Category Archives: Teaching

General Information, Teaching

Measure Twice, Calculate Once

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After drafting a new project or case piece but before you head to the lumber yard, you have to make a stock list. This inglorious bit of work is a necessary evil if you want to get all the necessary supplies on your first trip. The past few weeks I’ve been working on drafting up several upcoming projects and as I used this spreadsheet a few times and thought it was worth sharing with you.

Empty Stock List
Empty Stock List

Back when I was a student at the North Bennet Street School they had a nice little photocopy of a stock list that looked like it was originally made in Excel.  We’d enter all the details for our project and then calculate the board footage for our projects by hand with a calculator. This often tedious work was susceptible to the occasional human error so I’d usually wind up checking and rechecking my calculations as I went. After doing this a few times, the computer scientist in me thought ‘Wait a minute, I can code this up in Excel and let it do all the work for me’ — plus printing this spreadsheet for a customer or when dealing with a supplier looks better than a hand written version.

Stock List For Shutters
Example Stock List For Shutters

Highlights:

  • Keeps track of name of pieces, quantity
  • All values are in inches
  • Automatically calculates board footage
  • Adds common extra length (+1″), width (+1/2″) and thickness (+1/4″)
  • Totals up board footage
  • Adds extra at the end to take care of test cuts, small amount of scrap etc

This spreadsheet has worked well for me over the years and I hope you will benefit from using it as well. You can find a copy of it here (*.XLSX format):

Excel Stock List

Teaching, Workshop

New Workshops at NBSS Spring 2013

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Just a quick note: I will be teaching some new workshops this spring at the North Bennet Street School’s Arlington, MA location.  My teaching schedule can be found here. I look forward to seeing some of you in class this spring or summer.

-Bill

Introduction to shutters @ The North Bennet Street School

Saturday, May 4 – Sunday May 5

8:30 AM – 4:30 PM Register

Instructor: Bill Rainford
$375

Shutters Workshop
Shutters Workshop

Learn about traditional wooden shutters in this two-day workshop. Using traditional joinery, students will build a sample shutter and learn the skills needed to layout and build shutters for your own home. Discussion includes interior and exterior uses, fielded panels and louvered styles Students should be able to plane and square up a board by hand and have some experience laying out and cutting traditional mortise and tenon joinery by hand. Some experience with tuned hand tools and power tools is required. PLEASE NOTE THIS CLASS WILL BE HELD IN ARLINGTON.

Traditional Shutters
Traditional Shutters

Register

Hanging doors and windows: demo and discussion @ The North Bennet Street School

Saturday, June 8

8:30 AM – 4:30 PM Register

Instructor: Bill Rainford
$50

Completed door
Completed door

This one-day demonstration workshop includes installing a modern door, cutting to accommodate a door knob and lock set, mortising hinges, installing a modern window and related trim and flashing. We cover the proper tools for these projects and include ample time for questions throughout the day. PLEASE NOTE THIS CLASS WILL BE HELD IN ARLINGTON.

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Teaching, Workshop

Building Walls and Slinging Mud

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This past weekend at the North Bennet Street School I taught a new 2 day workshop that I designed on framing, drywall, mud and texture work. It was an opportunity for students to learn the techniques necessary to properly install or repair drywall around their homes, improve their finishing and texture skills and ask questions.

Bill Teaching
Bill discussing technique

It was a lot of material to cover in 2 days, but the class was enthusiastic and put in the hard work necessary to get through all the major exercises.  Below is a highlight reel from the class:

Laying out the frames
Laying out the frames

Once each student finished his/her frame they were assembled into wall sections.

Assembling the frame sections
Assembling the frame sections

Each student had their own workspace to practice in.

Students cutting and hanging sheetrock
Cutting and hanging Sheetrock

Cutting, hanging, coursing, cleaning up edges etc.

Bill Demonstrating Technique
Bill demonstrating how to blend coats of mud

Hands on demonstrations of technique

Taping and initial mud work
Taping and initial mud work

Working around obstructions like outlet boxes, taping, and initial coat of mud.

Wet and Dry Sanding
Wet and Dry Sanding

Sanding the initial coat of mud and applying subsequent coats.

Applying Texture
Applying Texture

Patching, repairs and applying various finishing and texture techniques.

It was an informative and enjoyable experience and I look forward to teaching similar workshops in the future. If you have requests for other workshop topics you’d like to see covered, please let me know.