I stated this project by going to lowes right after it was assigned to buy wood, I bought a board of Pine. I wanted to get started on the project right away because I know that woodworking involves many processes and they do take time. I also know that in the wood shop its is imperative to be focused and have your full attention on the task at hand, which is why I dont have any process pictures I left my phone on the fifth floor when I was in the wood shop.
Last Wednesday when we had the class period to work on the project everyone was joining and planing there wood, so I decided to make my jig. Making the jig involved some out of the box thinking and lots of precise measuring. During the whole process I was not scared to ask for help and the people in the wood shop were very patient and helpful. I measured a board on the belt sander and then, measured a channel, cut it out and used the staple gun to connect the two pieces of wood. I also measured out two and a half inches and put a screw in through the bottom to hold the cylinder in place to sand. I found a scrap of wood to test the jig out and the circle was not five inches, so I had to replace the screw and on the second test the circle came out to be five inches.
I then got to work joining and planing the wood, after that I cut the wood down and then started to glue. When gluing I paid attention to the grain direction of the wood so the shapes would have a nice pattern on them. I used lots of clamps when gluing and left the block in the shop overnight to dry. I went back sunday to start cutting the shapes and was faced with the problem that when I rejoined and planed my glued block, it was not square so I had to redo it. Then cutting was a challenge because the table saw is only three inches high at its full height. Fortunately there was another jig for the table saw that let my cut through and rotate the block three times to cut all the way through. I completed my cube on the table saw to get it as precise as possible, I cut the length on two sides to be 5 inches and 1 sixteenth long, the other two sides were cut down to five inches on the planer so they were precise. To sand down the remaining sides they were not five inches I measured out five inches and put a tape boarder around the top of the cube to have a visual aid and not sand to much, this extra step worked very well.
With the remaing block of the wood I cut another square that was a little larger then five inches around the sides, but the height was five. I then took this piece to the band saw to do relief cuts and then rough out the circle shape. To guide my measurements and cuts I used a compas to draw a five inch circle and then one circle on the outside of the first. After the cuts on the band saw were complete I Got to use my circle jig to sand the rough cuts into a cylinder, this was the most satisfying step in the whole process.
To finish both pieces I hand sanded them with 150 grit paper then 220. I used polyurethane, which was rubbed on in light coats with a rag. I did four coats spaced out three hours apart. I then sanded the pieces with 220 grit sand paper and put on a finish coat.
Lisa Parrino 