Sunday!!!

Lots done already.
Today's cast: Joe, Tiny, Ikabod, Irk, Troy and me... your host.

The cabinets got more paint


The legs got primed, sanded and painted.
Here you can see the metal pipes being turned into "Shamboo­"©
After this first coat dries I'll do a little more smoothing and more paint to improve the look.

Tiny has finished putting the base colors on the skulls and is now marking out the tribal designs that Troy has come up with.

We're starting to slow down as we are really feeling the lack of sleep now. That's what we get for having fun on Saturday nights.

Photoless Saturday -now with photo!

Forgot to take pictures so just the one today.

Troy came over and we moved a good deal forward.

• All of the plexi was trimmed and flame polished.
  
• Almost all of the hardware was installed.
  
• Paint started on the cabinets and will continue today.

Today I'll be doing more paint and sculpting the bamboo rods for the skull displays.

Assembly

Well Joe and I put in a rather productive day today. It started with Joe rattling me out of bed and ended a few minutes ago at 8:30pm.

The booth went from test fit to final fit on most of the pieces. All of the tops have been pegged to fit the sides.

The bamboo mat is now mounted with hardware

Still need to trim the bottom.

The pipes have begun to be mounted on the back edge

to support the skulls for displaying fezzes.


Tomorrow I will pick up a few bits of missing hardware and do a bit of sanding and shaping on the MDF before paint.

Frontage

Well it could have gone worse...

I decided to go for a wavy edge and couldn't decide if it should be random or even.

Ultimately I just started cutting with a Rotozip.

Unfortunately only after trying to clean up the edge did I discover that I could have just used scissors.

Here is a test fit of the front.

I still need to work out the seam and trim the bottom to match. That and figure out how it all goes together when the tape comes off.

The problem with working alone is you can't constantly bounce ideas off of others... and you can't blame them for the screw-ups.

Midweek Update

Well it is the middle of the week and far less has gotten done so far than I would have liked.

Here you can see what was done on Sunday.

We cut out a few areas for plexi to fit in. I like the effect and am now considering doing another section like it.

I have installed all of the legs and test fitted all of the sections.

I has a good height and is rather sturdy once I started adding the hardware to bolt it together.

The bamboo mat was purchased for the front. It needs to be cut down the middle to wrap around.

We are getting closer and closer to paint.

Weekend Four?

Whew, not much sleep to be had. Saturday was our annual Waffles of the Damned event. A great time was had and little work was done.

On Sunday we managed to get some stuff done on what little sleep was had.

Here you can see the sides going on the bases.

We used door hinges because they were free.


Sadly I didn't take any shots of our routing out designs in one of the tops but I can shoot the aftermath.

Monday

Worked in a bit more progress yesterday. 4 of the 6 bases now have folding sides. Had to stop working to sit in on a Skype meeting. I plan to get the hardware on prior to the weekend work sessions. This way we can focus on dealing with the next set of design problems.

Such as:

• Can we get away with staggering the legs or do we need each table to be able stand on its own.
  
• I found bamboo matting that could be used to front the booth but we would either need to float it a few inches above the ground or buy twice as much matting to go all the way to the floor.
  
• Should we square the sides with blocks when we bolt the sections together to make them stronger?
  
• How do we want to light the display boxes? Big Lots has a set of 3 flourescent lights that can be plugged in series.

I'll post a few photos of where we're at when I get a chance.

Sunday Re-cap

Yesterday was a very productive follow-up to Saturday.

All of the sides were finish cut and beveled and such.

Hinge placement was worked out and channels were routed into the bases and sides.

Joe spent the day trimming down screws so we would get a full bite out of the 1/2" MDF.


Let's take a moment to discuss something very important to the process:

Safety
Always wear the appropriate protection when going about this sort of creativity. Note the wireless headphones to protect oneself from the crushing boredom of silence.

Also we should point out that it is a good idea to wear a red shirt. That way if -god forbid- you were to expire due to a power tool event, the authorities would immediately recognize that you were not in charge of this "away mission" and would continue to look for the responsible party.

Saturday Sawdust Factory

Cutting is going well.

The plexi has been cut and sanded:

• First the rough cut with the circular saw
  
  
• The three sheets stacked with one of the tops as a template. Turns out the secret is double sided tape.
  
• I trimmed the edges with a router using a tracing bit and then did a little sanding. Later the edges will be flame polished.
  

Two new bases have been cut to replace the ones that look like they were done by a monkey... or me.


All of the angles have been cut on the back end of the sides. Just need to cut length and adjust height for the different tops.

There is a good chance I'll be on to hinges and legs tomorrow!

Weekend 3 Plan

Saturday:

• cut plexi
  
• attempt to clean up cuts already made
  
• finish cut sides

this may require me to start putting legs on to work out which walls will need to be trimmed down.

Sunday:
do what I failed to do on Saturday...

another post

jeez, there have been long gaps in my productivity on this!

Anyway, scored two more bamboo mats for a new surround for the extended cabinets. I had to check four places before finding anything (as well as a few web searches) so as you can guess I was getting a bit concerned.

The umbrella skin has been patterned. Now I just need to clear a huge space on my floor and start cutting. That will likely happen next week as we have a party to prepare for this weekend.

I'll take photos for the next steps.

Progress plus!

Forgot to point out that Tiny and Irk were also working on distressing some more skulls Sunday. These will be used as display stands for the fezzes... and whatever else we need.

They already look fantastic and that is only with the first wash.

Progress!

Made some headway yesterday with Smokin' Joe's help. We got most of the tops and bottoms of the displays cut and sanded with only a few mishaps.

I've learned two things this weekend.

• The circular saw doesn't cut as clean as the router/template set up.
  
• The router/template set up produces massive amounts of dust... massive.

The sides are roughed out but still need their final cuts. Half of them need to be a 1/4" shorter than the others to accommodate the 1/2" MDF vs the 1/4" Plexi. This is good because I cut a few of them a bit close.

Up next: cut the Plexi and work on the hinge situation.

momentum?

Saturday Morning. While I wait for Irk and Ikabod to run their respective errands and arrive I will try to get the display case template done.

I will be able to cut 8 decks and a dozen sides which will leave me one deck short after adding the three cut from plexi. I may have to cannibalize one of the old display cases.

Hopefully the hinge concept will work on the first try...

Lull

Gotta love the work week... One more day of paid labor and I can get back to my not-paid labor!

Didn't get as much done as I wanted to last week so now I have to play catch up to keep on schedule. My plan is to be done with the booth by April 1st so I can spend the next month focused on product.

However I do have design responsibilities that will get in the way... and there are always those last minute design alterations.

I plan to cut a template before Saturday, so this weekend is all about productivity!