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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:
Details:
Instructor: Charles Sharpe
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.)
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.
A Special Members-Only Free Event:
Join us to carve pumpkins!
Join us on Saturday, October 30th, and bring your pumpkins! We'll be carving, painting, and decorating as we welcome the changing season together at BARN. We will be outside, at the tables under the canopies out back. We'll have warm beverages to keep us cozy as we carve from noon - 2 pm. We hope to see you here on Saturday the 30th!
If you have questions, please contact our Membership Coordinator Jen Primm at [email protected]
*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.
Open Studios are resuming on Fridays, with a few changes:
During this test period, which will run into January, private donors are funding the pay for the professionals. We expect that past the trial period, there will be a fee to cover the costs. And, depending on demand and safety monitor availability, we may expand to offer this on multiple Fridays each month.
Members are welcome to ask the pro for suggestions about design, joinery, finishes or other details. This isn't a class with an agenda driven by an instructor, but rather an opportunity for woodworkers to ask questions and get advice from someone with years of professional experience. The pro will not be teaching how to operate the tools.
As with all Open Studio sessions, a safety monitor will be on duty and will be responsible for safety. You will be able to work on projects of your own choosing.
Spangler earned a degree from Iowa State University, School of Design in Landscape Architecture. After working in the field for two years, he discovered that working with his hands was extremely gratifying and he began woodworking by apprenticing with a third-generation cabinetmaker for the next year. In 1974, he opened his own woodworking business and since 1982 has focused solely on custom furniture. Since then his work has been included in national shows, public art projects, various publications, competitions and private collections. On larger-scale projects, he has collaborated with other artists and design committees.
For seven years,Spangler was an Instructor Technician and supervisor of the woodworking studio at the University of Washington School of Art. He uses traditional techniques as well as CNC technology in his current work.
Details for this Open Studio session:
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
Instructor: TBD
To turn wood effectively and enjoyably, you need sharp tools that have quality profiles. Learn to sharpen the tools you need to turn spindles, bowls and other projects on the wood lathe.
In this class, you will learn to sharpen gouges according to BARN protocol and gain an understanding of how to sharpen other tools (e.g., skews, parting tools, scrapers). If you would like advice on your own tools, you are welcome to bring them.
This class is strongly recommended for students who have completed Intro to Woodturning or are enrolled in Intro to Bowl Turning. The class is required for any turners who wish to use BARN turning tools on an ongoing basis.
Instructor bio: 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.
*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:
Instructor: Scott Weigle
Do you ever get confused about what type of glue to use on your woodworking projects? Wonder about correct preparation and application? Which clamps to use and how long to leave them on? How to clean up the mess?
This class will engage you in a conversation to answer these and other questions focusing on materials and tools available in BARN’s Woodworking Studio. Our goal is to give you more confidence in this important phase of your project’s construction and provide you with a better result.
Instructor: Jeff Williams is a retired firefighter. While not a professional woodworker, he brings 40 years of experience as a fourth-generation woodworker. His great grandfather worked on furniture restoration at Hearst Castle in California in 1925. In addition, Jeff has six years with BARN’s Woodworking and Small Boatbuilding Studio as prior studio lead and instructor.
Culture is defined by our record of creative endeavors. All forms of governance, language, commerce, art, and celebration are born from the imaginative mind. As a community, mankind can do amazing things, but it is often challenging to harness the courage to set our ideas loose into our external communities. In the first of this series, Raffi will discuss the nature of our creative drives, the systems and processes that have been perpetuated to inhibit our creative energies, methods to allow more creative confidence into our lives, and how to release ourselves from the burden of creativity.
This live conversation will conclude with a Q&A.
Presenter:
Raffi Minasian is a designer, educator, innovation specialist, and start-up mentor. He holds degrees in Product Development and Transportation Design. His impressive thirty-year career includes projects with Boeing aircraft, Mattel toys, car designs for multiple automobile manufacturers, and work with numerous start-up companies.
A founding professor of innovation for the California College of the Arts DMBA program, Raffi also teaches industrial design and is a noted speaker at museums and corporate events on the subject of future industries, new ventures, and creative methodologies.
Raffi devotes much of his professional energy to educational programs for young people interested in design professions, including his Board of Directors position with the Collectors Foundation, Former Chairman of the Board for Zoolabs artist-based entrepreneurial training, and ongoing work as a graduate mentor and creative career strategist.
This is a BARN holiday. Doors will be locked to members and non-members.
This class has prerequisites. Please see below.
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. You will start with a basic design and cut list, then fabricate parts, cut joinery, and assemble and glue your table. The instructor will strive to help all students get their project glued up before the end of the class. There will not be enough time to apply finish.
"Where do you get your wood for turning?” -- Perhaps the most common question woodturners are asked by people new to the craft!
In this class you will learn not only where to find or buy wood, but also how to evaluate wood for different projects; how to cut, preserve and store it (if it is green); how to lay out bowls, vessels and spindles on your stock to ensure good project success; and how to maximize the yield from your wood. Much of the wood local turners use is free “found” or “fallen” wood, and there are many details to learn about how, when and where to obtain these treasures.
Woodturners use bandsaws to prepare much of their stock, and are often challenged by irregular pieces of wood that require special safety tactics. In this class you will learn how to determine which approach you should use for a particular piece of wood, be it a log, a burl or a piece of spindle stock. Students who have taken Tool Safety II will gain hands-on experience in cutting turning stock on one of the studio’s bandsaws.
You are welcome to bring one or two pieces of wood you want to evaluate for turning stock.
During this test period, which will run into February, private donors are funding the pay for the professionals. We expect that past the trial period, there will be a fee to cover costs. And, depending on demand and safety monitor availability, we may expand this to multiple Fridays each month.
When professional woodworkers in our area have questions, they often seek advice from Erpelding, who works out of a two-car-garage shop at his home. He got into the field via a job in a bookstore, where he needed to build shelves and repair furniture. He went on to study at the Oregon College of Arts & Crafts. Through a grant he received from the National Endowment for the Arts in the 1980s, he developed designs for a stacking chair that he still makes in small runs. A Popular Woodworking article featured his use of computerized woodworking tools to cut parts, grooves for intricate inlays and joinery that he tuned in the software to slide together with the perfect amount of friction for the glue he was using.
Examples of Erpelding's work can be seen on the website of Northwest Fine Woodworking, a Seattle gallery that closed in 2016 but lives on via its website.
Erpelding cut the intricate inlay for this table on his CNC router, which he designed and built himself.
Do you ever get confused about which sanding tools or sandpaper to use on your woodworking projects? Do you want tips on how to remove milling marks, prepare for a stain finish or take a surface to a polish?
In this class, you'll learn about the tools and abrasive media available in the BARN Woodworking Studio and what works best in different circumstances. You will explore equipment from large to small, including your own hands.
This is a beginning-level class.
* This class has prerequisites. Please see below.
