Woodworking

About the Wood Shop

The wood shop in JMP is a place for students to explore making with wood. Given its low cost, high strength, and ease of working, wood has been a persistent prototyping material.  Wood is timeless and is still used in functional and decorative ways in many of our everyday surroundings.

Working with wood can differ significantly from the typical engineered materials that we think of, like plastics and metals. The living nature of wood requires a substantially different approach to making in that the maker must constantly account for the aspects of wood that they can’t control. The wood shop and its staff are available to help you realize your concepts in wood, or to help you develop the skill-set to fulfill your own visions now and throughout your lifetime and career. Our shop has the tools needed to perform everything from traditional hand working methods, to modern CNC equipment to suit a broad spectrum of needs.

Who can use the Wood Shop?

UMD students, staff and faculty have full access to staff, training, and machines (once trained). External staff seeking design services may leverage the wood shop capacities for their projects.

We can help you with

Ordering a part or product

Send an email to terrapinworks@umd.edu with more information about your project.

Learning woodworking

Get trained on various skills and machines to be able to work with wood yourself. Training on our equipment and subsequent equipment use is free of charge. You will need to schedule time to use equipment.

Consultations

Want or need something but not sure what’s possible? Email us at terrapinworks@umd.edu to get started.

Materials

We have scrap wood available for purchase as part of a project. Otherwise, we encourage you to bring in the materials that you plan to work on or have worked on. If you’re not sure where to find wood, just ask! We know of some great local suppliers, or maybe we have something available for purchase squirreled away.

How to work with us

1. Submit an inquiry to terrapinworks@umd.edu
2. Schedule machine time or training time via email.