Graduation Day and final project pics from the Foundations Course 2015 (courtesy of Tim Lawson.) And a collection of photos from our fun days and late nights in the wood shop.
Green woodworking
First week at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking. This is the beginning of the Foundations of Woodworking course, which focuses on traditional hand tool skills. We began by riving green wood – splitting logs from a recently felled Douglas Fir – and made three-legged stools. In the process, we got familiar with basic tools… [Read More]
Earthen Floors
This week, under the tutelage of earthen floor master Sukita Crimmel, we installed an earthen floor in the garden shed. Sukita has written the foremost book on this subject, entitled Earthen Floors: A Modern Approach to An Ancient Practice. You can see more of her work on her website From These Hands. A well-made earthen… [Read More]
Natural plasters
This week we learned about clay plasters, lime plasters, and clay-based paint. Clay plasters can be used on indoor or outdoor walls. Like earthen walls, clay plasters “breathe” – absorbing and releasing moisture. So, they are good for maintaining a pleasant and healthy indoor environment, but they aren’t best suited for use in high moisture… [Read More]
Rocket stoves and heaters
We start off with a tour of the rocket stoves on the Aprovecho campus. In the outdoor kitchen there is a rocket stove for boiling water (the Oaxaca One-Pot) and a rocket stove griddle (the Justa stove). In the Boathouse there is a rocket mass heater. The Oaxaca One-pot is essentially a rocket stove covered… [Read More]
Cabin stove
We worked with Max Edleson on two projects at the home of a neighbor: a cabin stove and an outdoor cooking stove. The cabin stove is a compact masonry heater with a cooktop and an attached heated cob bench. This post will focus on the details of constructing the cabin stove. For complete documentation, including… [Read More]
Learning about fire
In these two videos, Max Edelson gives a demo on how fire behaves and how it is affected by various conditions. In the first video, he builds a model of a Rumford fireplace and in the second, he demonstrates the design of the combustion chamber and heat riser in a rocket mass heater. This week… [Read More]
Natural Wall Systems
We constructed the outer walls for the garden shed using two different techniques — light straw clay and chip-slip (wood chips mixed with clay slip), in order to compare the two techniques in terms of speed and ease of construction, as well as insulative properties. Our instructor this week for natural wall systems was Erica… [Read More]
Round pole and light framing
We used round poles harvested on campus for the roof rafters. We flattened one surface of the poles, on which the roof will lie, and then scribed (traced) two cuts on the opposite sides for the rafter to attach snugly to the timber frame beams. To do that, we first laid out vertical and horizontal… [Read More]
Raising the timber frame
We loaded up the timbers onto Bill’s truck and drove from the workshop over to the build site. We drilled holes in the bottom of the posts to prepare them for placement onto the four metal threaded posts embedded in the foundation. On re-checking the placement of the 4 metal posts, it became clear that… [Read More]