Weekly Reflection

 May 23, 2021


This past week I have made lots of progress. I began work on the bench part of the porch swing. I started off by cutting the pieces to their rough length. Then after that I did multiple dry fits to make sure everything will go together properly. Because of the dry fits, I found some issues that may have otherwise gone overlooked. This includes changing the angle of the backrest to make it more comfortable and general changes to make the overall project more structurally sound. After double checking that everything went together properly, I started assembly.  After a couple days of work the bench was finished and ready to get mounted. Greg and I found the ideal height and got lengths of chain and other hardware to attatch the bench to the stand. IT"S COMPLETE!!! Weelllllll, not quite. ALthough it is "finished", there are still a couple of finishing touches that I would like to add such as removing pencil marks, sanding any rough enges, adding grease to the chains to remove the squeak, and any other little details that will improve the quality of the swing and prolong its life for many years to come.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Weekly Reflection

Image
       This week I have made nice progress on my porch swing style bench that will be placed on campus near the firepit for future students and faculty to enjoy. I started off by coming up with designs and having Greg (my mentor) check over them. After the designs were approved, I had the required lumber delivered to the school. Once the lumber arrived I quickly started work on making the stand. After I completed the stand I tested it for stability. I realized that although the stand was sturdy enough if treated properly, it stood no chance to the wrath of students to come. Taking this into consideration, the best option was to completely redesign and rebuild the stand from the ground up. Although it is a setback and took a while, I am happy the issue was caught at the beginning vs being a problem later on. After this issue was recognized, an entirely new stand has been designed and constructed. I am now able to start progress on making the swing Bench
Read more

Day Ten

Image
 May 20, 2021 Today I got to work at 10:50 and worked until 4:15. During this time I worked on assembling the bench. Because of the multiple dry fits, I had done previously, it was really easy for me throughout the entire assembly process. I started by adding the slats that people will be sitting on. After that, I added the slats to the backrest. The reason I did the slates first was that if I had the armrests attached, I would not have been able to fit the drill to screw the slats down. After everything was assembled, I gave it a once-over with some sandpaper to knock down any noticeable rough edges.
Read more

Day Seven

Image
  May 17, 2021 Today I started working at 8:10. I started on building the bench that will attach to the stand and become the swing.  I followed the plans I had and rough-cut all the pieces to length. This allowed me to lay out the pieces and see if there are any issues with the design. Although the pieces would fit fine, Greg was concerned about the weight of the bench. The bench will be made out of 2x6's for the frame and 1x6's for the slats. Taking Greg's concern into consideration, we planed the boards down to make them thinner. Not only did this reduce the overall weight, it also gave the boards a better/smoother finish.
Read more