While I was in high school, I was able to take Woodshop as an elective. During shop time, I built many things and was taught proper tool safety and other fundamentals in relations to construction, framing, etc. At the end of my junior year, the teacher had the idea to participate in the SRBX (Sacramento Regional Builders Exchange) Shed building competition where we were tasked to build a shed within a 2 day period. However, there was a lot more work which was needed to be done prior to the event. So during my senior year, our mission was to be prepare and be ready for the event.

My role for the project was to design the shed and lead the group of students/classmates, which included making plans, organizing teams and making sure everything was done on time. There was a list of things which each group needed to submit before the event in May, for starters, the shed design and a few forms for entry had to be submitted in January of that year, revisions and other design fixes were to be resubmitted by March after receiving feedback from the organization and any additional forms or paperwork by the end of April. The teacher who taught the class was responsible for the paper work and I was more or less responsible for the rest.

The previous year, we originally planned to participate in the event and made plans for a 10×12 shed but with the lack of proper tools (in amounts/numbers and portability) we were unable to go to the event as a team, but we went there to scout out what other teams did and what things we needed to do before hand. Instead of reusing the old plans, we opted to start from scratch. First, the old design had a 2-level roof which was a bit complicated and the footprint was a bit large for transport. Since many of my classmates including myself has never build a shed, let alone in 2 days, a smaller and more simpler design was made. After plans were submitted and approved, we were ready for the event. In addition to the event, the majority of us were trained and received OSHA 10.

Before we left for the event, I made plans for the shed to use as well as a schedule on who does what and when we should want to complete specific parts of the shed. Our objective was to build the base and walls for the shed including installing the door and window. Many teams did this so they may lock up some of their equipment in the shed overnight, such as tables or other small, inexpensive things. Then on the second day, we can build the roof and complete it. Each person was in a team for each section based on their skillset. For myself, I built the front panel since it was complex and had a lot of work which needed to be done on it.

For the first day, everything went smoothly, a few hiccups here and there like building two of the same side walls instead of mirroring it and accidentally making the front panel backwards. However the door which we received was different on what we designed for (left swing instead of right swing) and the mistake worked in our favor. Besides that, we were able to construct the base and all four walls in the first day.

For the second day, things didn’t start off that smooth. We left on time to go to the work site but but the van which many of the students rode in was slightly vandalized to where the hose was cut where you refueled it. My friend and I who rode in a different car got there on time and was able to climb the wall of the shed to open it up and set some of our stuff up.

(The teacher had the keys for the shed and had to go back to help the van get to the site) The rest of the team arrived just after the safety meeting started so we didn’t loose a lot of time luckily.

Before we started the competition, I made templates for all the bird mouths so it would be a simple trace and cut without any hassle. We cut each one and was able to install them. While most of the team was working on the roof, the rest were cleaning up and tidying up the shed, including checking trip or adding a nail here or there.

After two days of hard work, we were able to complete the shed. We all were proud of ourselves on what we were able to do and had fun with it. A mobile crane helped load the shed onto our trailer and we strapped it in and brought it back to the school.

During my freshman year of high school, I was introduced to my first CAD software, Solidworks. Yes, the Solidworks who is notorious for crashing. With all jokes aside, I grew a liking to it and started to enjoy designing things on the computer which later helped me to where I am today. In the middle of Feburary, my engineering teacher, Ebner, went on a work based trip and one thing he said was “when I am gone, do not procrastinate or screw around, you are to do work like any other day.” Unfortiently, I did not listen and chose to make a train.

I love trains, I’ve always found them interesting, you see them move my and you can count how long it is and I will always be impressed on what they can do. For the train I designed, I tried to replicate a GP-10 design, a combination of the big BSNF and Union Pacific Trains with a Rio Grande paint scheme, (I like that color match). If you look around it, you can find a large array of detail such as brake lines and the coupler; the interior has a small chair and some controls, the wheels have springs and lots of other things. However this looks clean but it isn’t. Since I was new to the software, I would edit and delete things making tons of ketchup and mustard errors, this would cause a ton of problems obviously. In addition to the train, I made tracks for it, one with a ramp for crossing and a pair of RR crossing signs. To design this, it took me around 6 months. (Not constant work) and a few weeks after finishing the model, my Solidworks license expired which is why I wanted to complete it.

After completing the design for it, I was able to get it 3d printed. My school had a Stratasys Uprint which I used to 3d print it. For print time, it took around 16 hours. Once it was done and was assembled, it was around 8.4in long and 1.7in wide. This was one of the first things that I 3d printed and it taught me many things such as tolerances, or fits or how to prepare something for a print so it can be assembled later. There are many things on it which I would’ve done differently or wish I have done, but I am happy with what I have and the things that I leaned from it.

In the woodshop, besides sawdust and scrap, people want to make specific tools, such as spears, bats, or hammers. Of these things I wanted to make was a mallet.

During high school, I made 2 mallets, one during my junior year and the other during my senior. For the first one that I made, I found a pine 4×6 which I resawed on the bandsaw to the dimensions which looked good. I more or less made a 4×4 and a 2×2 with it. Then I drilled a hole in it, used the router table and rounded all the edges, and glued the handle in. After some finish, the project was done.

For the 2nd one, I wanted to make it like how a hammer is usually made, I got a piece of walnut, drilled some holes in it for some metal weights. I used a table saw to cut a slot in it for the handle then I glued the 2 halves together for the mallet head. The handle was made out of white oak which I cut to size on the miter saw and made a recessed section for the head to slot into. After that, all I needed to do was cut a slot in the head, and use a wedge to put it together. The “Thor’s” hammer one is top-heavy but works well and the other one is balanced somewhere in the handle

In Highschool, there was a storage room, in it was a pile of chess boards, something you would see in a woodshop class. This gave me the idea to build one myself, however not out of poplar and oak, but with one with more contrasting wood.

This is my chessboard that I made, it has 1in squares and a wide range of wood species on it. The squares on the top are made from mahogany and oak, I cut all the squares down then I glued them to a piece of plywood followed by sanding the top surface flat. There is Walnut trim surrounding the top as well as the bottom; it makes it easier to close the top and it has an accent. The sides of the lower section are I think cherry veneered plywood. The inside grid for storage is made from walnut strips.

For pieces, I did something different, the school did not have a lathe, so I was unable to turn the parts, at the same time, I did not want to make 32 figurines. So instead, I turned to CAD and 3D printing to do it for me. I used a MakerBot robot model as the base since those are simple and easy to print. For the chess pieces, I used TinkerCAD to edit the files and make each one unique; the king have a crown, queen with one too but with a dress, the bishop with a hat, knight with a horse head, rook with a block shape and the pawns remained as the default model. However each figurine was given a letter on their chest for their corresponding piece.

For the checker pieces, I used Autodesk Inventor to make a simple design where they can be stacked on top of one another and be small enough to fit in the given space.

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You’re in the woodshop, across the room doing something, your vice principal walks in and finds your katana on the workbench, what does he say, what will he do and how dead am I? That is what I will be answering at the end.

While watching YouTube, I was watching a video from ILikeToMakeStuff where he made a wooden katana and it became an idea on the list of stuff which I wanted to build. During my senior year of high school, I accomplished that. It took a few months to find the materials which I wanted ot use since I wanted to make it out of a nice looking wood, ie not Pine and it had to look good and clean. In the shop’s scrap pile, I found a nice piece cherry as well as a few other scraps of walnut which I decided to use for the project.

For the Katana, I made in February 2019. To build it, I cut the general shape out on a bandsaw and cleaned it up with a few sanders. However I couldn’t wrap my head around how to get the angle for the blade, visually, nothing looked correct when I tried to set it up on the saw, so I decided to do it the old fashion way. I chucked the blade in a vise and started to hack at it. I used a No. 5 hand plane to cut away the wood to get the shape/blade angle that I wanted. For the handle, I used some walnut (I think) and used a router to cut a slot into it where the blade will be inserted into and all the edges received a round over/ For the blade guard, I used a much darker piece of walnut which I sliced in half and cut a slot in on a scroll saw. At the same time, I made a sheath for it, I got 2 2×4’s and used a router to cut the swords out onto then I glued the 2 halves together, added a piece to put on your belt and painted it back.

Meanwhile for the Wakizashi, it was similar but smaller, I had to use a block plane to cut the blade, due to me not having enough space to use the larger plane around the vise and the sheath for it was smaller too and there are belt loops on each side. However, these swords are brothers, I used the same wood for each part, for example the blades are from the same piece of cherry.

Lastly, I used some pine to make a holder for it. I searched some sword holder designs, made a drawing/template which looked nice and cut them out on the band saw. I did have to sand it after I assembled it to make sure the swords fit and were able to get in and out.

For specs,

	Katana	Wakizashi
Blade Length	31″	18″
Handle Length	10″	8″
Belt Mount	Left	Left & Right

And to answer the question at the start after he picked it up, he says “This is awesome, I want one of theses.” . I did not get in trouble and he was a very awesome VP.

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