We be super disco breakin'

Fear not, "loyal" readers...I type in front of you a man that still has all of his fingers, at least for now.

6 hours of tools with a hour for lunch in the middle is kind of a long time to cover one subject, but at least in the mornings when I have my hand tool portion of the class and I actually get to do stuff, it isn't so bad. It's the after lunch, power tool portion of the class, which is primarily lectures/powerpoints, sitting around because we aren't qualified to use the uber-scary-spinning-wheels-of-dismemberment yet. 
I shouldn't say that the whole afternoon portion of the class is all that horrible; its kind of like a study hall in the sense that I can work on some of my other guitar-related homeworks. I am actually taking advantage of my time!

This here be my home away from home...away from home: My workbench for the next seven weeks, until I have to be transplanted into the other guitar lab where I work on other guitar-related subjects (I'm too lazy to look them up right now).

Here, I can be as anal/OCD as I want to be about where and how my tools are kept. 
Yes, all of those drawers on the right are labeled (my tools are all engraved with my initials, too), and no, there is absolutely ZERO leg room for my giant legs to go under the bench in ANY way shape or form without smashing either my knees or my shins on something. I have to either sit legs spread eagle, or if I am feeling like a lady, legs to one side.

Any way, what I was doing before I decided to snap this photo:

1. using a piece of self-adhesive micro-film sand paper on my newly "safety-edged" piece of plate glass (thank goodness for painter's tape) and the two whetstones (in the container on the right), 

• I was to flatten the backs of my block plane blade, along with the backs of the two chisels (seen in the photo)
• verify their flatness with my squares. 

This is a HUGELY important step because, along with grinding the beveled edge (I'm doing that tomorrow), this allows for your blades to make cleaner, easier, more accurate cuts. We are doing projects where the tolerances are 1/32 - 1/64th of an inch, and a dull-ass blade or chisel won't be able to make that cut. 
Flattening the backs of the chisels and the plane blade took about an hour, each, to do (I still have 3 chisels to do). 

I also had to flatten the bottom of the block plane, itself, and check its flatness, too, but that didn't take much time at all.

For the power tools, I theoretically am able to use the Jointer, and probably by Friday, the Planer. These machines (along with the table saw) are used to make your piece of wood stock totally flat and square. No one wants to work with wonky wood (alliteration is awesome!).

Needless to say, I've need a nap after each of these class days (9am-4pm). Add in my written homework for these classes (tool safety study guides), it's like, where did my day go? I am still loving every minute of it, though. 
The most frustrating part is the constant running back and forth between wally world, menards, and target for things you didn't think to bring with you (like a longer than 6 ft tape measure, exacto knife, box cutter, lunch box because cafeteria food is pretty damn expensive, etc.) But if my previous college experience was anything like this, I probably would have been a much better student...

My sister sent me a Fraggle.