Woodworking Final

October 9, 2008 4:02 PM

I'm a not-too-handy college student who needs a final project for a required woodshop course. Suggestions?

I'm a pre-engineering education major, and I need to find some plans online for a final woodworking project in one of my courses. I'd prefer something fairly easy, but I'd be glad to hear any suggestion. The project requires that the thing I build have parts made on a lathe. If there are any good sources for woodworking projects online, I'd like to see those websites as well.

The woodshop at my school is pretty well equipped, so I don't think tools are an issue. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them, as I probably don't know to ask everything I should ask.

The project should be done over five to seven weeks, working 4 hours a week. It's been suggested that we build something like a small piece of furniture or something useful. Thanks for your help.

posted by mccarty.tim to sports, hobbies, & recreation (13 comments total)

What kind of complexity is your project expected to have? Personally I'd build something I wanted, a bookshelf, a coffee table, speaker cabinets, something like that, or perhaps a tool if a significant part could be made from wood (say, a wooden plane).

I'm a slow worker but I couldn't make much in 28 hours (which is 4 hours a week, 7 weeks)
posted by RustyBrooks at 4:10 PM on October 9, 2008

How much lathe work are you up for? A simple ladderback chair might be fun. I'd choose one with a woven seat. If you want something simpler, perhaps a bar stool?
posted by jon1270 at 4:15 PM on October 9, 2008

I should clarify that lathed parts don't have to be the main feature, but they are required.
posted by mccarty.tim at 4:27 PM on October 9, 2008

To further clarify, I think I'd be fine with a good amount of lathe work. My one reservation is that there is only one lathe, so if I have a project with too much work on the lathe, I may need to come in for extra time. There is a duplicator, so I can copy a lathed part a couple times.

I'm thinking something like a bookshelf or coffee table may be good. Any good designs for that kind of thing that anyone can vouch for? Also, I have some ash on hand, but I'd be willing to buy more wood or a different type, if that helps. I'm less than a half-hour away from a sawmill so I have a lot of options.
posted by mccarty.tim at 4:42 PM on October 9, 2008

You could make a really nice checkerboard with inlaid light wood/dark wood squares, with a nice wood border around it.

Then you can use a lathe to make the checkers. Laminate a few pieces of wood together to make different patterns for the red/black pieces.

I made one in high school woodshop once, but unfortunately it's at my parents house and I won't be there to take any pictures anytime soon. But I think it would be the right project to take 5-7 weeks. If you have extra time, then you can work on making chess pieces or a backgammon board.
posted by mintymike at 4:44 PM on October 9, 2008

A waster, but I'm not sure if that would take up seven weeks worth of time. Lathe would be used to make a rounded crossguard, ooh, with totally sweet flaring ends. I guess the time it takes to make one would depend on how fancy you want to make it.

Alas, wasters are not really useful at all except for practicing historical European martial arts, so I guess my practical suggestion would be rocking chair. Because rocking chairs are awesome.
posted by Mister Cheese at 4:52 PM on October 9, 2008

You could make some beautifully turned Candlesticks.

These would make really nice gifts.
posted by JujuB at 5:01 PM on October 9, 2008

Something like this wouldn't be too difficult. The top turning mechanism could be engineered to both rotate for serious chess play and open for piece storage.
posted by piedmont at 8:32 PM on October 9, 2008

Mister Cheese, you, sir, are a big geek. Bless you. (gazes over at waster in corner of the room.)

Anyhow as to the question at hand. I recommend something arts and crafts-ish. It's usually a less painful style to work in because it doesn't have lots of excessive curves and what not to deal with. Do a Google image search on "Arts and Crafts Furniture" and you'll see what I mean. The Limbert Bookcase is a pretty timeless design and wouldn't be that painful to build. Put some craft glass in the doors and you'll have a pretty kick ass piece when you are done.

There is that issue of turning, though, and you pointed out that there is just the one lathe. Assuming college hasn't changed (pause for laughter) you'd be wise to not overdo the turning part and get it done quickly. In your shoes I'd get something a little bit exotic, like a small chunk of ebony, tagua nuts or a piece of redheart and after a few dry runs using something relatively cheap but that turns well (like some scraps of maple) make two nicely turned knobs. Then I'd put those some place very safe and make the rest of whatever it is you've decided on.

Other advice: Set up a machine for a particular cut, and do your level best to make every cut of that dimension before the fence gets move of the blade depth changed, or whatever.

This may depend on what your finances are like, but sometimes you can save yourself a lot of agony (and expensive hardwood) if you get some crappy low grade pine and do mock up pieces as you go.

It's worth it to learn to sharpen plane and chisel blades until you can shave with them. A dull chisel or plane is a pain to work with and can screw up your project for you in no time.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 9:43 PM on October 9, 2008

Game boards and pieces would be excellent, I think. Pick whatever board game you like most. I worked in the machine shop at school and in my spare time built a chess set with board out of the scrap aluminum stock from the freshmen classes.

Other options - parcheesi, backgammon, cribbage. The boards can have some nice inlay work and you could hollow them out and hinge them to hold the pieces inside. the pawns (for parcheesi, anyway) can be as fancy as you want.
posted by backseatpilot at 4:57 AM on October 10, 2008

A bowl with a spout. Just make it ultra-cool looking and smooth. Smooth always gets extra credit.
posted by watercarrier at 5:22 AM on October 10, 2008

A wooden P-P-P-Powerbook. You could use the lathe to turn the hinges. Better than carving one.
posted by Wet Spot at 6:31 AM on October 10, 2008

Can you paint your project? If so, I'd build a tabletop puppet theater with lathed decorative columns on either side of the stage. It's small enough that it wouldn't take a whole lot of wood, it's unusual enough that it probably wouldn't suffer from comparison to someone else's project, and the garish paint would distract from any woodworking mistakes.
posted by sculpin at 10:02 AM on October 10, 2008