Angle Madness! - Box Glue-up and Panel Cutting

Bet you thought this project found its way into a dumpster :) No!

The idea for the Tim Burton table popped into my head and I put this project aside since I was at a point where I needed to decide on a few things before being able to proceed.  I'm not good at having a big design laid out at the start although this project has had to force that a few times, including now!

In this episode,we'll glue-up the drawer tier boxes and show how you can easily clamp ridiculous compound angles... a method that's equally useful for regular mitered corners.

I cut the panel to the lines with the tracksaw and have a few tips on how to make lining it up easier.

Lastly, there's prepping the panel for installation into the box, which delves into the design of the drawer a bit and why a chamfer into a rabbet is a good idea.

Not an action-packed tool-cam video, but hopefully some take away.  Next episode of this project build will make the drawer webbing on the inside.  ...and I haven't forgotten about the 3 remaining episodes for the Tim Burton table (No Comment #2).

Refreshing a Guiderail Splinterguard and Dimple Marking Technique

A bit of a quickie video. I'm working on Angle Madness again and needing to cut the panels for the tapered octagonal drawer boxes. For that, I really need the splinterguard on the MFT to be dead accurate. It always has been, for years, until I needed to quickly cut something on the MFT during the Tim Burton Table build while I had the Panther blade in the TS-75. Unlike the TS-55 blades that all have the same kerf width, TS-75 blades sometimes differ.  Now, my splinterguard is about 0.5mm off.

The first part of the video, though, covers something I often do anyway with the saw: dimple marking (my own silly term :)  With the saw on the rail, it's easy to use the ATB blade to mark exactly where the cut will be. Great for verifying and occasional adjustments. For 12 panels, I want the splinterguard accurate...

Second half of the video shows how to bump the splinterguard over so you can recut it accurately. Seems easy enough, but it comes up on forums all the time. Usually people are trying to peel it off and reuse the aged adhesive. I'll show you a better way that works quickly and has no peel-off problems.

After posting this, some people asked about the turners' tape mentioned in the video. It is essentially a double-stick tape. A good one is this one from Lee Valley.  The one I used in the video is from InterTapePolymer.com, but I can't find the woodworking store that sells it now.

I used a different brand that I have handy. Many woodworking catalogs will call this type of double stick tape "turners' tape" since, I guess, turners use it (I don't turn yet!)

Festool Cordless Carvex PSC-420 Review and Demo

I've been playing with a Festool cordless Carvex PSC-420 jigsaw for over a month now; a very nice saw made nicer with the accessory kit.

The corded model will be released September 1^st, 2013.  The cordless model I use here does not yet have a release date in North America.

In this review, we'll start with a high-speed demo of a number of cuts in wood and other materials.  We'll then go over the saw in more detail pointing out any special features of the saw as well as each of the accessories in the accessory kit.

If you are familiar with the Festool PS-300 Trion, some of this saw's anatomy will be familiar, but there are a number of improvements and differences.  We'll also discuss any appreciable difference between the Carvex and the Trion so you can decide between the two if you are looking at Festool jigsaws.  Note that this means the Trion is not being discontinued.  The Carvex is an addition to the jigsaw line.

There's also a video discussion of the pendulum action of the Carvex and Trion.  I captured some good slo-mo video to better demonstrate the differences in pendulum settings and discuss why certain settings are better than others for different materials.

So the question is: why get a cordless jigsaw?  In my case, I have a corded Trion and was curious about a cordless version.  If I need to use a corded jigsaw, the Trion will work well.  If I want to breakdown stock in the driveway, I'd prefer the cordless Carvex.  Of course a cordless saw can be more convenient in the shop, although it is diminished by the lack of a "hose-less" dust extractor.  In fact, I found that I'm so trained to see the extractor hose on the tool and think the extractor will start when I start the tool that I often started a demo with the extractor off.  Fortunately, you can't read my lips in high-speed video :)  So, please, someone invent a hoseless dust-extractor!

28 minutes for a jigsaw review?!? By now you know I'm detailed; if you just want to see the saw in action, that's the first 5 minutes.

Popcorn-ex ready?  Okay!





I left a joke unfinished in the video... feel free to finish it in the comments :)


Festool-USA provided the Cordless Carvex PSC-420 and accessory kit for pre-release feedback and review.  And that said, I wrote the product manager with a number of questions and got excellent detailed replies, some directly from the engineers in Germany!

Gryphon C-40 Wet Bandsaw - Demo

Awhile ago, I posted a video review of the Gryphon C-40 wet bandsaw, but didn't really cut glass or curves.  I didn't have the right stock on hand to cut up for curves then posted it too quickly.  Mea culpa.

This video is the missing demos; we'll cut 8mm thick glass, porcelain tile, and natural travertine tile.  All stock will get a straight cut, soft curves, then more aggressive curves.  For the glass and porcelain tile, each cut is separate. On the large travertine tile, I made one long cut composed of the three segments.

Remember that I'm pretty new to this bandsaw and I could see how practice especially with a particular material would make for better tracking.

No Comment #2 - Onyx Cap for the Tapered Octagon

Getting back to the Tim Burton table build (No Comment #2), today we'll look at cutting and polishing the piece of Onyx that caps the tapered octagon.  We'll also go over making the molding that became a frame around the bottom.

While I used the Bridge City Jointmaker Pro for cutting the molding, that's actually a pretty trivial use for that tool (but I like to use it and it's right there!)  No Jointmaker?  No problem, I show a technique at the end of the video that you may find useful for cutting miters in small molding without a Jointmaker and without a tablesaw or bandsaw.

As a warning, there's some easy geometry in this episode... bisecting the angles (which are the miters for the frame) can be easily done with a compass.  You learned it in middle school, but in case those neurons were fried in some college hazing incident, we'll go over it quickly.  In the original build video, I used a Bridge City CT-4 (Angle Divider) and BS-5 to do without the geometry, but these nice layout tools are hard to come by.



Have to apologize for going dark for over a month! Life, work, and 120ºF+ heat waves kept me from the shop.  Yes, folks, we have canceled flights on account of heat out here!  That said, though, two other videos are in production with another review being recorded this weekend.  Of what? It makes a cameo in the background near the end of this video :)