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Final Blog

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  After three weeks of working on our picnic table project I feel as though it was a success and that I learned essentially what I wanted to learn from the beginning. I chose this project because I wanted the opportunity to get out of a classroom environment and learn a skill with real life applicability all while having some fun with my closest friends throughout high school. Before I started, I had barely ever even used power tools let alone made entire tables but now I have a basic understanding of how to use tools, math, ingenuity, and teamwork to accomplish practically any woodworking project with whomever I may need to make it with. Looking back, there is little I would change other than building our swing bench with stronger arm rests because it seemed like every day I was able to either learn something new or apply something I just learned. One week we were experimenting with using a jig saw to make curved pieces for a tool box, the next we were using it on our own to add a...
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Day 7, Tuesday June 1

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  Today was our first day away from the apprenticeship center and at Krishna’s house where we will spend the rest of the time during our project. On Friday, we disassembled the table and brought it to Krishna’s house using Jacob’s van and today we wanted to assemble it, position it in Krishna’s yard, and then brainstorm what we should build next. When we took it apart we left the batons and supports together as well as both sides, but all of the boards on the top and seats had to come off. I had assumed that this part would have been very simple but as it turns out its incredibly difficult to make everything line up just as it was before so we had to get creative at times. To start we just put the seats on which worked out without much controversy, putting the support beams in was fairly difficult but manageable, but it got very hard with the top of the table. I presume this happened because all of the other screw holes had been ever so slightly off and those combined to make each ...
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Day 5, Thursday May 24th

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  We spent today working at the apprenticeship program to finish off our picnic table with only a few days remaining there. To start we finished putting in supports, which had been a major problem for our construction but one I believe we solved efficiently. The beams that come across the table had been separated such that there was too much space with just a single baton, we needed about 1.5 times as much wood to cover meaning that there was no way to just accept a little creakiness. Instead, we decided to add another baton and to cut one of the support beams shorter. However, in order to get screws in we had to screw one of the batons in first and then take the other and attach it to the support beam before bolting the two batons together and then screwing the second beam to the side of the table. I’m sure all of that must sound quite confusing but long story short we messed up on an angle, ran out of wood, and had to improvise but it all worked out because of our ingenuity and t...
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Day 2 May 20th

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 Today we returned to our woodworking apprenticeship to finish our toolboxes which will help prepare the skills necessary to build a picnic table. We began by measuring out nail holes and then drilling starters before hammering and sinking the nails. We nailed both side pieces to plywood coverings and then lowered in a base and nailed the base to both the plywood and the side pieces. Afterward, we sanded the entire project by hand to get rid of any pencil markings and I was able to work down the slightly uneven sideboard that had been giving me trouble before. The main lesson learned today had less to do with machinery and more to do with measurement and precision. I learned how to use a speed square and tape measurer to their absolute maximum efficacy and how best to go about marking and measuring wood when nailing and cobbling something together.  Additionally, I learned the importance of making a few light pencil markings because it takes a very long time to sand them all o...
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Day 1 May 19

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 Today was the first day of our woodworking apprenticeship and it involved a split between learning about wood in a classroom environment and working in a woodshop for the second half of the day. In the classroom, we learned about the difference between milled and unmilled wood as well as the various imperfections that exist within storebought planks, and how best to combat them. For example, a bowing 2x4 should never be used as siding, but as the bottom of a box with the rings facing down it is perfect. In the woodshop, we began our own toolboxes but cutting a large cedar plank with a miter saw and then cutting out sides using a table saw and jigsaw. After sanding all of our pieces we began to nail them together however it will take another day or so to finish the project. While our toolboxes will likely not serve much of a practical purpose, they do help us learn the basics of carpentry. Before today I had no idea how to use any of the power tools outside of the miter saw and dri...
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Preproject

 I chose to do a woodworking apprenticeship with the ultimate goal of creating a picnic table because I've always enjoyed working with my hands and exploring my creativity rather than sitting in a classroom while at Hawken and outside of it but I have almost zero experience around wood. The opportunity to learn from trained carpenters in an apprenticeship environment is an ideal project for me because it enables me to learn a craft that has a real application, takes me out of the classroom environment, and best of all, I get to make something physical at the end. While at the current moment we are still wondering where exactly our picnic table(s) will go, I do hope that we can donate them somewhere, whether it be a public park or private facility so that our contributions will go toward the building of a better community. We are currently in conversation with various groups including the Metroparks to try to get this done. Additionally, I am excited about the openness and collabora...
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