Tuesday 25 October 2016

The beauty of burl

One of my students spent a whole day cutting off a piece of burl off the side of a tree with a handsaw. When he brought it to school we decided to turn it while wet. He decided to turn a bowl wth the bark forming the outer edge. The wood was kept damp in a black bag for the whole time that he was working on it to prevent distortion as it dried. The finish is Danish oil.






Brazing exercise... the colourful cat

Brazing metals together is easy and fun. I allow my students to come up with simple designs so that they can learn to set up and use the oxyacetylene correctly and safely braze materials together with brass brazing rods





It's wonderful having girls doing INTAD as they love different ideas and enjoy thinking outside the square. One of my students saw a design on the internet and modified it for her brazing project. It is around 130 mm tall and use to hold notes etc. I like the colour job she did on it!!!

Mango wood bowl

Year 10 Wooden Bowls




The cheese slicer is the year ten project the builds on the skills developed in year nine when the students make a steak turner.

These cheese slicer's are beautiful for slicing through cheese.

 In the previous year, the students worked with aluminum only. For this, they have to turn a small brass screw part for the top that is used to tension the wire. It involves turning using the cross slide and knurling a small part. Brass is an easy medium to work with and the students choose to work with it in year eleven as a suitable material for their one project.






Year nine girls get to be creative using the jigsaw

Trying something different for the jigsaw project ... we decided to add a clock to the design with wonderful results.