Blog 2


When I arrived I immediately started learning a lot. I came to the shop first, where they do all the finer things. This is where they straighten, cut, put together, and gloss the furniture. I met all of the employees and I went straight to work helping plane a couple of boards. The process of creating a flat surface across many boards. We fed the boards through the planer and they came out flat. We ran them through multiple times to make sure they were smooth and even then we started to glue them together. In wood working the glue process is very important it can mean everything towards the structural integrity of the piece. So we laid down the clamps and then put the boards down and glued them together. We then tightened the clamps to make sure it was solid. After, we put down clamps on the top side so it does not bend a certain way. I then learned the basics of cleaning up the shop and where to dump the excess saw dust. There is a huge pile behind the shop. The next thing I learned is one of the most important parts of their furniture making process. Flattening. Flattening is extremely important because it turns a crazy piece of wood into a workable slab. After the wood is cut at the mill it is relatively straight. But after the drying process the wood becomes warped. Warps include: cupping, twisting, crooking, and bow. All of these deformities must be cut down and flattened with the flattener. The machine a bench grinder attached to wheels on a rig that slides around over a huge table. You put the wood under it and then lower the machine and start to take off layers slowly, starting with the highest points on the slab.

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