Day 5, Thursday May 24th

 

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 teamwork. After we finished that, we quickly nailed the seats in, carved out edges using a router, and sanded the top with a belt sander. This gave our table a nice rounded finish that not only prevents splinters and cuts but also looks cleaner from a distance. Now there is little left to do other than figure out how to transport it to one of our houses and what, if anything we want to engrave into the top of it. All in all, the table went incredibly smoothly and the help from our mentors throughout the building has been incredible. Not only have they been amicable and nice enough to talk and joke with us at all times, but they are really knowledgeable and multiple times a day let us know clever ways to make a better finished product.





Top: I belt sand the nearly finished product (you can see the two batons if you look closely)
Bottom: Adithya and I work with Larry to figure out how to fix the spacing problem between our two support beams and the baton.


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