Woodworking Level One

So my company has this thing called the 3P Program (it stands for Personal Progression Program, which should make it the 2P Program, but whatevs, right?) where employees can choose some sort of personal improvement or goal, and the company will give them some money towards achieving that goal. Weight loss and quitting smoking are popular choices, but we've had people use the money to improve their home brewing set-up, learn karate, take guitar lessons, and even adopt a kid. Really. No, not all at once - different people, dummy.

Anyway, last time I applied for the 3P grant, I used it to get our bikes fixed up so we could spend more time biking around the peninsula (mostly heading to or from the pub, of course). I'm already paying my own way at the gym and I haven't smoked in years now, so I was somewhat at a loss for what to apply for this year. I've been toying with the idea of taking some continuing education courses for a while, but I wasn't really sure what I wanted to take.

And then I noticed that they had some interesting courses for woodworking. The War Department had actually taken a couple of woodworking courses a few years back (the results of which are still scattered about the house in various stages of completion) and really enjoyed it, and it sounded like something I would not only enjoy, but probably find useful in our ongoing renovation efforts as well. You know, to help reduce the chances of something really serious showing up in the Injury Report.

So I signed up for Woodworking Level One, which started at the beginning of October. The first thing I had to do was go buy the lumber:

(Well, technically, the first thing I had to do was figure out the difference between lineal feet and board feet, but whatevs.)

(I'll stop saying whatevs now. Even I hate myself when I say it.)

Two three-hour classes in and I had managed to make not only a whole lot of sawdust, but the three panels that would form the front, back, and sides:

The pieces on the left there would eventually become the lid, but I didn't get to that because there was a bit of a line-up at the planer. (Heh, out of the twelve people in the course, eight of them worked in IT. Go figure.)

Some more planing and sanding got me a bottom panel as well, and then I cut the dadoes and rabbits to fit the whole carcass together:

That's not actually assembled - it's just a dry fit to make sure the pieces went together properly. To actually assemble it, I used a judicious application of glue - and lots of clamps!

There followed a bunch of classes that involved cutting and fitting the trim (and the only semi-serious mistake that I made throughout the construction and won't describe here), and then assembling the lid:

It took almost the entire last class just to fit the hinges as they required lots of router work and delicate mortises. I used a piece of scrap wood here to prop the lid open to show the hinges and construction - it's not part of the actual box:

Of course, as I was moving the box off the workbench to make room to mortise the hinges out, I gave the bottom of it a great big jeezley whack on the bench vise, leaving a big dent right in the bottom trim near the front left corner. Sigh.

I'm not a huge fan of the shiny brass hinges (they were the only ones I could find at Home Despot on short notice), but I really like the handles. The instructor was also impressed - I was the only one in the class to finish both the hinges and the handles - and said that IF he actually gave out grades, I'd get an A+. (Curse you for not providing letter-based validation, adult continuing education!)

Anyway, it took a fair bit more sanding and filling and whatnot, but I rubbed it down with several coats of tung oil and then waxed and buffed it to a dull shine:

So now I have to figure out what to actually DO with the final product. Maybe I'll make some smaller boxes to store in the bigger box. Or maybe I'll give it away to a deserving orphan or something. Maybe I'll keep one of the cats in it until they SHUT UP AND LET ME SLEEP IN FOR ONCE.

As far as the course itself went, I have to say that I was really impressed. I learned a lot more than I honestly thought I would, and picked up many hints and tricks that will help in the future - and not just with woodworking but with other renovation projects as well. So even though a three-hour course in the evening made for some very long days, I was still really looking forward to the next one... which started less than two weeks later.