
Short-sleeve or tight-cuff tops and close-toe comfortable shoes are required. No jewelry other than small earrings is allowed, so no rings, bracelets, or necklaces. Long hair must be tied back.
Instructor: Jeanne Huber
Learn how to use hand tools skillfully in this three-week component of BARN's Beginning Woodworking series.
You will build a two-compartment tote, handy for storing or carrying silverware, garden tools or other items. The project was specifically designed to give you experience with the most common hand tools. You will learn to use:
*This class has prerequisites; please see below.
You will make the box from maple and walnut. With the lid, the box will be 5¼ inches long, 4 inches wide and up to 3 inches high. At the end of class, your box will be ready for sanding and finishing.
Instructor: Chris Stanley is a model maker, artist and educator. For 19 years, he taught model making and design as a full-time instructor at the Art Institute of Seattle. He currently teaches classes here at BARN in jewelry, metal fabbrication, sheet metal, and now woodworking. Bill Gray will assist.
Short-sleeve or tight-cuff tops and close-toe comfortable shoes are required. No jewelry other than small earrings is allowed, so no rings, bracelets, necklaces. Long hair must be tied back.
Wooden spoons can be completely utilitarian — or real works of art. In this class, you will learn to make the more challenging, artful kind. You'll be well prepared if you later want to make purely utilitarian spoons on your own.
Spoon carving involves grain changes, curves and hollowing — all techniques that are useful in many kinds of carving projects. The instructor will explain a variety of tools you might want to use and how to use them safely. You will also learn how to hold or secure the wood safely and the steps involved in carving spoons efficiently. You will work from prepared basswood blanks.
