No Comment #2 - Dem Legs

I admit it, I nearly forgot to get back to the remaining build videos of the Tim Burton table! mea culpa...

This episode goes over the legs; not going to go over the actual shaping process as that's just rasping, but do cover how they were designed and laid out and something useful for anyone making a table: how to easily level it.

Next episode will cover the finish as I did that before assembly. Since I'm going to the shop after this post to work on finishing Angle Madness, it shouldn't take forever for the next episode :)

Liogier Hand-Stitched Rasp Review

Awhile ago, I saw a great video of a French craftsman shaping a deer-hoof leg; he was using Liogier rasps pretty much start to finish.  Mostly what caught my eye was that these rasps seemed to work...  my previous experiences with rasps were with Nicholson #49 and #50 rasps (American made, pre-Brasil) along with some likely low-quality rasps and overall, they never became a go-to tool for shaping.

So I ordered a few Liogier rasps to give them a try and really enjoyed using them to shape the 5 legs of the Tim Burton table demi-lune (the No Comment #2 build).  These are definitely now in my first-choice pile of tools to shape wood.

While shaping those legs, if I had a lot of stock to remove, I'd often play with rasps to get a better feel for how they work at shaping a curve (that I'd ultimately be removing anyway).  There is a learning curve to them, like every tool, but mostly a lot of muscle memory for how to switch sides of a project and still push the rasp in the correct orientation.

I cover a few basics of a rasp like grain and "handedness" so people new to rasps better understand the choices and how they work.  If you're an avid rasp user, that part will be -yawn- review for you, but not too long.

Note that this is a review of the Liogier rasps.  I do not own any Auriou rasps to compare; if you want to lend me a set, I'll do a comparison :)

Voilà!




A viewer wrote me about these rasps quite awhile ago.  One thing he found useful was a list of what I bought to use as a starting place to sift through the options.  Here's a photo of my order.  You'll notice I added some additional handles and storage boxes.  Those were for some of my other rasps and files; hey! these handles are maple-syrup colored... doesn't get any better for someone of Canadian upbringing :)

(Click image for a larger more legible size)

I rolled this video while making the Tim Burton table back in early January.  As I sit here avoiding going outside to do concrete and paint in 100º weather, I was jealous of the winter weather in the video.

No Comment #2 - The Full Build

Finally!  There, thought I'd say it for you since I've been saying it all week :)

I had a lot of fun with No Comment #1.  Enough that I'd thought to continue the series with a small but fun build aptly named No Comment #2 (clever, no?).  Like No Comment #1, I won't tell you what I'm building.  This video is a full project build from start to finish in high-speed sections and multi-cams to keep you busy watching instead of snoozing!  Guess as you watch it what I'm making.  Some clues have appeared on this blog to, you know, build intrigue.  My version of foreshadowing!

Unlike No Comment #1, I'll be following up this initial build video with videos detailing different aspects of the build.  There were some interesting techniques used in this build that can be applied to many of your projects.

If you write a comment on this video here or on YouTube (which I'd appreciate!), please don't put a spoiler in there as to what the project was.  Latest comments appear on the homepage so someone not trying to see the comments may see "hey, nice grain elevator!" and it'll just ruin the effect :)

The video is an hour long although my test victims who previewed many early versions never thought it too long; hopefully it'll be as interesting for you.  Maybe go pee before you hit play!


There are two versions of the video!  It wasn't enough to drive myself batty with all this video editing that I mixed two soundtracks.  One uses the songs you've heard many times on previous podcasts.  The second uses new music!  It's all progressive guitar and rock instrumentals.  It is very much what you'd hear in my shop, especially the newly-found favorite Daniel Bautista.

Since the video is all music between a short introduction and final conclusion, you could always hit mute and play your favorite hair bands if you prefer.

I shook the dust off the walls listening to the guitar edition after rendering it tonight; the middle three songs might be a bit much if you're not into the guitar as much but fear not as the songs after those three are very melodic; modulate with the volume control!

Here's the version with the sounds you've often heard on this podcast:



Here's the guitar version: version 11.0!




While sometimes the scene is messy in the video, what's behind the camera is usually piles of whatever I wanted out of the scene.  Here's a panorama of the shop during some of the shooting (the project was in the house so no spoiler here):

A secondary goal of this video was to get better at video editing, lighting, etc.  The biggest thing I learned is that for the total time of this project, easily 9/10th (or more!) of it was video work, whether it was setting up cameras, correcting clips, editing clips, or figuring out some silly thing I wanted in the video for no other reason than I didn't know how (at the time!) to do it!  This really wasn't that long of a build if you don't have red record lights pointing at you :)

For the curious, here's the info for my dedicated video drives:

Crazy that two 4Tb drives are full of the raw and optimized footage for this thing.  As I render the build videos to follow this one, I'll get to delete some footage.  At one point, I found myself drooling over an 18Tb raid stack.  Someday... (no, Friday! :)

Angle Madness, my other project in process, will continue, too, while I put out detail videos for No Comment #2, as I've recorded a lot of the content for those videos already.  The slow pace of Angle Madness needed an intervention for myself and for you.  Now you know why I was in the dark for so long :)

Sculpted Mahogany Vanity - Shaping the Integral Handles

I've been kinda quiet about the handles on this bathroom vanity.  No better way to keep your stuff safe than leaving the handles off!

The funny gash down the middle of the frontmost panel is actually room for integral handles shaped from the panel itself.  For some reason, I like furnishings with almost hidden handles or at least handles that don't look like they could handle the drawer.  In the case of this vanity, the handles try to follow the sculpted pattern.

This whole project is a bit of an exploration and I like how these came out.  For a different way to attach shop-made handles, give this entry about my closet dresser drawers a look.

Next episodes will cover reinforcing the handles, applying the fronts, and wet-sanding the whole thing.  Getting there, slowly... knowing my luck, I'll finish right when the energizing cooler weather arrives :)

Sculpted Mahogany Vanity - Sculpting!

Finally getting to the sculpting! In this episode, we transfer a pattern I drew to the panels then mark them for pre-sculpting. The pre-sculpting is done with a router so I took the opportunity to give you a side-by-side view of the OF-1400 vs the OF-2200 each working a panel. The dust collection on both is fantastic.

Then comes the sculpting of each panel. In real-time, each panel took close to an hour depending on the complexity.  I won't put you through watching an hour of sanding :)  The clip is about 4 minutes to highlight certain aspects of the shaping process. I have a couple tips to share about using the RAS-115 and RO-90 at the end that get demonstrated.

Lastly, you get to see the three panels side-by-side in a fairly rough state; the embossing will be lowered considerably, but I talk about some effects I can use while they are still pronounced.

This week, I'll work on removing the old vanity as I need to get any plumbing changes done first before planning the depth of the drawers.  My neighbor (my plumber) has been out for a week so I'm behind on this!  Once the drawer sizes are decided, we'll go through doing those.  In spare time (!!) I'll complete the shaping of the panels as they won't be needed until after the drawers are built.

In the video, I mention using Iwasaki rasps and plane files.  I got some of mine through Highland Woodworking. D'oh! I shouldn't have gone there to get the link... there are so many more I'm interested in for other projects :)  Even if you don't plan on shaping anything, I'd recommend getting a set of the very fine files.  With the flat one, you can adjust tenons very quickly, clean mortise sides, and any number of other 'flat' corrections.  You'll be impressed by how they cut.

So scratch-n-sniff an offcut of Mahogany for that right-in-the-action sensation! Cue it up...

Now earlier this week, someone on the FOG had some questions about handling the RO-90 especially in rotary mode.  They wanted to see some raw footage basically so I took the raw footage of sculpting, removed the RAS-115, and sped it up.  Are you an insomniac? This is the cure!  Again, it is raw footage so just me sanding with the RO-90 for 8 minutes... the tune is good, though!

Sculpted Mahogany Vanity - The Start

In looking around the house, I had to ask myself, "self, why is there a granite vanity top in the living room?"  I decided that installing it needs to be the next project.

Now, building the vanity base is no big deal; installing it will be as it means removing the existing builder's vanity, fixing the drywall behind it, chipping away 6 half-tiles that surround the existing vanity so I can put down more to finish the field.  Good grief, reading that is talking me out of it :)

Anyway, today's video is the start of the vanity project.  Building a box and topping it with granite wouldn't be interesting so I decided to sculpt the drawer fronts and sides carrying over the relief to the backsplash.

I'll leave you with the video as I go down to the shop to get the structure dimensioned and assembled :)  wahoo!

UPDATE: this video is about the design and how I plan on shaping the vanity.  Once you've watched this video, head over to a photo update after the sculpting portion is nearly done so you can get a better visual of what that part is about.  It's a contemporary project, but I like those.  If contemporary isn't your thing, check the show-notes for each in the series as I try to cover things that are useful in any project.  Or just play some Angry Birds! :)

Beveling Corners on a Bandsaw

From my previous posting, you saw that I'm working on some shaped handles for a set of drawers.  The back side of each handle has a small 3:1 taper on each side to the back.  This is to soften the feel of the handle in your hands.  Thing is, I can't directly use the bandsaw fence to guide the piece as even the short fence is taller than the high-side of this bevel.

My solution was to put a scrap piece of oak against the fence and adjust the fence so a handle pushed against the oak would get the appropriate bevel.  Problem is that there'd be no support on the outfeed side of the cut.  For this, I put double-stick tape on the side of the oak so it could stick to the fence.  I pushed the oak through the blade until about an inch was on the outfeed side then pressed the oak to the fence (it was basically touching it, but pressure was needed to make it stick).  Now I have support after the cut so the last 1-2 inches of the handle are well supported and don't move around.

Push the handle through with the bandsaw thingy I discussed previously.  This whole setup was just too simple and effective.

Turn a Less-Than-Favorite Clamp into a Specialty Vice

I know I've seen this done before and might have even read about it online, but, hey, it came in very handy tonight so I'm sharing.

I have some inexpensive light-duty aluminum bar clamps.  I got them from a special deal at Lee-Valley, but it turns out they are remarkably similar to those found in Harbor Freight.  That said, if you don't have one, you can get it for a song (though singing in Harbor Freight isn't necessarily suggested...)

Foreshadowing: I'm making handles for a drawer front.  You can see the drawer front here from which 5 drawers will be cut.  Each handle is shaped with a rounded front, rounded edges, tapered sides.  That's a lot of shaping and cranking on the vice to hold it in place will only ding up what would otherwise be a (IMHO) very nice handle.

How I did the shaping is by clamping the handle in the bar clamp lengthwise like so.  You can see the bar is clamped to the bench with a quick-clamp.  Then have a lot of fun with a Veritas spokeshave (a delightful tool).

Normally the handles would just slip out of the metal pads, but I put a strip of 3M Safety Tape on each pad.  You can get cheaper safety tapes (like at Harbor Freight), but usually the 'grit' isn't very consistent.  Might be good enough for this.  I had the very nice 3M Safety Tape from a previous project so it was perfect.