Popular Woodworking 2004-06 № 141, страница 37

Great Woodshops

Cerritos College: An Orderly Education

Attention to detail is essential for building furniture and running a woodworking school.

Some woodworkers will tell you that an organized shop is one that doesn't produce a lot of work. But it's an almost astonishing level of organization that saved the Cerritos College woodworking department from extinction and continues to ensure its students get a complete education.

Founded in 1955, Cerritos is a community college serving southeastern Los Angeles County. The Woodworking Manufacturing Technologies Department offers a comprehensive woodworking program (30 rotating courses are offered, with about 15 more currently in development), including classes on various tools and how to use them, 32mm system cabinetmaking and traditional woodworking machinery.

Turning is a very popular class for the college. Initially it wasn't a priority, but then an instructor brought in a list of 68 people who wanted to take a turning class. It wasn't long after that they bought 10 lathes.The classes continue to be well-attended, as are bobbin-turning classes, seen here.

Steve Lacey, one of the school's alumni and now an instructor, proudly perches on a piece of work that adorns his company's web site.

The program started in the 1960s with about 4,500 square feet of space. While educational, it wasn't thriving. About 10 years ago there was even talk of shutting it down.

Then Bob Colgan was hired to teach a woodworking class. Within a year, he was being considered to head up the entire program. He went to the college's Board of Trustees and explained that if the program was run more like a business, it could succeed. The board decided to make him department chairman and gave him one year to turn the program around.

Colgan responded by making the program invaluable to the school by teaching his students to build furniture and cabinetry

by David Thiel

Comments or questions? Contact David at 513-5312690 ext. 1255 or david.thiel@fwpubs.com.

for the college's other departments. He even played the public-relations card by setting up ribbon-cutting ceremonies to unveil all of the woodworking projects they built for the college. Eventually, one of the board's vice presidents took notice of the quality work and challenged the group to design and build 300 tables for the library.

Colgan decided there was only one way to face the challenge - he pored over the numbers and requested some dramatic increases in equipment, tools and classrooms. The college said it wasn't going to be possible, and Colgan replied that if that was the case, then the tables weren't going to be possible. Shortly after that, space and equipment became readily available and the tables came soon thereafter. The woodworking facilities now cover about 30,000 square feet, and continue to expand.

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