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...

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 :)

Laguna Ceramic Guides and Blade Wear

In a YouTube comment on the video about the Laguna ceramic guides for the Italian LT-18, someone asked if the ceramic guides abrade the blade.  The blade does show scuffs and scratches where the ceramic guides touch, but don't really dig in or anything.  For example, the rear "thrust bearing" equivalent is a ceramic rod pressed up against the blade.  You should rotate it more often than I do or you get a groove in it suggesting that though the ceramic is hard, the blade still wears the ceramic.  I have a pronounced groove now, but you simply rotate it to a new flat spot.

With some of the goofy resawing I did for No Comment #2, my blade finally needed to be changed after 22 months.  I'm not a pro so I don't use it daily, but I do use it a lot especially resawing wide stock so 22 months is a heck of a long time!  Before shipping the blade for sharpening today, I took closeup photos of the blade to show the wear after 22 months (it was a new blade):

This is a 1.25" Resaw King and should get 5-6 resharpenings before it's dead.  That's 6-7 "between sharpening" times you get to use it so the cost starts going down.  When I got the Italian LT-18, I bought 2 Resaw King blades as they had a special for new bandsaw buyers so at least I can finish this project while the blade is out.

The crud in the kerfs is indeed MDF.  Evil that stuff...