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Bedframe Bench in Sycamore, Ipe and Cherry
This past December I completed this bench for a close friend. He has served as a mentor and cheerleader for my professional education, woodworking and cooking endeavors for the last five years, so...
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This Week in the Classroom: Top Ten Middle School #MakerEd Challenges (Plus...
This Week in the Classroom I’m going to explore a variety of design challenges that I use in my classroom. I designed each of these projects to prompt students to explore the engineering design...
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This Week in the Shop: The Library Book Nook
This Week in the Shop, I build a library book nook for my school. My school librarian came to me with her coffee bar theme for a renovated library and she wanted a circular book nook to take advantage...
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This Week in the Shop: The Fossil Cabinet
This Week in the Shop we build small cabinet. Cabinet making epitomizes fine woodworking, as it rewards accuracy, consistency, and attention to detail. Cabinets can be found in the workshop, in the...
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This Week in the Classroom: The FunKey Super #MakerED #STEM Review
This fall I have introduced a new tech platform into my practice. The FunKey unlocks tons of potential in a classroom. Do you want a board that reads keystrokes and plays like a MakeyMakey but with...
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This Week in the Classroom: Top Maker Tools in the Middle School Classroom
My semi-regular column This Week in the Classroom is back! I have accepted a position in a small, mostly rural school district just outside of Northern Virginia. It’s great to be in the classroom...
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This Week in the Shop: Safety Posters
In community shops, safety is paramount. Equipment can be inadvertently left in poor repair, dusty and worn conditions. A quick checklist can mean the difference between safe operation and serious...
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Home #Makerspace: DIY Air Hockey Table for Under $40
This is a scaled down, fun-filled air hockey table is a perfect summer project. Two employees of Brunswick Billiards Co invented Air Hockey in the 1960s. The game field consists of a low-friction...
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Home #Makerspace: Paper Airplane Launcher
Here’s a quick project to cut out on the scroll saw. Scroll saws are small, cheap, versatile tools that can cut through all sorts of thin materials, such as plastics, wood, plywood and cardboard....
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Home #Makerspace: A DIY Carrom or Marbles Game Board!
This week, we built a game board which you can customize to play marbles, skittles, carrom, billiards, pool, shuffleboard, crokinole and more! My game board features two games, marbles and carrom....
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#MakerEd in the Classroom: Exploring #3DPrinting FAQs & Resources
This week I will answer some of the most common questions about 3D printing I get asked as a Maker Educator by administrators and classroom teachers. Last summer, I published a similar guide for the...
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Home #Makerspace: DIY Knock Hockey Set
When the ice melts from the first burst of spring, the hockey fun doesn’t have to stop. Take hockey inside with DIY Knock Hockey, a wood table-top game which makes for hours and hours of fun. This...
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Home #Makerspace: DIY Street Hockey Sticks
It’s winter here in Northern Virginia and my sons discovered a strange and wondrous sport of the North: Hockey! To help them become familiar with the game, we’ve watched a few movies, plan on attending...
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Home #Makerspace: Build a Pinewood Derby Car With #YoungMakers
Every winter, millions of families prepare for serious bonding time at kitchen tables, in garages and in workshops across the country. We enter with dreams of speed, beauty and glory. With a little...
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Home #Makerspace: Two Easy #KidArt Mobiles
This week, we took to the skies with a two simple mobiles. Mobiles are kinetic sculptures which rely on and play with the scientific concept of equilibrium and center of gravity. The pieces often spin...
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Home #Makerspace: #DIY Rebuild a Kids BMX Bike with #Maker Tools
Every few years, I find an excuse to engage in one of my favorite old-school projects, rebuilding and repainting a kids bicycle. Let’s paint some flames. I mean, dragons. We will paint dragons. This...
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This Week in the Shop: The Split-Top Bench with Plans
This week in my home shop I finished up a new bench project I developed for class at Nova Labs in Reston, VA. While simple in design and execution, it does involve the full suite of woodworking tools...
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The Home #Makerspace: How To Build Your Own Pinball Machine (with Working...
Sometimes, a teacher needs to court a little controversy. This week, Things 1 & 2 & I build a device which was banned in New York City from the 1940s until 1976, and can be found in high...
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Home #Makerspace: How to Saw (for Young and Beginning #Woodworkers)
I use Japanese-style saws exclusively in my classroom and home shop because I have young makers. I love the quick bite and accuracy of a pull stroke, the low cost and high quality, but mostly, enjoy...
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Home #Makerspace: A Small Bookshelf Using Only Hand Tools
This week we will build a small, simple shelf to practice our hand tool skills. We will learn the rip cut and how to use the coping saw successfully. We will assemble and hang our shelf using wood...
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