Explores the entire forest products supply-chain including sectors, current trends, career paths, and environments related to wood manufacturing. Establishes the importance of health and safety practices in the industry and introduces learners to various hazards they will encounter across industry, including sawmills, wood shops, and industrial settings. Learners will develop basic knowledge of OSHA, mills and shops in the forest products industry, and will have the opportunity to earn an NTC Forklift Operator Certificate.

Identify wood species and develop knowledge on the applications for different woods.  Learners will explore these concepts via hands-on experience, and establish basic understanding of wood cell types, identification characteristics, and material features. 

Explore rough mill operations in secondary wood manufacturing with emphasis on material flow, machine setup, and process efficiency. Learners operate planers, ripsaws, and chopsaws safely; analyze yield data; and develop rip and cut lists that meet production specifications and optimize material use.

Examine the biological and mechanical properties of wood. Topics will range from tree growth and cell development to strength and physical attributes. This course will provide students the fundamental background needed to understand the natural material of wood.

Operate finishing machine centers, such as manual and automated moulders, spindle shapers, and matchers. Additional topics include resolving machining defects, calculating surface quality and production rates.

Explore the fundamentals of tool geometry as well as the different tooling materials used in the secondary manufacturing industries. Hands on focus areas will include grinding knives and setting up cutterheads to be used in finish mill machine centers.

Examine the types of adhesives and adhesion processes that are used in the wood manufacturing industry. Focus areas include adhesive selection, application methods and clamping procedures for wood products. In addition, students will learn about surface preparation for different types of finishes and their application methods.