Cutting My Wood


After I measured my wood, it was time to cut. First I would do my cross cuts, which were perpendicular to the grain. For this, I used the box saw.
The first step was to lift up the saw and carefully slide my wood under. The teeth of the saw should rest right on the line. Then I would use a bumper to put on top of my wood. Then I would clamp it down. The bumper keeps dents out of the wood. When cutting, I had to keep the saw level and I had to go back and forth.
After cross-cutting, I had to rip cut. Rip cuts were parallel to the grain. For this, I used the band saw.
You had to be very careful because the blade was very sharp and moving really fast. To cut, I had to line the blade up with my line. Then I turned on the machine and pushed the wood through the blade. I was careful not to have my fingers near it, and when I got close, I used a pusher tool/scrap piece to push the wood through.

Box Project Reflection

Making the cardboard model helped me because I could then have an idea just how big it was going to be and if I wanted to change anything, which I did. Instead of the lid being on top, I wanted it to be on the front like a door. I also used it to compare my wood so I knew I wasn’t totally off.

I thought that using all the different tools was challenging, but very helpful. The t-squares were a bit hard to use because it was hard to check all of the angles where there was no where for it to hang. The rulers weren’t too hard to use. The box saws were a little tricky at first, but then I got the hang of it and I could make a very clean cut. The band saw was a little scary, so I’ll see how it turns out when I use it to rip the sides of my board.
While I was measuring, I faced some challenges. Every time I thought I measured the lines and the angles, I measured again and it turned out to be off by a lot. I had to re-measure many times to just get even one line right.
It was also a bit hard to cut the wood because it always got caught and it got hard to push back and forth. It was so satisfying when I finally cut it and the saw drops.
Out of everything, I think that measuring was the most frustrating thing.
My next steps are to cross cut my last two boards and to rip the sides of three of my boards. Then I will sand, glue, etc., but that will be later.