Your High School shop from the 70's….

[gstuartw]

Did you take shop class in the 70's in either Junior High or High School? If so what to do you recall about the shop?

The reason I ask is as I complete my shop I'm taking the time to make it look as close as I can to what a shop from that era would have looked like, it's an homage to the first place I experienced wood working. 40 years later I'm finally realizing the dream of my own shop.

Where I'm at this far.

Shop is 20 x 30 with 10 walls. Upper 6' of the walls are white, the lower 4' are an light industrial green. Door and window trim, baseboards and floor are a darker green. Craigslist and ebay purchases of vintage items include: School wall clock, surface mounted speaker box, school bell, exit sign, wall mount first aid kit (to hide garage door opener and dc remote storage). The instructors desk is a steel vintage tanker style desk accessorized with vintage lamp, pencil sharpener, phone etc. The closet housing my ClearVue 1800 will be made to look like a bank of lockers. A bulletin board will feature the hot lunch menu of the week as well as other flyers etc.

So let your memory take you back…. what do you recall about your shop? What notices or instructional/warning posters did you shop teacher hang? What kind of stuff did you see on the bulletin board? Did you shop instructor mark the floor with caution stripes to designate certain areas? Were there lockers? A tool crib? Any memories will help, photos even better. Unfortunately my yearbooks did not give much attention to the shop and google searches don't yield much.

Thanks in advance,

Stuart

 

[wow]

I remember lusting over the Delta Unisaw...

And of course there were the rectangular work tables with the locker-style bottoms and the butcher-block tops?

 

[gstuartw]

I remember lusting over the Delta Unisaw...

And of course there were the rectangular work tables with the locker-style bottoms and the butcher-block tops?

I've got a 70's vintage Unisaw!

Planning on building an assembly table (or two) that will look like this. Doors will hide systainers.

 

[wow]

I had forgotten about those stools. Gotta have a couple of those - in battleship gray, of course.

And don't forget your shop apron! I don't remember what color ours were - I think either light gray or navy?

 

[gstuartw]

Rather than the apron I'm thinking I'm old enough now to wear the instructor's coat!

[attachimg=1]
[attachimg=2]

 

[wow]

I guess when I said 'apron' what I really meant to say was 'instructors coat' - basically like the first one you show. Only in navy or gray.

Funny, I can still remember my shop teacher. His last name was Sazama and I often think of him when I see a post from Seth.

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

I only experienced 4 months of the 70's. 

My shop is filled with machines from 1862 to 1955.

 

[semenza]

Our teacher wore a similar shop "coat" in a pine green color.

Need to have a hand crank pencil sharpener too.

Seth

 

[Bruce W]

My shop classes usually had a "pull down blackboard" (like a double hung window), and behind the blackboard was a place where all hand tools were located.  They also had a red or black outline painted behing the hooks that held the tools.  This allowed the shop teacher to spot quickly when a tool was missing and everyone had to work to locate it before we were excused.  We also had a small back room where supplies were kept, but only the teacher could enter, unless we had special permission.  The floors in the shops were T&G hardwood, with double hung windows painted the green color(s) you are describing. 
Bruce W.

 

[Ivanhoe]

Must have a nice horse hair brush and heavy duty steel dust pan for that 15 min clean up before the bell rings!

 

[semenza]

How about a couple pairs of those horrible , clunky safety glasses that nobody could actually see through ?!  Just for the décor. [cool]

Seth

 

[AofD]

I remember a large industrial sanding disc.[attachimg=1]

 

[wow]

And a Rockwell 16" or 17" floor-standing Drill press...like this

[attachimg=1]

 

[RC]

What I remember of the shop class machinery rooms I've been to was that they were invariably over filled with equipment to the point of breaking every health and safety rule on the planet.

A school mate of mine lost 3½ fingers on the table saw thanks for it being slapped 10" away from the planer and being bumped into by another student working the planer when he was using the tablesaw -> left hand got pushed into the blade and he lost his little finger to the top joint of his forefinger in abt. 2 seconds. And thanks to the shop class teacher panicking and rushing him to ER without bothering to find the cut-offs of his fingers they had nothing to even attempt to sow back together. Needless to say the teacher first went on a leave of absence and subsequently retired, but that didn't bring my mates fingers back  [crying]

I do hope that you won't be emulating this in your shop.

 

[SittingElf]

Thanks for starting this thread!  Bringing back long forgotten, fond memories.

The only shop class I had in school was in 8th and 9th grade while living in Hawaii.  Mr. Burt was our shop teacher and in his mid-twenties and totally cool!  He had a VW Camper that he would often give us rides home in, as well as giving us rides to Makapuu and Sandy Beach on some weekends for body surfing. (Otherwise, hitchhiking to the beaches was considered normal)  He also frequently shared his pot with us! Great times at Kaimuki Intermediate School in 1969-1970.  His only rule was no smoking pot before shop class. That was the safety rule, and pretty much nothing else.

On days we would have shop class, we would have to take flip-flops and t-shirts to school because that was the only place we had to wear "shoes". Most of the time, we walked to school and were in class barefoot.  No aprons, long shirts and pants, or other safety gear required. Having said that, I can't remember anyone needing more than a bandaid for injuries sustained in the class.

I remember we spent a lot of time on the lathe turning various spindle projects. We made custom billy clubs for policemen, and they loved them. Other projects were polishing acrylic into really cool shapes and sizes, and making necklaces out of them.  Boogy Boards for body surfing, and Wood Mud Surfing boards were a staple as well, and each iteration trying to improve the hydrodynamics of the previous build.  Home made skateboards were another common project.

What I remember most was how much a lot of us looked forward to shop class, and Mr. Burt pretty much gave an "A" to anyone who actually showed up.  He also had a great source for Maui Wowee and Kona Gold...and the occasional Thai Stick!!! [scared]  I miss the carefree days of those times. 

Yup, those were the days..... [big grin]

Cheers, and Mahalo,

Frank

P.S. - Yes, there WAS a time in my life when I considered marijuana almost a form of food! Didn't we all? [thumbs up]

 

[Daver]

Need to have a hand crank pencil sharpener too.

Seth

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR4.TRC1.A0.H0.Xboston+ks.TRS0&_nkw=boston+ks&_sacat=0 [cool]

 

[mastercabman]

The only thing I remember is how goofy/nerdy we looked with those safety goggle we had to wear

 

[Throwback7r]

So where is the radial arm saw? I remember one in my wood shop. Also, we had one of these
http://www.powermatic.com/Products.aspx?Part=1790837&cat=P250

 

[wow]

We had a delta 8" joiner, but I don't remember a planer. I *do* know that we didn't have any kind of drum or wide-belt sander.

 

[gstuartw]

Thanks for starting this thread!  Bringing back long forgotten, fond memories.

The only shop class I had in school was in 8th and 9th grade while living in Hawaii.  Mr. Burt was our shop teacher and ...He also frequently shared his pot with us! ...His only rule was no smoking pot before shop class. That was the safety rule, and pretty much nothing else.[thumbs up]

Now those are some memories. Mr. Parden was my shop teacher and probably as anti Mr. Burt as they come. The picture below is from my 7th grade yearbook, the only one I can find and frankly I don't ever recall him smiling but then not many of us knew our teachers as people but rather teachers.