CARPENTRY MERIT BADGE

The following Presentation details the process taken by Star Scout Charlie Siegel and his aunt to complete Carpentry Merit

Badge

AS WE COMPLETED THE BADGE, WE TOOK

PHOTOGRAPHS, WHICH WILL BE SHOWN IN

UPCOMING SLIDES OF THE PRESENTATION.

IT WAS A VERY INTERESTING BADGE TO DO, AND WE BOTH GOT

QUITE A LESSON OUT OF IT: WE BOTH SAW HOW DIFFERENT

CARPENTRY WAS WHEN THERE WERE LITTLE OR NO ELECTRIC

TOOLS.

MY AUNT AND I WENT THROUGH MANY DIFFERENT PARTS OF CARPENTRY, AS SHE TAUGHT ME ABOUT THEM, AND I DEMONSTRATED THEM. (CONNECTING TWO BOARDS TOGETHER WITH A SCREW WAS ONE THING I ALREADY KNEW HOW TO DO. :)

FOR THE BADGE, I HAD TO CUT MULTIPLE BOARDS IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS, AND MY AUNT TAUGHT ME ABOUT HOW TO STEADY THE BOARD USING MY OWN WEIGHT, AND ABOUT HOW THE CARPENTERS OF OLDEN TIME ALWAYS USED LOW TABLES SO THAT THEY COULD USE THEIR OWN WEIGHT WITH THEIR KNEE AS I AM IN THIS PHOTO.

THESE ARE TWO MORE PHOTOS OF MY CUTTING THE BOARDS AS THEY DID IN THE TIMES OF THE PAST.

WE THEN PRACTICED OTHER CARPENTRY TECHNIQUES THAT DAY AS WELL, SOME OF WHICH ARE PHOTOGRAPHED BELOW. Here, I am hammering a

nail into a board, which is one of the practices of carpentry that has to be demonstrated for the badge.

Here, I am setting a nail into a board which I had just hammered in a moment ago (photographed at left).

WE THEN FINISHED UP THIS DAY WITH MY DEMONSTRATION OF THE USE OF A CHALK LINE (AFTER MY AUNT TAUGHT ME ABOUT IT, THAT IS).

AFTER FINISHING OUR DAY OF SIMPLE LEARNING AND DEMONSTRATING OF CARPENTRY TECHNIQUES ON 5-2-10, WE MET AGAIN ON 5-16-10 TO BEGIN MY PROJECT FOR THE BADGE AND TO FINISH UP THE CARPENTRY TECHNIQUES REQUIRED FOR ME TO KNOW/DEMONSTRATE.

These two photos show me cutting the boards that I will be using to build my project, which will finally consist of a set of

hanging and backed shelves for my room.

MORE BUILDING!

Here, I am hand-sanding my boards that I just cut, as in Carpentry Merit Badge, things are done as they used to be done, with no electric tools of

any kind.

Here I am just beginning to hammer nails into my boards to nail them together into their final structure.

ALMOST DONE WITH THE STRUCTURE!

Now here, I am completing the hammering of the nails into my

boards to complete the structure of my shelves.

Now here in this picture is my completed structure (minus a

back) of my shelves on 5-16-10.

THE CAT-PROOFING TEST THAT EVERY SHELF MUST GO THROUGH

At the end of the night, I brought my almost-completed shelves into my aunt’s living

room to show my mom, when my aunt’s cat came by and got up on my shelves.

And here comes his brother! My shelves have now passed the official cat-proofing test.

HERE ON 5-22-10, MY AUNT AND I FINALLY COMPLETED CARPENTRY MERIT BADGE! (KEEP GOING TO SEE HOW WE DID IT!)

BUT FIRST, HOW DID WE GET THERE???

TO ANSWER THIS QUESTION, WE’LL LOOK AT

MORE PICTURES! First, I had to sand my shelf more, just to clean it up a little and do its

finishing set of sanding.

I cut and nailed the back of the shelf on, which is partly shown here in this picture.

(That’s my aunt’s dog in the corner.)

NOW WHAT’S LEFT? PAINTING!

In this picture, I am painting a latex base-coat on the wood to seal it and paint it white.

Now, I have painted it orange over the white, purposely leaving it a lighter,

single coat so that it appears to have a yellow swirl through the orange due to the white paint hidden underneath. My

aunt and I believe that it looks like fire or like the sun shining in from behind the

clouds.

NOW THAT CARPENTRY MERIT BADGE IS DONE, MY AUNT AND I ARE HAPPY, AS IS MY AUNT’S CAT AND DOG.