Thursday, April 10, 2008

All by myself!

ummm...with a little bit of help.






We had a customer who wanted a custom sign. It's the second custom sign she has ordered from us. I'm not sure what language the quote is in, but it roughly translates to "for good year", or something like that.


We didn't have any raw wood in the dimensions she wanted. My husband was busy every night last week and JB's husband works out of town three days a week. On Friday she asked him if he could cut, router and sand a piece of wood for us. His response "Why don't you do it?" I told her that I would wonder over and make my attempt. Her husband was in the garage working on some cabinets when I got there. I gotta admit, I was a bit nervous because I hadn't touched a woodworking machine since 7th grade shop class.


The first step was to cut the board to the right length. No sweat! Just pull the saw blade down. (quiz question #1: what type of saw was I using?) The next step wasn't quite so easy for me. I had to router the edges. I had a hard time getting the corners on the first try. I was pretty tentative with it. It took me a few tries but I got it. Well, he did touch it up a bit for me.


Then came the sanding. Piece of cake. Just run the sander over the edges and top. I guess if I would have gotten too gung-ho, I could have sanded my nice routered edge right off. Then JB's husband took over to add the hangers on the back. It's the kind that are "built into" the back. I don't even know what type of machine he used to do it. I watched closely just in case I would have to do that someday. The last step was to blow all the sawdust off with the air hose.


When I was done, I couldn't help but feel like Rosie the Riveter! I almost felt like flexing my muscles, but I restrained myself. (now I know why men feel the need to do that every once in a while.) I loved shop class and it felt awesome to use those powerful machines again. Think I'd be able to do it next time? We'll soon find out!!

1 comment:

Oh Mandie said...

I, personally, think that you should go ahead and flex those muscles of yours!!!