Wood Workshop- H

Today was the start of the wood workshop and I learnt of the three objects I would be making over the course of the next two weeks up to the Christmas Holidays. I must admit that wood is one of my least favourite of the main materials (wood, plastic metal, fabric) to work with, due to it's unpredictable nature, and its tendency to distort of be damaged in some way (splinters, dents, warping, swelling, grain, splitting etc.) however I cannot deny it's aesthetic properties. So it is with some apprehension that I approach this workshop, but hopefully all will go smoothly.

The three objects I will be making are a construct combining two joints, a box for the trammel I made here, and a small table. The first two must be made to description, however the table will be my own design based on a basic template.

We began with the joint construct, which is a H shape (above), made in Pine, which uses a Lap joint at one end and a Mortise and Tenon at the other. It also features a champfer along the inside edges. The aim of this is to understand the properties of the material and get used to working with it, the challenge is that it is made entirely by hand tool, no machines. Over the day I have made good progress and am nearly finished with this, I have only to clean up the champfer and faces and I will be done (it is not being glued). Tomorrow I will start on the Table and Box. Here are some pictures of the construct.

 Making the piece above involved a number of new tools for me including the clamp below, which is inserted into a hole in the workbench and allows a greater freedom than simple G clamps.