In class prompt 4/29

1. Deadlines are difficult for me and my project because in order for me to accomplish anything major I need a lot of time where I can go and actually do stuff. It's hard to set concrete deadlines because I don't know how long certain tasks will take and I also don't know when I'll find free time to go work. However, this only applies to the hands on portion of the project as far as blogging and other assignments for class I feel that I have done a pretty good job of keeping up with deadlines for class and the deadlines I've set for myself.
2. Different deadline services could help me probably but they would have to be more personal than just telling me to do something by a certain time because I don't always know what I'm supposed to be doing or by when.
3. I will definitely need to make enough time with my mentor and in the workshop here at school in order for me to finish the larger part of my project (the bench).

Something Macro

This is another blog for class where I'm supposed to reflect on something macro with my project. Now I've talked about this a lot but it's really the most important part of what I've done so far. It all comes back to the hands on stuff and having this appreciation for something hand made. There's a genuine character to anything that someone has put time and effort into. This is especially true with woodworking because along with time and effort they got their hands dirty they put sweat and maybe blood (if they weren't so lucky). But these qualities really make things that much more special and it's hard to appreciate if you've never actually experienced the physical labor or gotten your hands dirty. This is the macro that I'm taking away from my project.

In class prompt 4/22

1. I find myself happiest when I'm on top of everything and I can easily make decisions for myself.
2. I enjoyed the article a lot. It really put not just my project but more than that in perspective by breaking down how much work is a good amount. It shows that too much work is overwhelming but not enough work is boring. It says that in order for a person to be happy they need the right balance of challenge and skill which will create the right amount of work and then you can flow through life being happy.
3. I feel like I jump around a lot on the flow chart. Some weeks I don't have enough to do and I'm bored and other weeks I have way too much to do. However, I try to find that perfect balance where I'm getting things done but it's not overwhelming.
4. Like I said it changes every few weeks depending on other things that I have to do and different aspects of my project. I find the research very boring but the hands on stuff is a lot of fun.
5. I think the best way to achieve flow is for my project is to make a plan and stick with it. This way I can decide how much I need to do each week.

Finishing

I just completed finishing the wood for the frame im building.  Here is how it worked.
My dad makes his own shellac using the stuff in the picture below.

You poor some out into a container then just brush it on with a rag

Because some of the finish soaks into the wood and some of it stays on top, there tends to be small air bubbles when it dries (which takes roughly 4 hours).  So before each coat you use steel wool to rub out the air bubbles, then you vacuum off any steel wool shreds that get stuck on the wood along with any dust that may be on it, then you rub it down with a dust rag just to be sure its clean before putting on another coat of finish.

 I put on five coats of finish here are some pictures
Before first coat

 After five coats

Before Finishing

Before putting any finish on my frame I had to do a few more things.
I had to use the router to cut the dado on the inside edge of each piece where the glass goes

Next I had to sand 3 times with 80 grit, 120 grit, and 150 grit sand paper

Then I laid the frame out and used whats called a band clamp to make sure everything is lined up correctly

Finally the frame was ready to be finished

In class prompt 4/15

A. For Brian Grazer the connection between success and disruption was that without disrupting your own comfort zone you cannot grow and if you're not growing you're dying. To me this meant that in order to experience a good day you have to have a few bad days, or in order to experience progress you have to know failure.

B. The majority of disruption to my comfort zone has been trying to learn and work at the same time. Although I consider myself a hands on learner, I've realized that its difficult to do things without having much of a background knowledge. Trying to learn from both my mentor who has been my teacher the past two years and from my dad is actually kind if uncomfortable not because I don't know them but because with this project it's very informal and the actual teaching is almost unconventional. This has definitely opened me up to a new way of learning that's much different that what I'm used to.

Sunday

Last Sunday after I caught up on my blogging I went back down to our garage and continued work on the frame.

I started out by planing the wood down to its actual width. When you buy wood you buy it 1/4" thicker than you need it because when joining the wood you're actually removing some of the material. So you have to plane it down to the actual size before you finish the material.

The next thing I did was cut the pieces down to length as well as cut the 45 degree miters. I did this on the radial arm saw. In order for the opposite sides to match you measure one of the pieces out to size then line it up on the saw so that even if the measured dimensions aren't exact, the two pieces match perfectly. If they don't then the frame will not fit together properly.

After that I used the router to cut the groove on the back of the frame.  The groove is so that the back of the frame fits in tightly.

Next I began sanding.

What I've learned from hands on work

Last week I started working on my frame.  I took one single board of wood and transformed it into four pieces that can be built into an actual frame.  I still have a little more work to do but I'm really starting to appreciate the effort that's put into that are made by hand.  There's something about grinding down the material into something that looks like more than a chunk of wood. I've realized that the physical qualities of the wood really do come into effect.  You have to look at all sides of the wood and see which side looks best and decide what edges should face outwards.  You have to find the grain of the wood so you can join and plane with it as opposed to against it, so you don't make tool marks on the wood.  Then you must sand evenly to make the wood smooth and more appealing to the eye.  These are some of the steps that get skipped when something is made in a factory.  There's less of a human element which makes it less personal. One thing that I will take away from this project is that there is more value in a homemade table as opposed to a factory made one.

Mentor Meeting Plan

Here is what I will discuss with Mr Breigle tomorrow

• Progress on the frame
• Schedule to begin working on bench 
• What to do with wood for bench 
• Funding proposal

Thursday

Today I started working on my frame.  In order to do this I had to turn this one piece of wood

into these four peices which will become the frame itself

So heres how I did it

First I measured out rough lengths for each piece.

Next I used the radial arm saw to cut the rough lengths.

Now I have two boards the longer one will end up being the two longer sides of the frame and the shorter of the two will be the top and bottom of the frame.

Now I used the joiner to square one edge of each board because that way they will fit tight on the fence of the table saw and when I cut the rough widths they will be even.

                                                     

After one edge of each board was square I cut the rough widths on the table saw.   

                                                 

Then I went back to the joiner to join one face to one edge (Normally you would join the face before you cut the widths but the joiner at our house is too small to fit the whole board).

Once the edge is square to the face I went back to the table saw and cut the exact width for each piece.  This video is poor quality but it shows what it needs to.

And now I have the four sides for my frame 

Wednesday

On Wednesday I drove down to Southern Tier Hardwoods with my Dad.  He helped teach me how to pick out the best wood.  You want to look for pieces without large knots or knots that are loose.  A small knot is okay as long as its tight and not in a place you might cut.  Sometimes knots can make things look better by giving them character and showing that they are homemade.  You also have to be sure there are no checks or cracks in the wood.  The most important thing is that you check to see if the wood is bowed or cupped.  All of these things can make it difficult to use the wood or make weaken whatever you build with it.

We bought two pieces of wood. Both 4/4 Red Oak  about 6" wide and 8' long.  One piece is for my frame and one is for another project my Dad is working on.  The wood was s4s meaning that all 4 sides of each board had been somewhat finished already. Here is the wood for the frame

Here it is close up so you can tell that its finished because its smooth, the edges are mostly square and there aren't splinters sticking out.

The wood for the bench I'm building had to be ordered because its 5/4 and had to be specially cut, so we went on Thursday and picked that up.  Its 52 bd ft of 5/4 red oak rough cut (meaning none of its finished yet).  I decided to go with the rough cut because we have the equipment at school to finish wood of that size and I want to get experience doing that as well.  Here is all the wood for the bench.

Here are some close up pictures to show how rough it is

Over Break

This past week we were off on spring break.  Although it was a break from school I didn't take a break from my project I accomplished a lot but I have yet to blog about most of it.  So today i will be doing some back logging in order to show what I have accomplished this past week.