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Shop Class; Wednesday, Third Period [08/31].
Wednesday, August 31st, 2022 03:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
special_rabbitAmaya had to admit, it felt good to be back in the old shop classroom again, even it it seemed that, by the size of her roster this semester, the interest in it might be dwindling a little. "Morning, everyone," she greeted them, nodding a little, uncertain if it could still be called morning by now, but she usually wound up in an earlier period, so it was just habit at this point. "And welcome to shop class! Usually, it being the first day and all, this is where we'd do introductions, but one of you, I already know," with a nod toward Graham, "so by process of elimination, that probably makes you Guillermo," with a nod toward him assuming he was there. "Nice to meet you, I'm Amaya, I'll be teaching how to make stuff this semester.
"With just the two of you, though," she said, "that means we have the potential for more than a few group projects, so here's to hoping you like each other, because you'll probably be working together a lot. And for the individual project, probably against each other a lot, because I'm a sucker for competition. But we'll save that for the later weeks. Today, I mostly want to talk about two things: safety and getting to know some of our equipment. The safety bit? That's pretty simple and sweet, but more important than anything else you'll learn in this classroom. Safety always comes first. I don't want to see either of you working with at least gloves and goggles," she gave her own a demonstrative tug and tap, "and potentially more protective equipment when the project calls for it. This isn't the Danger Shop, it's just Regular Shop, which means No Safety Protocols, and I've never had to take one of my students down to the clinic before, let's not change that now."
She went on a little longer about other key points of safety, before turning to pick up and hold aloft something that seemed to almost promise to be the antithesis of everything she was talking about: a jigsaw.
"And this," she stated, "is a jigsaw, and a jigsaw can be pretty simple to use if you're used to working with machines like this, and pretty easy to pick up on if you're not as familiar." With that, she gestured them all to follow her over to one of the lathe work stations and started in on showing them how to use it, easily able to shout her instructions over the sound of the whirring blade as she demonstrated.
"We've got both hand jigsaws and table mounted ones; the first will give you a little more freedom, but the second is a bit more controlled. Feel free to use whichever you're more comfortable with, and if you're a little squeamish about either, let me know, and I'll walk you through it.
"As for the actual project, I thought we'd jump right into a classic shop class project, but with its own Fandom-style twist, and get you boys started on some squirrel houses, which is a lot like a birdhouse, only it's for squirrels you don't want being too nosy about your business."
She started to hand out copies of her blueprints and instructions, and then got out the prototype she'd made in advance as she explained. "The idea behind the squirrel house, other than being a good introduction to using saws and drills, is to have a little place to entice the radio squirrels into when you might want some privacy or to ensure that someone you say or do doesn't make the broadcast. And if you didn't know it already, then here's your lesson that the best way to bribe those squirrels into secrecy is with a little bit of booze. So you'll notice the interior here is set up almost like a bar, where the squirrel can mosey on up inside, and we're going to include this little feeder bottle-like apparatus where you take one of these individual-size bottles of booze," she held one up as an example--rum, of course!, "put it in upside down like thus, and now the squirrel can go inside, go up to the bottle, and have himself a little drink while you go about your business without its tiny little nose all up in it.
"I'm having you guys attempt to build this from start to finish," she informed them, "which means following the blueprints carefully to trace out the pattern on the wood, and then using these table saws to cut them before we put them together. But I do have some ready-made pieces if that's not working out too well for you. Since these table saws are dangerous, let's take a second to go over how they're used. And remember, gloves and goggles whenever using any of the equipment. Safety first!"
So there was another quite demonstration, this time of the table saw, and then her attention shifted to the students.
"Any questions? If so, please ask, because a five second question is much easier to deal with than a five finger accident. But, if not, let's get started, shall we?"
"With just the two of you, though," she said, "that means we have the potential for more than a few group projects, so here's to hoping you like each other, because you'll probably be working together a lot. And for the individual project, probably against each other a lot, because I'm a sucker for competition. But we'll save that for the later weeks. Today, I mostly want to talk about two things: safety and getting to know some of our equipment. The safety bit? That's pretty simple and sweet, but more important than anything else you'll learn in this classroom. Safety always comes first. I don't want to see either of you working with at least gloves and goggles," she gave her own a demonstrative tug and tap, "and potentially more protective equipment when the project calls for it. This isn't the Danger Shop, it's just Regular Shop, which means No Safety Protocols, and I've never had to take one of my students down to the clinic before, let's not change that now."
She went on a little longer about other key points of safety, before turning to pick up and hold aloft something that seemed to almost promise to be the antithesis of everything she was talking about: a jigsaw.
"And this," she stated, "is a jigsaw, and a jigsaw can be pretty simple to use if you're used to working with machines like this, and pretty easy to pick up on if you're not as familiar." With that, she gestured them all to follow her over to one of the lathe work stations and started in on showing them how to use it, easily able to shout her instructions over the sound of the whirring blade as she demonstrated.
"We've got both hand jigsaws and table mounted ones; the first will give you a little more freedom, but the second is a bit more controlled. Feel free to use whichever you're more comfortable with, and if you're a little squeamish about either, let me know, and I'll walk you through it.
"As for the actual project, I thought we'd jump right into a classic shop class project, but with its own Fandom-style twist, and get you boys started on some squirrel houses, which is a lot like a birdhouse, only it's for squirrels you don't want being too nosy about your business."
She started to hand out copies of her blueprints and instructions, and then got out the prototype she'd made in advance as she explained. "The idea behind the squirrel house, other than being a good introduction to using saws and drills, is to have a little place to entice the radio squirrels into when you might want some privacy or to ensure that someone you say or do doesn't make the broadcast. And if you didn't know it already, then here's your lesson that the best way to bribe those squirrels into secrecy is with a little bit of booze. So you'll notice the interior here is set up almost like a bar, where the squirrel can mosey on up inside, and we're going to include this little feeder bottle-like apparatus where you take one of these individual-size bottles of booze," she held one up as an example--rum, of course!, "put it in upside down like thus, and now the squirrel can go inside, go up to the bottle, and have himself a little drink while you go about your business without its tiny little nose all up in it.
"I'm having you guys attempt to build this from start to finish," she informed them, "which means following the blueprints carefully to trace out the pattern on the wood, and then using these table saws to cut them before we put them together. But I do have some ready-made pieces if that's not working out too well for you. Since these table saws are dangerous, let's take a second to go over how they're used. And remember, gloves and goggles whenever using any of the equipment. Safety first!"
So there was another quite demonstration, this time of the table saw, and then her attention shifted to the students.
"Any questions? If so, please ask, because a five second question is much easier to deal with than a five finger accident. But, if not, let's get started, shall we?"
