Day 2 - Sutton

Day two, check! Today was filled with new lessons and adventures that tested both our mental and physical capacities. 

We started the day with a very in-depth, detailed, long, and complex speech by Mr. Grisbee about the SawStop table saw. Clearly, he is a big fan of this machine and enjoys talking about it. He first went over the safety features which was something I was already familiar with due to my J-Term experience. To sum it up, negative charges, fancy technology, and an $89 cartridge make it so that the blade can retract immediately upon coming in contact with something like flesh, wet wood, or metal. There is an option to bypass this safety feature if you are purposely cutting one of these materials or just in a risky mood. 

We then learned how to set up the blade to make miter cuts (angled cuts). This involves inserting something called a riving knife which keeps the wood separated after it is cut so that it doesn’t jam up and karate chop you in the gut. Upon hearing that, I decided that this little gadget was one of my favorites. Of course, you also need to insert the cartridge and the blade and make sure everything is screwed in tight and is “square” (90 degrees). Mr. Grisbee also went over how to insert the blades to make the dado cuts. One thing I thought was cool is how you can use different slivers of metal/plastic to make create a thicker blade so that you can cut a wider dado. He also showed us this digital gadget that can accurately measure the degree of an angle faster than you can say “wow.” Once the monologue concluded, my mind was packed with new terminology and information. I felt ready for a breath of fresh air. 

Right before lunch, we each created a list of materials needed for our projects. I explored the Rockler website which, in my professional opinion, could use a little makeover. We then ate lunch and took the activity bus to Rockler. It was then that good old Nathaniel had to tap out and go home because he didn’t feel good. At Rockler, I picked out three pieces of wood. It was my very first time going wood shopping and I got a taste of what it is like to be a lumberjack/middle-aged man. After losing Sayer in the store and then hauling all of our wood to the van, we took off to Home Depot. We bought the two extremes: a handful of tiny screws and a gargantuas piece of wood. I’m getting the sense that Sayer is building a full on house.

Once we got back to school, we unloaded all of the wood. I’m pretty sure we looked like clones of the Hulk because everyone was staring at us as we heaved the wood out of the back of the van. Catherine and I measured our pieces so that we could begin our cut list. Tomorrow, we will start the real work!