Congratulations to our SkillsUSA competitors

On March 25th Senior Carpentry Students Matt Vasso and Lhiam Savage competed in Cabinetmaking and Carpentry at offsite locations against 16 other schools in efforts of placing 1st and advancing to Nationals In Atlanta this summer. Matt and Lhiam both placed in the top 6 respectfully. This was a fantastic opportunity for all and is an impressive credential for their portfolios and employment opportunities now and beyond. Great work ,we are proud!

This year's cycle of carpentry was a wonderful experience, and I can speak for other freshmen when I say it's an eye-opening and well-rounded program that I’d recommend to future students at Vinal. We learned how to properly start and operate machinery safely, and effectively. Our projects this year consisted of a hooked shelf and a mason jar candy dispenser, which were done for multiple days in class. The projects while fun did come with plenty of challenges such as proper measurements, new tools, and lots of sanding. One comment I’d like to leave is that results take patience and progress, and you’ll feel rewarded at the end of your cycle when you get to see your finished product.

Over this cycle in exploratory phase 2 we built candy dispensers. We learned how to use a tape measure properly, used a chop saw to cut our pieces in the size we needed, and used a joiner and plainer to help make our wood look less rough. We also used a drill press to drill holes in our wood to make our handles and dispense holes. After we assembled our projects we filled the nail holes with a saw dust and glue mixture that we got to mix our self's. We plugged the screw holes with plugs out of the same wood we used ,after filling the nail hole and plugging the screw holes we sanded down our projects to get all the excess glue and sawdust mixture off the project and make it smooth. We then attached a mason jar to our projects to hold the candy.