Day 7 - Catherine
Between design changes, planing, working with new power tools, and all of the accidents in between, it was quite a day.
The first thing when I walked into the Tinkeria this morning was to check to see if the pieces had gotten any straighter. They did not. However, I was able to flip some of the pieces in a way that their uneven edges fit perfectly together and created a board that is straight –to the unsuspecting naked eye. I then glued all of the pieces of the board together. Interestingly enough, even though I removed several of the middle pieces from the original pattern, my board was still a 13”x13” square. As I was gluing the board, another piece broke off and I spot glued it but apparently not well enough because there ended up being a millimeter gap in between that the glue had already set in place. There was also one piece that jutted out significantly higher than the rest and could not be fixed either. I wanted the board length to be 12” with a decent-sized handle which meant that I needed some extra length. I happened to still have a fairly large chunk of the 2nd-panel leftover that aligned perfectly with the rest of the board and provided just enough length for the handle. Attaching this extra piece to the end of the cutting board allowed me to both keep the handle design and avoid having to planing the board thin since the handle design involved cutting the warped edge off completely.
As I waited for the glue to dry enough to pass through the planer, I used Adobe Illustrator to get the exact shape of my board. Mr. Grisbee explained that to get the desired shape out of the wood, I would first make the design on Adobe Illustrator and laser cut it into medium-density fibreboard. I would then use the laser cut to trace the design onto my board so that I could use the jigsaw to do a rough cut. Finally, I would use the router to clean up the edges. Using Adobe Illustrator on the school’s windows computer was never my forte, and it was not any easier this time. Mr. Grisbee and Nathaniel both had to help me get the final shape.
Next, I cut off the end strip on either side of the cutting board and then planed the whole board. It was very exciting to see how my glue-up mess was transformed into a perfectly smooth and flat board. This was my first time using the jigsaw, so Mr. Grisbee taught me how to guide the blade along the wood and how to make and connect vertical notches to avoid difficult turns. I still found it difficult to use the jigsaw so Mr. Grisbee finished it off.
The first thing when I walked into the Tinkeria this morning was to check to see if the pieces had gotten any straighter. They did not. However, I was able to flip some of the pieces in a way that their uneven edges fit perfectly together and created a board that is straight –to the unsuspecting naked eye. I then glued all of the pieces of the board together. Interestingly enough, even though I removed several of the middle pieces from the original pattern, my board was still a 13”x13” square. As I was gluing the board, another piece broke off and I spot glued it but apparently not well enough because there ended up being a millimeter gap in between that the glue had already set in place. There was also one piece that jutted out significantly higher than the rest and could not be fixed either. I wanted the board length to be 12” with a decent-sized handle which meant that I needed some extra length. I happened to still have a fairly large chunk of the 2nd-panel leftover that aligned perfectly with the rest of the board and provided just enough length for the handle. Attaching this extra piece to the end of the cutting board allowed me to both keep the handle design and avoid having to planing the board thin since the handle design involved cutting the warped edge off completely.
As I waited for the glue to dry enough to pass through the planer, I used Adobe Illustrator to get the exact shape of my board. Mr. Grisbee explained that to get the desired shape out of the wood, I would first make the design on Adobe Illustrator and laser cut it into medium-density fibreboard. I would then use the laser cut to trace the design onto my board so that I could use the jigsaw to do a rough cut. Finally, I would use the router to clean up the edges. Using Adobe Illustrator on the school’s windows computer was never my forte, and it was not any easier this time. Mr. Grisbee and Nathaniel both had to help me get the final shape.
Next, I cut off the end strip on either side of the cutting board and then planed the whole board. It was very exciting to see how my glue-up mess was transformed into a perfectly smooth and flat board. This was my first time using the jigsaw, so Mr. Grisbee taught me how to guide the blade along the wood and how to make and connect vertical notches to avoid difficult turns. I still found it difficult to use the jigsaw so Mr. Grisbee finished it off.
It was at the last part, while using the router, that disaster struck. As I was going around the curved part of the handle, part of the board got caught, and when I went to readjust it, the glue holding the handle snapped and the handle launched straight into Mr. Grisbee's gut who was vacuuming the sawdust as it came off the router (I am so so sorry Mr. Grisbee).
The handle also snapped in two, so I had to glue it together at home. The clamps I took home were too small to hold the handle together with the board so I will have to do that early tomorrow morning. The last day is tomorrow, so here's to finishing the board without launching any more projectiles!
laser cut design
Freya sniffing my mistakes
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