HawkenProjects_2018_Hart

The final step is adding the legs to the stool. The first step is the cut out the rectangular blocks that will make the legs. They have to be the right length and thickness so they fit on the spinning machine. The rectangular blocks were about 19 inches in length which is much to long for a stool leg but it is better to have more than less. You crank the wood into the machine and when you turn it on it spins the wood insanely fast. It’s almost like a horizontal pottery wheel. Then you inch the blade closer to the spinning block, slowly cutting it down to the shape of a stool leg. You have a guide that makes sure you cut the right shape. You have to cut relatively slow to make sure wood doesn’t chip and has a clean cut. When you finish cutting it into the right shape you then sand it while its spinning but just to 80 grade. Next you can put the legs in. you drill 4 angled holes in the stool and then cut slices into the top of the legs themselves so once they are in, you can wedge them...

The next step was to start to finish the top of the stool. Because of the huge crack down the center I needed a way to make sure the crack doesn’t spread and to keep it contained. You can do this in three different ways. You can use epoxy, a butterfly, or a Dutchman. Epoxy is just filling the crack with a mixture of plastic fillings and wood dust to give it color. You mix the chemicals together and then add the wood dust and mix it into a peanut butter type thickness and then spread it into all of the cracks on the piece. You lay it in thick so make sure it goes all the way in. On my stool I used epoxy and a butterfly. A butterfly is a wooden insert that you put in a middle of a crack to keep it from spreading. You first have to cut out a butterfly. There are many models you use that have different sizes. You trace them onto a piece of wood and then cut out the major shape with the belt saw. Then you sand it down so it is similar to the model. Next you use the router to cut the hol...

My finals days at City Bench were spent making my stool. I had learned almost enough to do it all myself but I definitely needed a lot of guidance. My uncle and ben helped me through the process. I knew I wanted to make a larger stool so I had to look for a large slab. We went to the scrap pile and found a cool looking slab. It was from a unique tree but I have forgotten the name. The bark was similar to a sycamore tree and it looked like a camo pattern. We got the slab and then drew a circle on it where we wanted the stool face to be. I wanted to include the middle circles that were cool colors and I also wanted to include the big crack down the center. Once we drew the circle we got the router out and attached it to a stick that made sure it would cut rotationally. We cut out the circle and then we had the face of the stool. We then got the router again and flipped the face over and used its and its angle blade to cut a cool indent on the bottom so it was not a straight edge. ...

This past Monday we spent the day at the shop and at the mill. We first drove down to the mill in the morning but stopped at a restaurant place to have our team production meeting. All of the employees talked about the various jobs that the company has accepted or certain jobs they have been contacted about. The meeting was to reorganize and filter through their current jobs and find the things they need to accomplish this week and soon in the future. After that we went to the mill and got wood organized to try and find out what slabs we needed for a large table for Swarthmore College they were making. They had to pull out different boles of Ash from the huge stacks with the cat and then we laid them out on the ground to measure and see if we had enough. They do this kind of process when trying to figure out big projects that need a lot of planning. We went back to the shop for lunch and then I continued flattening some boards for a big project the company has coming up for Yale. C...

After routing the table you check to see if you missed anything by looking at the table with different light and feeling for any bumps or lines. This is important because when the finish goes on it makes the board more colorful and so all the mistakes will be very visible if you don’t sand them out. After the 220 final sand the table somehow feels a thousand times soften than the 180 grade. At this point all the heavy lifting and long hours working the flattener and sanding all feels worth it. These final stages make the whole process worth it. After the 220 sand you put the finish on. The finish is a combination of three different oils each making up 1/3 of the mixture. Each oil has its own use. One makes the colors pop, another protects the table with a strong outside layer, and the other adds a shine. You paint the oil onto the table in a relatively thick coat. You paint it going with the grain so it works its way into the wood. After the whole table is covered in the oil you imme...

At the beginning of this week I went to the shop twice. Again I went to work flattening some more boards. You have to make sure you do the flattening right or you could mess up the slap and the future of the project. You have to make sure you go slow and steady so the blade will not rip up the wood but you also have to make sure not to go to slow. If you go to slow the blade will linger on the wood and burn it. So that day I got better at flattening just from practice and getting more of a feel for the speed and technique needed to cut well. After the flattening I did more sanding on the boards I worked on before trying to get the lines out from the previous sands. Next I started to finish a table someone else had assembled. Finishing is the final sanding and oiling of a piece. At first I had to sand off the epoxy that was put into the cracks and divots in the table to keep it together and level. I did that sanding with the belt sander and then I had to use a different sander and the...