Assignment 3: Summary of the Project

For the project, I built a vessel out of walnut wood to hold my collection of Japanese and English handheld Pokemon video game cartridges.  First, I made lots of sketches trying to decide the best way to represent the video games through shape and texture of the box, as well as represent the over all concept of childhood.  After choosing walnut as my wood, I glued and clamped it into a solid block in the wood shop.  Then, I glued my patterns to the top and side and cut it into the pieces of my box.  I went home and sanded the inside parts of the box and glued it together.  After it was dry, I used wood filler to make sure there were no gaps where the wood had been glued together.  Once that dried, I used a power sander to sand with 60 grit sandpaper.  I had to use a power sander because when I was cutting my block, I used a larger bandsaw because it was so tall and heavy, which caused really noticeable saw marks.  After sanding with the 60 grit, I worked down to 100, 150 and eventually 220.  Then I cleaned all the sawdust off and put a clean satin polyurethane finish on it, which really helped the color.  I am very pleased with how my box turned out. 

During the project I learned many things.  I learned about the different types of wood the wood shop at KU has, and about their grains, hardnesses, and colors.  I learned how to glue and clamp wood together, as well as how to use a band saw and power sander, which I had never used before.  I also learned how to apply finish to wood.  Then, after I had my box complete, I learned countless tips and tricks about In-Design, but it is still difficult to use.  

Different things I would have done during the project would be to use the band saw more carefully.  I rushed cutting a lot of my pieces, and there were really noticeable saw marks that I had to sand out later.  It was a lot more work that I could have avoided, but no one told me about that in the beginning.  

Otherwise, I really enjoyed the project.  It made me go down to the wood shop and use tools that I would have otherwise probably never used because I had never been taught.  The project also made me use In-Design which, up until now, I had tried to avoid.  I learned a lot and hope to use it in future projects and assignments I have.