Final Blog(Alex)-The last day...

Final Blog(Alex)-The last day...

Today was the last day of the woodworking M-term, and I had to work fast to try to finish as much of my project as I could. On a side note, I only took one picture today because I was super busy working and totally forgot about it. First, in the morning, I glued together my box for the drawer, which I re-laser cut to a shorter height, and sanded it till it fit smoothly. While sanding yesterday, the railings for the drawer, which I superglued, fell out due to the power of the orbital sander; so next I attached the bottom board and rails that fell. I then tried to screw on the moving top of the lapdesk but realized the dados were too shallow, since I couldn't redo them because the side pieces had already been screwed together, so I got the chisel and painstakingly shaved off ⅛ of an inch from each dado slot. While kinda therapeutic, it took a lot longer than I thought it would. After screwing the top back on with the hinges, I bent a thin metal bar we had gotten to make the top adjust to different lengths: think like a pool chair. Then I fit the bar into a ½ thick piece of wood along the back of the moving lapdesk part, making sure not to drill too far and go through the wood. We stopped for lunch, and in the afternoon, I worked on cutting the legs. After deciding on a height and the position, I made angled cuts so the legs could have a slant. However, I ended up recutting them to a less exaggerated angle later. 2 of the legs attached fine, with the hand screw, but the other two were on the side with the drawer, and we could not reach the screws to drill them end, so I had to reposition the screws to a more accessible place and re-screwed them in. By this time, the day was over, but I still had to cut down my legs, which I noticed were a bit too long, and had to make a notch for the drawer. Also, since part of the lapdesk top is adjustable, when you lift it higher, there needs to be a stopper so the laptop won't slide and fall off; I still needed to add this later. I also still need to finish sanding the legs and add the finishing with the varnish and burnishing. Overall, I think I was very productive today, and I got a lot done, since there were some unexpected setbacks. I might need to work after school one day or find some time during lunch to finish up my project before the exhibition on Wednesday. The woodworking M-term was fun, and I learned a lot of new skills; plus, the nervousness I had over all the blades and power tools is totally gone now. The term was definitely more labor-intensive than I thought, but the activities were fun, and I love crafts! If you enjoy making things with your own two hands and don’t mind inhaling a copious amount of sawdust, I totally recommend it!