More proud dad moments- snowmen turning

MEBCWD said:

Great to see young people in the shop learning some skills other than how to text faster than friends. I know I tried to get my son interested in woodworking but he never showed any interest except when it was time to leave the shop for the day.

Great to see her wearing the full head filter unit, I have an expensive Air Shield unit I use because of COPD and it helps tremendously when it comes to not eating dust all day while sanding turnings and keeps the chips out of the eyes.

She is doing a great job on those snowmen. Hope she keeps her interest in woodworking.

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Both girls played a little in the shop growing up, mainly when they wanted or needed something and had to make it. I tried both on the scroll saw for a while, but they didn't always have the patience.

My crazy work schedule has made both of them have to learn to fix things and work with their hands. They can unjam the garbage disposal, clear a drain, replace the flush valve on toilets... hopefully the can survive in the wild when they leave the house.

Both have taken at least one Technical Education class in High School, the oldest went into Mechanical Drawing/Computer Aided Drafting, then enjoyed the teacher so much she took an engineering class the second year, earned her AutoCad certified user certificate and did very well, and was made a teacher's aide the next year in that class. It's definitely helping her in College.

The youngest started turning pens after taking a class at WoodCraft, and enjoys goofing off on the lathe. Her interest has its ups and downs, but she enjoys making things. She is a little bit of a wood collector (hoarder), and has acquired some very interesting pen blanks to date. She is having a blast in her 'construction technology' class, and is holding her own with the young men in her group. It's definitely been a therapy class for her, as she has some heavy duty courses this year.

Barry747 said:

Great project and well executed. Glad to see your daughter is interested in woodworking. One of the discussions that repeatedly comes up at the woodworking club I belong to is the declining number of the younger generations that are interested in woodworking or going into it as a vocation. Haven't come up with a solution yet but we do some outreach when we can.

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Barry,

A quick project that can be accomplished in 30-50 minutes is key at first. Kids don't have patience to watch the glue dry. That is why I like the scrollsaw (and later on the lathe) because you can 'see' a project come together before your eyes. It's especially harder in the high-speed internet generation.

Daughter 1 enjoyed the creative nature of the hobby, she was not comfortable around power tools. She told me that the scrollsaw just terrified her at first. In her case I probably should have used more hand tools with her.

Both girls enjoyed making pinewood derby cars for scouts, and I think that is a great way to get youngsters started with basic tools. I love that Lowes and HD have quick projects to build on Saturday mornings, we only built one project there however because our Saturdays were always packed with sports.

The good news is that the current 'Maker Movement' is bringing a lot of 20 year olds into the creating hobby. They tend to do projects that involve mixing different materials, or modifying existing projects but they still acquire a lot of the skills over time. Hopefully there will be a few converts to woodworking. I am thankful every day for some of the talented YouTube channels, who can package the hobby in an interesting and relevant way to these kids. They learn, they get inspired, and maybe get their feet wet in the hobby as well.

Painting in progress, just a couple of touch ups needed before they are presented tomorrow

Knothead47 said:

Schools are closing wood shop as no one is interested in it. One person somewhere said a while back they can make more money designing video games.

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Not sure on that, heard years ago schools were doing away with shop because they could save money by doing that. And yes, some of the kids do want to design video games - so they don't have to work.

Doing away with shop is leading to less competent workers, AC, carpenters, and so on. I think it is a major error on doing away with shop classes. I took shop from the 4th grade on, hand tools, then a huge belt/disc sander in the 9th grade, and a coal forge. In the 10th grade we moved to power tools, commercial table saw, metal lathe, metal milling machine, and a new variety of hand tools. Also drafting. I helped make the sheet metal hood for the coal forge. Learned metal casting, welding. I went in the Army after high school, and didn't keep track of any of my classmates. Did later find out that two made their livings making pole barns, and one went from backyard body work to owning a body shop.

Doing away with shop is a major error to my mind. Be better off doing away with computer class - they seem to pick that up on their own anyway.

Oops, forgot to mention. Those snowmen look as good as any I have seen in stores. They should sell well if she decides to sell some.