The Children Learn Everything from Woodworking

The children are gathered for a woodworking lesson. But it is also a lesson in mathematics, language and geography.

Wood types from all over the world are represented in the stock, which makes the woodworking a geography lesson.

Woodworking is a subject that usually gets stuck in the middle when there is reorganization and downsizing of a school. But the woodworking still exists, due to enthusiastic teachers who know that this subject is important. One of them is Stig Fritzon, teacher in wood- and metalworking in Sweden.

This article came about, due to the fact that Stig ordered a jointer/planer from Logosol this spring. He was so pleased with it that he contacted Logosol to praise the machine. “This is a small professional machine,” says Stig, who especially likes that you can joint and plane without having to fold up the planer table or move the chip duct between the two operations.

We visited the school to tell them how good the machine is. Now that we have done that, the article will continue to be about the school subject woodworking and the enthusiasts who have seen to it that the subject is still on the schedule, even though the theoretical subjects are the most emphasized when the choice of which to offer is discussed by school administrators. “Here, the children have the opportunity to try theoretical knowledge in practice,” says Stig just before welcoming a group of third graders to the lesson.

Everybody can work with wood

In class there are also two special school pupils. It is impossible to tell the difference between work done by the ordinary pupils and the special school pupils. Woodworking is a subject that levels out differences.

”All pupils can do this, and all pupils are good enough. I have never met anyone who is all thumbs. We all need different amounts of time, but the things we make in the woodworking class are not judged by how quickly they are produced but by the result,” says Stig.

Woodworking gives both self-confidence and another way to knowledge than the books offer. “All subjects are included in woodworking,” says Stig and explains what woodworking provides: ”Touching is knowing.”

He shows how geography is lying on the shelves in the form of wood pieces from all over the world. Here, both America and Spain are represented in the form of oak and olive wood.

Easier to learn

You have to know mathematics to be able to calculate how to make these things. Furthermore, you have to calculate three dimensions, which makes the whole thing extra tricky.
”Did you see how easily he worked out where the center is? This boy has a problem with figures,” says Stig when seeing how one of the special school pupils without hesitation uses the folding rule for measuring where he is to place the hook for hanging up a small shelf.
Another important aspect of woodworking is that it helps the pupils to build up their self-confidence. Stig encour-ages his pupils by exhibiting their work in a showcase for one week. In addition, he takes photos of the work and publishes them on the Internet.
In the woodwork classroom, they use real tools and real machines. This is a place of work and not a place where you can run about and play.
“You should have respect for the machines and the tools, but not be afraid of them,” says Stig.
The lesson with the third grade in the Kesberg School in Vårgårda is very soon over. When Stig tells the pupils that it is time for tidying up, they are all protesting. Woodworking is not only educative, it is also great fun.

"You can phone Logosol without fear of disturbing."

"As a customer, you can phone without fear of disturbing." Runo Johansson explains why he chose joinery machines from Logosol.

"The vertical milling machine is the best machine for an innovator. Here, I’m trying out angles and profiles," Runo Johansson says about the Logosol MF30.

Runo Johansson believes in his business concept. And he believes in it to such an extent that he did not give up even when his workshop burnt down to the ground. Now he has bought new machines from Logosol and got his business going again.

Runo’s business concept is built on the most important thing in the world: the photosynthesis. This is the process in which the energy from the sun helps green plants to turn carbon dioxide and water into food.
"We have to learn to work with nature instead of against it," says Runo, who early committed himself to environmental issues.
When he started to think about the environment it was considered bohemian.
Today, the reality has caught up with us. The Nobel Peace Prize was given to Al Gore and the UN’s climate panel. Our shared environment is now at the top of the agenda.

A room for learning

What distinguishes Runo from most of us, is that he goes further than talking and writing. He created a "room for learning" in which the prerequisite of life becomes evident and comprehensible.
It is a greenhouse with the name GrowPoint. The greenhouse is a selfsupportingand very strong latticework construction whose design seems to appeal to most people. Stylish, is a common comment.
Each building element is a triangle-shaped wooden frame with a transparent sheet of insulating polycarbonate.
These elements are put together into a geodesic dome. The construction has several advantages. It is prefabricated and thus easy to assemble. It stands wind and weather much better than conventional greenhouses, and it is fitted up both for plants and people.
"In 18 square metres there is room for about 5000 seed plants, a table and five chairs. The GrowPoint greenhouse is also a fantastic outdoor room," Runo says.

The workshop burnt down

Its weather resistance was proven when the storm Gudrun hit southern Sweden. The Swedish university of agricultural sciences in Alnarp has a GrowPoint greenhouse in its rehabilitation garden. The storm destroyed a lot, but on the greenhouse there were only a couple of ventilation hatches that were damaged.
The entire construction and its function is well thoughtout, but when the interest in it was about to turn into sales, something devastating happened. The production building burnt down to the ground. The entire stock and assembly of machinery was destroyed by fire. Among the things lost in the fire was a Logosol PH260 four-cutter planer/moulder and an MF 30 vertical milling machine.
A disaster of this proportion can make even the most enthusiastic person give up. But this is not the case with Runo Johansson. While waiting for the workshop to be rebuilt, he has rented a place in Limmared and purchased new machines:
"Choosing Logosol again came naturally. If you have any problem you can phone Logosol for support, and you are always treated professionally and friendly," says Runo.
This time, due to economic reasons, the assembly of machinery became slightly different. He bought the multi jointer/planer MH410, the table saw PS315, and also the, to him, indispensable MF30.

Separate machines

He chose separate machines instead of a combi machine, and this is Runo’s explanation: "The logistics in the workshop becomes much better when you have separate machines. A combi machine of the same quality is, strange as it may seem, more expensive to buy," says Runo.
The machine he appreciates most is the vertical milling machine. He uses this to try out angles and profiles before they are put in production. He also uses it for tenoning and routering. When he has found the right shape, he orders knives and starts producing in the multi jointer/planer which is also equipped with a side cutter.
"Two persons can operate the machine at the same time. One takes care of the jointing operation and the other planes and moulds.
I know that the four-cutter planer/moulder gives more possibilities and has more capacity, but the vertical milling machine is enough for the wooden details that I need," says Runo.
The GrowPoint is manufactured in a couple of standard sizes starting from 15 square metres. Due to the flexible assembly of machinery he can produce a great number of furnishing options and vary the design according to customers’ desires.
The first pilot series were made of aluminium profiles, but Runo soon changed to wood. It is a more natural material, which is appreciated by the customers. The building elements are made of pine heartwood, larch or oak. The goal is, as far as possible, to use timber from his own forest. This is why he has established a cooperation with a nearby company, Å-såget in Limmared. The next investment will be another machine from Logosol, the circular resaw KS 150. The circular resaw will streamline the processing of the beams that are made from his own timber.
Runo’s greenhouse includes functions, thoughts and ideas that would take several pages to describe.
Instead, we recommend a visit to the website of the company, www.growpoint. se. Finally, we give you a quotation, where Runo, in poetic form, summarizes the thoughts behind his business:
"If we create environments where butterflies are pleased, minds will be opened and mouths will be fed ". *

Every plank, panel and moulding is made by Marita and Per

”When the piles of timber were at their largest point, we had to do as marathon runners and concentrate on one log at a time,” says Marita Lindgren. Marita and Per sawed around 70 cubic metres of timber using their Logosol Sawmill and then built their dream house.

Per and Marita Lindgren are townies and did not originally own any forest. The couple has four grown-up children and an old dream of building a house after their own ideas. When a property in the village where Per spent the summers of his childhood became for sale, the dreams began to take shape.

A M7 Sawmill and a two-cutter planer/moulder was bought from Logosol. Shortly thereafter, the storm Gudrun came, which felled large parts of forest in the north of Sweden, and suddenly there was more timber than they could take care of.

When everything was sawn up, it was about 70 cubic metres of timber. At the same time they started to build their house. Last summer, the dwelling house was built. It is a two-storied house of 190 square metres, and it is built in the same style as the old buildings in the village.
But why would two townies start sawing, planing, moulding and building themselves, when there are ready-made houses that they can buy? Well, this house becomes exactly as the Lindgren family wants it, down to the last detail. But the feeling of wholeness is just as important.
”To people of today milk is just a carton in the grocery store. We seldom think of the whole. If you are sawing the timber yourself, you are taking part of the entire process from fresh-cut timber to beautiful boards,” says Per.

The first time he read Fresh Cut he nearly burst with laughter when people in the magazine described the act of sawing timber as almost a spiritual experience. Now he is not laughing anymore.
”It may sound silly, but you can actually get a relationship with a plank.”
The building project has now come so far that the Lindgren couple has sold their house in the town in order to move to the house of their dreams in the country.