Herbert Hoover H.S. students build furniture for county board room

The county school board will enjoy the craftsmanship of the furniture and millwork created by students at Herbert Hoover High School.

Photo By Timothy Meyer

After having to work in portable classrooms because of a "one-in-a-thousand-year" flood in 2016, Herbert Hoover High School's woodshop is back and better than ever. 

In new facilities that opened in the Fall of 2023, students from the Clendenin, West Virginia, school, recently completed the build and install of furniture and millwork for the Kanawaha County School (West Virginia) board meeting room. 

For the project, the students in the school's woodworking program made a V-shaped conference table, four 8’ auxiliary tables, and a stand-alone podium. The back wall features 4’ wainscoting on the bottom with cased-in vertical shiplap on top of it, according to Timothy Meyer, shop teacher.

A table measures 8' long, with the center section having a total width of 82". The depth of the tabletop is 30". The tabletop and top ledger board are made of 8/4 select walnut.

 

Student cut a slab of walnut.

The main V-shaped conference table is where the members of the board of education and superintendent of schools sit during meetings. The piece was constructed in three pieces in the school's new shop and joined together after it was transported to the board room. 

The side tables measure 8' long, with the center section having a total width of 82". The depth of the tabletop is 30". The tabletop and top ledger board are made of 8/4 select walnut bought from Wilson Lumber Co. in Elkins, West Virginia, planed to 1-1/2" after glue-up. A privacy skirt is 4/4 select walnut bought from Facemyer Lumber Co in Pomeroy, Ohio, with ogee rails and stiles and ogee raised panels. 

Tables, a V-shaped desk, podium, and the back wall were built and installed by students at the Herbert Hoover High School's woodshop training program.
A Herbert Hoover High School woodshop student puts some finishing touches on a component.

The inside face of the table is trimmed out with 2-1/2" vertical shiplap. Under the ledger board, the students attached 3-1/2" crown moulding on the outside and 3/4" quarter round on the inside face.

The joints at the corners are hidden by 2" x 2" fluted columns made with a Laguna CNC turner and notched out on a table saw. 

The wall is 85" tall, with 4' wainscoting made to match the privacy skirt on the bottom. It was built in three pieces in the shop and attached to the wall. On top of the wainscoting, the students attached a 3-5/8" wide ledger board with 3-1/2" crown moulding underneath to match the tables. 

The top 36" section of the wall is a frame built out of 4" walnut strips that divide it into three sections. The spaces in the frame are filled in with 2-1/2" vertical wainscoting that was nailed in place. The edges of the wainscoting were cased in with 3/4" quarter round. 

Meyer said that this part of the process faced some structural challenges. "The students had to build out the back wall as it was brick about halfway up and plaster the rest of the way to the ceiling," he said. "Students Tapconned (concrete screws) furring strips to the wall on 24" centers and screwed 1/2" plywood to the furring strips to give us a surface to nail the shiplap, frame, and wainscoting."

Back on its feet
The workmanship and project scope is all the more impressive considering what the program has gone through the last eight years. While the wood shop is now back on its feet, to get to this point was a challenge. 

In 2021, the program got a boost when the program won a bid to build courtroom furniture for the West Virginia Intermediate Court of Appeals (ICA). Three students in the program were paid to build the furniture. 

"Recently," said Meyer, "our district’s board of education followed the same plan the court used and hired students to build furniture for their renovated conference room."

The program, which has now grown from those three students to six, included a summer work program that has taught the students life lessons things beyond just a potential career path. "Students have seen how hard work and great work practices including being early to work every day, staying drug-free, and having a great work ethic will take them wherever they want to go after high school," he said. 

The students start work every day at 8 a.m. and typically the students are at the shop every day by 7:45 a.m. They stay busy working and are picking up many new skills every day, and one student, who recently completed his sophomore year of high school, has opened his own privately owned furniture and cabinet shop. 

"He’s picked up many good-sized jobs with residents and businesses," said Meyer, "and I believe he will do well as his craftsmanship and standards he sets for himself are very high. Although he was not with the group that worked on the ICA project, I think he was partially inspired by the work the original group of students had done."

The student, Austin Taylor, started as a first-year student in the portable shop and Meyer said he could tell this was something he wanted to do on the first day of class. He had his own safety glasses and brought his own tape measure. 

"I don't think he had a lot of experience, but he was always working to make himself better every day. He took on the most difficult assignments in the shop and excelled. He quickly rose to the top of the class ... At the end of students' last year of our cabinetry program, students take the national standardized test, the NOCTI. Austin's score on the test is the highest of any student who has taken the test in my class. Austin has a passion for woodworking and truly cares about his customers' satisfaction."

Taylor said that the diversity of the program has helped him start his business, which he named AT Woodwork. "What I've learned in shop class has been a bit of everything," he said. "I've learned to use tools I have never used before and how to use them properly. I've also learned many processes, from making a simple panel to making complex trim work."

He pointed out several reasons that he wanted to start his own business. "First, I loved taking plain old boards and turning them into beautiful furniture; two using my hands to use all types of tools from hand tools to CNC; and having a teacher who believed in me and finding a passion I loved. I started making coasters and cutting boards, and now I'm working on my own business to have more jobs making bookcases, cabinets, tables, and desks."

The curriculum is centered around NCCER cabinetmaking. After completing the course, students can be certified in NCCER core, NCCER cabinetmaking, OSHA 10 manufacturing, and can earn the WV Governor's Workforce Credential.

Drying out
In 2021, the shop class was being taught out of portable classrooms (trailers) because the school was severely damaged by what Meyer calls a 1,000-year flood in 2016. This past school year was the first year in our new school with a state-of-the-art furniture and cabinet-making shop.

After the flood waters receded, the shop was left a dangerous mess, and the facility was condemned. 
The clean and well-stocked woodshop opened in the Fall of 2023.
The sliding table saw is just one of a cadre of equipment in the new shop. A roster of equipment is listed below.

After the 2016 flood , Meyer and his students spent a year splitting half a day with the community's middle school, where it shared a room with the middle school health teacher. The middle school went from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., and we came in at 12 p.m. and went to 4 p.m. 

"We had room for a table saw, a 12" planer, a bandsaw, a compound miter saw, and a drill press," Meyer said. "We had to open the back door and point the planer outside whenever we planed. 

From that space, the students were able to make two sets of kitchen cabinets and an iguana cage. "There is nothing special about these other than sentimental as we were rebuilding, but we had to start somewhere," said Meyer. "The space was very, very tight, as we had roughly a 25' x 30' area. I am very thankful for what we were given, and the middle school teachers and administration were extremely good to us."

The next year the program moved into portable classrooms until 2023. The woodshop had the largest classroom as the room was three trailers lined up side-by-side with the interior walls removed. The walls were drywall, the ceiling 8 feet tall, and the floors of tile. "Students had to dodge drop-down air hoses, and we busted out a lot of ceiling tiles and knocked holes in the drywall, all of which was accidental as we had very tight quarters as well. The floors were particularly tricky, as any sawdust on the floors turned the shop into an ice skating rink. We were limited on storage, so many of our larger projects and project parts were stored in an office conference room until they were sent ]out for installation. 

"There were a lot of great memories in the portable classroom, and I saw some of the best young woodworkers develop their skills in that room, and I am extremely thankful for the effort the county and state put forth to give us that space."

In the fall of 2023, they moved into the new shop. There is plenty of room as it has a large production area, assembly area, spray/ finish room, sanding room, and CNC room. Outside is a covered area where a TimberKing Sawmill is used to cut lumber. Having concrete floors, cinder block walls, and a 12' ceiling gives the students more freedom to move throughout the classroom with lumber and products safely. 

"After the flood, all of my shop equipment was condemned," said Meyer. "I was given a lot of support by our school district to buy equipment to get started, then I spent a lot of time writing grants for a lot of the equipment we have.

"I think it says a lot about our school district's superintendent (Dr. Tom Williams), his staff, and the board of education of Kanawha County Schools to entrust a project of this expense to six high school students. Not only did they save the taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars, but they also gave these students the best educational experience I can think of and gave our students a huge boost of confidence."

Equipment roster
The main stationary power equipment has in the shop, includes:
22" Powermatic planer
12" Powermatic table saw
10" Powermatic table saw
12/10 Laguna sliding table saw
38" Timberking Sawmill
12" Jet planer/moulder
12" DeWalt sliding compound miter saw
(4) Delta drill presses
(2) Powermatic drill presses
(2) Grizzly 14" bandsaws
Powermatic belt/ disc combo sander
24" Grizzly panel sander
120" Powermatic edge sander
Powermatic pneumatic dovetailer
(2) Jet shapers
Bridgewood shaper
Laguna shaper
2'x3' Laguna CNC router
2'x3' Baileigh CNC router
Laguna CNC turner
4' x 8' laser engraver Techno CNC 

 

 

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About the author
Larry Adams | Editor

Larry Adams is a Chicago-based writer and editor who writes about how things get done. A former wire service and community newspaper reporter, Larry is an award-winning writer with more than three decades of experience. In addition to writing about woodworking, he has covered science, metrology, metalworking, industrial design, quality control, imaging, Swiss and micromanufacturing . He was previously a Tabbie Award winner for his coverage of nano-based coatings technology for the automotive industry. Larry volunteers for the historic preservation group, the Kalo Foundation/Ianelli Studios, and the science-based group, Chicago Council on Science and Technology (C2ST).