senior project

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When I was planning my senior project I knew I wanted to make something I could keep and use for myself but I wasn’t quite sure who would be my mentor. Then I thought it would be special to do something like this with my grandpa who is now 84 years old and has 40+ years of experience with construction. He even built his home that he and my grandmother are living in today, in 1954. My grandpa started making canes for himself, to donate and just for fun and I thought it will be cool to make myself a cane and customize it with designs. Before starting my project, I had no previous knowledge of working with wood or heavy machinery. The only time I worked with wood was hammering a nail into a wooden wall. Now after I have completed my project, I know how to stain and varnish wood, use a table saw, stationary sander, wood burner and a drill press machine.
To start my project we first had to buy some supplies such as vinyl pads, rubber tips, 3ft long and ¾ in. wide dowelling and a 3ft, 1 ¼ in wide handrail. Then, we began making my cane. First, my grandpa explained to me what a table saw is and then demonstrated how I would be using it to make my handle. The first thing we did was set the miter gauge at 90 degrees and put a magnet block on the table vertically from the miter gauge and 4 ¼ in away. Now we turn the saw on. I have to firmly hold the handrail against the miter gauge and slide it over until it is against the magnet block. Next I slowly slide the miter gauge and handrail up going past the magnet block and then over the blades. Once my handrail is cut I can turn off the blades. After that we head over to the stationary sander with my 4 ¼ in handle. Before starting my grandpa instructs me on what it does, why we will be using i...

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...ss. Before we would start on a machine, he would tell me the name, what it did, how to turn it on and how to safely use it. I think the only thing I could have improved was filling the entire body of the cane with designs; there are some places where I could have added more. I thought my project was very meaningful; I got to do it with my grandpa who is getting very old and am glad I got to spend time doing this with him. The outcome of my cane is greater than I anticipated it to be and I am very satisfied with it.
I believe this was a great learning experience; I did something I have never done before and learned a lot not only about working with wood and the machines but about myself. I learned how much patience I actually have and how much I love working with wood. I enjoyed every process of making my cane and in the future I can see myself making this a hobby.

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