Milling

With all the mapping done I spent my time doing some rough milling, where I break down the boards into widths about 1/4" oversize, and a couple of inches too long.  This gives me space so when I flatten the edges I do not make the board too narrow.  I do the ripping (cutting parallel to the grain) with my band saw, and the crosscutting with a handsaw.  The next step is to flatten the edges and the faces by hand, and cut them to final width.

Planning

I have completed the mapping out of how I will cut up the boards to ensure the most attractive grain will be showcased.  In every project there is one surface that is the focal point of the design.  For the music stand the main focus is the area where the music will be put, a roughly 22" by 13" surface.  Because 13" wide cherry is difficult to find and also very expensive, I will glue up two boards to get the width.  When gluing up two boards like this is is essential that the grain matches well, and that the grain is going in the same direction.  I have marked the direction with chalk "v's".

I chose the most interesting part of the board, which has lots of interesting grain and color.  

Mapping out the walnut is very easy:
 

Lumber

This Friday I was finally able to go and buy lumber at Danby Hardwoods.  I ended up choosing some cherry and walnut, which is different than I had originally planned.  The beech they had was too boring and the quartersawn white oak was too narrow.  The cherry I ended up buying is an interesting piece.  It seems to have some mineral deposits (the black streaks), and interesting grain which give the wood a lot of character.  It will be perfect for the stand.  Because of the sapwood, the cherry was much cheaper than I anticipated, so the total cost was only about $50.  The walnut is steamed, which is a commercial process that darkens the sapwood, but also makes the walnut lose some of its complex colors.  However this is fine as I just need it for the feet.  Hopefully today I will do some work on mapping out components, but unfortunately this week will not likely be very productive as I will be very busy with the musical.

Reading an Old Journal

For the past two weeks I have been reading the journal of a past WISE student who built a coffee table for her project.  It was very helpful to see an example of a completed journal in order to see what a full journal is like.  Some of the strengths of her journal include how in depth she goes when she describes her progress.  She gives the reader a really clear idea of what is going on with her project, and her progress.  I really enjoyed her descriptions of what she has been learning (such as tool use, lumber selection), her journals show clearly how she learned throughout the project.
Some things she could have worked on was that she never included any titles in her posts, which made them slightly hard to follow.  Also her journal could benefit from more goal setting and schedule making.
Overall I really enjoyed reading her journal, it gave me a better idea of what is expected from me.

More Set-Backs/How I Select Lumber

I originally planned on getting lumber on Friday, but that was canceled after I found out that the store I was planning on buying from had decided to close early.  So instead I will write about how I select lumber for a project.
Luckily the hardwood store I use, Danby Hardwoods, has a good selection and does not mind letting me sift through the stack to look for exactly the wood that I want.  For every project, I decide on the type of wood I am using, and I write myself a note with the rough dimensions of the larger and more important components.  When I get the the store, I look for boards the are long/wide/thick enough to be used for my project.  I look for defects suck as checks (small cracks), knotholes, and voids that could potentially be ugly or un-workable.  Unfortunately there is rarely a perfect board, so a tape measure is essential to determine whether or not the board defect free enough to be able to get all the components from.  In addition to size and quality requirements, I also look at the grain.  For example if I am making a table top, I look for flatsawn grain, which is more visually interesting that quartersawn grain.  However quartersawn wood is perfect for straight components such as legs, as the straight grain follows the straight lines of the leg.  I also always factor in about 30% more than I really need, which gives me room for mistakes and leaves me some scraps for smaller projects in the future.

Preliminary Timeline

In order to stay in a schedule, I have made a preliminary timeline.
3/9- Buy lumber
3/11- Figure out rough layout on lumber
3/18- Dimension lumber for post and base

Some set backs

After making a call yesterday, I found out that the lumber seller I was going to use is no longer in business, so I will have to wait until later in the week to visit the lumber yard that I have gone to before.  This will be fine, but I was looking forward to visiting a new place.  I am beginning to think that the hardest part of my project will be sticking to a schedule.

Sketch-Up

Well as it turns out I am not able to buy wood this weekend, but I will try on Monday.  In the meantime I have made a sketchup model of the stand.  Sketchup is a free easy to use CAD program made by google.  I did not model the adjustment mechanisms because I only use sketchup to make sure all the proportions are right while figuring out concrete dimensions.  In the design the left end of the stand is longer in order to accommodate the fact that trombone players prefer to play on the left end of the stand.

Hesitation

Before every project I start, I always procrastinate a little. I worry about not having a complete design before I buy lumber, and I basically question every aspect of the project, over and over, in order to try and foresee any problems that might arise. Right now that is happening, so this weekend I plan on buying lumber, as a way of motivating myself to start right in.