Header image: Google maps
[writing in progress]
This page is to record my time and learning in and around SW9 at the British Columbia Institute of Technology
(April 22, 2024) The wonderful Rory Brown offered to give me a few hours of instruction on the wood lathe and I jumped at the chance.
➡ He is the former president of the Vancouver Secondary Teachers Association and served on the executive of the BC Teachers Federation. He taught high school in Vancouver for 15 years before joining the BCIT Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Rory is currently one of the instructors on the Technology Teacher Education Diploma. Students complete this 2-year course before entering UBC to complete their Teacher Education program (where I am one of their instructors). I’ve been spending a lot of time at BCIT getting to know the cohort of students who are currently completing their TTED so that we can better teach and learn together in September.
Teachers teach; pedagogues teach while also actively investigating teaching and learning.
Jesse Stommel, 2014: Critical Digital Pedagogy: a Definition
Taking Rory up on his offer means that I get to learn and practice some more hands-on skills, a great continuation of the introduction I had to the machines in the Student Machine Shop course at UBC.
Rory had chosen a piece of weeping birch that came from a downed tree not far from his home. He introduced the formidable band saw and I cut the piece into a rough cylinder:
Next, I attached it to the lathe and tried to make more uniformly cylindrical and then tapered towards the bottom
It was a little alarming at first when connecting the tools with the spinning (1000rpm!) piece. I thought I’d gotten the hang of it and then thwunk! the tool dug in, resulting in the shitshow in the middle pic. Next, Rory stepped in and made a tenon at the base so that I could mount the piece on the other orientation and work on the inside (after I’d sanded it with sandpaper [50, 50, 220])
Next came the slower work of revealing the inside of the bowl; this was very satisfying and I kept thinking of Knopfler’s Monteleone as the shavings and sawdust flew. Eventually, I’d shaped the inside and the lip. Applying beeswax to the inside/outside put a lovely quick finish on the piece. Rory took the base to the belt sander to fix a chip that had come off when the bowl….eh…flew off the lathe at one point. I then finished the base with some more beeswax and ze heat gun.
During the day, I had chats with end encouragement from my future students (h/t Alex MacAulay), some of whom were working on machines close by. I could also see the work of former students around me and consider all the things they learned in SW9 and at UBC and how they are connected.
A great day, overall. I look forward to learning more.
(May 3, 2015). “A few good Shakers wanted“
➡ Last few members hope young African-American novice can revive religion’s communal society
H/t to Brian Ennis for inspiring me to learn more about Bill Reid
(n.d.) Who was Bill Reid? https://www.billreidgallery.ca/pages/about-bill-reid