fun, fun, fun

I had so much fun in class tonight, that I just had to update this blog. The table saw was still in extreme demand, so I kept working on my table top.  My method was a bit unconventional, but it worked. The middle of my table top has a 9" hole that will hold a bowl. My goal tonight was to make that hole.

 I drilled lots of holes

 Cleaning out all those holes

Chiseled the pieces between the holes and yeah--a hole in the middle of the table top.  While this may seem to be a lot of unnecessary work, it gave me the experience of chiseling the wood.  I learned a lot about what to do and more importantly, what NOT to do. 

Sanding the inside.

The final result.  It still needs some hand sanding and on Wednesday I plan to cut (chisel) the mortises on the table top.  Wish me luck.

where does the time go?

Deja vu. I know I started this post a few minutes ago, and then poof! It was gone.

Ever get that nagging feeling that you've forgotten something, but are too tired to try to stay awake to figure out what it is? Well for me it was this blog. I usually update it on Sunday nights, but have been so consumed with my Commercial Design project that I completely forgot about this blog--that is until 4:30 AM when it woke me up.

Anyway, last week feels like ages ago. On Monday, I practiced more tenons and progressed to mortises. No sawing involved here. It was fun to get to use my chisels. Professor Takagi showed me another similar joint to the loose wedge that I was planning on, it is the fixed wedge. It will look great for the table top. (sorry no photos, I forgot that too). We ran out of time, but since it looks like it will take me a lot longer than I have to develop the skill to saw a straight line, Prof. Takagi said he'd show me how to make tenons on the table saw. (He put it much more diplomatically--like it would be good to learn multiple ways to make tenons and people practice for years to get handmade tenons just right). It did make me feel better. He even cut one crooked to show me that it wasn't just me, and that skilled craftsmen can still cut crooked sometimes.

Wednesday, I was running late and instead of parking my car at the garage and taking the shuttle, I thought it would be faster to drive straight to class at Foggybottom and pay to park there. Boy, was I mistaken. Traffic was horrible. Did I mention that class starts at 5:00 PM? What was I thinking? Driving about 5 miles in DC traffic shouldn't take an hour--right? Wrong! I managed to make it to class at 6:00 PM and felt lucky to be alive.

Since I was late, and it seemed everyone needed the table saw, it didn't look like I'd get to learn how to make tenons the new way that night. So I decided to work on my table top instead. That was quite satisfying. I knew that the two outsides (long grain) were true, but needed to be cut to the correct size. The end grain sides also needed to be cut to size as well. I measured everything 3 times and thought I might be able to drill the holes for my mortises, well maybe I might. Those will be super visible right there on top and a different color wood, any mistakes will really stand out. Professor Takagi fit me in to make my four cuts on the table saw to get my top to the correct size. I was proud and amazed that my measurements were correct and we didn't have to make any adjustments. By then it was getting late and I didn't want to press my luck with the drill press. So I cleaned up and left hopeful that things would be great next week.