Blog #7

 



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 I’ve learned over the past couple of days is the value of having four team members. One of our team members got injured near the end of last week, so he was in crutches and needed to sit down. While he was still able to do minor work such as sanding, he was unable to crouch on the ground and help us measure, hold pieces together, or drill. This loss made the entire process of building the bench much more difficult than I thought it would.

Tomorrow, we are going to build the support for the swing. Some of the lessons I am going to take with me into the last day of the project include making sure I am always accounting for the angle of the ground, holding a piece of wood in place while someone else is drilling it, and never compromising on stability/support.

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