Day 4 (Kamilla) - Assembling Boxes & Traveling to the Lumberyard

Left: My dry-fit assembled box next to my design

Right: The view from the top level of the lumberyard, featuring Alex, Mia, and Mr. Grisbee picking out wood

 

   The fourth day of Advanced Woodworking was bountiful in activities and progress. In the morning, we cut our dados and rabbets into the box wall pieces. Then, we used clamps to do dry-fits of our box walls to ensure a clean fit and to assist with the sizing of our lid and base. After lunch, we took a brief break from the boxes to visit the lumberyard and pick out our wood for our next project. In preparation for this trip, we each created individual cut-lists for all of our wood pieces. The image below demonstrates the layout of a cut-list:

My cut-list, created before visiting the lumberyard, with board measurements, mapped out cuts, and wood types. 

    When we returned, I worked on the final step in assembling my box: creating the removable internal dividers. Even though I was making the same dadoe slot as for the outer edges, the process of making the grooves along the center of the walls became a much larger challenge. Rather than use the steady table saw, I needed to transition back to the precarious router. Creating straight lines with this machine requires both technique and confidence, as maintaining steady pressure is key while guiding the board across the rotating bit. Measuring, cutting, and assembling these final pieces of my box definitely took a lot of trial and error, but with the help of Mr. Grisbee and some adjustments to my strategy, I was able to create a box strikingly similar to the design I dreamed of the first day. Reflecting back on all of the progress we have made since then is very rewarding; I can't wait for all of the lessons to come!

Demonstration of how the router cuts little dadoe grooves into the dividers.