Work log
- 1. Product Work Log Name_____________________________________________________ Date ________________ Product ________________________________________________________________________ Activity: Date/Time: Prepared the shop for upcoming Comment/Suggestions: projects. Cleared out a cubby, and After sitting down 1/18/2012 – 1 hour bench in the corner of the room with my facilitator specified for my personal use only. and scheduling when I could come by he Commentary: seemed like a pretty Short fairly easy day of preparation, cool, decent guy. and introduction to the equipment Date/Time: Activity: Comment/Suggestions: Safety courses took up the largest part Apparently my 1/19/2012 – 1 hour 30 of the day; afterwards I was shown the facilitator doesn’t mins different pen kits, designs, and believe in the safety materials I could work with for now. rules he’s teaching…I know this because he Commentary: has personal cut off Learned where/when to put your the same thumb eight hands when dealing with saws/lathes times. Date/Time: Activity: Started first batch of five basic pens. 1/20/12 – 3 hours Commentary: Heavily, and I mean HEAVILY supervised by facilitator. Started by drilling a hole through the blocks of wood in 10 pieces (2 pieces per pen). Wasn’t allowed to touch drill, or the saw that cut the main edges off of the block for easy grinding on the lathe. By the end of the day they were fully drilled, bored, and the tubes were glued inside. The corners were sawed off so that they represented a hexagon rather than a square.
- 2. Date/time: Activity: Started grinding down first pens on 1/22/12 – 3 hours lathe. Commentary: I wasn’t allowed to try anything cool when it came to this batch. Only the basic pen shape that everyone’s used to. Really extremely boring day of holding a chisel-like-object in pretty much the same place as I ground down the wood slowly. Extremely tedious, and my instructor kept laughing at me… Date/Time: Activity: 1/23/12 – 3 Hours Even more Grinding...yay Commentary: After I arrived I had another day of tedious grinding, and saw dust almost all day long. Instructor left me to it as I attempted to suffocate myself by holding my breathe. Eventually they were ready for the next stage. Sanding. Pretty much the same thing except I sanded them down and started polishing. Started with a 400 grain piece and advanced up in grain count by 400 until reaching 12,000. Started extremely dull, and hazy but by the time I was done it looked amazing…I was actually pretty proud of myself.
- 3. Date/Time: Activity: Applied finish, and assembled pens 1/25/12 – 3 hours Commentary: We applied the finish which was simply high grade craftsman’s super glue that gave it a bright sheen, and a hardness that would keep it from scratching, or cracking easily. Date/Time: Activity: Started new batch of pens but this time 1/26/12 – 3 Hours I was allowed to choose how many, what type of wood, and the design. Commentary: I decided on a few pieces of red oak, some deer antler, and some zebra striped wood from Australia. I wasn’t allowed to use any of the really nice pieces, or any high grade plastics, but at least it wasn’t as dull as the previous ones were. Date/Time: Activity: Same steps as before prepped the area, 1/27/12 – 3 Hours cut blocks into hexagonal shapes, started grinding away. Much lighter mood because I was left largely alone by my facilitator. Commentary: I’ve by this point decided that I never ever want to do this as a main source of income…extremely tedious and it’s taking up my entire life. I have to spend 3 hours every day after school in the shop.
- 4. Date/time: Activity: After spending first half grinding I 1/28/12 – 3 hours started sanding Commentary: Only good news is that I’ve become much faster at grinding so now it doesn’t take nearly as long. Sanding’s the same way except I almost ruined a pen by letting the sand paper heat up almost to the point of open flame. Actually melted the paper to the pen. Took my almost 10 minutes to get it all off. Date/Time: Activity: Finished sanding, and started glossing. 1/29/12 – 3 hours Commentary: Apparently two of my pens were good enough for a higher grade glossing. Instead of super glue he used real finishing which made them look way better than the previous batch. I now have 15 finished pens. Yay. Date/Time: Activity: Choose wood, started grinding, and 2/15/12 – 3 hours prepping Commentary: After taking a MUCH needed break I’m back to work on another batch of pens. Only doing five this time so that I can better focus on the details. These will be the best hopefully that I present to the judges.
- 5. Date/Time: Activity: Continued grinding at a very slow pace 2/16/12 – 3 hours Commentary: I decided to give these pens a nice smooth but raised groove for holding the pen. Hopefully this will turn out nice or it’s another mind numbing attempt in my future. Date/time: Activity: Finished final touches on the grinding, 2/17/12 – 3 hours and looked over the different finishes I could use. Commentary: After a solid six hours of grinding the pens turned out pretty nice looking. I start sanding tomorrow, and my facilitator liked them so much he’s letting me choose any of the finishes. Date/Time: Activity: Sanding and finalized on finishes. 2/18/12 – 3 hours Commentary: Sanding was pretty easy because I didn’t scar the wood too bad during grinding. Managed to finish all of them today. Date/time: Activity: 2/19/12 – 2 hours Applied all the finishes, and let them dry, assembled all of the pens except for one which I intend to Assemble in front of the judges. Commentary: Final touches for my project. Hopefully last day I’ll need to work on them.
- 6. Date/Time: 2/21/12 – 4 Hours Activity: Cleaned up my work area, collected my pens, and said my good byes. Commentary: Today was my last day working with my facilitator as I had all of the pens I would need for my senior project. I took not only my pens with me but a vast increase in knowledge I didn’t intend to ever let go of.