Record of the project meeting in Tampere 18 22.11.2013 Everybody arrived in Tampere, safe and sound. Some landed off on Sunday afternoon and evening, others on Monday morning. Monday morning was free, so some teachers and students met each other in Tampere center to get a lunch, before leaving to the College by bus. We met in a classroom of the Tredu College in Tampere on Monday afternoon at 2.00pm. Every school came with two students and one or two teachers. Pekka and his colleague Matti welcomed all of us to Tampere; Matti prepared a Power Point presentation from our previous visit to Lubeck, from which he showed us many pictures from our activities in the workshop during those three days, and our sportive afternoon we really enjoyed. Then, Pekka explained the whole programme for the week and added that our students could have free lunch at the canteen in the school. Then Matti showed us an example of a tray we ll start to produce in the workshop during the following days by our students and the teachers. He insisted on the fact that he needed help from the students to produce this tray made in birch and wenge. For the realisation of this product different machines and processes are to be used like sawing, planning, using heating hydraulic press, drilling, thicknessing, band-sawing, working with the cnc machine, moulding, sanding, using the orbital sander, and making some marquetry.
On Tuesday morning, we were welcomed by the director of study programme in Technology Kyösti Lehtonen. Then we split into two groups The first group was brought to Jussin s Company: he set up his own marquetry business and was really enthusiastic to share his work and his passion for marquetry; he showed us some work to do in veneering. This part of work was one of the first step of our building tray process. Each of us took one drawing (we could choose between two examples of drawings) and the CNC machine cut the veneer in different parts.
After this process, we had to cut some veneers and to fix them with stripes into the holes. We glued the veneer and after some time we could remove the stripes from the veneer. Jussin showed us how to get slightly brown-coloured effects on the veneer with hot sand. Everybody took back the two veneer plates in order to continue the work in the workshop later on (on Wednesday morning): gluing, and pressing it on plywood. While the first group was in Jussin s company, the second group was working at Tredu College in the workshop, starting the project Realisation of a tray. The group was divided into different teams responsible for different tasks: the cutting, the cnc machine for the grooves, the planning the sawing. You can follow the developing process of our mutual realisation, point by point: On this picture we can see the different parts of the tray (the curved one, and the two lateral parts with the groove)
This one piece of wood composed of two parts, separated by a deeper groove about 0.5mm in the middle was made with the cnc machine. Here is the pattern composed of a rubber joint which makes it easier to make a downdepression in order to hold it tight more safely. This Masterwood cnc machine is operating the program for the groove and for the cutting out. Here is the pattern in rubber which allows the several layers of veneer to get glued and curved-shaped
After 20 minutes you can remove the pattern in order to get the right curved-shape. We can see different types of curved-shape veneers in birch and wenge. Thorsten, the Danish teacher, is using the cover bridge on the planer to get the maximum of safety.
In this case, we can see that the saw bend cover is adjusted to the German standard but in Finnish standard, the cover needs to be much deeper. Ready to be glued First before starting working, we need a continuing jig and secondly we have to pull down the protective cover.
To work better and more safely, it s better to get the pieces as long as possible. In this case, there are two pieces in one length which will be cut later with the band-saw. The French student is using a template and scramps to glue the curved-shape piece.
Hans, the German teacher, is cutting at 45 degrees with a special pattern to fix the short pieces. On this picture, we can see the cover hood which allows the joiner to be in a safer situation.
The Danish and German students are gluing the decorated veneer used for the bottom of the tray. The Danish student and the French teacher are gluing the birch face. The time was reduced to three minutes because the press was heated. After gluing, the frameworks go to the heating press-machine during 3 minutes in order to be pressed.
This orbital sanding machine was used to sand the veneered frame. Josue, the French student, is controlling the assembling. Some students are gluing the assembling.
Niels, the Danish boy, and Michel, the German student, are putting the framing scramps. Here is Matti s template used for the drilling machine.
Isabelle, the French teacher, is using the easy-use safety lock of the template. These 4mm dowels are used for the corners of the tray in order to get the corner assembling tighter.
Isabelle, the French teacher, is gluing the dowels, and Niels, the Danish applicant, is finishing the sanding. Pascal and Isabelle, the two French students, are sanding the bottom corners of the tray and Jan, the German teacher is in admiring our work
Three of us (Pascal, Jan and Isabelle) are at the exhausting table, sanding and finishing. OUR BEAUTIFUL REALISATION: the trays coated with Danish oil
Different realisations are drying. On Tuesday afternoon we had a discussion with the whole group in order to get some impressions and opinions from the group. Matti told about the problems the first group had in the morning with the exhausting system of the workshop. The first group had to wait for a while before starting working, so they had the chance to visit some part of the college: the cast iron department. One participant said, that he has learned from Jussin how to fix the veneer by gluing the downside part of the veneer. Thorsten insisted on the fact that it was a very good learning atmosphere among all students and the teachers in the workshop. One student highlighted the fact that there was a problem behind the circular saw, because some small wooden pieces flew away, consequently it could be a risky situation. One teacher focused on the point it could be a good idea to delimitate a perimeter with stripes on the ground for this forbidden area. All participants added it is important to clean each machine after each use. Another constructive suggestion would be to put sanding paper on the ground to get a better standing for people who are working on machines. At least we concluded by the fact that if we have more European visits/mobilities we should name each machine by giving the translation in every native language (Danish, Swedish, Finnish French) and English of course. On Wednesday afternoon, at 2.30pm, we discussed about the way it went for each group: were there some difficulties, problems to solve? One teacher noticed that as soon as the students got their own tray assembled, each of them was too much focused on their product to be finished so we decided to put a number on each tray and they had to work on someone s tray Everybody enjoyed working at the workshop, talking altogether
and sharing some pictures on computers. Then, at 3.00 pm, it was time to go to Rauhaniemi for a sauna session and to swim in the not so much cold lake We split into three groups in Matti s car, Jussin s car and Pekka s one. When we arrived, it was quite freezing, everybody was looking at each other, wondering whether we could make it! And WE DID! At 5.00pm, all of us were really excited and almost Finnish!. The students went back to the city center, having a dinner in a Mexican place, whereas the teachers were invited to a restaurant called Coussicca. We had fun, appreciated the dinner, and around 9.15pm we went back to the hotel for one drink and for one work session together. On Thursday morning, after having sanded and polished and waxed our trays, the group split into two groups to talk about the differences in documents about the circular saw and the drilling machine.