TIM1301 - Principles of Manliness

When I was seven years old, my grandfather called me to his deathbed, to say his last words to me. I will never forger how he took my hand in his - that rough, manly hand, made hard by many years of woodworking, drafting, and welding - and stared into my very soul with his deep grey eyes. And he said,

"My grandson, I have only one wish for you. Continue the family legacy. Become a theatrical scenic constructor and or light designer, just like me, and my father, and his father before him. Don't ever be an actor. That's for little girls. Only the day when you build something for the stage will you be able to call yourself a man."

He then used a random orbit sander to defeat skin cancer and went on to live to a hundred. And then he died fighting a bear who broke into his house to steal his power-tools.

My grandfather, circa 1928. He didn't actually use the axe.

When I decided that acting was the only thing I was good for, I thought I would never be able to honor my grandfather's last wish. That all changed this semester.

When I signed up for Intro to Prod Tech, little did I know what I was signing up for. I thought I was taking a theatrical production class, merely concerning the process of creation for the stage, and attempting to fill the un-manly hole created by prancing around on a stage I myself did not build, This class much more. It offered a personal - nay - spiritual experience, which would transform my character, test my mettle, and the forever increase number of splinters in my hands, to an amount my grandfather would hopefully be proud of.

A few days ago I finished my table, and I thus finished the class. If my grandfather was alive, he would have known that is the day I became a man. Because I didn't just finish Prod Tech. In reality, I successfully completed TIM1301 - Principles of Manliness.

Part 1: Sketchup

This was the easy part. Sketchup doesn't require muscle, it doesn't require tools or materials. It doesn't even require wood. It's the design equivalent to standing around and thinking about what you're going to do for hours on end, without necessarily doing any of what you're thinking to do. Actors call that the rehearsal process. However, I knew that this process was going to be legitimized once I made what the screen presented a reality.

The bench which we previously designed as a part of the drafting and sketchup mastery series was an extremely useful learning experience. By the time I was done with the bench, I was reacquainted with the hotkeys, interface and the functions of each one of the tools, so the process of making the table was streamlined and uncomplicated. Because my table used no complicated angles, it was easy to create components, then draw the next parts upon them and pull them into existence.

My project underwent several changes, and this was all due to the ease of visualization that sketchup allowed for. The main change I made was the legs. I initially planned to use 4x4s to build them, but upon designing the model, I realized that it made the table look like a pair of elephants with two legs each standing together, butts touching.

Forgive the specificity.

After deciding to use 1x4s, which would both provide a cohesive and proportional look and make the order simpler by reducing lumber types, I thought I had arrived at a design which pleased me. I later discovered the Iba Joint™, which consists of two 1x4s with 45 deg. angles on one end of each, joined together perpendicularly, to create an extremely elegant joint which revealed not the fact that the leg was made of two separate boards.

I also made my own addition to the sketchup project: the visualized cut list. By separating each one of the components from the model, I created a visual guide to each one of the cuts I needed to make. This proved to be an extremely useful tool, as it allowed me to never go back to the model during the construction process - I needed but to look at the cut visualization screenshot I saved on my phone to know what I needed to cut.

The final result.

Part 2: Building

Building the table was a long and extremely enjoyable process. I began by making all the cuts. This already posed a problem. My lumber was bad. Really bad. It was twisty, bendy and even had sap in some places. Freaking sap, man. That's what I get for buying sweet, sweet $2.32 per 6ft common boards. I paid the price in sweat. Luckily, I have more sweat than dollars to spare.

Once I decided which pieces of lumber were passable, and I selected the best lengths to use for the longer and shorter pieces, I went on to cutting. Once I had the necessary lengths, I cut the two plywood tops to length, in order to be able to visualize the positioning of the wood and to be able to build the table on the top surface, as opposed to on the air. I made the 45 deg. cuts to the legs pieces and rejoiced.

Accurate.     

 I proceeded to attach the top part of the leg support structure using pocket screws. This wasn't too complicated. Then, I used the biscuit joiner to glue the pairs of leg-pieces together. This was extremely complicated. Because of the jankiness of the boards,

I used a lot of clamps for each leg to get them to match up evenly, and left them overnight to dry. It looked a lot like this.

Claaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamps.

That was certainly the hardest part about dealing with the terrible grade lumber I purchased. From then on, it was mostly pocket screws on pocket screws, attaching the legs to the top structure, and that to the plywood top sheet. It took some adjustments to get the table not to be offset by the twists and bends that the slight warps in the wood created, but with some adjustments, that was achieved without much of a hassle. Credit to my assistant, pictured below.

Part 3: The Finished Product

After sanding the crap out of the top in order to flatten the screw-tops which were poking out through the top of the plywood, and using a short steel bar to make the leg miter cuts fit perfectly, the table was finished. The only part that I was not completely happy with was the lower plywood top, meant for storage. Because of the slight, even imperceptible angle on the legs, one of the sides of the table poked slightly out, while the other was a little bit too far in.

But I can tell people now that I built a table and that's all that matters.

Final Proj. Reflection

Finally, I’m done with my final project. I spent 10 hours over the course of three days to finish my table. This is the first carpentry project I have ever built, so almost every part of the project was a new experience to me. Thanks to the guidance of Tim and Finn, however, my project turned out alright. I made a few mistakes throughout the process with the cutting or edge-banding, but thankfully most of the mistakes I made were fixable. The only unfixable mistake was cutting the back piece of my table, as evidenced by the clear gap in the wood, but at least it wouldn’t be noticeable from the audience. I had a fun experience and feel a strong sense of accomplishment now that I am done.

Attached is the completed table, and an image of my sketchup model.

Process to completion

I can't believe I finally finished. The process was a great experience that allowed me to create something that I could 've proud of. The entire process took four days to complete: totaling at 15 hours of labor. Overall, I'm very satisfied with my project.

Day 1 - building the inner an outer framework and cutting all the necessary lengths for project 

Day 2 - completing the frame

frame 

 Shelving-  did not think ahead on how to put the shelves in, so had to take sides off one by one to get them in.

 Day 3 - wrapping up my final project. Stapling and grinding until everything came together.

Reflection on the final project

The process that led to the final creation of my project proposal was more structured than I had expected. Animating the concept in Sketch-Up provided a clear visual reference. Executing the project was perhaps the most enjoyable aspect although Tim didn't seem amused by my lack of protocol adherence. Either way it was a fun experience and I wish I had more time to polish up my project and maybe create a more extravagant piece. I will be reminded daily of the experience by the new addition to my house.

Reflecting on the Final Project

Originally thinking about what to do as a final project I was a little unsure as to what to think or even as to what to make. Excited but unsure. However the more I thought about what might be useful it seemed to make sense to build a golf ball display case for the golf team office in the Bell Center. I think that initially I was intimidated by the building process and whether or not I could create a project that would stand up to what I had envisioned in my head. However I found that through the whole process it was really the drafting process that was the most difficult, researching and trying to see what other similar cases looked like whether they had trimmed finishes, which I'm not really a fan of anyway, and what size they were, and then trying to see how could I create something similar but that might fit my taste a little better. I found that in the drafting process it was much easier for me to put down what I wanted to create using pencil and paper and drawing it out, some of my drawings being to scale with others just hand sketches to get an idea of what I wanted. I honestly think that for me the most helpful part of the drafting process was a sketch I created of how the frame would fit together, with the four pieces mapped out on a piece of graph paper, showing how my grooves for the plexiglass and backing panel would fit into the frame.

After having some hand drafts as to what I wanted to and getting out my ideas on paper I found that using SketchUp to be kind of painful. Don't me wrong it was a cool program and I found it interesting to be able to create 3D models but I was very antsy to start building and did not really have a lot of interest spending time computer drafting when I had a pretty clear picture in my head as to what I wanted to achieve.

Once I had started the construction of my project, which I started a little earlier than I think I was supposed to, I felt like i was off to the races I felt really at ease with what I was doing, and really enjoyed creating my display case, and had gotten the majority of the work done in my parents warehouse space during the thanksgiving break.

After getting back for trinity I felt like I was pretty much done with my project with only a few steps to completion, namely I needed to putty over and clean up the project sanding it down and connecting the plexiglass to the lift mechanism, and then finish it so that it would be ready to put in the team, room. All of this in honesty took way longer than I thought it would, at least the sanding and putty, the plexiglass work was pretty easy seeing as all I had to do was countersink the plexiglass, and screw it onto the lift mechanism. However there was one difficulty with the plexiglass as it tended to bend a little and I found that putting a knob on the face made it easier to slide it into place. 

As a whole I was pretty please with how my project turned out, it took a lot longer to complete than I had expect, even after all the putty work and sanding the priming of the project as well applying the paint coats took what felt like forever... Although that might have had more to do with the amount of time it took for the coats to dry so that I could continue working. But I really felt like the finished product surpassed my expectations for what I thought I was capable of doing or or building, and looked really clean especially after the coating of the semigloss paint.

Wut..? I'm done with my final project???

As hard as it is to believe, I finished my TV set for for my final project. I spent approximately seven and a half hours over the span of two days working on the project. I used pocket screws and ironed wood things on the side of the plywood, which were both new experiences for me.  I used a lot of clamps all the time too, to make sure that the whole thing dried together successfully. Thanks to the patience of Tim and Shannon, I was able to successfully build the TV set. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. Below are pictures at various times throughout the project.

Final Project Completion

Ahh my final project is complete....SAY WHAT?! I know, I am rather shocked myself that I was able to actually construct a bookshelf. I worked a total of about six and half hours on it. I was able to finish it in two days after thoroughly mentally preparing myself. I used a couple new tools such as the pocket screw and the dado blade. I found the hardest thing to do was to square everything up in the end because my cuts of wood were not all the same dimensions. This was mainly due to the fact that I am incapable of being precise and accurate when measuring and cutting. Although, I think that stems from my impatience when it comes to wood work. Edge banding I also found quite difficult, again for the fact that I have no patience when it comes to projects such as these. I learned a lot about what it takes to think about, plan out and eventually construct something entirely on your own (Well with great help from Tim and Shannon of course!) All in all, I say the project was a success. It is far from perfect, I am not going to lie and say that it is close to perfect, but it is as close to perfect as this girl could get building a bookcase!
Unfortunately, I was so caught up in the process of building the bookcase that I could not peel myself away even for a second to take pictures :/ So I do not have any pictures to show.