Day seven!

I think this past two weeks has been a very good learning experience. We really got to review on stuff I had forgot about math wise, and I also learned a lot about how to build and how to be a carpenter. It did start off really boring and informative, but once we started cutting the experience just kept getting better. I really think cutting with the mitre saws was really fun, because it was a rush and cut the wood really fast. I have to say painting was by far the worst part of this intersession, it just took so long and the sun was just burning me to pieces. But, after seeing the final product and how everything turned out it was really worth the sweat and hard work. I wasn't a part of the corn hole group, but I am very proud on how they turned out also. They really look professional and non-kiddish. I did help out with sewing the corn bags together and that was also a very great learning experience. I think working with Ms. Smith [Michael's great aunt] was part of why it was so great. She was really nice and helpful and knew her stuff about sewing really well. I think i made about four corn bags and I am very happy about that even though it sounds like it isn't that much at all, but hey it isn't an easy thing. I made a couple mistakes which made me have to do stuff over, which did slow things down which is the reason I only made four of them. Overall this intersession was definitely worth being in and I am very proud I was able to be a part of it.

Day six!

If you had 27 "2x4" pieces of wood the total width would be "108" and the total height would be "54". Yeah that was really random but Mr. Shulman wanted us to figure that out. Today the biggest challenge in constructing the gaga pit was just drilling the screws through the ply wood and into the "2x4" studs. So, to overcome this challenge I just had someone look on the other side to see if i went in the wood or not, but other than that I would just keep drilling it in the same hole in different angles which got really frustrating at times, that is why it is good to have a spotter. My work plan for tomorrow is to get the top pieces all set up and sturdy, then we're all going to put our names on one of the walls, and then put the rules of gaga on one of the walls also. We also have to touch up on some of the wood and make sure the paint looks nice and perfect so there isn't any scratch/scuff marks on it. After we have done that will be FINISHED!

day four and five!

The challenge that I have faced would be, having our measurements slightly off. And when nailing the wood, we didn't hold down the wood that much so then the nail came out throughout the side of the wood and we had to yank the nails out a couple of times. How i have came over the challenges was that i told one of the instructors to help and we got a chance to redo the measurements and we trimmed down the wood that had our measurements on it that were incorrect. Overcoming the nail challenge, we hammered out the nail reverse. Matched the wood correctly, evened it out and re nailed.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of that happened throughout the past week, happens to be actually making the corn hole board, and going through the process very fast, which we are likely almost done with our project. I'm also proud In using different tools i never used in my life. And helping my group out/working, in having pride in building the corn hole board. I'm proud of all these accomplishments because I now I'm confident in what I'm building, and what I'm doing for our whole HTMMA community. What we have to do where we left off was, that we have to finish our design in pencil on our corn hole board, and we are hopefully going to get our paint from home depot and paint our design. How my group and me get there, is trying our hardest of all and not talking/concentrating. Another way is to just avoid talking to our friends, and our group as a team can decide more quick and faster so we can get to our next step.

day three! 3-5-08

I think this intersession has been going good so far. I leanred more about Mathematics, angles and geometry. I also learned about safety of tools, of when to use them and when not to. The tools that we have covered so far in this intersession were hand saws/saws, lumber,wood, and mitre saws. I knew how to use a handsaw but I never knew they way to use it and I never knew the difference between a Japanese saw, and an American saw. I learned also to use the different tools I never worked with. On the first day we had Larry Rosenstock talk to us about safety of the tools and different carpentry terms. On the first day I think I did a good job, like I was talking to my friends sometimes and I would make drum beats on the table. Over the last 3 days I kind of developed working and paying more attention/ being more interested in carpentry. On the seconded day we learned how to cut wood, and measure. Third day we had Will Spencer talk about safety of mitre saws, and as today we used them, which were really fun, and amazing since I never used one. Over all I like carpentry, using tools, and learning mathematics and basic carpentry safety and also having pride in building what we put hard work in.

day two! 3-4-08

Hello again, this was our second day in my inter-session! Today our wood for the gaga pit arrived! The first thing we did today was (in our crews) we distributed the wood evenly to each group. We measured out how big each piece of wood was exactly. This was important because if we didn't know how big each piece of wood was exactly our cuts would be off which would mess up the whole project. We found out that all of our 2" x 4" x 10' were the same size except for one. If we just would have measured a couple and skipped the one that was odd sized our whole project would be messed up. One thing about carpentry is everything has to be perfect, even 1/16 of an inch could do a lot of damage to your final project! Later on in the day we practiced cutting on cheap pieces of wood. I got to tell all of you... cutting with a handsaw is no walk in the park, the hardest part is starting it. So if I was going to teach someone how to use an American handsaw I would first make sure they are wearing all the required equipment like goggles, something sturdy to hold the wood down, supervision, wood and of course a saw. Now that they are ready to cut I would next teach them how to start cutting. NOTE: Make sure your measurements are check twice before you start cutting. To start cutting with an american saw, pull the saw back easy a couple times to make a nice smooth rift. Now that you have your rift, try and get a constant motion of pulling and pushing the saw. This process is tiring but in no time if you do all the steps you will have a nice cut. Today we had to memorize a "magic number" by saying it 10 times in a row. The "magic number" is 67.5. Our gaga pit will be in the shape of a octagon, each corner will be 135˚. Half of that is 67.5 which is the "magic number. ooOOoOOoooOooooOOOo. 

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day one! 3-3-08

Today we learned the very basics of carpentry. Including the safety, tools, types of wood, styles to cut. The difference between a section view and plan view is the section view is a sketch from the side of your project, and the plan view is a bird's eye sketch (top view). As I told you, we learned a bit about safety today, so each crew made a skit about something unsafe. The second part of the skit is us showing how the unsafe thing could have been avoided. Our crew chose to show why not to horseplay while sawing a piece of wood. We showed me cutting while another kid jumped back and the saw cut my fingers off (no one was harmed in the making of this skit). We also learned about different saws, like the difference between an American saw and Japanese saw. An American saw's teeth are made to push through the wood (when you push forward it cuts better). A Japanese saw's teeth are made to pull through the wood (when you pull backward it cuts better). Mr. Larry Rosenstock visited our class to teach us different things. Throughout his whole lecture he couldn't stress the saying "measure twice, cut once". That means check your measurement AT LEAST TWO TIMES! I cant wait to learn more throughout the next two weeks.

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Intro

Hello everyone, my name is Sky and I go to HTMMA. For the next two weeks I will be blogging about my inter-session. I chose to do Junior carpenters for my inter-session. What our goal to do during the next two weeks is build a pit designated for a fun game called "gaga-ball"! In order to do this we were divided into eight crews. All except one had three people in it (the one without three people had two people). Chad, Lena and I make up group two. We are one of the four crews building the gaga pit. The other four crews are building beanbag targets. To me it sounds like a fun two weeks! 

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