Day 5(Alex)--Finishing our boxes and cutting plywood

 Day 5(Alex)--Finishing our boxes and cutting plywood

Today is the last day of the first week of the woodworking M-term! A week passed so fast, but we did so much! I got to school a little early, so while waiting in the morning, I worked on my sketch/ blueprint for my final project. To start the day, we unwrapped our boxes, which we had clamped tightly together at the end of the day yesterday and left overnight after gluing the pieces together. First, I used the random orbital sanders (large hand sanders) to smooth and flatten each face of my box; I also did this because some edges became messy during the gluing process. I first used the coarse sandpaper and gradually lowered it to achieve the final details. I then repeated the same process, but with my hands instead of the power tools, to work on the insides of the box. Afterwards, I quickly superglued a notch on the top to make the sliding compartment more accessible. The last step was to finish the wood on the box with varnish, and one of the steps included burnishing; however, we waited to do this until the afternoon. Right before we broke for lunch, as part of an all-group project, we cut up the massive 4-by-8-foot plywood boards on the table saw, which we had planned to use for our individual projects. This part was slightly challenging because it required coordination from at least three people, although we later upgraded to four to simplify the process. When I returned from lunch, I finally finished my box and continued working on cutting the plywood.