A number of class periods have passed since I last posted, and that’s a testament to the frenetic — and extremely exciting — nature of what’s been happening in class recently. Let’s get up to speed.
After watching the students practice driving screws, it was clear to me that they were going to need help fastening the sukkah frame’s butt joints. Otherwise, let’s just say the frames wouldn’t have been close to square. But never fear! There’s a tool for that.
I picked up a few of these right angle clamps at Home Depot, and they worked extremely well. Even though each framing group had to release the clamp and reposition the frame after each joint, I am certain it saved time. Almost no drilling errors — and lots of nice, tight joints! And the true evidence of success is that some groups, midway through the process, started driving screws without the clamp (but still using the clamp to keep one joint tight).
I enjoyed watching kids jump at the opportunity to build — especially those who were tentative at the beginning.
I was pleased how well the stopper/jig worked for mass producing drill press holes in the panel frames. I am certain that it won’t be perfect; some of the holes aren’t going to line up. But it sure saved time, and the students genuinely understood the value of this simple carpentry trick.
The first couple of build days have been thoroughly exhausting, uplifting, energizing, inspiring…a whole bunch of often contradictory emotions. But at the end of the day, these kids worked their tuchuses off — and they did so as a team.
I think they call this “substantially complete” in the construction trade. What a process!
