No Comment #2 - Bandsawing the Tapered Octagon

Cutting the assembled tapered octagon was a lot of fun during this build because I got to use the bandsaw in a way I hadn't before.  Certainly a technique I'll be exploring more in future builds!

Basically, we built a sacrificial jig to hold the tapered octagon "spatially" in the correct orientation for the bandsaw blade to remove planes.  While we could have computed the compound cut at the top of each triangle for the octagon to get a level top, to do two more cuts on each triangle to then remove the part for the table top would have been a lot of error-prone work... any deviation in length would have to be sanded out later (end grain!).  Then add the work of triple the glue-up.  Cutting the plane on the bandsaw, especially with a smooth-cutting Laguna Resaw King, left nothing to sand (sure there were tool marks, but those surfaces were perfect for gluing in this project).

Ah, the mysterious holes in the jig are explained, too.  Had some questions about those :)

Do remember the design episode where I explained how the top part of the octagon changed.  Originally, I wanted the octagon to continue through the table so the top piece needed to be exactly positioned so Dominos could go through the octagon top, the table, and into the octagon bottom.  In the video flashback, I explain that cut that ultimately we didn't keep (but did use).

However, properly cutting off that top piece does have an importance that we'll see in a future episode on the assembly.  As a spoiler, I'll tell you :)  That top piece was used as a template for where the Domino holes in the table top were needed in order to get them to go smoothly into the octagon bottom.  Without that template, it would have been long and messy to position those Dominos; with that template, it was as simple as tracing the revealed mortises.  But you'll see that in more close-up detail in the assembly episode.

I think the next episode will be another bandsaw episode; editing all this old footage with some new narration mixed in has me busy in the video editor, not in the shop.  Not a good thing.  The next planned episode will at least have me running a tool or two!



Here's a link to the video for my email subscribers: http://youtu.be/-6ID7hQwCHE

Technique - Matching Existing Compound Angles

When stacking up compound cuts to make an octagonal cylinder or other multi-faceted object, the minor error in each cut also compounds making the last piece fit less than well.

A better method I used for the tapered octagonal column ("tapered octagon" for short!) was to glue up the first seven facets then measure the exact part I needed for the eighth.  Matching the miter angles of the part is easy, but usually there's confusion on how to measure the associated bevel angles.  This short video (no, really! under 7 minutes!) shows how I did the measurement.

I'll also discuss an animation at the end that shows a bit of how the bevel angle relates to the included angle and stock thickness.

No math is used or harmed in this video; safe for all ages :)

(Here's a link to the YouTube page for my email subscribers; sorry I've been forgetting that lately: Technique - Matching Existing Compound Angles)

Over the weekend, I renumbered all the videos (and renamed my local copies to match).  Generally, a new video gets the next number, but videos that are in a series get point numbers.  For example, #82 is the No Comment #2 series so each video is #82.1, #82.2, #82.3 etc to better know the order of the videos.  A viewer on YouTube suggested numbering them all since he found one mid-series by chance and didn't have an easy way to see where he was at. Hopefully this helps, although I understand it can look confusing on, say, the Sculpted Mahogany Vanity build where the last video was #38.12 released after one of the Domino crib-sheet videos #56.  I'm thinking the order in a series is more important than strict chronological order over all of them.  Might be wrong; do that often :)

No Comment #2 - Tapered Octagon

The tapered octagon piercing through the shaped demi-lune top of the Tim Burton table (formerly known as No Comment #2) involves the nemesis of most woodworkers: compound angles (the stair builders are laughing right now...)

True, compound angles are more complicated than square cuts with a square blade by a square woodworker :) ("triple square cuts"), but some techniques can make them really easy to work with and get great results.

In this episode, a large part deals with cutting and Domino-ing the triangles that make up the tapered octagon along with some tips on eye-balling the cut with an angled fence and how to recover from Dominoing with a less than perfect bevel angle setting.  The Domino trick actually comes in really useful in the triple-square arena as well.

There was a lot of interest in the new-to-me technique of using the Domizilla to mortise through multiple parts simultaneously; the process is really easy (though I over-explain, I know), but saves on a lot of awkward calculation of other compound angles.

Next up will be a short video on how to measure a compound angle off a project; this is really useful when you are making an n-sided object... make n-1 sides according to your formula and tool settings then calculate the last perfect-fitting piece directly off the rest.  The savings in caulk alone make this worthwhile to learn!

The video refers you to the Angle Madness Jigs video if you want to know more about cutting miters with triangles.

Sorry it's longer than I expected... jeez, it's just a tapered octagon!



As an aside, apparently all my friends had very very bored parents in August because we just had a string of 12 birthdays to celebrate.  Nice full social calendar; completely bumped video editing :)  Hey, at least it was for very pretty, I mean, very good reasons!

Hilariously Funny - The Shed of Doom

It's difficult to explain what this guy's goals are in building this "shed", but the thread about it on a Canadian motorcycle forum it is hilarious.  I've been reading all 21 pages of posts off and on all day.  Thanks to Charles Neil for popping it in my mailbox.

This, folks, is the Shed of Doom!

The thread is long so if you don't want to read all the hilarious replies, just scroll through each page for photo updates and a few time-lapse videos.

The whole thread is going viral on construction forums literally throughout the world.

The first two pages of forum posts have a lot of photos so flip through those.  If you can keep from reading all the funny replies, jump to page 17 to get the grand finale.

Note that there's some colorful language... oh who am I kidding, you've all done glueups before! :)

No Comment #2 - Table Top

Normally a panel for a table is pretty trivial to put together: surface, joint, glue, done!  While that's not always the case, it would be the Cliff Notes version.

The table top for the Tim Burton table is another story with all the shaping on the underside, scalloped edges, and that it is a demi-lune pattern fanning out from a center.  In this build video, I'll talk about why Dominos were used (not actually needed on a Cliff Note panel), how the ramp for the router works, and some of the aspects of laying out where the wedges come from.

This episode doesn't cover the finishing as that will be covered in another episode.

As always, thanks for watching...