Thor Yeary Project 1: Building With Hand Tools

Process:

I started by designing a dice tray in Fusion 360, ensuring it had a large central compartment, two smaller side compartments, and handles on each side. I wanted to make a dice tray instead of a tool tote because I already have enough totes at home, but still made sure to meet the assignment's requirements. Using my Fusion sketch, I marked measurements on wood and made initial cuts with a miter saw. To refine these cuts, I used a band saw for more precision. Most cuts were simple, but creating the handles was challenging. I drilled circular holes and then used a jigsaw to connect them, forming the handles. After cutting all the pieces, I assembled the tray by drilling them together. The final step was sanding the sides and corners to ensure smooth edges for comfortable handling. This process required attention to detail, especially when shaping the handles, but finished, functional tray.

Result:

During the process, I conferred with Dawson to determine which pieces should attach to which, as this isn't always well represented in Fusion and requires critical thinking. This influenced the length of my cuts, which turned out to be different from what I initially thought they would be. Some of my cuts were too crooked, requiring multiple recuts to avoid compounding mistakes into a larger failure. While recutting, I found techniques that worked for me that helped me keep the cuts straight and consistent using the lines on the saw.

Reflection: 

One shortcoming of my dice tray is that the handles are a bit wider that I intended for them to be, allowing for the potential of materials (mostly dice) to fall out of the tray through the handles. In Fusion, I took extra care to ensure that there would be somewhat of a lip between the bottom of the tray and the handle but the lip came out to be much less pronounced than what I hoped, due to my imperfect cutting. I initially pondered the necessity of having handles on a dice tray, but it turns out to be pretty handy and I'm glad I made that decision. I'm also happy with how the side compartments came out, I think it is clear that the side compartments are meant to store items while the middle compartment is meant to have dice rolled onto it.