Bioengineering Practicals- Woodworks

by Jarrett Ten

Picture this scene: a room filled with running blades, hacksaws, massive drills and lots of other equipment that could potentially win you a trip to the emergency room. Imagine this task: to produce a gyrocar track support pillar made out of wood. This may not be the safest place that springs to mind however, it easily became one of the best practicals I ever had.

Having worn my lab coat with a pair of bulky safety goggles, I was ready to start constructing my support pillar. Each student was given pieces of wood which had markings drawn out by lasers. The first menacing machine I got to use was the bandsaw; a machine that seemed to be an industrial sized deli slicer made for wood. With the help of the lab technicians, I attempted to feed my small piece of wood into the monstrous band saw, unsurprisingly, the bandsaw sliced through the wood as if it was butter. Working steadily by following the markings on the piece of wood, I ultimately made the top portion of my support pillar.

Using another piece of wood to construct the base, I made my way to the hacksaw station. My piece of wood was clamped tightly to the table in readiness to be hacked into a base. Unlike the bandsaw, the hacksaw was a lot slower in molding the wood into its desired shape, as the hacksaw isn't motorised so it required a bit of arm strength. I made a base for my support pillar as well as a bit of a mess as my work table, the floor, my lab coat and the whole lab was covered in a layer of sawdust!  To smooth the sides of my base and the top portion of my support pillar I used a file to remove any sharp edges or splinters that were created by my poor woodwork skills.

With my smooth nicely cut base and top portion of the support pillar, it was time to use the bench drill to put holes in them to join them up. The bench drill was quite bulky with a base to place your material and a big sharpe drill bit standing right above it, ready to pierce anything below. This machine seemed a lot tamer compared to the bandsaw, there was a useful guard in place to protect the user from mishaps.

By the end of the practical I had a nicely finished base and pillar with holes, all that was left to do was screw them together. By the end of the session I was relieved that I hadn’t lost any fingers during the session. I was very happy with the fine support pillar that I had produced using all these cool machines. Despite the fact that it was a bit of a dangerous practical, it made me aware of the hazard.  The session was a real eye opener and it was an amazing experience to have the opportunity to operate these fearsome but astounding machines. Alongside those machines there were numerous other cool machines and gadgets that I have yet to explore but am itching to find out what amazing capabilities they posses.