samhell Posted December 21, 2010 Report Share Posted December 21, 2010 On the latest podcast Marc asked if woodshop was actually like that. I'm around the same age as Marc and even here in prissy So Cal. we had wood shop class, so I'm surprised to hear you guys didn't have shop class. Ours was a little nicer and bigger than whats on the movie. 17" bandsaw, Unisaw, 8 or 10 inch jointer, 2 big planers (15 or 20 inches... BIG), 2 lathes that were bigger than most of the kids, big drill press.... all the tools were Army green, other than the Unisaw... don't know what brand...General maybe? Actually I think there were a couple or more table saws. Full dust collection everywhere. Two big locked cages, like a prison... one was for our projects, the other was to store the wood. It was two rooms, one normal classroom size and it was attached to a fairly large warehouse type work area. Our teacher was just like Ventura in the movie, no joke... only he was much more scrawny, not much bigger than most of the kids. Standard white hair buzzcut. Didn't speak much but when he did it was usually yelling..."Damnit! Bryan! Don't bleed on my equipment!" etc... I built some compound cut reindeers out of alder on the bandsaw, an oak gavel on the lathe, a couple jewelry boxes with the planer, jointer, and table saw, and a 4x12 speaker cabinet for my guitar amp (extra credit!) I still have some of it, maybe I'll post some pics... I really liked this class and actually paid attention and wanted to learn. The stoner and gangbanger kids did nothing other than hang out outside the class (the teacher basically said if you don't want to be there, get out) in a tiny outside fenced area. Half the class went out there and failed of course... which was good for those of us who wanted to stay in, more tool time. We also had auto shop and metal shop. Metal shop should have killed most of us. It was fun to clip the ground wire to the bottom of your opponents welding helmets and attack each others faces with stick welders... you'd get in trouble and come out of the room with wires sticking off your helmet, porcupine style... good times... Auto shop never had a shortage of vehicles as all the cool rich kids would bring their cars in for work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flairwoodworks Posted December 21, 2010 Report Share Posted December 21, 2010 Bryan, I remember my high school shop to be similar. We had a Hitachi sliding compound miter saw, two General cabinet saws, General 14 and 20" bandsaws, a General 24"-ish thickness planer, two big General lathes, a radial arm saw, a router table, two 15" drill presses, a big General edge belt sander, stroke sander, and scoring panel saw. I attended this school in Coquitlam, BC, 5 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billboard Posted December 21, 2010 Report Share Posted December 21, 2010 I remember my high school shop class I took my freshman year. (1979) Don't remember the brand of any of the tools but I had a blast. First quarter was split into 4 segments: carpentry, masonry, electrical and plumbing. The other 2 quarters we got to make fun stuff. I still have the breadbox I made. They had garage and metal shop as well but I never took those. My 2 sons who recently graduated never had the opportunity to take shop at all, so I let them work on projects at home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petersb Posted December 21, 2010 Report Share Posted December 21, 2010 I didn't take high school woodshop. I did take shop in 7th grade. It was called survey 7. We spent one semester in woodshop, one in metal shop, and one in home economics. I enjoyed all of the classes except the sewing requirements in home ec. Like a lot of Jr/Sr high kids, I spent more energy getting out of work than I did actually doing anything. The same was the same in shop class. I did only what was required of me to pass. It really didn't interest me at the time. My Grandpa had his own woodworking shop for a time, selling his own wares and my Dad always had WW tools in the garage. I guess that I felt that I had been there and done that since I had "watched" others make things, and so shop class didn't challenge me at the time. It probably did, but like I said, I was more into getting out of work than doing it! I do however remember my shop teachers and the home ec. teacher. I can remember all of them taking what they were teaching us seriously and that they each believed that they were helping us to build skills that would be useful in the near future. I do remember a hole in the ceiling behind the table saw, that the instructor told us was there from a kickback, and that there was still a piece of an earlobe left in there as a reminder of what could happen if things went bad. I remember being pretty intimidated by the table saw from that story at the time. Like a lot of things in life, if I had only known then what I know now, I would have poured myself into woodshop. I might just be a better woodworker today because of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renzo Posted December 22, 2010 Report Share Posted December 22, 2010 We had a similar wood shop. Table saw, jointer, planer, bandsaw, lathes, drill press, hand tool section, finishing room etc I took it in grade 9 and still have/use the wall hanging keys holder I made in 1986! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samhell Posted December 22, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2010 We had a similar wood shop. Table saw, jointer, planer, bandsaw, lathes, drill press, hand tool section, finishing room etc I took it in grade 9 and still have/use the wall hanging keys holder I made in 1986! I made one of those in wood shop too! Made it on the bandsaw. Its in the shape of a big key made out of oak with little brass hooks on it. I have to to my aunt or grandma or someone. I don't know if they still have it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike G Posted December 25, 2010 Report Share Posted December 25, 2010 I took woodshop in high school. I made a cabinet for my stereo, and I made a small three drawer cabinet for my Mom's cassette and 8 track tapes. Fast forward 32 years. the stereo cabinet sits next to my desk, and houses the computers, printer, and my CD's, manuals, ect. The three drawer cabinet was given back to me a few years ago, and it houses my knife collection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawrence Brown Posted December 25, 2010 Report Share Posted December 25, 2010 Ours was similar to Bryan's, except everything was airforce gray (surplus) and huge. Wood and metal shop were combined. Most of the time the shop was full of tractors and other machinery from the local farms getting something or other welded. You don't realize how big a tractor and 7-bottom plow are until you see how many spaces it takes up in the parking lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbratton Posted December 27, 2010 Report Share Posted December 27, 2010 We had a shop teacher that really didn't want to be there. The class turned into "Lord of the Flies". I started to do only small enough projects that would only fit into my small locker otherwise they would be smashed by other students in other classes. None of the planes worked and the fliles were all dull. You really had to watch your back in that class.... I found out the trick was to bring your own sandpaper and I even had my own block plane and file. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.