Furniture Making

by Eric Durocher and Kyle Kozlowski

 Eric and I wanted to find out about working with wood and making furniture so we went to the Townshend Furniture Factory to find out how they make furniture and work with wood...Steve and Susie (Lott) own the factory.

 

It was built in the 1860's in the time of the Civil War. One time it was an old sawmill that cut the wood into boards. The building that is there now was built in 1924. Before Steve owned the factory his mother and father owned it. His family has owned it since 1966.

 

Steve has many tools. Some of them are called templates, clip saw and dovetail spindles. He used the clip saw and the dove tail machine while we were there. They both are very loud. He said that he uses them a lot when they are open. He has a machine that dries the wood. It spins around and around. He has a machine that smooths the wood. It is not a sander; it is a planer.

 

Eric and I got to use the sander. It was fun. We asked Steve if we could make a skateboard. He said we could. What we did was draw a picture of the skateboard on the wood and Steve used the clip saw. Then we used the sander...Steve told us a lot of stuff and we learned what we wanted to know.

from "Furniture Making",

by Eric Durocher and Kyle Kozlowski

Learning From Our Neighbors

Community Project, Fourth Grade, Townshend Elementary School, June 1995