Woodworking 101 at Rebuilding Exchange

Some weeks ago, Liz and I were talking about trying to return to our regular “date nights.” In the course of this discussion, we ended up finding a basic “Woodworking 101” class at Rebuilding Exchange – and ended up deciding to convert our plans to “practical date nights.”

So instead of it being at night, it’s during the day. On the weekends. Where we’ll be working. So it goes.

The plan is to get a better handle on the basics, in preparation for some of the more complex work we’ll be doing with Bob, in the coming months. I’m also planning on building some garden beds, and a Little Free Library, so this will be a great bit of practice for both of us.

Interesting note: we first visited Rebuilding Exchange back in February of 2014… but I never got around to posting those photos. So I’m doing that now.

The first group of photos are from 2014, during our first visit. The following photos are the ones I took, during our first class.

First images on walking in, back in 2014. The building itself is enormous, and houses an impressive amount of stuff.

As a quick note: Rebuilding Exchange is a non-profit organization that aims to divert materials from landfills, making them available for re-use through their warehouse. In addition to simply re-selling materials, they’re also used in workshops and job training. They’re a pretty great organization.

I’m a sucker for antique radios. Reminded me a bit of the booth full of radios, from Great Lakes Antique Mall (a trip we took to Michigan in 2013 for Liz’s Birthday).

DIY Workshops! Who knew that a year and a half later, we would be attending one of these?

Old growth lumber.

Lots and lots of doors.

I mean… a LOT of doors.

Lots of various tiles.

One of many complete sets of cabinets.

Near the back, there was a room full of sinks and bathroom items.

Knobs and hinges and miscellany.

For some of the lumber available, there were signs mentioning where they came from.

“This lumber was sourced from Davies Supply Company, a 136 year old family-run business that closed in 2013.

The wood in this bay was used to make shelves that housed pipe fittings. These stenciled number strips came from the surface of the bins and were put on some time in the 1940s. We have more lumber from this warehouse in our big racks, with a patina that came from years of throwing the parts into the bins.”

Ok – and now… a jump to 2015!

A view of the massive bridge near Elston Avenue. I could have sworn that this was originally tagged by Loony… but maybe I’m misremembering things.

While there’s an entrance on Webster, this is the back entrance (by the parking lot).

Liz and I were nervous about showing up on time, so we left with plenty of time to spare. Before our class started, we ended up wandering around.

In back, we found the kitchen/bathroom area – filled with everything including the kitchen sink.

A small army of toilets at the ready.

And lots of drawers.

Near the front desk, we spotted these amazing looking facades.

I don’t think these photos are doing them justice. They look almost like movie set props. Really cool.

For our workshop, it’s a relatively small class (just six people total). It’s me and Liz, a guy named Chris, a woman named Maggie, and a couple named Mattie and Sam.

Our instructor’s name is Erin, and the two TA’s are John and Jay.

The whole course just lasts four weeks, and the project is fairly straight-forward: a tabletop (or shelf or bench top, or countertop that’s 10 square feet in total).

The course does not include the legs, and it’s just the surface – and Liz and I are both choosing to make workbenches that are 4.5′ x 2.5′.

Here, Liz is looking over the various wood available.

Erin (our instructor) and Jay, helping us to find pieces of reclaimed wood to use.

Liz, checking for any nails. In addition to making sure none of the pieces were too warped, we had to get rid of any nails that might be in each piece.

The detection (and removal process) ended up being much longer for some, versus others. We were lucky to have the two TAs, who helped folks with the removal.

The pieces I got were from a house in La Grange.

Here are my pieces – I got pretty lucky, and only had two nails!

With the final length being 4.5′, we rough cut each piece to around 5′.

Here’s a view of the workshop (which is located in the NE corner of the building). Looking at the two jointers, and the planer we’ll be using.

A view of the work areas (and the table saw on the right).

Liz, checking our her pieces.

The time went by surprisingly quickly. Though we did get further along than I thought we would, on our first day. Even after we had rough cut our pieces with the chop saw, we were told to re-check our wood for nails (and I ended up finding one).

For the most part, everyone got their pieces cut – and maybe a handful of pieces done on the jointers.

Given what we experienced the first day, this seems to be much more of a hands-on type of class. We all have a project we’re working on, and we pretty much all dove right in on the first day – flagging folks down for help or questions, as we had them.

I was a little unsure about how things would go, but after this first day… I really did enjoy myself. Liz and I ended up going over to Lula Cafe for a late lunch, and it was a really great visit (she remarked on how many big life decisions we made, while eating there over the years).

First practical date night: a success!

Related:
A Pile of Tiles
Woodworking with Bob: the Mortise and Tenon Joint