26/10/07

Yesterday i managed to finish off my tool box. This involved finishing my sliding tray and putting 2 coats of varnish on. I was really happy with my end product and i thought the varnish put a lot of colour into it. I thought that the knots in the timber made it really hard to work with but once the varnish was on they looked better than the rest of the timber.

Today we spent some of the morning in the workshop but i was already finished so i helped Rob glue up his tool box and put all the clamps on. After that we went into the withdrawal room and we talked about the construction sequence. All of our notes got put down on the white board and then were later copied and photo copied for everyone else. We also completed our costing sheet and the take 5. I thought that things went much quicker this time because everyone did it as a team and contributed.

24/10/07

Yesterday we spent most of the day working on our tool box. i started off by cutting out the square dovetails on the ends and sides but i did them as pairs. this went pretty well for me and i didn't have any problems. After that i did the rebate on the side and ends so i could cut the square dovetails on the bottom. that was all i got to do in the workshop yesterday. The erst off the day we did work on the construction sequence and did research on glues. I did my research with Rhys and we did Sikaflex Construction. At the end of the day we did a little presentation on what we had researched and that's where we found that the Sikaflex product we did was really a sealant.

Today we worked in the workshop up until lunch and i managed to cut out the angles on my ends and chisel out where the handle went through. I thought i did this pretty good as well because everything worked out really well and didn't need many adjustments. Before lunch i also managed to get the runners for the sliding tray on. After lunch we had a small test to do where we had 23 questions to answer. most of these were on the saw horse project but there was a couple of extras in there that weren't related to the saw horse. After we did that we went back into the workshop and did some more work. I got to plane down some pieces for my sliding tray before quickly marking up some square dovetails out. After i cut them out i was really happy because most of them didn't need much more before they went together. I am now doing a few finishing touches but I'm not quite finished on that part yet.

18/10/07

Today we started off by organising our portfolios and finishing up on the saw horse project. This included finishing the self analysis and writing up the construction sequence. After we wrote up the construction sequence we went over a couple as a class and talked about some good and bad things about them. My construction sequence was good but would of been even better with a bit more detail. After we did that we started a bit of planning on our new project which is a carry all. I thought that the planning was good because everyone had an input and each person could also change it to suit what they want. After we had our talk we got some brown paper and started our drawings. I think the drawings are going much better and quicker than the last one. I think this is because everyone knows what they are doing and have now had a bit of practise. So far i am happy with my drawing but i am looking forward to building it.

18/10/07

Yesterday we finished off our saw horses. I had never done one before and was really happy with my finished product. Next time i think i would still take a little bit more time to complete the finishing touches and get it looking better.Other than that i dont think there was too much more i could have done. My favourite part of the contruction sequence was cutting out the legs and spreader and putting them together because it was the most challenging part trying to get everything to sit right.

07/09/07

Today we began building our saw horse. This was a little bit more difficult than i first thought because the plan didn't show how to get the bevel cuts. I didn't like how we had to plane 2 legs and machine the others instead i thought that they all should of been planed or all been cut. After smoko me and Greg went in to the withdrawl room and made our picture stories on the laptop. I thought that ours was ok but with more time could have been made a bit better. After lunch we did more work on our saw horse but everyone started loosing motivation because it is so close to the weekend

06/09/07

Today we finished off our drawings of the saw horse and put the finishing touches on like the formula and the cutting list. The finished product looked really good even though i didn't really like the drawing. The drawings were done in 2 different views and they were the plan view and the side view.

After lunch we had a guy from Perth come down and take us for a bit. His name was Tim and he got us doing research on a power tool so that we can set up a presentation tomorrow. This presentation will involve pictures, a bit of text, some music and voice overs. I went with Greg and we did the power saw. We found most of our information on the Makita site and we managed to find a picture of someones fingers that had been cut off by a power saw.

05/09/07

Today we started off planning out our saw horse. This involved a lot of different things like the take 5 which was to spot hazards and find out how to control them. We also did a materials list which involved listing the timber we needed but we had to order extra because the wood doesn't come cut to length it comes in multiples of 300 and only a few different thicknesses. there was also a quote which was to find out what the job would cost.I found that there was a lot more things to consider than i first thought.

After smoko we went into the workshop and drew up a map of all the fire safety equipment this included fire extinguishers, fire hoses, first aid kit, emergency exit and the power kill switch. I thought it was a bit weird that the emergency eye wash was not there and how there was obstructions in front of the fire extinguishers.

After lunch we went into the workshop and started drawing up our saw horse to a scale of 1:1 which means the dimensions on the plan will be the same as the finished product. I thought that this was pretty easy even though i made a careless error but i am now back on top of things.

04/09/07

Today we started of doing theory working on the same book as yesterday. While we were doing that we had Bernie come and see us with Gemma and got us to sign some paper work. After lunch we had a guy from Bell Fire come and talk to us about fire extinguishers. I thought that his talk was very informative and that he had a good attitude about the matter. I also liked the way he was loud because it kept me listening and stopped me zoning out. I liked it when the fires were lit and it helped me to see how effective the dry powder fire extinguisher was and useless the carbon dioxide fire extinguisher was. He also showed us how the dry powder shielded us from the heat. Over all i think his whole presentation was really good i learnt quite a bit.

03/09/07

Today we started off in the class room. We were given a heap of work books that we have to work through. Today we started off with a work book on hand and power tools that involved us looking through our own books (Practical Carpentry 1 and 2) to find the name of a few different tools. I thought this was a pretty easy task except not all the tools were in the books. After that we did a presentation in small groups to finish of our research on a selected material. I thought that this was a good way to finish up and show what we had learnt. After lunch we went in to the workshop where i started my assessment piece. So far i think i am doing pretty good even though i stuffed up with some setting out.

31/08/07

Today we did practical work in the workshop. This involved doing a range of joints that needed to be cut and chiseled out. Some of us learned out to sharpen chisels and the others were just improving there hand skills. The more joints we did the harder it got and more time and effort was required. I thought that they were all pretty easy even though i stuffed up a couple this is probably because i have done them before and have my own techniques to help. Over all i thought that it was a pretty good day but i would of liked more to do.

Steps for Joints, Hazards and Ways to Prevent Hazards

• Get plan
• Choose timber
• Mark face side and edge
• Set out timber according to plan
• Saw timber and chisel where needed
• Join pieces together and do finishing touches
• Show finished product to teacher
• Once approved start next joint

The hazards are pieces of wood on the ground and cuts from chisels or saws.

Ways to prevent these hazards are clean up as you go and keep hands behind or out of the way of chisels and saws.

Wrap Up of the Day

Today we started doing maths. then we made new gmail accounts and blog. after that we talked about team work and what employers look for in apprentices. after that we finished up with a small project involving straws and tape. there was nothing that i thought needed to be better and i really enjoyed the small project.

25 To Life Without Parole

The definition of team work is a group of individuals working together to achieve a common goal

What Employers Want

Steven cook wants an apprentice who has a disire or a pasion to achieve in a particular trade. He also wants some one who has a willingness to learn and who wiil apply an effort that reasonably matches their labour costs.

Ray Hall wants someone who has knowledge of maths and drawing and preferably someone who has done work experience or a pre app. He is also looking for someone who is polite, well dressed and will do the right thing at work.

Rod Slater is looking for someone who is honest and treats people with respect. he also wants someone who wont let him or themselves down and who will focus on the big picture.