Week 12

Being a huge nerd, I decided to make my coffee table into a "golden rectangle" which is a math phenomenon named by the ancient Greeks. The ratio of width to length is 1:1.618 , this ratio is believed to be the most pleasing to the eye which will hopefully make my coffee table look really nice. I decided to make the length of the table 38 inches because it seemed like a reasonable length for a coffee table. Also if I make it bigger then the width would also be bigger and I didn't want it to be too wide. So dividing 38 by 1.618 a got the width to be 23.5 inches. Now, the is much too tall for a coffee table so instead of using that for a height I divided the width by 1.618 getting 14.5 inches for the height. Thus, making my coffee table a golden rectangle in every view except looking straight on in the front. I drew out the different sides so that you could get a better mental image of the dimensions. I'm having some malfunctions uploading the picture from my phone right now so i'll fix it next period when I'm in the small lecture hall

Week 11

this week I looked up how to make new wood look old and I was really surprised with the results. What I found was to let steel wool sit in vinegar for a while until it rusts and in a seperste container make some tea. First paint the tea onto the wood and let it dry. Then do the same with the rusty steel wool mixture, the tea has a small effect but the steel wool makes a big difference. I'm planning on doing this with a shelf that I want to make. Here are some pictures from the specific post that I found. 

week 9

    I forgot to post last week because it was spring break so I wasn't very focused on school work. however, this week i researched hidden screws and how to hide screw holes. The reason I researched this was because I knew that there was a way to hide screws when making a deck but I wasn't sure how. It turns out you can buy or make a jig that has an angled hole in it. You line the hole up with the edge of the board so that when the screw goes in, it goes in the board on the side, that way the next board will hide the screw. I thought that was really cool because decks just look so much nicer when there aren't little screw heads everywhere. While I was researching this topic I found a way to cover screw holes even when making furniture and going straight through the front face of the board. When you set the screw you have to make sure it gets seated into the wood so that there is a hole above the head. then you take the same material and cut out a circle the same size of the hole. The way this is done is with a special bit that is shaped liked a circle so when it drills, the material in the middle stays there. you take out the circle, jam it into the hole, and when you sand it, the dust will fill in the lines around it and it will be virtually invisible.
        below on the left is a wood plug and on the right is a deck with hidden screws.