Let’s face it, I’m super weak. I can’t open some doors, open up water bottles, and the list can go on. In the past module that I completed, I learned that strength is really important.

The Construction and Fabrications module was different compared to the past modules I’ve done. It took a lot of more hands-on work with a lot of elbow grease instead of just, “Ohh let’s just make a video or take a picture.” It took a lot planning and drafting.

Our first challenge was to make a wood sandwich. What holds the “sandwich” together was nails countersink screws, round head, screws, hexbolts, hexnuts, wingnuts, washers. In order to use the two pieces of wood, we had to cut the wood by using a miter saw, which actually wasn’t as scary as I thought. To keep it intact, our first job was to hammer a nail into the two pieces. Next we had to drill a countersink screw and one roundhead screw using an impact drill/driver and phillips head bit. Drilling was somewhat tough, just remembering which way the drill needs to turn is frustrating. Then, we had to drill in a hex nut, place a washer on the hex bolt, then tighten it using a wrench. Once all of the work was done, we had to label all parts then turn it in!

Our second challenge was to make a birdhouse consisting of right angles. Now this, was tougher towards the end. Thinking of birdhouses that meet the constraints was hard but once that was over, making it wasn’t too bad. Cutting wood? Eh, not too bad considering I knew what to do. Putting all of the walls together only using wood glue? Now that was tough. Using nail would crack the wood and anything else would destroy it. In order for it to dry, we’d clamp the pieces together hoping they would be dry by next class, which would end up all crooked or fragile. Our end product ended up being nothing like our drawings and the nails from the nail gun were sticking out into the birdhouse to the point where birds were put in danger.

Overall, birdhouses aren’t too bad to make! It doesn’t matter how ugly or unstable your end product is, all that really matters is the process of thought that made your product. Happy building! -Emi 🙂