The perfect dummy boards...

Being in a school environment certainly has its advantages. Recently, when I had to make some dummy boards, I knew I could count on the head of DT (design & technology) to give me a hand. And he did. If I would have had to have made the dummy boards myself, I would have been sawing and sandpapering wonky bits of wood. They would have been ok, but not quite the perfect product.
Anyway, Will, the head of DT, introduced me to the beast, or behemoth. This is one scary circular saw that will have your fingers for breakfast and not even notice. We used it to cut the pieces to size as well as make grooves in the top parts to put the plywood in. All the while I was very conscious of where my fingers were.

After a few short minutes cutting wood down to size, we had all we needed.We then cut the plywood to size, stuck it in the groove - and presto! the perfect dummy boards.

They look so perfect....

Or so I thought.
Putting them in the brood chamber, I realised I had not taken the width of the sidebars into account. So will have to saw more ply to size and then stick it onto what we've got. Hmmm. But as Will said: DT is all about getting it wrong and then realising what you need to do to get it right next time.