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...

No Comment #2 - Design Overview

In fussing with these design videos, I decided to break them down into small areas of the build so you could surf the ones that are of interest and skip the others... but you won't, right? :)

This first post-build video is of the design and where some of the ideas came from and some of the changes that happened along the way.  Also shows the table where it will go and what the onyx cap is for.

Subsequent build videos will cover each part in more detail, like the table top, the tapered octagon, the legs, a special video on just the stone shaping, coloring and finishing, and ultimately something on assembly since there are some interesting points to that as well.

After putting you through an hour-long video, this one is just a bit over 8 minutes!

Thanks for watching and welcome to the new subscribers... seemed to have gotten a lot lately!

No Comment #2 - Pre-build Videos Odds 'n' Ends

Thanks for the good feedback on No Comment #2, both the video and the project.  It was a fun project and the compliments on the video make that effort worth it.  I've also made a list of things to do better for #3, whenever that happens!

If you haven't watched it yet due to the hour length, most people said it went quickly and didn't feel like an hour.  If you are impatient and want to see the final product, cue it up to get through the 3 minute intro up to where the build starts then jump to the 1 hour mark and watch from there out.

I'm taking this weekend off of video editing and will edit the first design episode next weekend.  Had some parties and hockey this weekend plus if I import more footage into my machine right now, it's so full it'll ooze out!  Friday, though, more storage arrives!  Thank you thank you to the viewer who greatly helped out with that!

The photo above is my 'mission control' desk at home; guess if I wasn't so nocturnal, I could have taken it with daylight lighting it up.  The left is the preview monitor to see what you're doing, the right the timeline.  Usually there's a glass of red wine between the monitors; I need wine to be able to watch myself while editing...

What stole the show for one viewer was that tape dispenser.  I bought it awhile ago to hold 3/4" and 2" rolls of blue tape while doing marquetry because you don't want to drop everything to use two hands to take a bit.  Works great!  When not doing marquetry, I put packing tape in as the second roll.  I use both non-stop it seems.  Very handy and not really expensive.  There are three 1" wide wheels on the back so you can load it up with many combinations of widths.  All metal!

Off in Sweden, a forum thread started wondering why I use the jigsaw upside-down.  Funny to read where the thread wanders through Google Translate :)  (BTW, forum registration is broken! I was going to reply in English but apparently "question #3" is missing!)

So, I'll answer here and later in the build video.  With the jigsaw upside-down, I get these advantages:

• Clearly visible blade for better tracking to a line and safety
• Most blades pull chips into the body of the jigsaw; upside-down, this pulls them away from you and gravity helps with the few chips that try getting away
• If you hang on to the board with fingers below the board, using a jigsaw right-side up risks you clipping your fingers; with the jigsaw upside-down, if you run into those fingers, it is the base of the saw, not the blade.
• As a corollary of the above, I find that I have more control since I can see the blade tracking so easily instead of peering into the chipguard.

Admittedly, the Trion's barrel-grip and knob up front makes this really nice; I often use the knob to pull the jigsaw toward me upside-down under the stock.  If you have a D-handle, I can imagine it would be more awkward.  If you have a barrel grip, draw a curvy line on MDF or other scrap and try it out, twice.  First time to get the feel for it, second to see your accuracy.

Another common question is what type of stone that is (it appeared as the second clue).  It's Onyx, a form of marble.  You'll see more of that in the build videos.

And now, a "forest for the trees" moment while editing the Guitar Edition v11.0 of No Comment #2...

When making the music credits, I took a list of songs by each artist and sorted them alphabetically. Song titles would fade in and out in pairs below the artist name.  Only after re-watching the preview version for the umpteenth time did I notice this ironic pairing of song titles:

If you don't immediately get the joke, uhm, don't google it at work...