This semester I was doing Wood and our task was to create a wooden spinning top handle that we personalised to make it our own.
At the first lesson we’d learnt about the need of ppe (personal protective equipment) and some of the safety that we were required to use while operating the machinery.
The main elements that I had to apply to my spinning top is that I had to ensure that it would be comfy to hold and that I would be capable of doing all of the changes that I had to do to within the time limit and what I was able to do in terms of shapes.
I applied this when I was designing my project by making a small hole on each side that you’d be able to put your hand inside of so that you wouldn’t have to hold the outside and use simple but effective shapes to make it look better.
My first step in creating my wooden spinning top was that I had to use the bench and pedestal drill to make the holes in our original wooden piece where the spinning bit will go. This gave us the size and shapes that we’d have to work within where we were then able to draw 5 different potential designs for our wooden spinning top. The one that I ended up choosing had the bottom part like a carrot as well as the bit at the top and had 2 holes on the sides for a hand.
As my design that I drew out was similar to a carrot shape I was required to use the Disc and belt sander combo where I created the bottom shape of the carrot. I then used the scroll saw to make the rest of my cuts and shapes. This included making the 2 holes on each side so that your hand will be more comfortable and the little bump at the end that is like the top bit of a carrot. The last step was to sand the wooden spinning top which I didn’t quite complete.
Some challenges that I encountered during this project were time as we had less time compared to others as we a few public holidays which means that we’d have to be more efficient in class to be able to complete it and also sanding the inside corners in the holes where your hand goes was quite difficult to get inside as it was slightly uneven. I overcame this by making it a bit more even while I was sanding so that it would be more flat as it was only very slight which allowed me to sand the inside corners.
Some skills that I have learnt from this project include how to use the all the different machines and that you’d have to think about how would you like something to be.
I would recommend this project to a friend as you can use your creativity to produce something that is unique and that you can customise how you like it.
Some of the college capabilities that I used included creativity since we had to use our imagination to customise our spinning top within the limits.