Blog #3

 


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, picking up speed in terms of how quickly we were able to cut the wood and prepare it for construction, which will come in the next couple of days.

On a related note, working with the group has made the process of learning carpentry significantly better. Not only is working with my classmates more enjoyable than working alone, but when I do not understand something, I can simply ask one of the people in my group instead of constantly pestering my mentor. Additionally, having a large group helps us work more efficiently as aforementioned. I hope that our group dynamic stays strong as it already has and will enable us to be more productive when we finally build the patio table in my yard. To ensure that our group dynamic stays strong, we will have to be supportive of each other but also make sure that everyone contributes to our project equally.

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