Sunday, July 10, 2011

Woodworking

Would you look at the two lovely pieces of wood I created from a not-so-pretty basswood board?
IMG_4822
IMG_4823

I also made one shoe polishing brush into two block printing brushes:
IMG_4824

Impressed? (No? That's okay... I'm sure I'll create something more impressive later. Well, the pile of sawdust and shavings was impressive, but I didn't think to photograph that.)

To accomplish all this, I used (with my uncle's assistance) the table saw, radial arm saw, planer, jointer (well, my uncle did that part, but I watched), and belt sander. (My uncle assisted and did some initial rough sanding on the small block using a different, more aggressive sander, since it couldn't go through the planer.)

The blocks aren't perfect, but I decided what was left was "character". At any rate, I think I will have the prettiest pieces of wood at the block printing workshop! ;)

Things I learned (besides details on how some of the power tools worked):
1. If you wear the same clothes you just came home from the memorial in, they will get really dirty. (I guess that *won't* be the pair of shorts I wear this week! Luckily I was doing laundry right after that.)
2. The table saw sends sawdust flying back at you. (In this case, dark sawdust that gets all over your clothes, up your nose, and in your eyes... even if you're wearing glasses. I wonder if they sell all-enclosing goggles that go over glasses, and whether those work for sawdust too, or if they have enough holes/gaps that you still get dust in your eyes?)
3. Sanding, even with power tools, takes a *really* long time.

2 comments:

Swaha Miller said...

yes, you can get all enclosing goggles...safety goggles at home depot kind of stores. They will go over your regular glasses. You probably also need a mask to prevent breathing stuff in.

noricum said...

Yeah, I was thinking a mask would be a good idea too. ;)