Drew Graham

At the end of my first year we take on projects for people within the school. Boyd McNeil and I received the arched window molding project. We had to match an existing profile that was already on some other windows around the client’s home. After we matched the profile we ran it through the shaper and then re-sawed it on the band saw. With the use of cauls we put the molding back together. The now bent laminated molding required some touch ups and we did have some problems with the cauls.
In the end the client was more than pleased with the final outcome. The picture below depicts the finished arched molding installed on the window.

Introduction

Our group has been assigned the task of improving the current layout of the assembly area in the wood manufacturing shop, which will be referred to as “the shop� throughout the rest of this report. Our initial goal was to consider tool storage used in the shop. In our review, we were to consider but not limited to:

• Design / layout of the tool storage and tool cabinet(s)
• Accessibility of the tools and equipment
• Condition of tools and equipment i.e. guards and accessories etc.
• Date of purchase
• Warrantee information and availability
• Relevance and current trade practice (Is this tool still in use, Y/N?)
• Storage (does it have a home in the tool crib)
• Maintenance/service record (Y/N)

Starting our review we found that some of the above considerations were not relevant to our review and some considerations where not listed. Upon a brief discussion with our instructor, Michael Campbell, we developed what we thought to be the most important elements to include in our review. Our review will include the following points:

• Design / layout of assembly area for increased work flow / production
• Accessibility of the tools and equipment in location to work areas
• Tool / equipment storage (does it have a home in the tool crib / specific area)

Current Shop Layout:

• Poor overall layout causes congested work areas. These areas tend to become a “storage areaâ€? for work in progress, materials, tools, etc. These areas can become safety concerns if daily housekeeping is not conducted.
• Hand tool cabinets are cluttered and somewhat disorganized. This makes finding the proper hard tool hard at times.
• Poor layout and storage of portable power tools. The tool cabinet that the power tools are currently found in is very deep. This causes some tools & attachments to become misplaced / damaged easily.
• For a plan view of the shop with these changes in affect, please refer to drawing D1, and figures 1-14

Proposed Shop Layout:

• Make all benches movable by placing lockable wheels on there bases. This will allow the benches to be moved about with ease if necessary.
• Place both the veneer press & saw on a wheeled base. This will allow the press and saw to be stored out of the main floor area when not in use and can be easily relocated when needed.
• Reposition the lumber rack adjacent to the sheet goods rack. This will place all raw materials in a central location throughout the entire shop.
The radial arm saw will also be moved along with the lumber rack. Its position will be similar to its current location.
• Create 5s tool cells (figure 15) along the North East East walls of the shop. These tool cells will be broken up into 8 cells. Each tool cell will then be assigned to a specific bench and team. Each team is responsible for the maintenance of their tool cell area. The care and maintenance of each team’s tool cell will then represent a portion of their machining mark for the year. The cells will then allow each section of work benches to have all appropriate hand tools readily available. A clamping cell and power tool cell should be located on the center of the north wall.
With this allow hand / power tool and clamping storage can be removed. This will free up much need floor space.
• Construct a new veneer shelving rack along the South wall, where the old hand tools were located. This area of the shop now houses all veneering equipment.
• Remove training aids from the assembly area and transfer them into the classroom or above the instructor’s office. Again this frees up more floor space.
• Arranging the work benches around the 5s tool cells See CAD drawing D2.
• The “big assembly tableâ€? should be resized and moved to the front of the work benches to act as a training center, where the instructor can demonstrate techniques or use to display training aids.
• The chop saw is to be placed on a movable cart with folding side wings. This will enable the chop saw to be moved around when needed and the folding wings will free up more floor space.
• Clean up and organize the grinder bench. A more organized bench will be more inviting for students to use.
• For a plan view of the shop with these changes in affect, please refer to drawing D2.

Conclusion:

According to industry standards, the recommended floor space per production employee is approximately 1000 square feet. Within a learning environment we agree that the minimum space required per student should be 1000 square feet. Our entire shop is currently less than 6000 square feet; the assembly area alone is less than 2500 square feet. This is where 8 – 16 people conduct approximately 50% of daily work.

This is why floor space is of the essence and more emphasize should be placed on floor space within the Wood Manufacturing shop. This would make a much better learning environment for all.

Cabnetware is a kitchen design software package that I was taught at school. I learned how to create custom parameters, door and drawer profiles, special cabinets and other basic operations in cabnetware. These two assignments incorporated everything I was taught in cabnetware. I also used cabnetware in my woodworking business group project.

This dinning room table and chair are my first attempt at design. I like simple and straight lines and I was trying to incorporate this into the table and chair. I also used these sketches for my final industrial design project. The industrial design course I was responsible for designing 3 pieces of furniture, the third being my choice. I was required to produce all the required documents for these projects including: drawings, BOM and a product structure tree. These can all be found below

The kitchen drafting project we were required to create all of the necessary drawings for our kitchen where we were residing. We had to include a floor plan, elevations and major appliances. The second part of this project was to create an AutoCAD version of the hand drafted drawings. The purpose of drafting this both by hand and in CAD was to show us the benefits of drafting with CAD.

Hand Drafted Machined with hand tools only Poplar

This was a project where 3 randomly chosen groups of 4 - 5 people have to design and fabricate a project, in this particular case, a bench for a local high school. The goal is to manage the project as if the finished items were to be produced in an industrial setting. The clients’ requirements, conceptualization of the project that meets those requirements, prepare working drawings, bill of material, cut list, route and Gantt charts and schedule production time all had to be considered.

Click here for a detailed reflective narrative on this project.

In the summer of 2001 I had no idea that I would be taking a wood manufacturing course or writing this narrative either. I was in my second year of mechanical engineering at the University of New Brunswick. Finding a job for the summer, in my field, was becoming harder and harder by the day. I then decided to look for work else where. I found a job at the local Avis Rent-A-Car at the Halifax International airport. It wasn’t a very glamorous job but I had found a job for the summer. That was also the same summer my father purchased a small woodturning lathe.

Working at Avis did not provide me with much mental activity. Driving cars about 2 kilometers at a time doesn’t require that much thought. So on my days off I started working on the lathe. I love working with my hands and “building things� as well. I’m not the best at it but it’s what I enjoy to do in my spare time.

My father came home one day saying he was going to try and turn a wooden pen and that is where my wooden pen journey starts. After watching my father turn his first pen, I took my turn turning my first pen. It wasn’t great or spectacular by any means, so I kept turning more.

The summer months went by slowly that year and I kept turning out more pens, one at a time, taking more and more care on each sequential pen. One day a friend of the family stopped by, saw the pens and asked me an interesting question. He asked me how many I could make by the end of the summer. We talked and by the end of our conversation he had commissioned me to make 36 turned pens. I was more than happy to do it. I had only been making one pen at a time up till now but seeing no real problem with it I agreed to the proposal, we lined out a contract, date of delivery and price.

I purchased all of my materials that I needed for the project. I then laid out a plan to turn all of these pens. I first started my milling all of the pen blanks, drilling holes and gluing. All that was left was to turn each pen.

Turning the pens took me no time at all. It was the sanding and finishing of the pens that I disliked. I found that it took to long and now I that I was not just turning for myself, my level of quality shot up ten fold. I became very hard on myself for the level of quality that I wanted to sell. I ran into a few problems as well. In the mass preparation time that I had done prior to turning, gluing of the bass inserts on some of the blanks did not get enough glue. This caused some pens to explode on the lathe or break close to completion. This caused me many headaches, having to rework about 10 pens. Luckily I was able to save the hardware of all ten.

Through the frustrations of exploding pens and daunting finishing procedures I did produce 36 uniquely turned pens. I also made a profit of about 56%, which wasn’t to bad for a 19 year old just doing a hobby in his spare time. The whole experience was a learning process with a huge learning curve. I think if I was to do it again, I would have spent a lot more time in the developing of the contract and the cost of materials and hardware.

I really enjoy turning my pens; I find it very relaxing and satisfying. To create something so simple, and yet when people see a turned pen, they are utterly amazed by its beauty.

I still use the very first pen I’ve turned today.

The crown molding project we had to design a crown molding profile, run the profile, cope two joints and install the molding around a mock ceiling.

Click here for a detailed reflective narrative on this project.

This project was brought to the wood manufacturing class the year before I started my studies at Marconi. The letter board project was a specific design project for a special needs client who is confined to a wheelchair and is unable to speak.

The purpose of the letter board is to allow the client to communicate with others. She simply would have to point to the letters on the board to spell out the words to communicate. A fellow classmate and I got involved with this project and designed and drafted the specifications to build the letter board.

Click here for a detailed reflective narrative on this project.

The joint frame project is comprised of six different joints: mitred half-lap, dovetail half-lap, bridle, hunched mortise and tenon, half-lap and dowelled butt joint. A panel was also inset into the frame complete with a walnut inlay. All of the specs for this project were hand drafted

Click here for a detailed reflective narrative on this project.