Weekly reflection #3

This week was a big week for my senior project. I needed to finish two goals and start and finish a third goal. My first goal was to finish my signs, I didn't have much more work to do, but after running into a problem, my little project turned into a much longer one. My second goal was to finish my paddle. It seemed like an easy goal, and I knew I could finish it for the art show on friday, so I took he necessary steps and put in the extra time when I could. My third goal was to meet with Eric Viandier and set up the new orienteering course. I didn't know what to expect, but with the help of the map I drew, I figured out where every sign needed to go. 

After last week, my signs were routered, painted and sanded down to be ready for the oil. I chose the oil on tuesday making sure it was meant for exterior use. Once I found an appropriate oil to use, I read the directions to make sure I would do it right. It said that only one coat of oil was required and to apply with a brush. I got my material together and put the first and last coat of oil on the first sign. Surprisingly, the oil was much darker then I thought it would be which caused a problem with the white painted letters. The oil ended up tinting the white paint making it look brown. The letters weren't as visible as before and not as visible as I would of liked them to be. I decided to take a small sponge and to absorb/clean up most of the oil out of the letters. Even after doing that, they still had a tint of brown in them so I decided to repaint all the letters. Even though this took a long time, and wasn't planned, I was glad I did it after seeing the end result. The letters were bright and could be seen very well against the darker wood. 

My second goal was easy to accomplish since all I needed to do to complete my paddle was to sand the blades and shaft to make sure they were smooth and ready for varnish. I sanded the blades down to the way I liked them and wanted them to be. I installed the carbon piece on both ends of the paddle with thickened epoxy. Once the epoxy dried, I hung the paddles from the ceiling and started putting coats of varnish on them making sure they were very thin coats so there wouldn't be many drips. I put two coats of brushed on varnish then I used steel wool to take out drips or bumps. Once the paddle blades and shaft were the way I liked them, I put a coat of spray on varnish. After the last coat of varnish, my paddles were ready for the art show.

My last goal of senior project was the new orienteering course that Eric Viandier made. He used the old/complicated map and my new/simple map to identify where he wanted each marker to go. The markers were small rectangular pieces of metal with two holes in them. I used two 1 inch screws for each marker. I started off at the tennis courts and traveled up to where "Johnson hill trail" meets with "Red Oak" river just below Mud Pond. I then traveled down to Sugar Trail, Moose Run, Phelps Trail and finished going down Slalom Hill trail. On the way I put up markers at specific spots marked on the maps.

Over all my week went very well and I am very happy I was able to finish my three goals. It seemed like a lot at the beginning of the week, but after putting time and effort into each goal, I accomplished them and did the best I could on all three goals.