Carpentry, and I Did it My Way. As part of my job responsibilities as the inmate carpenter, I am currently building two paper towel racks out of plywood. These are to hold the single sheet folded type paper towels and are a box about four inches by twelve inches and will hold about a twelve inch stack of towels. The simple method used in the past was to cut four pieces of plywood, make a big notch in the front piece about two inches wide and nail the box together with the edges of the plywood showing.

We have plenty of tools, including a router mounted on a portable table. For some reason, jig saw blades are not stored in our tool room and require a staff member to make a special trip to the front of the compound to pick up the blade. It has to be returned at the end of each day.

I redesigned the box so that I do not need the jig saw blade. In the process I decided to put 45° angles on all the edges of the plywood, and also make some half inch square molding to properly cover the exposed edges of the plywood.

One of the staff members asked me why I was bothering to do all the extra work, I could just slap the thing together and it would be good enough.

Time is really not a factor as far as my labor is concerned. I do have one or two projects that will be going in staff offices and should not just be slapped together. I need some practice; this is a small enough project to practice on, and the finished product certain looks much better.  ¶ 12:42 AM