For this photo feature, Sun Journal reporter Jacob Jarvis spent some time in Big Sky’s woodshop to learn about building trades.

In late February, Scot Traeder, woodshop teacher of 24 years, demonstrated proper safety on the table saw to Building Trades 2 students. These students were working on a project to create a strong joint in two wood pieces.  Traeder talked about a kick back on the saw from last semester, and explains how to avoid that using the guard.

Michael Pasyuk, junior, using the table saw to cut out a piece to his joint project.

Thomas Juarez, junior, gets to work, outlining the area to cut with the band saw later. Juarez feels the information he’s learning is very useful, and will help him with trades school later down the road. He says his favorite project was making wooden, nitrous oxide-propelled cars in Civil Engineering and Architecture.

Two students move a large flat wooden board to the table to sand and prepare for later use from other students.

Aiden Ayers and Cole Evans, both juniors, sand the board down, making sure it’ll be ready to cut and build with in later projects. A board as big as this needs to be sanded manually, as it can not fit in the planer.

Porter Jacobson, sophomore, uses the drill press to make a hole in his second piece, which the first piece will go through. Jacobson says Building Trades 1 was a good introduction to the crafts, and he enjoys doing more in 2. He also mentioned that his favorite project was a multipurpose kitchen tool, which had a bottle opener and an oven handle.

Traeder grades Evan’s finished project based on it’s measurements and accuracy. The project was to create two wood joints that held strongly together. Traeder measures each piece, observes the strength of the joints, and gives Evans a final score.

Pasyuk’s finished middle joint project, used as an example for other students who are not finished. It received a perfect 50/50 score.