Wood 1010 Wood and Finishing Technology: Larry Van Isagam from Van Technology visits NIWF

We were very fortunate today to have Larry Van Isagam, President and founder of Van Technology, come and spent the day with us to talk about water based coatings. Larry and the students had a great conversation about water base,

which is an ever increasing part of the wood coatings industry.
The students had some great questions regarding their experiences

with the coatings, and Larry was very helpful in explaining how they work, and why we might choose to use a water based coating.
He also demonstrated a few of his products and allowed the students to use them and get some

more 1st hand knowledge of the coating and see what they are all about.
A Big thanks to Larry, who has always been a friend to the program here at DCTC!

Wood 1019 Spot Repair II: Past Grad Dave Smith, Guest lecturing at DCTC

If you follow the blog, you've already met Dave Smith in an older blog post from January, but if you are new to the blog, let me introduce Dave again. Dave Smith graduated from NIWF in 1994, and since then has been working in the field. He is part owner of Fresh Air Finishers, a finishing company that specializes in the restoration of historic interior woodwork and wood finishes. They also maintain and repair modern wood furnishings. Fresh Air Finishers uses environmentally and human friendly products with no residual odors. Specializing in green finishing has been a passion and a great avenue for them, as more and more consumers are looking for an eco-friendly alternative to solvents and chemicals . Dave and the whole crew are professionally preserving & restoring wood throughout the United States from their St. Paul, MN headquarters.

Dave came in today to show us some of his techniques for some advanced spot repair. Here we see him replacing a broken piece from a chair with an epoxy fill.






After filling the void, he shaped it to the original shape of the chair.









Next he painted in the background color.







Finally, with some skilled in-painting, it begins to take on it's original look. With a bit more attention and some coating on this chair, this repair would become almost invisible.





Throughout the year, we continue to learn techniques like these, and it's always a pleasure to have past grads come in to show their skills! Thanks Dave!