Our last day of class had a twist: everyone split into two groups, with all of us working together to glue up everyone’s tables. A brief view of some of the early tables, while Shaun (and Gibbs) look on.
In class today, we applied a finish for all our pieces. Note the extra bit of stain that Liz brought with, in case we needed to do touch-ups.
I have to say: Liz was the star student tonight, as several other folks wandered over to ask about her process and what she did. Lots of interest and questions, and Liz was just in her element – talking about everything she’s learned about staining. Quite cool to watch.
I ended up needing to miss a woodworking class last week (and needed to go in on the weekend, to do a makeup class). Liz decided she needed the night off as well, and decided that we’d both miss… and go in together, today. Our makeup work: sanding. We were encouraged to bring headphones. I wasn’t sure where we’d be…
Today, we fitted all our pieces together, so that we could measure and fit the bottom shelf and tabletop. We’re actually ahead of schedule today, and ended up having a more laid back pace.
Our class today focused on working with our legs, and getting mortises set up. I’ve had some slight exposure to drill presses, but using them for mortises was a new experience (but so much better than doing them by hand).
During one of the slower moments, near the end – I took some photos. We haven’t been in the classroom itself much, as the last classes have had us out on the main floor with our various pieces.
Here though, we ended class by gluing up our tops and lower shelves.
First class tonight, for another session at the Chicago School of Woodworking. We arrived a bit late, and hurriedly got all our materials into the classroom while the rest of the students were out on the floor.
Paused to take this photo, which had a lot of nice light coming in the windows.
Our instructor, Nick, talking through how the newly installed drawer should function.
Checking to make sure things are level and lined up. Small note: we used splines for the corner joints.
A nice thing about our class time: oftentimes, there aren’t a lot of other people, using the table saws. This is a view of the main area, where we do most of our cuts.
On seeing this, I have two thoughts. First: that’s a lot of clamps. Second: you can never have too many clamps.
Working with Nick, our instructor, learning how to use a sliding table saw.
Our next project (which I probably won’t end up finishing in time): a two piece plant stand.
Tonight, we got a walkthrough of the pieces we needed… and we set about measuring, marking, and cutting.
The students in the class are all over the place, in terms of the projects they’re currently working on. Some are pretty far ahead, some are far behind. But we all more or less paused, to work on getting the materials prepped for this project.
I’m happy to say that my cuts this time around were better. I was definitely a lot more cautious, and much slower and more deliberate with my actions.
Is it weird to say that I was stressed out the entire time? I was pretty stressed out the entier time.
Gibbs, who officially has the role of Supervisor/Inspector/Greetor. Need to get a better photo of him, but he just rambles through the rooms at his leisure.
He’s never actively looking for food or pets. I think he’s just wandering around to check things out.