Our wood shop has various hand and power tools to help you get your project done. There are also benches and computer numeric controlled (CNC) routers for more detailed projects! Users have made many different things from shelves for their dorm to guitars to skateboards! If you're willing to try, almost anything can be made!
Using Our shop
Access and Safety
The Wood Shop is accessible to all students, staff, and faculty attending Rutgers University. Safety protocols must be followed at all times, with no exceptions. Successful completion of our online safety and basic use course and in person test are required prior to use of the wood shop. Users without this certification should not be in the woodshop for any reason (outside of tours) and are not allowed to use the tools.
Purchasing Materials
The Maker Store has a small supply of materials available for purchase in the woodshop however, we cannot guarantee that we will always have material on hand for purchase. We suggest that you acquire your own material. If you are unable to obtain the material you need, please contact a member of our staff and we will do our best to help you source the material you are looking for.
Advanced Tools
Basic wood shop tools are available for use after your initial safety training course. We do have more advanced tools like our ShopBot CNC, planer, jointer and shaper which will require additional safety training prior to use.
The first step is to take our online Safety and Basic Use course. It can be found here. Once you have completed that training you are able to use the machines! You will need to use appropriate CAD software in order to design the 2D/3D image and save the file accordingly either as a .dxf. There will be some post-processing that has to be done to get the correct toolpaths built. Once this is completed, our staff can assist you in ensuring you have set up your material correctly to mill the design.
If you have completed the SBU training for the machine you can use the following link to reserve a machine. The 3D printers are not self serve and can not be reserved.
Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) milling is a machining process that utilizes both drilling and cutting in order to achieve the complex shapes desired in the part file. The computer analyzes the G-code and moves the drill bit along different axes, in order to make various shapes and holes.
We will have screws and wood glue available for purchase in our store. Note that wood glue is designed to give better adhesion than screws for most projects. However, there is a curing time for pieces glued together.
After clamping down your part, wipe off any excess glue immediately with a damp sponge or paper towel. Once the glue is dry, sand the joint to ensure no excess glue is on the surface.