Week of 2/23 - 2/27

This week, we only have three days in the shop due to the blizzard that hit us on Monday and Tuesday. Bella, Kim, and I continued working on assembling the Word Clock.

On Wednesday, we worked on attaching the mounting panel to the back of the Word Clock frame. This panel will allow us to mount the Word Clock on the wall once the project is completed. This proved to be a bit difficult for us for a few reasons. The screws we had been using for the other brackets to attach the frame to the front of the clock were too small for the back mounting panel. When we tried to screw them in, the brackets would come loose. We needed to find some bigger wood screws to get the brackets securely mounted to the frame. We don't carry wood screws in the shop, so we took a trip to the carpentry shop to see if they had what we needed. Mr. Lumino and Mr. Marciano were very helpful and were able to provide us with the exact tools we needed. With their help gathering supplies, we were able to properly attach the mounting panel to the rest of the frame.

We found that the word clock needed some more reinforcement at the center of the frame panels. The front wooden piece of the frame was a little bit warped, which caused some gapping between the frame and the front piece. With a few more brackets, we could close these gaps and better reinforce the Word Clock's frame. Mr. L helped us by printing out our brackets in the morning so that they'd be ready for us by the time we were in the shop on Thursday. With the newly printed brackets, we were able to mount the brackets to the frame in the proper areas to ensure the frame panels sat flush against the front piece.

After we mounted the brackets, we returned to the map project, which we have to finish by next week for the Environmental Club. We already have the signs designed for the respective areas on the map; all we have left to do is paste them on the maps and seal them.