Area teen shows off woodworking wizardry

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May 22, 2015 - 12:00 AM

MORAN — It won’t be hard to find Brady Newman this summer now that school’s out.
Just follow the trail of sawdust.
Newman, 17, finished his junior year at Marmaton Valley High School on a high note.
In April, Newman took third out of 135 other industrial arts and woodshop students in a Skills U.S.A. challenge hosted by Pittsburg State University.
The challenge was simple. Each student was given a set of blueprints, an assortment of wood and saws, sanders and other tools.
Their task: to build a small walnut cabinet in six hours.
Newman entered the competition figuring he’d have little trouble completing his assignment.
After all, he’d grown up with a family of woodworkers, and was using his first power saw while most others his age were still playing with Matchbox cars and footballs.
“I was pacing myself, thinking six hours was plenty of time, because I’m always out in the shop building stuff,” Newman said. “Next thing I know, it’s lunch time and I hadn’t eaten yet.”
Nor did he have time to.
As the deadline neared, Newman’s pace quickened.
He finished his cabinet with about 10 minutes to spare, one of only five students to have completed the challenge.
“It was fun, but it was tough,” he said.
Judges rated the pieces on various criteria, from their skills with various machines, safety, neatness, a written test and the finished product.
In taking third, Newman received a Skills U.S.A. medal and a $600 scholarship to attend Coffeyville Community College after high school — if he so chooses.
“I’m not sure on that one,” he said. “I may go to Pittsburg State. It’s nice to have options.”

IT’S ALSO nice to have Newman’s eye for craftsmanship and his desire to learn.
“My mom gets mad at me after school,” he said. “I’ll be in the shop working until 9 p.m., when she makes me come in.”
More often than not, he works through dinner.
A look around the Newman household south of Moran yields more than enough evidence of his woodworking wizardry.
He and his father, Brent, used old pallet boards to cover the first half of the living room ceiling. (They’re still working on the second half.)
He used other pallets to create a cabinet top separating the living room and dining room.
“And there are picture frames, cabinets,” he notes. “It’s hard to find anything in here made of wood that we didn’t build.”
And that’s just in the house.
In their back yard sits a newly constructed greenhouse built for Brady’s mother, Sheila. That’s next to a gazebo holding the family’s barbecue grill.
“We call that the Cantina,” he says modestly.

NEXT is Newman’s woodshop.
There, he shows a fishing pole stand he made of cedar.
“My dad came up with the idea of using clothes pins to hold the poles in place,” he said. “They have clips you can buy, but this was pretty cool.”
And there’s a cedar porch swing Newman made on a dare from Samuel Jackson, his construction technology teacher.
“He showed me a picture of one and challenged me to make one in a week.”
It took Newman two days to finish.
“He couldn’t believe it when I showed him the picture,” he said. “I like working with cedar. It’s hard to work with because it splits easily, but it’s fun.”

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