Scott Wald Project 1: Building with hand tools

 Process

The first part of making the tool tote is to create a design in fusion360. This extremely specific software is useful in the building process because of how you can specify exact dimensions in the blue prints. After this, it is useful to sketch all of the building pieces on a piece of paper and label them all with letters. The next step is to carefully draw out the tool tote pieces on a large piece of plywood. Next, the chop saw needs to be used to cut the plywood into more digestible and workable pieces. After this the bandwidth saw needs to be used to cut out the exact pieces needed for the project. This does not solidify the design though because pieces are still free from each other, so they can be switched around based on the builder's preference. In my case, I moved two walls from holding together a smaller handle to be at either end of the tote to hold a long bar, and therefore opening more room within the tote for larger tools. This handle was made by finding a nice long block of cedar and cutting it down into a thinner block. After this I used the belt sander to create the cylindrical shape necessary to comfortably hold the tote. The final steps involve fitting pieces together and sanding off extra material so that the tote can be drilled together. A modest amount of screws should be used to properly hold the tote together, but not too little so that it falls apart, and especially not too many so that the screws conflict with each other. After this, the tote's corners can be rounded off using hand tools and rough surfaces can be hand sanded in accordance with the builder's preferences. 

Result

The most common question I was asking throughout this project was "How do I cut this?" Often enough the tools in the makerspace were properly suited to cut in the exact ways I had hoped for, but sometimes the cut was a bit too abstract for a lot of the cutting machines. This meant that the sander became very useful to me for the smaller and more random cuts I needed to accomplish. For example, in order to make my handle I carefully rotated the block of wood very carefully for long periods of time on the belt sander to achieve a comfortable circular shape. Before cutting was completely done, I asked myself if certain ways of assembling the tote were possible. As long as there were 4 sides plus a bottom all connected together, the tote would be a tote. 

Reflection

Initially going into the drawing and designing. I didn't have a clear idea of what unique tweaks I wanted to do, so I mostly stuck to the dimensions and shapes from Mr. Hodge's tutorial video. I think this helped me for the cutting because I had reliable blocks that I could later change if I wanted to. Also, I learned that the drawing doesn't necessarily need to be exact as long as the cutting results in equally boxy pieces so they can be put together in whatever way desired. Another thing I learned is that when drilling screw into wood, it is a good idea to make a little crater at the base of the hole so that the entire screw can comfortably enter the wood.