Dovetails & Tool Chests

Student Nyla working on her dovetails for the tool chest project.

One student added a carved detail to the front of their cabinet.

Our current class of Wood Design: Furniture Making students began their journey with us on Aug 28th, 2023. Some were very experienced woodworkers, others had no experience at all. They came from very diverse backgrounds, and from locations all over the United States… and the UK! Out of 20 students, 16 of them left their home and moved to Adrian to attend this college woodworking program.

Lead by Instructors Zack Fealk and Noah Smith, these students began the school year learning the basics: measuring, marking, and wood selection. They quickly moved into their first two projects, cutting boards and a lower kitchen cabinet made of cherry.

In the cutting board project, they were introduced to the woodworking machinery, and learned how to use the jointer, planer and table saw together to make S4S lumber (surfaced on 4 sides). They learned correct gluing, clamping and sanding techniques.

The next project was the lower kitchen cabinet. Kitchen cabinets are not necessarily “fine furniture,” but we believe it is a necessary skill to know as a woodworker. No matter what happens in your career, you can always make kitchen cabinets. And the cabinetry skills transfer to other projects like high-end built-in-cabinetry. During this project, students made the body of the cabinet from cherry plywood, and the door fronts from hardwood cherry. They learned how to correctly install hardware for soft-close drawers and doors.

A finished tool chest from three years ago. This one was made from mahogany.

Now, eight weeks into the Wood Design: Furniture Making program, dovetails are the name of the game. Over the past two weeks, students learned how to make dovetails both by hand and by machine. Students are diligently working on the next project which is their tool chests. The tool chest project integrate all the woodworking techniques they have learned since the beginning of the college program. Students are diligently cutting dovetails, fitting their pieces together, and measuring the grooves for drawers. They are using cherry wood, which starts as a light colored wood, but then darkens as it is exposed to the sun.

There’s so much to say about each person in this year’s class, and we hope to share their progression as the move toward their graduation in early June, 2024.