I am currently in a woodworking class and have been working on multiple projects currently. For our woodworking class at Andale we are required to do three projects during the semester. This year, one of our mandatory projects was a cutting board. My two other projects are a sign for my grandpa for his business, and the last one is a Kansas City Royals sign for my mom.

My cutting board is a 15 x 22 inch board made out of cherry wood that we have from our wood rack. The cherry wood is a nice reddish oak looking kind of wood. The wood has a very nice grain pattern and has a real good color after I had glued the boards together. My design is a rounded edge cutting board with a drip tray and handles on both sides. It as well has a design cut with a v groove in the middle of the board.

The way we cut out these boards and any other projects we have that need special designs is by using our wood CNC machine. As well as we design the boards in our computer software, aspire. This software is very useful and is a game changer when designing things. It is very easy to use and you can do just about anything with it. It shows you a 3D view as well as a 2D view. With the 3D view you can even see the tool-path that the CNC wood bit takes when cutting out your board before you put it on the machine. Another added feature that comes with it is a way to change the wood type or color to see what color you may like with your board. It is not completely accurate on color because wood can vary a lot between tree to tree.

My second project that I am working on is a large sign for my grandfathers company. His company is Keystone Enterprise and he does auto body work for stores in town. So I designed this sign to look very mechanical using different auto body related objects. I made a large circular gear that covers the whole board and has raised letters of the company’s name lining the inside of the gear. The center piece of the board is an X made by using a screwdriver and a wrench in a cross pattern. The 32 x 32 board that this design is being cut on is made out of walnut which is a very dark and rich looking wood, my personal favorite wood.

My last board is a 24 x 12 board of maple. The design I decided to put on this board is a KC Royals logo. This design is an almost exact copy of the royals design except for the top of the crown of the logo. To make sure that the board would be cut out in the way I wanted I had to connect the tops of the crown to the lower part to make one object. Other than that it is basically the same exact logo the baseball team uses. This board I am making for my mom who is a huge royals fan. I am expecting her to really like it especially since the royals have been doing really well to start this season so far.

This is one of my favorite classes due to the fact that I can make whatever I want and be very creative while doing it. I have taken this class two times now and have enjoyed it extremely every time.