Empowering Students
Expert Exchange:
Construction Teacher Uses His Mill to Help Students Learn Woodworking
This high school teacher uses his sawmill to provide free lumber to his students and discusses career paths into the trades
When Brandon is cutting timber on his Woodland Mills HM130MAX Portable Sawmill, it’s not just going to the projects he’s building at home. It’s also going to the classrooms he teaches at his rural Ontario high school.
The wood he provides helps students to build sheds and other projects which keep the program funded.
“It’s really nice to have students getting some hands-on experience with the trades, especially in their senior years before some of them go off into the job site,” said Brandon, talking about how students can transition from learning the basics in high school into a side business or even a full-fledged career.
For two and a half years he’s been milling using his Portable Sawmill, while also teaching woodworking and construction. Using his mill he’s built a few impressive projects, including a 24x30’ pole barn and a barrel sauna.
Most of the wood he mills come from his property but he also cuts up trees taken down during storms, and has built with pine, black walnut and cherry.
“Any of my off-cuts or my slabs I can bring in and the students have been using those,” said Brandon.
“There are so many companies out there just begging for good employees.”
As a teacher at a small school with 500 students, students have been fortunate to have a full tech department with auto, metal and wood shops.
“We have a pretty good setup in the small space we have,” he said.
The classes he teaches are self-funded through the sales of the students’ projects. The senior students construct sheds while the juniors build garbage shelters.
Students spend the semesters learning to build them and when they’re finished, they’re sold and the profits go back into the program. The younger students are also doing epoxy pours and charcuterie boards and engravings with the CNC machine.
And the students have so much fun with it, says Brandon. One used leftover cherry wood to build a cribbage table for a Christmas gift for his grandfather.
“He was making a full-size coffee table with some of the live-edge cherry flitches I had brought in and then poplar down the middle, so he laminated it all together and drilled all the holes,” he said. “He got it done just in time, the day before the break.”
Being able to mill up lumber on his HM130MAX has been helpful because sometimes funding can be limited at the small school. Bringing in his own supplies from home allows the students to build freely.
“For me with the mill, with what seems like an endless supply of wood, all of the off-cuts get brought in and the students use those up. It gives them a lot of hands-on experience and they can go through the wood a lot faster when it’s free,” said Brandon.
The benefit of wood shop and construction programs is it “prepares students with the basics they need for the job site” and helps align students with apprenticeship programs in high school so they are prepared to go into the working world right after getting their high school diploma.
The construction students also do chainsaw safety and working-from-heights courses and get their certifications which they can put on their resumes.
Some companies also host tours for students so they can see what jobs are out there before they graduate.
“Without the community support a lot of the students wouldn’t know about the opportunities that are out there and there are so many companies out there just begging for good employees.”
For those who want to turn their passion for woodworking into a career path, Brandon suggests doing research and seeing what jobs make sense for you.
And anyone who wants to sell their lumber off their mill, Brandon says sawyers can get their wood stamped by getting the proper permits, so your lumber can be graded and used professionally.
Or sawyers can help clean up trees ripped down by storms and then either keep the lumber to mill up or sell.
“Just selling some of the live-edge slabs has been a great way of off-setting the cost of the mill as well as offering portable sawmilling services as well,” added Brandon, noting that “even though for me the sawmill is a hobby” it lets him make a bit of cash back.