Teacher Presence at AWFS Fair Prompts Donation from Safety Speed Mfg.

Safety Speed Manufacturing has provided a new, horizontal panel router to the woodshop program at Del Oro High School in Loomis, California. The 3 ¼ Hp unit is ideal for cross dados and full-length rabbets in jobs up to 36” in length. Safety Speed exhibited at the 2013 AWFS Fair in Las Vegas and chatted with a number of teachers who came through their booth. A record number of teachers came to the show to take advantage of the “Teacher Track” seminars and other activities offered expressly for teachers. Brian Donahue, President of Safety Speed, reached out to AWFS at the show with an offer to donate the panel router to a school program. Using a lottery of teachers who attended the show, AWFS drew the name of Del Oro High School.

Del Oro woodshop instructor, Steve Paris, was delighted at being chosen and distinctly remembers having stopped at the Safety Speed booth while he was at the show. Steve teaches beginning and advanced woodworking to approximately 150 students in the school year. His is a conventionally equipped  woodshop built in 1959 – which is a bit stretched to accommodate the number of students he now serves—but Paris aims to incorporate standard wood practices with new technology wherever possible and he sees the new router as part of that plan. “The router will show students a new process for getting things done quickly and safely,” says Paris.  For starters, students in his beginning class will match dados in a corner shelf project and advanced students will use it to create blind or stop dados in a cabinet project. As part of the essential woodworking skills he teaches, precise repeatable measurements is a critical element—something this machine is sure to help with.

Safety Speed is a 55-year old company offering American-made panel processing equipment. They are no strangers to supporting school programs. Over the years they have donated a variety of machines that have been very welcome additions to school wood shops. Mark Doyle at Cypress Ranch High School says the Cut Panel Saw they received is a great asset to their program and that “no high school or junior high woodworking program should be without one of these saws.”  Instructor Glen Tice of Langham Creek High School who also received a Panel Saw says it is very easy to use and reliable. “I am not worried about students using this saw to cut their wood and to make true cuts,” says Tice.

Paris plans to put his new router on wheels so he can move it around in his tight shop configuration. Considering he just had shoulder surgery and is working one-armed, those wheels will come in handy.