#1
I decided to partner up with Cady West and build rolling whiteboard tables for the senior calculus teacher. We needed to make a total of six tables. This did take the whole semester (tables are a lot of work I've found). These are our pictures above, unfortunately both of us forgot to take pictures.
Step One: Plan it out! Decide how big, what type of whiteboards, and how tall the tables were going to be.
Step Two: Cut out the hole for the whiteboard on the tabletop (we used a 4' by 4' piece of plywood) Step Three: Attach a frame to the cut-out. This is what the legs attach to. We didn't want to drill down from the top of the table because it is not visually appealing and writing on top of screws isn't fun. Step Four: We cut out eight legs that are 29" from 2 x 6 pieces of wood. Two legs for each corner of the frame. This makes it easier to attach the wheels. Step Five: We cut out eight right triangles. These triangles are to support the legs. Two for each corner. Step Six: Braces! In the picture above you can see two pieces of wood going criss-cross under the table. These are to support the legs and defend them from our rowdy classmates. Step Seven: Pockets! Two holes were drilled out in two corners of the tabletop. Pockets make out of plywood that are 5" x 5" and 3" depth were attached to these with glue and two screws. Step Eight: The legs get stained and the tabletop is finished with Danish oil. Step Nine: Attach to wheels! And you're done with one table! (If you want to make a classroom set then get help!!!) |
The most challenging part of the project was finishing six tables. We managed it but barely. Neither one of us realized how difficult it is to make a classroom set of sturdy tables in addition to our other project in Engineering class. We got a lot of help at the end and were able to pump out the other five tables however, our first one took over a month to complete.
I love our tables.The best part is that these are the tables that we will be able to use next year in our math class. They're useful and will be used for a while to come. It may have been very challenging but it most definitely worthwhile. Again, I learned that you have to plan out how to use your time wisely. It might have been helpful if we had weekly goals so we had something tangible to strive for. We were not very realistic with how hard the tables would be to make. Having realistic goals and timeframe would have also been helpful. |