Michael Hughes Senior Project

Today we got to the wood-shop at 9 in the morning. I did not expect that this day would be so long, I was expecting to be done everything by 2 in the afternoon. However, we are still not done and have some things to finish up tomorrow. Today we glued and cut all the cutting boards to length. While we were glueing the cutting boards together, we were putting finish on the jewelry boxes and buffing it out. I am very pleased with the jewelry boxes and I hope people by them. After all the cutting boards were glued together, we put them through the plainer in order to clean up the faces of the cutting boards. We had all the cutting boards ready to be sanded around 3 in the afternoon. I started sanding while Netburn cut the the rounded over edge into the boards. I was sanding for about an hour and a half. We left at around 5 o'clock and I felt like we had a very productive day.

This week had a lot of ups and downs. I messed up countless times and the drawers in the beginning of the week and it was really frustrating. The pieces to the drawers had to fit together perfectly and I had to keep sanding and making sure everything fits, then sand some more. I would do that process for about 30 min for each drawer. Then, I had to sand inside the grooves because they weren't sliding into the box easily. The drawers were easily the most frustrating part of this project. However, something I enjoyed was helping Greg with the saw dust collectors. We got to see how the saw dust is collected and stored which I though was pretty cool. The first thing I noticed when I saw them was that you could see the different layers of wood that people have cut off. Later in the week, we started to work on the jewelry boxes with a little faster pace because we knew we had to finish them by the end of the week. Working on the jewelry boxes made me vert stressed because It is a pain tr

Today we didn't work as much we would've hoped. I had a slow start to the day and so did Netburn. We worked on the Jewelry boxes as much as we could. We started working on the separators that you put into the drawers. I was honestly pretty relieved to have some easier work, so I Don't have to worry to bad about messing up. The separators fit almost perfectly into the drawers and it was a good feeling. All we need to do is attach the lids to the jewelry boxes and finish the cutting boards. I have a good feeling about the end products.

Today was a boring day. Mainly because I spent half of it processing wood for the cutting boards. We had so much wood to process it took at least 2 hours to get all of the wood flattened out. However, I had to finish the drawers before I started on the cutting boards so I worked on the drawers first. I was not looking forward to the drawers since I've been working on them for so long. Eventually, I finished the drawers and was so happy. After the drawers were done, I processed the wood. Netburn was working on Kelly's jewelry box and he seemed to be doing a very productive job with that.

Today was easily the most productive we have had so far. Netburn and I were both very focused and we accomplished what we wanted to. We also got to help greg out with the sawdust collector. I've seen the collector once before when greg showed me it, but this time we had to empty out all the bags. We took the bags to a dumpster behind the rink which is where we dumped the sawdust. After we helped greg, we worked for a little more and came up with a good plan for the next couple days that will hopefully be the final plan.

Today was a rough day. We got to the shop earlier because we know how much work the jewelry boxes are going to be, and those need to be done by the end of this week. I spent the whole day working on the drawers for the jewelry boxes while Netburn worked on the lids, which take a lot of complicated cuts. Also, if those cuts aren't precise, then the whole lid won't fit together or it won't look nice. We left for lunch at 12:30 and then we went to go get more wood right after. It was a quick turn-a-round, and we needed more wood for the cutting boards. We got back at 2 and worked until 3:15 so we had enough time to go to sports. After sports and dinner we came back to the wood-shop. My goal was to finish the drawers that have been driving me crazy all day. I end up glueing them and half of the drawers don't fit. It was a bad ending to the day.

Today was a very weird and confusing day. I knew Netburn was still at home so I decided to go to the shop a little later than usual. I got to the shop at 10 o'clock and got everything set up to cut and be put together. However, I saw greg leave in his truck so I assumed he went to go get something for the shop. I left and came back at around 1:30 because I couldn't make any cuts without Greg in the wood-shop with me. Once I got back, I made some more cuts the drawers of the jewelry boxes. I didn't do much because it was a busy day for the table saw and that's what I needed to use. I left the shop at around 3 to go and get ready for sports.

This week was the most work we’ve had to do so far. A lot of things went wrong, but there were also some things that went our way. I knew it was going to be a tough week because we had to work on the jewelry boxes, which are very complicated in terms of measurements and angles and such. We spent a lot of extra hours on some days trying to get work done because we know we are short on time. I know that I have to finish the drawers this upcoming week which is going to be a pain because there are so many different techniques and different cuts I have to do in order to make the drawers fit into the box. Our plan for the rest of senior project is to finish the three jewelry boxes and then mass produce about 15 or maybe 20 more cutting boards. We want to sell more cutting boards because we sold our first batch in less than 5 minutes. After we sold all of them, we realized that the cutting boards are going to be our best way to make profit. We can also do engravings this time, because spencer

Today we spent the day dropping of cutting boards. We went to lunch and also delivered some cutting boards to specific places because some people couldn't make it to lunch. We dropped some cutting boards off for Lulu in the training room. On our way out, we ran into Kelly and we had a nice talk about her jewelry box and places to get supplies around Andover. Once all the cutting boards were dropped off, I left for the weekend to go to my cousins house in Medford.

Today, we got to the woodshed at around 9 in the morning. The first thing we did was put the first couple coats of mineral oil onto the cutting boards to make them look nice and ready to sell. We finished them at around 10, right as Greg and the rest of the school went to assembly. We spent the time going over the email we drafted up the day before and sent it out at around 10:30 or maybe a little earlier. After I sent the email. I wasn't expecting to get a response for a while. So, when I pulled my phone out and there were at least 10 emails, I was shocked. I didn't know what to do because I was not prepared for the abundant amount of responses. We sold out in no more than 4 minutes. I didn't know if we gave those people really good deals or if it was because we sent that email out right before mothers day. We started making cutting boards for people who didn't get one. A lot of people seemed to want the cutting board with the juice grooves, so we started making more o

Today was another short day because the woodshed was locked. I walked over at about 9:30 in the morning to see if anyone was there or if it was unlocked because we don't need an adult in the woodshed to glue. However, it was locked so I walked back to the dorm and Netburn and I talked about how we were going to sell the cutting boards. We thought that we could send out an email sometime tomorrow telling everyone why we are selling and where are all the funds going. We also went to get mineral oil for the cutting boards. The mineral oil is what keeps the wood from breaking down the cutting board over time.

Today was a highly needed rest day. We did not spend nearly as much time as we did yesterday because we were very tired and fatigued. I continued to work on the drawers while Netburn finished on the corner pieces and sides of the jewelry boxes. Something that I found out is that we mess up a lot more while making the jewelry box because we keep messing up the measurements because we are so tired. I probably spent about 15 minutes trying to figure out where the groves in the sides of drawers would go. These grooves are so that the drawer can slide in and out of the jewelry box. Then we got all the pieces ready for the drawers to be glued together probably Friday because tomorrow is earth day. So, if the woodshed is locked then we will try to figure out other tasks we need to accomplish.

Tuesday May 7th, 2019 Today was a tiring day, there is no other way to describe it. Netburn and I woke up and what to the shop at around 9:15. We spent the whole day working on the jewelry boxes. I did not expect these jewelry boxes to take up so much time and be so tedious work. We have to sand a lot of wood and the measurements need to be perfect in order for the box to fit together well. I messed up the measurements about 3 different times on the same piece of wood because I was so tired I couldn't think straight. I spent the whole day trying to put the drawers together while Netburn spent the whole day sanding the little pieces of the box by hand. We even went to extra help to try and finish before the next day but we really underestimated the time it would take to complete these boxes.

We woke up earlier than usual this time, because we new we had a lot of work to do. Netburn and I woke up around 8:30 in order to get to the wood shop by 9 o'clock. We started processing most of the wood for the jewelry boxes. We glued up the main part of the jewelry boxes before we went to lunch. After we got back from lunch we worked on the jewelry boxes some more and started processing wood for the drawers. I though today was a good day and we got a lot done on our jewelry boxes. Our next step is to finish the jewelry boxes in the next couple days.

Week 1 This week was not really what I expected it was going to be. I didn’t expect to buy our own wood at all, which actually makes the experience so much better. That was my first learning experience from the week. I learned that you pay for the word per foot, and that there are a lot more species of wood than I originally thought. I’ve been having a pretty good time working in the woodshop so far. I like it because I can listen to music and make cool things out of wood for as long as I want. I also like it because I get to hang out with my best friend David Netburn all day long. However, there have been some moments where I felt a little stressed because the plan changed and we started to improvise. But now, I feel good about our improvisations in response to the sudden change in plans. I feel good because we made some pretty cool looking cutting boards. Another surprise that wasn’t expected, was that we actually got some offers from people asking for specific things. I thought

Friday May 3rd, 2019 Today was a little different than the previous days. I went to the wood-shop at around 10 and Netburn had to give a tour for some hockey kid. While Greg was at assembly and Netburn was busy, I sanded more cutting boards. When Netburn got back, we glued two pieces of wood together so we could start the jewelry box the next time we are in the wood-shop. Then we finished some more cutting boards before going to lunch. After lunch, Netburn and I went to Belletetes so we could buy safely glasses and ear protection that we liked. Then I had to get ready for my lacrosse game, so that was the end of the day for us.

Thursday May 2nd, 2019 I woke up at around 9:30 and got ready to go to the wood-shop in order to be there at 10. When David and I got to the wood-shop, we started the day by continuing our work on the cutting boards. We glued together the pieces and then we sanded the cutting boards that already got glued together. After we finished more cutting boards, we went to lunch. We came back to the wood-shop around 1:15 and worked on some more cutting boards, and we also picked out a plan for the jewelry box we are going to make. After we picked out the plan for the jewelry box, we went to our sports and had practice. At the end of the day, David and I met up to talk about the charity we were going to donate the money too. We came to a conclusion, with the help of David's mom, and decided that we were going to donate the money to a charity that makes bullet proof vests for dogs that are in the forces.

Wednesday May 1st, 2019: 3 Hours  Today was a busy day for me because we didn't have a lot of time where Greg was in the wood-shop, so we had to do as much as we could in the two hours we had before Netburn and I had to go to our games. When we got to the wood-shop, Netburn and I glued a bunch more cutting boards together and finished the ones from the day before. Today was very similar to the day before, except for the amount of time that we had to work. After we got back from our games, Netburn and I went over other ideas for the bigger aspects of our project. We spent about an hour going over ideas for other items we could make and how we were going to sell the cutting boards. One idea that we came up with was that we could convince the kids at proctor to buy a cutting board for their mom. Other Ideas to sell our products are to use eBay, go up at assembly, tell our families, etc. We also decided that the charity we are going to donate the money too is a dog charity, because e

Tuesday April 30, 2019: 4 hours Today, Netburn and I focused on our cutting boards. We went to the wood-shop around 10 in the morning, after we did some cardio at the gym. We spent the first part of our day processing the wood we would need for hour cutting boards. The processing of the wood took about 2 hours, and once that was done, we cut the wood to the dimensions of the cutting boards we are going to make. Our plan is to make our cutting boards 17 inches long and 10 inches wide. While we were cutting the wood, we made a mistake and cut some of the pieces to the wrong width. However, we improvised and made 4 different looking cutting boards, and we made the rest of the cutting boards from our original plan. After our sports, we went back to the wood-shop at 6:15 to finish gluing some of cutting boards we made earlier in the day. I think it was a very productive and tiring day.