Last week's mentor meeting

When my mentor and I met last week we briefly discussed some community resources. He gave me his sister's number because she has done some carpentry and worked with habitat for humanity, which is really cool because that's something I would love to do! He also let me know of a possible opportunity to make some Dropbox type structures for an organization in the community! It is not official yet but I may be able to make the boxes for them and my wise project would be displayed in the community. Pretty rad opportunity if you ask me.

XDXPGG

WISE Class

Yesterday WISE met and we basically discussed some challenges and also successes that we all were having in our projects. I've been reading through my Gleaning assignment and finding it really interesting to see what the finished product looks like and how the process comes together.
We also discussed just some general expectations that some of us were lacking an understanding of in our journals and blogs and went over some helpful practices to keep up with blogging.

XDXPGG

Barnsong

Last week in WISE we watched Barnsong, which was a wise project on a wise project basically. Someone filmed another person building a barn and set it up as a documentary, complete with student created music in the background. It was really interesting to see the guy who was building the barn be interviewed because some of his struggles are exactly what I am feeling in my project. It was also pretty inspiring to see because he had such a big project and succeeded in the end. It's also really interesting to see all of the resources we have in our community for pretty much any project. Go Ithaca!

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Semi successful Lowes Visit

I went to Lowes and was able to find the hinges, knob, nails, and brads that I need. Surprisingly enough though, it is QUITE difficult to find 1/2 inch plywood that's good in both sides that's not expensive cabinet wood. The people at Lowes were really not top sympathetic that they didn't have a simple thing. Simplicity is not their money maker, I suppose. It all worked out because my dad knows a guy who has his own lumber yard and was able to get what we want and deliver it so we didn't have to struggle with it on the roof of the rav 4 (they're quite large boards). So it all worked out, but one thing I learned is that when working from a "recipe" from an old book from the high school library, a lot of things are outdated and really hard to find.

XDXP GG

An Update from the Saw

So I've been working on using the table saw, one of the best power tools out there. This first picture is of a desk that my dad and I had to alter to fit in this corner, consequentially sawing the bejesus out of it. We had some chunks of the top left over. At first I was going to use them as a lid for my box because its really nice finished wood, but it turns out it is too thick and would involve a lot more work to sand the edges into a trim than it was worth. The weight distribution would also be very awkward and no one wants that, so instead I just sawed it up for the fun of it. Isn't this the best wise project ever!? Sawing for fun. Who would have thought. But anyway it was also really beneficial because I of course am not perfect with the table saw and so I was able to make mistakes without consequences to my beloved modular cube project. The second picture is one of the cleaner cuts I was able to make on said chunks of wood.

XDXP GG

Only the "Hinge Experts" Could tell me What a Butt Hinge is

Hinges are hinges right? Wrong. There are too many to count. Fortunately, the hinge experts of SoCal have a website. Who would have thought? Here is where I found information and example pricing for small brass butt hinges. Although I'm not going to purchase my supplies from these websites, it's a good price reference so I'm prepared for what everything is going to cost.

The Exciting Life of a Phillips Head

Since there are approximately 70 billion types of screws ( don't quote me on that one, I have a tendency to exaggerate) I figured I should do a little research on the type I'm using. I found a website which sells all sorts of building supplies and was able to give me a product catalog of wood screws. Below is all of the wood screws, and then the Phillips head, which is what I will use.