Process Overview

The DGWW process can be summarized in the following steps:

1) Express your interest in participating by registering as a DGWW member. It's free.  Use the login/register link at the top of the screen.

2) Meet your mentor or mentee.  After you register we will contact you, find you a match, and will introduce the mentor, mentee and parent or guardian.

3) Learn what it takes to be safe in a workshop. To avoid woodworking accidents, we require that DGWW members know how to use it safely.  We have assembled appropriate safety information within this website, and we award "digital badges" when members have proven they know how to work safely. You will need to earn safety badges before getting access to power tools.

4) Identify a project.  DGWW is project driven.  Once you know what you want to build, you can learn to sue the tools, and build it. There are lots of places to get project ideas, including:

  • From the"Project Ideas" forum on our website
  • From other sources on the Internet like the Etsy Store
  • By seeing the wooden products that are all around you, and
  • From your own imagination

5) Determine which tools you will need. Once you know what you'll be making, the mentor can help identify the tools that will be needed.

6) Earn the badges that allow access to these tools. Using the resources assembled on the DGWW website, you can learn what you need to know and earn the digital badges that prove you are ready.

7) Work with a mentor to complete the project. The mentor will help determine a location where the tools can be used and the project can be completed.  Parents and friends are always welcome to observe, and even to participate if they have earned the safety badges.

8) Install or sell the project. When it's finished, all that's left is to put the project in place and use it, or, if you made it for sale, to sell it.  DGWW helps members develop the skills and knowledge they need to sell their work. too!

9) Consider how you might donate some of the profits.  One way Doing Good with Wood "does good" is by helping other people.  One way to do this is by donating a part of DWGG project profits to individuals or organizations.

Other steps in the preparation stage include:

  • Finding or developing plans showing the pieces and how they come together.
  • Finding or creating a parts list
  • Estimating the cost of the materials
  • Acquiring the materials (this can be done in stages as the product emerges)
  • Scheduling time in the shop with a Mentor.

About Safety and Production

Safety First

Woodworking is very rewarding, but there are associated risks.  Woodworking accidents can be avoided.  At DGWW we take safety VERY seriously.  Safety involves knowledge, attention to detail, and constant vigilance.

To help ensure safety, each Mentor and Maker must earn "General Shop Safety" badge and a "Tool Safety Badge" before being authorized to teach or use any power tool or bladed tool.  These safety badges certify readiness to use tools safely, and will be REVOKED if a DGWW certified member violates safety rules.  If a badge is revoked, it must be earned again before the tool is once again available.

About Mentoring and the Workshop

When a new member joins and mentors and makers have been matched, the mentors, makers and parents meet and get to know each other.  To ensure safety, all of our mentors pass all of the security clearances that are required to work on public schools, and these parent/mentor/maker meetings early in the DGWW process help establish a comfortable "friend of the family" understanding.

Our DGWW mentors will either have a workshop they can offer, or will have access to a shared shop in a school, a community maker space, or another DGWW member's home.  Several of our mentors will have retired and may even be able to provide transportation to and from the shop, with parental permission, of course.

In accordance with our safety training, the DGWW work spaces will be safe, uncluttered spaces and the work will be done at a casual, quality-oriented pace, to avoid hurry-related accidents.

 

The "Doing Good" Part

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One of the values we hope to share with our Makers is the desire to help others.  This can happen in several ways.  Bu making and selling their products either in a consignment shop or in our own online store, our DGWW Makers may find that they have earned money that they might share with others.  (Perhaps 10% of profits to a charity?)  Or, some of our makers may see that an important way to do good would be to help fund their own college education, or to contribute to their own family income. This "Doing Good" aspect will vary with each individual case, and our Mentors will help Makers think this through.