Senior Randy Fankhauser, Virgil, Kan., has completed this bow-front dresser for the International Woodworking Fair competition in Atlanta later this year. One of the dresser’s most remarkable features is its walnut burl veneer.

Senior Tyler Hartman, Lamar, Colo., stands behind a student designed and constructed reception desk in the Wood Technology office. The desk features a precisely matched veneer of West African Anigre wood.

Open house set for March 28-29

PSU Wood Technology students shine

It’s a marriage of one of the oldest forms of craftsmanship with the latest in technology. Students in Pittsburg State University’s Wood Technology programs are turning heads nationally and even around the world for the ways in which they use the latest technology to update the ancient craft of woodworking.

Work that a group of students is doing for a prestigious medical facility is just one example of the way that PSU students are using technology to create beautiful and functional works in wood. Students in the Society of Architectural Woodworkers (SAW) club have designed and are manufacturing a unique set of benches for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Farm research campus in Virginia.

Tyler Hartman, a senior from Lamar, Colo., said the 26 sections would be assembled into a pie-shaped seating area in an auditorium at the research center. The students have already shipped 7 of the sections to Virginia and have 19 more to construct.

Hartman, president of the SAW Club, said the numerous curves in the benches posed the biggest challenge for the students. They solved the problem by cutting kerfs or channels in sheets of wood that allowed them to bend the sheets into the fluid form of the bench. The students then tested various materials to determine the best and strongest material for filling the kerfs after the benches had been formed. Finally, the students applied a veneer of Figured Makore, also known as African Cherry, to the completed form.

Hartman said he gets special satisfaction out of solving problems.

“I like being able to take technology and put it together with the work you do with your hands,” Hartman said. “The fun part for me is trouble shooting and solving problems.”

In the case of the current project, these were problems that some other companies had not been able to solve, according to Lindy Thomsen, an instructor in the Wood Technology Program.

“Three companies were contracted to do this job, but they couldn’t get it done,” said Thomsen. “This is very, very challenging technically.”

Open House

The public will have an opportunity to see both the latest in wood technology and the kinds of work that students in the Wood Technology Program produce during an open house on March 28-29. David Miles, who heads the program, said that leaders of some of the largest companies and organizations in the wood industry will attend the event. The open house will run from 1-5 p.m. on March 28 and 9 a.m. until noon on March 29.

A special feature of the open house will be tours of the newly remodeled Wood Technology Office. As might be expected, students were responsible for the design, engineering, manufacturing and installation in the office, which showcases the use of wood veneer. Fifty-two panels with an exotic veneer of figured quartered Anigre wood cover much of the wall space. Anigre is a wood that comes from West Africa.

“It’s the same place that gorillas come from,” Miles said.

A reception desk in the center of the room is covered with the same wood veneer. Miles pointed out the intricate sequencing and matching of the veneer throughout the room. Carefully placed lighting helps to highlight the level of craftsmanship.

The International Woodworking Fair (IWF) and the board of directors of the American Home Furnishings Alliance donated $7,500 to help with office remodeling in honor of retiring IWF executive vice president and PSU alumnus John Zinn.

For information about the Wood Technology Program at PSU:
www.pittstate.edu/tst/woodtech/index.html

For information about the Wood Technology Program or the open house:
Phone: 620-235-4942
e-mail: jmiles@pittstate.edu

---Pitt State--