A makerspace that includes woodworking capabilities is a great place to work on a variety of projects, from small items like cutting boards, bird houses, and picture frames to larger furniture pieces like tables and chairs.
Here are some of our favorite makerspace woodworking projects:
Ecology Birdhouse Makerspace Project
For those makerspaces that don’t have CNC machining capabilities, you can still offer students fun ways to create wood projects using the materials you have. For example, this elementary school birdhouse project from OER Commons encourages students to research bird habitats before simply using graph paper to design their project and then use whatever wood pieces they have at their disposal to create a house for birds.
Make a Simple Sign with a CNC Machine
This is an oldie but goodie, a tried-and-true project to get students started with CNC machining. In this two-part YouTube tutorial, we demonstrate how to create a simple sign, which was part of an educator training workshop we held several years ago.
Part 1 covers how to connect to your Denford CNC machine, change tools, set up work offsets, then send a file to your machine. In Part 2 we focus on creating a design in QuickCAM 2D with VCarve, creating the machining plans, and posting the code out to VR Milling 5.
Custom Box of Chocolates
So this project idea was originally inspired by a need for a unique Valentine’s Day gift but it could be altered and re-designed to fit any sort of custom gift box needs.
In this tutorial, we design a heart-shaped box using SolidWorks Education Edition design software. (If you’d like to take advantage of the design we already created, you can download the SolidWorks files we developed here.) Then you import each file into Denford’s QuickCAM 2D Design software and machine using your Denford CNC machine.
You can download all our files and read the full tutorial in this blog post.
BBQ Caddy
Perfect for summer, this project idea comes from Axiom Tool Group. Their multi material BBQ Caddy is perfect for holding in all of the essentials that you’ll ever need to host your next BBQ! The project is made entirely out of sheet material, using 3 different sheets. It’s a project that is more suited to more advanced users.
Machining a 3D Crest
Here’s another fun idea from Axiom Tool Group. It walks you through how to cut out a multi-step 3D model, like a three-dimensional crest.
Wood Stools
This is a cool project idea that came out of a three-day workshop at Johns Hopkins University in which they bridged the traditional craft of woodworking and modern CNC technology. Participants learned the basics of CNC routers and how to translate their idea into a cut-ready design on a CNC router.
Build a Trebuchet
Full confession: we especially love this project because it incorporates CAD design software, 3D printing, CNC machining, and laser cutting laser cutting — all in one singular project. This is perfect for demonstrating how all of your makerspace technologies can work together to create something awesome!
You can read about workshops we’ve held around our territory in which we showed educators how to complete this project and bring it back to their students to run as a competition in their own makerspaces here.
If you’d like us to run a similar workshop in your area, don’t hesitate to just ask! Or if you’d like a copy of the lesson plan, contact us.
