Constructing a Vessel: Summary

The entire Constructing a Vessel project was undeniably a learning experience.  However, I say that in the most positive way possible.  Although it may have been a little frustrating and hectic, in the end I acquired new knowledge and a few friends from the Common Shop.  Like every project I have worked on, I had a very hard time deciding what I wanted my vessel to look like.  So, I decided I should at least glue my wood together while I figured it out.  Once I determined my design, I started cutting it out on the band saw.  However, like my previous projects, I found myself wanting to proceed on a completely different design.  So, I started over by gluing new pieces of wood.  I was so excited about this design that I cut out the complete shape of my box (top view and side view), before cutting the lid and bottom.  Since the sides of my vessel were completely rounded, it was nearly impossible to cut my lid without the band pulling it in.  Therefore, I glued the bottom of my vessel to a flat piece of wood.  Although this set me back an hour, this plank of wood gave me a flat edge to make these needed cuts possible.  For this project, I was considering carving an intricate design in the floor of my box.  However, I discovered this was extremely hard, and decided to sand down my very forced and unsuccessful effort. Although the walls of my box glued back together just fine, I feel like the amount of cuts I made wasn’t necessary.  Another problem I ran into was fitting my lid on to my box.  I had sanded down the lid and walls of my box to the point where they didn’t exactly fit together as well.  The stopper for my lid was also unable to fit the curvature of the underside of the lid.  I had to figure out how to fit the lid to my box, and make it stay on.  So I went to the friendly workers of the Common Shop for some help.  We decided that rounding out the connecting edges of the lid and the walls of the vessel would help the lid fit on more comfortably.  We then added magnets on the inside of the walls and the lid so the lid would stay on.  I also learned that sanding is extremely important, even though it takes an extremely long time.  Working with wood is a very slow and tedious task.   Even though I ran into a few problems during this project, I am very excited and motivated to work with wood in the future.