Naive | Cabinet - A Wood Working Experience

The structures of objects and furnitures have always been haunting stories for ones starting to practice design. After years of beating around the bush, I admited to myself that there ain't no shortcut to achieve a deep understanding on the subject. Therefore, I applied for a short course of wood working.

The course lasted for 3 months and my cabinet was finished 2 months after that. Although I aware that this is just somewhere at a starting point on the path of wood working, here are some good things I want to share.

1, About the course

I had nowhere else to start my research for a course instead of Google search engineer. The first results included hocnghemoc.com. Fortunately, the course's leader was Mr. Ha - a teacher of wood working in HCMC University of Technology and Education, which had good name for teaching the subject. After doing some research, I contacted the teacher and asked for more information about the course. I then joined in the 29th course of his Basic Wood Working class.

Here are some information for reference:

Course duration: 3 months

Venue: No 2 Hoang Huu Nam street, District 9, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Course fee (November 2021):

- For man: 8,000,000 VND

- For woman 6,000,000 VND

The fee includes costs of materials used in the course but not includes the costs of the final project.

Program:

- Skill: Learning to use drill, nail gun, sanding machine, electric hand saw, mortiser, circular saw, table saw, etc.

- Theory: Studying Wood working manchines' operating principles, Labor safety and Technical sketching

- Practice: Building a basic cabinet

A circle blade and tools used in the table saw

2, My experiences

Firstly, the class was an appealing getaway in the weekend for me. As an industrial designer, I had to work mainly with the computer and communicate with shareholders in a nine-to-five schedule for five days a week. As much as I love my job, there are undeniable stresses from the working environment. However, cutting the boards with the saw blade demanded a high level of concentration which took me into a zone where daily work problems could not bother me anymore.

My first wood cuts! The fishes were gifted to a kid visiting the workshop that day.

Secondly, I felt more confident in working with machines after each session. Naturally, it came from understanding of safety principles. I realized that I did not need giant muscular or being a professional to use a table saw and other tools.

Learn to use the circle saw, drill, nail gun, sander, painting gun and table saw.

Thirdly, I gained a sense of achievement of the end of the course by building my own cabinet. I was familiar with hand sketches and 3D models but it was the first time I had ever turn my furniture drawings into a prototypes! Nevertheless, the cabinet could not be done without the help from senior workers in the workshop and my classmates. That meaned I learned an unexpected skill: asking for help.

Me opening the cabinet's doors when it was in the making progress

3, My cabinet

The 'Graduation Project' that our teacher gave us was: 'Building a cabinet with the three dimensions being between 800 - 1000 mm'.

I went with a classic three-drawer and two-door cabinet to test my knowledge and refine the just-learned skills. The dimensions I chose were W350 x L900 x H900 mm, which came from my assumption that the smaller the cabinet the easier for me to work with. However, I found out that it was not an ideal size for a furniture in pratical use.

Although I had not got the time for joining in a 'Furniture Painting Class', I decided to finish my piece by my 'paper-painting' skill with a gradient of white and pink. It turned out to be all right and gave a sort of comfortable, sweet and soft feel.

Adding the four wheels might be the most smart move in the whole project. I awared about my habit of moving my furniture around the house to change the mood once in a while. Changing the position definitely easier when the heavy piece can be rolled away.

While I painted the cabinet, the word 'naive' suddenly popped out. My gradient of pink and white was clearly not a 'daily-use friendly' color, despite of how easy on the eyes they are. Regardless, being naive is absolutely the first step going out of comfort zone. Therefore, I named my cabinet 'Naive' to mark the begin of this journey.

The process of making the cabinet

The steps of making the cabinet included:

(1) Sketching the structure

(2) Calculating the dimension of each part

(3) Building the cabinet's foot

(4) Adding the cabinet's body

(5) Building the drawers

(6) Adding the cabinet's doors

(7) Sanding all of the parts

(8) Painting white layers and final color layers

(9) Assembling the parts together

(10) Adding the wheels

My teacher was kind enough to give us a drive home so I did not need to pay further cost for transportation service.

Our first morning at home ^^

Me being proud of my pinky baby

4, Next place to set my heart on

Although I enjoyed an industrial experience with wood working machine in this course, I want to experiment more with natural wood and handicraft tools. If you know any available class, please let me know.

Long story short, I am sastified with the process of learning and building my first furniture piece. That being said, I highly recommend creative workers or anyone who love DIY projects to jump in and give it a try.