Meet the new wood worker

[®smpr_fi_mac®]

Emma's been bugging me for a few years to get into the shop.  I wasn't comfortable with it because it was cramped and messy and I didn't think she had the confidence/attention span to do it safely.  Well, I bought a new house with a bigger garage, which means a comfortably sized shop.  I'm still in the process of getting it up and going properly (note the wires in the bare studs), but it's coming along nicely.

I have a couple pieces of walnut that are thick enough to resaw to make a small box.  Here's Emma facing one of them. 

Next I'll teach her to use the bandsaw for resawing.  She's not ready for the table saw yet.  I'll get her started on that with the cross cut sled and miter bar.  I'll do the ripping for now.

[Cooler]

The router is a pretty safe tool in my opinion.  Cut the blanks and let her cut the through dovetails and some decorative edges.  She'll feel like a real woodworker.

A router table seems more dangerous to me than a hand held router.  With a hand held router you have to be really unlucky to hurt yourself.  

How old is she?

I  would hold off on the table saw, radial arm saw and band saw.  You can cut body parts off pretty easily with any of those (the RAS seems the most dangerous to me).

The drill press is another tool that I think a teen should easily (and safely master).

[®smpr_fi_mac®]

She's fourteen.

We're gonna make this box with splined miter joints. The lid will be a frame and panel with the panel being a piece of 3/16" ply veneered with bird's eye maple. We'll build the box as one unit then cut the lid off on the table saw.

I'll have her cut the grooves for the lid/base panels on the table saw. That way she can get a feel for the force needed to push wood across it without having the blade come above the board.

I'll resaw them for her; I don't have a proper resaw blade and don't want her to face that challenge.

[Steve N]

Hi Brad

It's great she is interested in the shop. So much sawing can be done on a BS, if you are both comfortable there things will be rosy.

Hit "quote and reply" for you post, and see how long that string is for the pic. Usually when they are that long they don't work here, at least I can't see it. I have no experience with dropbox so I don't know what to suggest. For single pics less than 1000mb you don't need to host them anymore, look at the bottom of any post where you are going to reply. Look for "Attachments" the file has to be on your drive, or a disk, or drive attached to your computer, and total for a post must be less than 1000mb, either 5, 200mb, or a single one. Hit choose to go get the file, wherever you have it stored on the computer, click it, then a box will come up to the right saying "Add attachment" click that. Then a bunch of buttons pop up, hit "Insert into post" and Bob's your Uncle you will see an attachment added to the text. Done. I've been finding if I know where the darn pic resides I am faster using this than I ever was at PhotoBomb.  


Those are ripping guides for a circular saw, or poor Man's track saw.


[attachment=4726]

[fredhargis]

Kudos to you Brad, and to Emma as well!

[Dave Diaman]

Brad, my boys have been in the shop with me since they were old enough to walk. They started by just playing with their tonka toys in piles of sawdust on the floor. Now they are 6 and 8 and I have them making hand cut dovetails. One of the earliest things I did was show them how to use a Japanese saw and let them cut down wood scraps. That was about the time they were 3yo. I don't think I had a scrap in my shop over 2" long for at least a year. After that I started them on a lathe and they still love that till this day. I can chuck up a piece of scrap wood, give them a few gouges along with a face shield and they are off to the races. They have already made more pens than I can count and have moved onto mallets, chisel handles and candlestick holders. For the most part they have been building with hand tools but my 8 year old is using some of the safer power tools now while I supervise. It has made for a lot of quality time and great memories of the shop I hope they carry with them their whole lives. If I'm lucky I will be able to pass on some of what I know to them to teach their children someday.

[goaliedad]

Very? Nice to see kids showing interest. My son in law has recently made some nice projects. Kind of surprised me- he has never shown any real interest.

[Joel H.]

Emma's been bugging me for a few years to get into the shop.  I wasn't comfortable with it because it was cramped and messy and I didn't think she had the confidence/attention span to do it safely.  Well, I bought a new house with a bigger garage, which means a comfortably sized shop.  I'm still in the process of getting it up and going properly (note the wires in the bare studs), but it's coming along nicely.

I have a couple pieces of walnut that are thick enough to resaw to make a small box.  Here's Emma facing one of them. 

Next I'll teach her to use the bandsaw for resawing.  She's not ready for the table saw yet.  I'll get her started on that with the cross cut sled and miter bar.  I'll do the ripping for now.

Way cool!  She'll be hard to keep up with in no time at all.  


Joel

[Cecil]

Emma's been bugging me for a few years to get into the shop.  I wasn't comfortable with it because it was cramped and messy and I didn't think she had the confidence/attention span to do it safely.  Well, I bought a new house with a bigger garage, which means a comfortably sized shop.  I'm still in the process of getting it up and going properly (note the wires in the bare studs), but it's coming along nicely.

I have a couple pieces of walnut that are thick enough to resaw to make a small box.  Here's Emma facing one of them. 

Next I'll teach her to use the bandsaw for resawing.  She's not ready for the table saw yet.  I'll get her started on that with the cross cut sled and miter bar.  I'll do the ripping for now.

I started young, around 8.  My dad mounted a Black and Decker jig saw upside down in a cabinet.  I could use many hand tools and two power tools (a hand held drill also). 

I did the same for my kids.  They played in the saw dust and used my scraps for lots of imaginary things.  When my oldest son was a teenager, and he wants something like a book rack, or stereo cabinet or something, I suggested that he could build it himself.  He informed me he could buy one cheaper.  Fast forward a few years and he started replacing his cheaper stuff.  He has returned to wood working.

Let her have fun, but keep her safe.

Just a wee piece of advice.  Talk to her about her hair.  I see she is has it tied back correctly, but make sure that is part of her safety training.  It is something most men never think of.  Those of us that have some left tend to keep it short.  Dust collection will pull any loose long hair right toward a spinning tool.

[badwhiskey]

That's great!