Sunday, March 10, 2013

Dropped Plates

So I saw this video on youtube where a slab of clay is layed into the mold then dropped to create a gentle slope.



So what do I do I go buy a saw and some wood! I was able to cut 45 degree cuts with a miter box and saw I picked up from Harbor Freight for about $9. And a 2x2x8 piece of wood was just under $2 from Lowes.

I made a square and a rectangular box. Then I realized that the right angle wouldn't make the clay slope nicely so I wanted to cut of a chunk from the corner. However I had no confidence of being able to do this evenly on all pieces with my hacksaw....

I then turned to facebook for some help. Through friends I found out that one of my friends actually does carpentry work and had tools at home! So he invited me over to help me cut.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to grab some more wood. So I headed over to his place with just under 24ft of 2x2 pieces of wood.



So he first showed me the table saw and how to cut on an angle. Then told me the one rule was to not cut off my fingers! Then we were able to cut the chunk I wanted out of all the pieces of wood. Then I happened to mention I only could make 45 degree cuts and thus could only build squares. Then he pulled out another nifty saw that could cut all different angles into the wood. I now know that I want to build a house that needs tons of cuts with a saw like this! It was so much fun to use. We ended up cutting up all of the wood and I ended with two square molds, one rectangle, and three hexagons!