Need for Handy People in Haiti

We have a wood shop in Haiti. We need someone who can teach some wood working skills to the workers at the wood shop. We have a wood lathe at the shop, but we have no one who can use it. The biggest problem is the clients who have to go to from 44 km to 120 km to get that work done while we have the tool. The have to waste 2 days and even more sometimes to get wood lathe services. If we can find some people who can go to Haiti any time from September to January to train the workers have to use the tools and how to maintain them, you would help the local carpenters. You can save their live from getting kill on motorbike accident. You would help us to raise some money and wood chips for the farming program. We have a place with running and treated water and with electricity. There will be a fee to cover living cost, but living condition is great. There is great security as well. Thank you very much for thinking and talking about this idea. It would be a great investment.
Weslet

Weslet, if you have decent bandwidth, you can find good video basics on wood lathe operation on YouTube and Vimeo. Best to start with fairly soft wood (pine etc) and on non-critical practice pieces. You can use a sharp wood chisel against the tool rest just take light cuts at first and you will gain skill with practice. If you contact me I have PDF’s of various woodworking skills you could read and then talk/walk through with students, You have local trust and creditably that an outsider wouldn’t, plus it will give you better bond with students. Don’t worry a wood lathe isn’t a high precision tool, each part is really handmade. larry.bentley@engineer.com

I don’t know where you are located. However, Collin Wilson who works at HAFF near Pignon has a lot of skills with woodworking. He probably would not be able to visit you. However, he might be willing to train some people if they could go to HAFF. See http://www.haff.org/

Agreed, Colin Wison is wonderful!