Sicherheit bei der Arbeit an Holzbearbeitungsmaschinen
Stockholm was our fourth destination to meet each other for our Leonardo Project after Lübeck in September, Tampere in November and Copenhagen in February. Most of us arrived on Sunday 6th in the afternoon ( except for the Finnish group who came on Monday morning) at Fridhjemsplan, a hostel where the teachers and the students stayed altogether at the same place, considering that it could be much more convenient and of course easier to meet up every morning for the breakfast and go altogether to St Erik's Gymnasium situated in Grubbensgatan, approximately 10-minute-walk.On Sunday night, after unpacking our luggage, we decided to go to eat something in a place nearby the hotel. It gave us the opportunity to know each other because some teachers and students were new.
On Monday, 7th, we had to be at the vocational school at 10.00. Sven, the Swedish coordinator, welcomed us with coffee and biscuits, and we started talking about the week program (the schedules, the visits and the tickets to be purchased, and so forth). Then we visited a part of the school, having a general presentation of the place, and of course the joinery department where Sven showed us the different machines they use.
When we went back from the visit, we discovered the project to be fulfilled: a clock made with two coloured woods (blue and yellow) representing the Swedish flag. During one hour, we talked about the way to organize each other: Do we make special templates? Do we use the 'ready made' templates?
We started for a while to work on it and at 12.00 pm we had a lunch at the canteen for one hour. At 1.00 pm we resumed work, still thinking about our templates or testing them. At 3.00 pm we met altogether in the workshop to make a debriefing on the way each group could have coped with difficulties or not to make their template. Some had troubles with the height of their templates, others had to find a solution to be sure there was enough protection on theirs. Nevertheless, in a nutshell, we could tell that everybody tried to think intensely on their mutual project: it was really interesting and amazing to notice that each group had totally different ideas.
At 4.00 pm we stopped working. The students were free to go and we were supposed to meet each other at 7.00pm at the hostel to go for a dinner. The teachers stayed for a while at school because they wanted to organize the next future meeting - Colmar in Alsace-, talk about the intermediate report and the week evaluation. It took us about one hour and half to plan everything. Later we went back to the hostel for a little rest and at 7.00 pm we walked around to find a place to eat: Mio &Co was our choice, just next to the hotel.
They served us good food for a good price. At 9.30 pm, we left the restaurant: some decided to go back to the hotel, others to walk around near the water or to go for a drink.
Tuesday 8th, 8.00am: we met up at the breakfast buffet. Still a pleasant moment to meet each other and to share some experiences…or talk about the previous night. At 9.00 am we arrived at school, and we started working after being sure everybody was in his appropriate group, knowing the task he or she had to do. One group finished to cut the protection for their template (they decided to put 'Plexiglass'), the other group was still thinking how to reduce their height and to make the accurate degree for the cutting. Then we heard Sven telling us 'Fika time!' (break in English). It was 9.40 am: we took a coffee or tea with biscuits and Finnish chocolates altogether. Twenty minutes later we resumed work in the workshop. From 10.00am to 12.00pm, each group tried their templates, seeing whether it could work or not to get the pattern in the round shape. Hopefully for each group, it was a success.
At 12.00 pm, we took our lunch at the canteen, and everybody agreed that the food was really good and tasty. We had the break until 1.00 pm. Then, before starting again, Sven suggested us to visit the florist department composed of 60 students, specifically adult ones: on one side of the building, students are composing bunches in their workshop. Every Friday, you can buy bunches of flowers for 200 SEK in their shop situated downstairs.
After visiting this department, we went back to the workshop and each group showed how their template could work successfully. Later on, while some students were cutting the pattern in the round shape with the band saw, others were using manual routers to make the pocket, and others were using the moulding machine to get the edges very neat. Another group decided to make an inlay which could be used when we worked on the moulding machine
From 4.00 pm to 6.30 pm we had the opportunity to go for a walk around to visit the outskirts, or to go back to the hostel. At 6.30 pm all the teachers arrived at the pub, the Mac Lay Inn in Flemminggatan. We had a really great time, drinking different beers and having fish or chicken and chips. At 10.30pm we left the pub and went back to the hostel to join our respective room. As far as the students were concerned, they stayed together and went to a café for dinner.
Wednesday 9th, 8.00 am, time for breakfast. The breakfast room was full of tourists this morning. We were waited at 9.00 am at school, we arrived on time, as usual in the rain…luckily for us, we could borrow umbrellas at the hotel! Everybody started again his work: while one group was using the moulding machine to get each round shape neat, two groups were using the hand routers to get the pocket out, another group was working with the drilling machine to trim the pocket: in this way it would be easier and faster to use the hand router after.
In the meantime, Thorsten, the Danish teacher, was preparing the attendance list, the certificates and writing the evaluation paper and the learning agreements for the students. From 9.40am to 10.00 am we had 'Fika time', and then we resumed work. We decided to think about the veneering we could put on the clocks, so some students (Clément, Jean-Sébastien, Richard and Karita) tried to draw some ideas on papers.
At 1.15 pm we went back to the workshop until the 'Fika time' at 2.30 pm. During this time of work, four students kept on working on the router, and another one was drilling the hole behind the clock. At the end of the day before finishing work, 34 pieces were done. The students left school at 3.30pm and the teachers stayed for one hour to talk about the progress report which has to be sent in June 2014. We left for the hostel or for the city at 4.30 pm. We had enough time to visit around or to get a rest before meeting up in the lobby at 7.00pm. Then, close to our place, we went to a pizzeria 'Bottela di Papa Sisto'
Thursday 10th, the weather is sunny today, everybody's happy. 8.00 am, time for breakfast. As every morning, the room was full of people, students mostly. We arrived at school at 9.00 am, and we took some time first to collect everybody's pictures in order to make a CD for each of us. Then, we went back to work: some were still preparing their drawings for their veneering, some others were using manual press for their veneering on their pieces, and the others were already polishing or oiling them.
At 12.00 pm we had the lunch, the Easter lunch, and after taking it, at 1.15 pm, we went on foot up to Central Station to take a tramway .Sven told us during our way that some parts of Stockholm were very expensive and poshy: some 600 square meters flats could cost about 20 millions NEK! We stopped to go to 'Vasamuseet': Vasa is one of the world's foremost tourist attractions and offers a unique insight into early 17th-century Sweden. We really enjoyed our guided visit, and the 1:10 scale model was really striking to look at. After this visit, we went to take a boat up to Gamla Stan where we had a little walk before stopping in an old house called 'Stockholms Snickarmästare Forening': here we met Sven's best friend who was his mentor. We spent some time over there, talking and visiting the upper part of the house which is a beautiful little museum with old tools, marquetry tables and so on.
At 5.00 pm, we went out and walked up to Skeppsbron to go to our restaurant 'Zum Franziskaner'. We had a lovely time over there, and we appreciated our dinner and beers. At 8.00pm, some people went out to go for a walk and visited around during night time. The students stayed together.
Friday, 11th, this morning was our last day in Stockholm. After the breakfast, we checked out and took our luggage up to the school. At 9.00 am we decided to split into 2 groups: the students group would go to the workshop to work on the finishing and the polishing of the clocks, and the teachers group would go on the preparation of the progress report again. Jess, the Danish teacher told some explanations about the handling and the safety of the hand router.
Text and Photos: Isabelle Ladrat, Pascal Michel, Hans Janßen
