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Final Blog/Reflection

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  My inspiration to create this project honestly came from looking at everything I had done previously and doing the opposite. Given that I want to enter the medical field, I’ve spent summers shadowing and researching, so while I could have continued this trend over the past three weeks, I knew I wanted to do something different. Specifically in the case of choosing a carpentry-related project, I wanted to make something tactile that would be practical. While my group originally thought about building a tree house and then a shed, we decided on a picnic table, knowing that it would be less expensive and more feasible to build than the other two options. The initial two weeks of our project, which involved going to the Ohio Carpenters facility in Richmond and building a picnic table at my house, went very well. The instructors at the facility, which included not only our mentor Mr. Dan Sustin but also Mr. Dave Knight and Larry (last name unknown) were extremely patient, helpful, a...
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Blog #7

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  Today, we wrapped up the bench part of our bench swing. A picture of this completed component is included in this blog post. All in all, the bench was very difficult to construct but also very educational. We needed to make multiple curved cuts using a jigsaw, which is very time consuming and requires precision. After cutting these pieces out, we also needed to sand them (picture included) which is time consuming as well. We ran into barriers in that the plans we were using were somewhat unclear, so we made some incorrect cuts, but we ultimately adapted the incorrectly cut pieces to fit the bench. Additionally, due to not only to mistakes but also due to other adaptations we had to make, we needed to go to Home Depot three times for materials, slightly exceeding our budget of $200. On one of these trips, we purchased massive 4x4 pieces of wood for the swing support, which were horribly painstaking to cut and caused sparks to fly when using the jigsaw. Perhaps the largest lesson...
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Blog #6

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  For the past few days, we have started to work on our new project, which is a bench swing. Our first step for this new project was buying wood. In doing so at Home Depot, we used some skills that we had learned at the carpentry facility. For example, we were taught to avoid knots and bows, which are forms of imperfections, in buying lumber, which we applied. Additionally, we closely followed a plan in buying the wood and in the first few steps of construction, again applying literacy skills we picked up during our time at the facility. For the handles and back pieces of the bench swing, we needed to learn a few new cuts and techniques. For these pieces to fit together according to the plans we were using, we needed to cut only part of the way into the wooden pieces. Therefore, we could not use the miter saw we had traditionally been using to make the cuts. Instead, we used a jigsaw in conjunction with a hand saw to achieve a cut that was both slanted and only part of the way in...
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Blog #5

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  Today, we rebuilt the picnic table in my back yard. For the time being, we will keep the table here, though our ultimate goal is to find a park or any other type of establishment that we can donate it to. The process of reconstructing the table was much more difficult than we thought it would be. When we took the table apart on Friday, we were sure that rebuilding it would be simple because all the holes to drill into were already in place. Instead, due to slight environmental differences between my yard and the carpentry facility such as the angling of the ground and texture of grass rather than vinyl flooring, our measurements were slightly off, which rendered the entire construction much more complicated than we expected. To remedy this problem, we needed to drill the screws in at angles so that they would not protrude out of the table and cause problems down the line. This process involved a lot of cracked wood, but we eventually realized that using the drill’s reverse fe...
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Blog #4

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  This week, we completed the initial construction of our picnic table, a picture of which is attached in this blog post. On Friday, 5/28, we deconstructed the table and transported the parts to my house, where we will quickly reconstruct the table and begin to work on a second project that we are still researching and deciding on. While the fact that we need to come up with an additional carpentry project shows that we adapted very well and worked efficiently as a group, building the picnic table was no easy task. One aspect of table construction that we underestimated was balancing out two objects on opposite sides. For example, we needed to build seat supports for our picnic table on opposite sides of the legs. It took us multiple hours to balance out the two seat supports because we needed to make constant adjustments so that the supports were symmetrical both horizontally and vertically. Even if we seemed to align the two pieces perfectly according to our tape measures, ther...
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Blog #3

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  My group and I have started to work on our original build for a picnic table, which will be constructed at the carpentry facility. We will put to work the skills we have gained over the past few days, such as knowing how to use power tools and understanding construction diagrams (a picture of the diagram that we are using is attached to this blog post). Yesterday, we started constructing our first picnic table by making the proper cuts to the wood that was provided to us. A major difficulty of cutting the wood using a miter saw was that this tool’s blade takes up about an eighth of an inch, meaning that we had to make measurement adjustments when cutting. The process of cutting made my group’s teamwork show. While I cut, one of my groupmates measured and marked the lines where we would cut, which needed to constantly be adjusted. The other groupmates carried the wood over and tallied how many additional cuts we needed to make. Therefore, we functioned like a well-oiled machine,...
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Blog #2

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  The first few days of my project have been very productive. My classmates and I started off our first day in a classroom setting, learning about the different types of wood, wood deformities, and how to measure wood sizes. Afterwards, we began our first project in which each of us created our own toolboxes. In doing so, we also learned how to use several power tools, such as table saws, jigsaws, and miter saws. While one of the instructors at the facility, Mr. Knight, led us through using the tools initially, he eventually let us start working alone while intermittently checking in, which was definitely confidence-building. We were essentially working on the same projects as the older apprentices at the facility, but at a much slower and guided pace. I have definitely been surprised with how intensive carpentry is. Possibly due to the heat from the power tools and concentration required, I found myself breaking a sweat more than once. Sanding down a product after it has been pu...
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