Advanced Woodworking A-Term 2022

The End (At the time of writing this, my lamp project isn't complete, so I'll be talking mainly about my bedside table project.) I put the last coat of finishing oil on my bedside table project today, and that marked the final step in completing it as complete. With it done, I think I honestly really like how it turned out, and I think the finishing oil really brought out some vibrant colors in the wood, making it look like it was done by a professional. I did realize shortly after finishing that I put the phone holder on the wrong side, as I usually place my phone close to me on my bedside table, but aside from that small error and the slight lean of the bedside table forward due to the base not being at a perfect 90 degree angle I think that it's pretty perfect and it turned out really close to the way I wanted. That being said, the journey to getting it this way wasn't easy and I think that, despite having a passion for woodworking and doing projects in my garage lon

  Day Nine: Epoxy Imminent With my bedside table project basically done, day 9 was the start of the epoxy part of my lamp. I started day 9 by putting another layer of finishing oil on my bedside table, bringing me up to 2/3 layers until I was done. I went over the entire project with steel wool in order to smooth out the surface of the wood post-finish, and then applied another layer of finishing oil on to the project that would further strengthen the wood and give it an even more vibrant color. Once that was done I began planning my lamp project, and in preparation for the epoxy I sanded over the entire thing and put wood glue into the holes that might have epoxy seep into them. Sadly I didn't yet have the laminated wood that I needed to create the mold box that would go around my lamp to hold the epoxy in, so I planned to go to home depot after lunch to get that.     After lunch and home depot, I had everything I needed to begin the epoxy process, but I only had time today to com

  Everything Is Cut     Today I finished cutting everything, and I drilled the holes for my dowel rods, which I inserted later.  Drilling the holes for the rods was a process that was much harder than I thought it would be. You first have to start by making precise measurements to determine how the shelf will look. If you do not measure the placement for the holes on each side right, it will come out crooked and will not fit well when it is ultimately put together. It took me over thirty minutes to make the measurements alone. After the measurements were made, I drilled the holes the rods would go into. I drilled the holes with a special kind of jig ( I didn't know what defined a jig before today, but it is actually a very general term that can be any device that holds a piece of wood to aid in the machining process.) I used the drill to create the holes, and the jig ensured I did not go too far because if I did, I would have gone all the way through the board. After the holes were

 In the end, I am very proud of my project and happy with the way that it ended up turning out. I think that my pets are going to like it, and if they don't it can still be used as a shelf or storage cabinet. I feel like, through the course of making it, I have become more confident and enjoyed making it more and more. After I finished designing it, I was very worried that I bit off more than I could chew, but then after working on it every day, I ended up planning it perfectly because I did the last step the morning of the last day. I learned many skills such as advanced table saw cuts, edge banding, how to joint, how to plan, how to put in dowels, how to make pocket screws, and many many more things that learned. I am proud of the whole project, but mostly the fact that I think I can now make many wood projects very easily by putting my new skills to use. My biggest challenge was when I put veneer in the circles on the front, then changed my mind directly after. This set me back

From start to finish this project was fun and intriguing, figuring out how I was going to cut the tiles and going through many ideas to ultimately decide on one, sanding for hours to get the sides just right, all taught me good wood working skills and a great deal of patience. I feel like I could make another wooden creation on my own. Looking back on my project there are definitely things I would do differently. I would be a lot more careful with the CA glue so I wouldn't get any of it to seep on to the tope of the tiles which was very very hard to wipe off and some would not. That CA glue is the reason for my other thing I would have done differently. I should have been more careful with the Dremel when attempting to get rid of the glue because it started to burn the tiles. Finally I should have double checked the spacing and alignment of the tiles before gluing them on. I also was challenged with the frame and the precision that had to go into it, that was my greatest challenge