Forest Hills High School Students Learn Custom Cabinet Making is NOT “BORING”
Forest Hills High School students learn that custom cabinet making is anything but “boring.” Decore-Ative Specialties representatives Saul Reyes and Krista Griffin, used cabinet samples to instruct terms like boring, which are the cuts to fit hinges, and dovetail, which is commonly used to join the sides of a drawer to the front. Three CTE classes hosted the custom cabinet manufacturer: Dawn Jordan’s Interior Design, Tim Stegall’s Introduction to Engineering Design, and Patrick Ollis’ Drafting II-Architectural. The company, located in Monroe, manufactures cabinets and drawers for residential customers as well as commercial applications for offices, healthcare, retail and more.
Junior Interior Design student, Rickey Gladden had no idea there was so much involved in the design process. Along with his classmates, Gladden learned step-by-step how a log actually becomes a finished cabinet. Reyes and Griffin presented a video describing their manufacturing process from harvesting wood to the creation of a sellable product.
Griffin, a Forest Hills 2010 graduate herself, told how difficult some designs can be for the necessary diminutive cuts their machines have to make. “Some designs can be done by the machines and yet others are custom, hand-manufactured cuts that are needed.”
“This is good for them to see,” commented Reyes. “It’s important for students to understand how the things they are learning in their classes are applied in the real world.” Interior Design teacher, Mrs. Jordan, added, “When they start working in the Interior Design business, they will need to know this information and terminology that these representatives are sharing.” Jordan’s students are currently learning kitchen and bathroom designs. “Wood with different gradients are used for certain cabinets. And certain woods are selected for various paint and staining applications,” said Griffin as she passed around samples.
For Stegall’s Engineering Design and Ollis’ Drafting classes, this experience showed their students how creative design and math work together in a manufacturing process.
