Stephanie Petillo, winner of a pass to Fine Woodworking Live
A few weeks ago we offered up a free pass to the Fine Woodworking Live event in August. Stephanie Petillo from North Falmouth, Mass. was chosen at random and won the all access pass to the event to be held in New Haven, Connecticut this summer.
Like a lot of woodworkers, Stephanie has a background in engineering and recently stepped into the field of woodworking. When she’s not in the shop she can probably be found in front of a computer working on her PhD thesis about “Autonomous Underwater Vehicles – programming them to more intelligently and efficiently sample the ocean environment with as little human guidance as possible”. She says that during the past 2 years she has found woodworking to be a welcomed break from all that computer work.
Stephanie’s interest in woodworking began about 5 years ago when she participated in a wooden boat restoration at the Woods Hole Historical Museum. She says she was handed a spokeshave to use on the boat and has wanted one ever since. It wasn’t until she and her husband bought a 1920’s house filled with original woodwork that she was inspired to give woodworking a more serious look.
Her first project was to design and build a 12 foot long workbench for her basement. She used reclaimed fir boards that the original homeowner had cobbled together into a crude bench and she built it mostly with hand tools and a corded drill. Next on her list of accomplishments was a cold frame for her husband’s vegetable seedlings with a “non-electric automatic vent opener”.
Stephanie looks forward to making some furniture for her house next – perhaps a bookshelf or a dresser – and maybe even one day she’ll try her hand at boat building. She’s excited about attending Fine Woodworking Live because she says she has a lot to learn and she’s looking forward to meeting fellow woodworkers since she’s never taken a woodworking class or attended any kind of woodworking event.
So, when you see Stephanie in New Haven this August, be sure to give her a warm welcome to the world of woodworking.
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Stephanie Petillo, winner of a pass to Fine Woodworking Live
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Stephanie at work. The yellow "thing" is one of the under water vehicles she works with.
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The 12 foot bench
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The bench at work (with the vise jaws that Stephanie also made)
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The cold frame, complete with the "non-electric automatic vent opener".
Comments
Please describe in more detail the non-electric "automatic" Cold frame window opener.
It looks like a spring mechanism from a goose-neck lamp - but what's the temperature activating process/mechanics?
The vent opener spring-arm mechanism has a hydraulic cylinder threaded into it that is filled with a mineral wax. When the wax is heated, it expands and extends the piston out the top of the cylinder. When the piston has been sufficiently extended to overcome the spring force and window weight, the arm begins to extend, opening the window. When the cylinder wax cools, the piston retracts with the aid of the springs and the window gradually closes again.
This link has the most detailed explanation of this automatic vent opener mechanism that I've found (under the 'More Product Info' tab):
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-8137-univent-automatic-vent-and-window-opener.aspx
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