Project Relased

I now have my project at my home. In this post are some pictures;

PROJECT OVER!! - :) or :( ??

The project is now over

There will be no news posts concerning the production of the desktop storage unit, as it's construction is completed

PS
There maybe a site redevelopment in the near future....

Lessons Missed

I have missed two double lessons of reistant materials this term;

• Prize Giving - The more recent one
• Trip to manchester with the german exchange

I apologise for any inconviniencies caused

Thanks for your consideration!

Hiya

Hoped you enjoyed all those entries

Today was the due date for the project. Fortunately, I was allowed to add those last minute touches during my lunch hour which was good. Today, I buffed the project down which made it very shiny, and also made it unbelievably smooth...

The project has now been handed in and no more additions will be made to it in school

Lesson 7 - 27/11/06

Today, I worked really hard on my container. I made sure that any remaining gaps were filled, and then I got onto the dangerous work. I put my entire container in the disc sander! This was very dangerous and risky, but it paid off as I did a good job of it. After further analysis, I saw that the box had been made perfectly smooth, but at some expense. The box had been left with lines on it from the disc sander. I needed to remove this so I set out with sand paper and a cork and began work. One side at a time, I began to remove these lines. It was hard work, but after feeling the smoothness of the wood, I knew that it would be definitely worth it. After sanding down all the sides, I needed to add that final touch. Varnish was the answer. I had little time in the lesson left, so I did what I could. I added pre-sealant solution to the wood, so that next lesson I would be ready to apply the varnish. With five minutes of the lesson left, I smoothed of the corners, and sanded it down, so that the appearance of the box became drastically improved.

Next Lesson:
· Apply the varnish
· Smooth down as much as possible
· Project Complete!

Lesson 6 – 24/11/06

Today, I completed exactly what I wanted to. Last week, I feel that I was a little slow in attaching the first hinge, although I did have to do all the marking out etc... Today, I attached the other three hinges, and was extremely pleased with the results. The hinges mounted perfectly and worked really well. The lid opens and closes perfectly, and isn’t loose either. It is tight and secure and is not likely to fall off. Last week I was a little slow in securing the hinges, but today I attached them at lightening speed! Before I could screw the screws into the lid, i had to carefully mark out where to drill, and due to the delicacy of the operation, I was forced to use a hand drill, although slow, it was easily controllable and accurate making it virtually impossible to make any mistakes. After the attaching the lid, I noticed that the lid covered one of my holes in which I was going to put in a pencil. To avoid this predicament, I used a round file to file through the space which was blocking the area where I wanted to put my pencils. It was successful, as I managed to make an arched area so when the lid shut properly and the pencil was untouched. At the end of the lesson, I began to use sand paper to finalise the project, as there were still some rough edges. Also, when I shut the lid, there is a substantial gap, to fix this, I began to cut pieces of wood to fill this – of course they are paper thin to fix the problem and are unnoticeable.
Next Lesson:
· Patch Holes
· Finish Product Using Sand Paper

Lesson 5 – 20/11/06

Today, I began to assemble my hinges. It wasn’t as easy as you may think. This is because my box has already been assembled, making screwing in the hinges even more difficult. I used a manual drill today. This is because Mr Ovenden was away, so we couldn’t use power tools (i.e. the disc sander or the power drill) I acquired an extremely small drill bit. I couldn’t properly make a drill incision into the wood. I overcame this by drilling into the wood from the other angle. This was successful, and the screws that I acquired at the weekend fitted perfectly. Of course, to attach the hinges using the screws, I had to use a screwdriver. It was extremely difficult to use it at an angle and took a great deal of force to force the screws through. Eventually, I achieved this on all three screws, and by the end of the lesson, I had successfully managed to mark out all the places (Base and Lid) where I needed to drill in all the necessary places on the base wood.
Next lesson I want to install all of my hinges, completing my project. I have marked out all the places where I need to drill on my lid, and next lesson, I will drill in these places and attach my hinges on it. After this, I will have spare time in which I will sand down any other rough areas which need to be smoothened. I will do this by using sand paper which has previously been wrapped in a cork.

Lesson 4 – 17/11/06

Today was an extremely productive lesson for me today. I did everything I hoped and more. Today, my plan was to drill through the thickened wood at the front of the side pieces. I did this by first planning out where I wanted to drill, then marking it out with a pencil. I wanted to drill three holes on each side, all of which were to be evenly spaced. After marking out where I wanted to drill, I made small pilot holes on each of the marked out areas. After completing this successfully, I used a larger drill to make larger holes in which pencils or crayons would fit in. This was very successful, and for the remainder of the lesson, we used my container as a pencil holder!
After completing the drilling, I worked on evening out some rough parts of my container. I used sand paper to smooth out the rough surfaces. It helped to wrap a cork block on sand paper. This speeded up the process and I was done in what seemed liked no time at all.
After this, I looked at how to connect my lid to the space in my box, so that I used the space I had to its full capability. I found a solution of using hinges, however school did not have any screws that were small enough so this weekend I am going to buy some that are small enough.
If I use a hinge to open and close the compartment, it would bounce up and down a lot, so to solve this problem I am going to use a lip so that it is still easy to shut, but shuts securely. I began to create is using the remaining wood I had left.
Next lesson, I am going to install the lip on my lid, and also use my hinges with the small screws that I am going to acquire during the weekend.

Lesson 3 06/11/06

Today, now that I had all my parts, I began to check them. I sanded them down till they were to the exact and utmost perfect dimensions, then I laid down my foundations. I then began to glue. I glued the pieces neatly, wiping away any excess glue at the scene with a tissue at hand. The four walls, two sides, front and back pieces were put down and I created the mini desk feature of my container. I am really moving forward and I now feel that I am well on my way to finishing the project within the allocated deadline.
On Friday, I am going to glue more of my container to the base piece. I will do this by Monday’s lesson, and will hope to begin the final phase of my project.

What I used in Today’s Lesson:
· Water based PVA Solution used to bonding wood

· Disc Sander used to perfect the exact dimensions of wood I needed

What I am hoping to use on Friday’s Lesson:
· Water based PVA Solution used to bonding wood

Lesson 2 - 03/11/06

Today, I had my pieces. The only thing left to do is assemble them. So I used blue-tack to put them all together so they fitted. They fitted nicely, so I moved on to perfecting the size of all pieces by using the disc sander and a method of trial and error. I also experimented on pieces of wood with lap joints using the mallet. This was quite unsuccessful, so I am going to use simple joints for the time being. Next week I am going to use glue to put my container together. After this, I will begin to look at how to use the rest of the space on the top of my box. I already have a lot of ideas, and will hope to explore these.

Next Time;
· Sticking it all together

· The usage of Rest of Space

This time I….
Got all my pieces and am ready and confident to put it all together

Lesson 1 - 20/10/06

Today, I had all my wood. I cut it all down to the right size, and got all the dimensions and sizes perfectly correct with the aid of the disc sander, comparing wood lengths using trial and error. After getting all my softwood cut down correctly, I used a saw to cut down my hard wood to the same size as the softwood as my front piece. This is purely ornamental, but hard wood adds an aesthetically pleasing feature to my product while keeping within budget.
After looking at all my wood, and assessing what bits needed to be stuck where, I used blue tack to stick them all together.
Next week (after the holidays) I am going to use my blue tack plan to stick all my wood together. I will also need to think about using different joints to secure the wood, to gain additional marks.

Wood Parts Using:
· MDF BASE

· HARDWOOD FRONT

· SOFTWOOD BACK

· SOFTWOOD SIDES

Update

Watch this space within the next 24 hours, as links are going to be posted to the diaries of the lessons during which I constructed the desktop storage unit

Product Evaluation

During the past weeks, I really looked forward to my resistant materials. I have always enjoyed doing practical work at school, and this last project made absolutely NO excecption. Throughout the topic, I had a great time. I can't say that my final outcome followed my plan to the exact detail, because it didn't - it was pretty damn close though! I think I made some improvements to my plan;

• The smoothed front corners
• The hinged lid instead of the rediculous lip!

Throughout the project, I also learnt a great number of new skills. For the first time, I sanded down my wood properly, really put some 'elbow grease' into it - something that i'll admit... have never really bothered to do in previous years. I learnt that sanding randomely is kind of pointless and that you have to sand in the direction of the grain to achieve the greatest possible outcome. Another new thing to me was the use of the polisher. Apparently I had supposedly used this device before - however, I had no previous recall of this.... However, I found it pretty straightforward.

I really liked the finish on my final project. SERIOUSLY Smooth :) It also had a nice colour on it. I had also applied a sanding sealer - another thing that I had never used before.

After testing it at lunchtime today, I really think that the desktop storage device really does its job! It's a versatile piece of kit. it works well, and every feature works. I think that I am going to use it at home.

Something about the unit disappoints me however. It could have been perfact bar none if I had not slipped up in just a few areas. To start with, the separator in the compartment is slightly jagged. Instead of using 3 different sized pieces, I could have just used 1 large piece of wood which would have made it sooo much neater! Also, the base of my piece is made from mdf, which is different to the rest of the unit. I should have used the same wood for everything. Finally, there is a gap between the lid and the back of the unit. I should have used smaller hinges to counter this problem.

Overall though, I am really pleased with the overall outcome, and am positive that I am going to use it in my own home in years to come!

NEXT PROJECT????? - still a mystery

Hi all!

Bad news, unfortunately, I cannot reveal what the next project is going to be. By many, is is described as top secret and the 'secret' is on a need to know basis.

Check the blog on Tuesday for More Information on the Next Blog

See you then!

My Res Mat Stuff

Hello!

This is my dt page. In the forthcoming months, if not years, I will be posting relevant information concerning my future projects with my GCSE Course in Resistant Materials

Please have a nice day :) Today!

Goodbye/day/night depending on what time it is :O

Sunil