The Society of Wood Manufacturing (SWM) held its first CNC Teacher Training event on Friday, February 24, at Cerritos College. More than 40 high school woodworking educators were in attendance. Their objective was to learn everything possible about CNC machining so they could impart that knowledge on their high school students.
The day began with a meet & greet, where participants connected with local CNC vendors and woodworking enthusiasts. Amidst the vendors booths was the Inland Woodworkers table, manned by club members Michael Miller and Rick Reimer. On display were samples of the toys being built for this year’s annual toy drive give-away, along with other CNC machined projects.
At 10 am, everyone was requested to convene in one of the large classrooms. The event leaders provided instructions on safety, information on logistics, and an overview of the day’s agenda.
The participants then split into two groups: beginners and advanced. Chris Thomas and Mike Trejo from the Inland Woodworkers spearheaded the beginners’ session. Novices were slated to learn the basics of CNC machining and how to use Vectric software. Chris and Mike began the process by showing everyone some wooden signs and ensuring all skeptics that by the end of the day, each would achieve success.
Advanced students assembled in another classroom. Although there were fewer advanced participants than beginners, their level of enthusiasm and knowledge allowed them to dive right into the lessons. Enter Kenneth Thomas from the Inland Woodworkers, who led the advanced training sessions. He structured the course around designing and cutting an inlay wood mallet consisting of a handle and a two-part head. After a brief overview, he proceeded to discuss many of the detailed concepts of CNC routing.
At midday, everyone assembled into the large training room for lunch and conversation. Several individuals shared stories about the Cerritos College wood shop, previous educational activities, and SWM.
Angelo Gangone, who is an executive VP at AWFS, presented Saúl Martín with a special birthday gift to help celebrate Saúl’s 50th birthday:
After lunch, the participants again mingled with vendors and fellow woodworkers. Some of the local exhibitors included Rockler, Stiles, Colonial Saw, Blum, SWM, and ShopBot Tools.
Several participants wound their way back to the Inland Woodworkers booth to learn more about CNC toy making. Many of the high school teachers signed up to receive the Inland Woodworkers newsletter and learn about our website (https://inlandwoodworkers.org/), hear more about our meetings, and attend our free CNC training sessions. During the discussions, several teachers humbly admitted to having little or no CNC experience prior to attending this training. But they were all energetic to advance their learning skills in CNC technology.
Once again, the students reassembled in their respective classrooms to complete the afternoon training sessions.
After finishing their design work, the advanced students generated G-code and tested their results on the ShopBot desktop CNC machines. Then, they were instructed on some of the aspects of CNC laser burners, and culminated their skillset by personalizing their mallet handles using the laser machines.
By the end of the day, all of the educators felt comfortable with designing, generating and editing tool paths, creating G-code, and running programs on a CNC machine. Each success increased motivation, and now they were energized and ready to return to their respective workshops and continue their CNC journeys.
The event would not have been possible without the support of the Cerritos College Woodworking Department. They gave the participants full access to their 27,000 square-foot shop, which houses more than 100 stationary and portable woodworking machines. In addition, they provided several Cerritos staff members to support this event. Those in attendance included Reuben Foat, the Chair of the Woodworking Manufacturing Technologies Department, and Tony Fortner, a full-time instructor in the department.
Special recognition goes to SMW president Saúl Martín and AWFS Associate Director Adria Salvatore, who worked tirelessly to arrange the training and ensure everything went smoothly. Kudos to the Inland Woodworker trainers: Chris, Kenneth, and Mike, who prepared the training materials and conducted the classroom sessions. And thanks to IW club member TJ Imholte, who developed the advanced course material, but got snowed in at his home in Lake Arrowhead and was unable to attend.
The Inland Woodworkers club takes pride in contributing to events that promote woodworking skills and benefit local communities. The 2023 Train the Trainers event gave novice high school CNC instructors a solid starting point, answered questions about CNC machining, and offered a platform to share knowledge about woodworking. In addition, we were able to generate interest in the Inland Woodworkers club (https://inlandwoodworkers.org/) and attract new club members. We look forward to seeing new faces at the upcoming CNC Training session in March (https://inlandwoodworkers.org/events/month/2023-03/).
