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John and Mary’s First Project.
John and Mary had just finished their lunch. Dad had just got home from playing golf with some of his friends. It was a sunny Saturday.
John and Mary had been reading some books before lunch and Mary found a book on woodwork with some exciting projects in them. After talking to John and looking through the diagrams, project plans, and glossy photos, they both decided to ask their Father to show them how to make something with wood.
Mary and John greeted their Father at the door and eagerly asked, “Hi Dad, both of us were reading some books before lunchtime and Mary found a book on woodwork. When you have time can you please show us how to make something in the workshop, something made of wood.”
Dad replied, “I sure can. In fact, I’ll have some lunch and then we will go to the workshop and see what we can do. It will have to be something simple, because I will be introducing you to the tools as well and how to use them safely.”
Both Mary and John jumped up and said with excitement, “Thanks Dad you are the greatest!”
After their father had his lunch, he saw the children outside playing so he called them into the house.
“Okay you two, we will first sit down at the dinner table and make some simple plans for your first woodwork project.” Then he produced some paper, a ruler and pencil.
Their Father said that they will make a Wall Hanger.
It will have 3 hooks, some wood that will need to be cut out.
Then they trooped out to the workshop.
Father took them over to a big wooden box full off odd pieces of wood of all shapes and sizes. Father said, “This is the Junk Box, a place I put Off-
The children took in the scene of many pieces of rough looking pieces of wood and wondered why their father had taken them there instead over to the nice tidy stack of wood on the shelves.
“The Junk Box is where I often go to get wood for small projects, there is often something here in this lot that will do.” And with that he reached into the Junk Box and pulled out a narrow piece of wood. “This should do nicely.” Father said. (See Image 1) “Now choose your wood.”
Father then produced a ruler and said to the children, “I assume you two know what this is?” with a big cheeky smile. They both smiled and said as one, “Yes!”
Then they watched their Father put the ruler next to the wood and say, “What we want is to choose a length that makes the job easy, or if we were to put the project in a certain place in the garage or house the measurements would have to fit what it is built for. Lets go for 200 mm (roughly 8 inches). After measuring the length he wanted, Father got the Speed Square and marked the place where the wood would need cutting. (See Image 2)
John and Mary did the same, each having a turn with the Speed Square.
Father then got safety glasses for them all and ear protection for them all to wear, then Father took John and Mary over to the Drop Saw.
Father explained that the protective glasses were to protect their eyes from flying sawdust or wood chips that could damage their eyes, and the ear muffs were to protect their ears so that they would not damage their hearing while using the very loud electrical tools. He then explained that they must never use tools in the workshop without safety gear.
With that all in mind Father then placed the wood in the Drop Saw for cutting. (See Image 3)
“Now”, Father said, “We have our lengths of wood. We can now sand the wood, paint it, then trim off the edges, and then maybe varnish or stain it. But for now we will just measure our wood for the hooks.”
Both the children, excited by what had happened so far, stood by eagerly to learn.
Father then took the steel ruler and said to the children.
“A steel ruler is practical, but it has its limitations, and sometimes it is hard to see where the measurements are due to light shining on the shiny steel, so that is something to take into consideration when you are choosing a ruler for your own projects and the type of ruler you want to have in your toolbox.”
The width of their wood was roughly 42 mm, so they marked the center at 21 mm. (See Image 4)
John and Mary did the same. Then they measured the wood lengthways. (See Image 5)
“Now John and Mary, what we do is measure the spots where we want the hooks to be. Although it is good to be accurate, you will find that if you are a tad off no one will ever notice. Be careful, be as accurate as you can be, and get on with it. If you find that you are a few millimetres off, please don’t worry about it. The important thing about working with wood, and to some extent the same with sewing and the like, is that mistakes can be fixed, covered over, painted over, and so on. Just do the best that you can do, and in time you will make far less mistakes and more accurate work exactly to your measurements.”
Father went on, “Now that we have the length of the wood cut, and we have measured the work in half lengthways, we can now see that we have a 200 mm wood length, so we can make 50 mm mark, starting at 50 mm, then 100 mm, then 150 mm.”
“Now Mary and John, with those marks in place we need to do what?”
Mary and John looked at each other, and eager to get the answer right they did what we all do, they guessed.
Mary said, “Drill holes?”
John said, “Yeah, drill holes.”
“Hmm”, Father said. and he continued. How about we find the hooks that we want to use for the project.”
And looking at Father sheepishly, John and Mary nodded their heads and said, “Yes, thats a good idea.”
After choosing some hooks Father then asked, “Well, whats next?”
And this time both John and Mary were more thoughtful and instead of answering, they asked a question of their Father.
“Whats next Dad?”, with cheeky smiles on their faces.
Not wanting to be outdone in the cheeky department Father said, “Lets put some holes in, maybe even with a drill”, and he winked at Mary.
Father then went on to say, “These hooks can be a bit of a trial to get into the wood, so we tend to start them off with a hole. Not a Pilot Hole, more of just an entry into the wood to get the screw part of the hook biting into the wood. A Pilot Hole can be used but I think it is wise to have as much strength in a hook due to the workload it will have when something is hanging off it, Pilot holes make the hole for the hook too big for my liking. ” He continued, “we can use a few items to start the hole off with, like a punch.”
“We could also use a…”
The nail is gently hammered in the right spot and then when it is in a few millimetres it can be wiggled back out leaving a small hole, the perfect size to start a hook in.
Once the hole was started the children started their hooks into the wood though the small hole that they had made and they found the going tough.
“This isn’t as easy as it looks Dad.” said John. Mary agreed.
They all persisted and finally all three hooks were in place on all three projects.
The project was nearly finished.
Father said, “Now that we have the three hooks in place we can now remove the hooks and sand the wood, paint it and add any finishing touches you both may want. Sometimes the finishing touches can take as much time as the actual working on the project measuring, shaping, cutting, and so on.”
Father went on, “A nifty trick is picking hooks that have a screw part that is longer that the depth of the wood. Then when you put the hooks in you can screw them directly into the wood/wall and as long as they don’t take a big load it looks great because no screws or nails are seen, because the hooks hold the whole thing on the wall.”
“Thats clever.” said Mary.
Father said, “Just one of the tricks you learn as you progress in woodwork.”
“Another thing you can do if the hooks are longer than the wood is use a Dremel, hacksaw and such to cut off the excess and alls well. There are always many options. If you get stuck on some work that you are doing and you can’t come up with an immediate answer go off and relax in the sun for a half an hour, or help your mother with housework or whatever she is up to. Chances are that when you come back to the project you will have an answer or a few ideas to try.” said their Father.
“This was a lot of fun I am looking forward to our next project.”, said John.
Father replied, “Lets get this one finished first.”, he put his arms around the shoulders of his two children and said, “Lets get sanding and painting and then show your mother what we all have been up to”
And with that, they were off to do the sanding and painting.
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