Inside IDeATe: Wood Shop

The Integrative Design, Arts, and Technology (IDeATe) is an academic program with a collaborative making facility in the basement of Hunt Library that is home to many studios and workspaces where students can work on creative projects. The  IDeATe program itself has 10 minors, along with courses that train you how to use the space that are available to students in all disciplines. IDeATe’s classes, services, and spaces focus on creativity and collaboration at the intersection of technology and art.

The Wood Shop is located in A30, in the basement of Hunt Library. The space is primarily used for 99-354: The Essentials of Woodworking, and students are welcome to use the shop for course projects with IDeATe faculty, staff, or instructor supervision. Next semester, IDeATe will offer limited open hours, when the IDeATe community is welcome to use the space. Staff will be available at this time to ensure safety and provide help with projects. More information about these open hours will be available soon.

In order to access the space, students must complete brief online Student Shop Safety and Tool Safety training. They must also use safety equipment in compliance with shop protocols. Students can only use the wood shop with an IDeATe staff/faculty member by appointment or during open hours.

The wood shop also maintains a small supply of hardware and lumber that can be used for projects that are being completed there, with an emphasis on repurposed wood. However, users are encouraged to bring their own wood, fasteners, and other project materials. IDeATe’s material is a supplement only.

“There’s a really fantastic thing about woodworking: everything you make was alive before and then lives with you, whether you’re making something new or rebuilding and restoring something that was built before,” said Walter Pitts, the instructor for 99-354 and the Building and Facilities Manager at Mellon College of Science. 

99-354: The Essentials of Woodworking is a micro course that serves as an introduction to the tools, safety, basic joinery, and finishing that students can experience in the wood shop. Like many IDeATe courses, it is a project based class.

Students complete various projects to familiarize themselves with the shop and its offerings. For their first project, students carve their own mallets – something every woodworker needs.  The last project is up to student choice, and Pitts said that it is always satisfying to see students use their new skills and their creativity to choose something to make. 

“Often, how students grow up influences what students want to build,” he said. “They might want to replicate something that they saw in their grandparents’ house when they were young. Sometimes they saw something cool on social media and want to make it. I’ve seen everything from suspension tables, to lamps, or cutting boards to give to their mom for Christmas, and these are things that they’ll likely have for the rest of their lives."

Riona Duncan is a student writer covering the University Libraries, the ETC, IDeATe, and the CMU Press. She is a junior studying Literature & Culture, with an additional major in Environmental and Sustainability Studies. This past summer, she worked as a newsroom intern at 90.5 WESA, Pittsburgh’s NPR news station, and she is also the Public Affairs Director at Carnegie Mellon’s college radio station WRCT.