Joshua Woody- Project 1 Building with Hand Tools

February 10, 2023

the process of my project took 4 phases, training, design, prepping, and fabrication. in the training phase, I learned how to use hand tools safely, how to use fusion 360 program, and how to properly set up a wood board for cutting, during the design phase, I looked at similar designs to the one I wanted to make, and made design choices that would benefit my personal use. during the prepping phase, I took my design and measured it out onto my material. during the fabrication phase, I used hand tools to take my design and shape my given material into it's shape

over the course of my three phases of process, I encountered issues which prompted me to think deeper about solutions. for example, during the design phase in fusion 360, I chose to make the sides of my toolbox wider on the top and smaller on the bottom to fit my needs, this simple change radically informed a new process for creating my tooltote, and I had to learn more about angles and reprint my blueprint, and often worked back to the previous phases in order to make small changes. In the prepping phase, I encountered issues with my material, the board was not cut evently, and I had to redraw the angles. I had to switch in between inches and centimeters to be more precise, I had to use the 10 mark on the centimeter stick because the end was broken, and add 10 to every calculation I did in order to measure twice. in order to make sure my angles were right, I needed to ensure that they were symmetrical, and so I prepped the board in a symmetrical way whenever possible. when I found I couldnt't use the angle cutter functions or CNC machine to make my connected cuts, I had to improvise with the sander, which ultimately was my undoing for this project, because the sander is incredibly imprecise.

I learned much about the system of working with hand tools, and much about the limits of certain tools and designs, I learned how I should have a tool-informed design process, where I limit my designs based off of tools I have access to. I designed my tooltote with a process that I could not actually use in the shop. the saw I was going to use was too dangerous and off limits, and the safe tool was too advanced, I should have used a CNC or line cutter machine, both of which were too advanced for this project. with the restraints of hand tools, I had to make sacrifices and multiple solutions to get around these issues, which took much more time that I was expecting, I learned that I should give myself more time than I was expecting based off of my tools and what I know I am already capable of doing.