The building of the Fez-o-rama Booth

Oh Dear God

2010-02-09T13:13:00.000-08:00

So we have reached that stage in all of my projects where the seldom-listened-to voice in my head says "What the hell are you doing!?!"

As you can see in the photo, with the help of Paul, Troy, Scott and Joe; the frame of the roof line for the canopy extension is starting to appear. Currently the canopy's legs are collapsed to the floor so the whole thing is sitting about 4 feet lower than the finished height - which will not fit in my studio. This is just a test fit to start addressing those little details like gravity and surface area. Needless to say the 12 yards of linen I bought on clearance will only begin to cover this roof.

You might be able to make out the tie lines we used to bow the PVC for the arches and take the wobble out of the roof spine. This was actually working rather well and had I not already emptied the Lowes of the PVC fixtures we needed, we might have gotten further along.

So the sad reality we are left with is: this project is much too large to assemble in time to use at the 24hr Dance-a-thon next month without having to cut all of the other things I need to do by March 13th. So we will be tabling this project for a few weeks.

Next step: get more PVC couplers and dowel rod and start looking for a lot of cheap fabric.

It's Starting Again!!!

2010-02-05T16:47:00.000-08:00

In the never-ending process of making our "Once and Future" Fez-o-booth we will once again begin work on a major update to our vending abode. This time it will be an overhaul of the portable canopy we acquired last year.

As you can see in this photo from our day at the IndyGear event, it is a big upgrade over the slant leg canopy seen in the previous post. It is also a fairly utilitarian looking affair. You may also notice in the photo the paint job upgrade I did on the bamboo facade for the booth this past year.

The plan is to create an overlay for the canopy that changes the look without impeding any of the function. Our goal is to have the structure built and skinned in time to use the new canopy for this year's 24hr Cancer Dance-a-thon. (Learn more about the Dance-a-thon and our team at www.cultoftheeye.com) That will be a good test of the structure. After March we will focus on improvements and then the thorough decoration of the skin in time for our big trip to Tiki Oasis 10 in August.

So bear with us as we dust off this blog and try to make some progress!

The booth continues...

2008-05-31T15:36:00.000-07:00

While we haven't done any official additions to the booth this year we have put it to use. In fact it was a key component to our 24hr Dance-a-thon booth.

We have some big plans for the next Dance-a-thon and we'll possibly make some addition to the Fez-o-booth in anticipation.

Tiki Oasis photos

2007-09-21T13:55:00.000-07:00

Jo David posted this fun shot of the booth in full swing on Flickr. Boy that takes me back... now I can't wait for next year.

Check out more of his shots from the event here.
Why don't my photos ever look that good?

Tiki Oasis Prep

2007-08-14T10:01:00.000-07:00

Well we survived the move to a new home just in time to start cramming for Tiki Oasis. The booth was pulled out of storage and set up for a test run on Sunday. Joe and Tiny did the honors. They also added a few pins for the umbrella height and to replace the broken pulley system.

We also added some collapsing shelves to hang from the cabinets to increase storage. Those should come in handy this weekend. I will try to take some photos of the booth in various stages at Tiki Oasis.

July Update

2007-07-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

The booth has been put on the back burner while we deal with other projects. We can do this because the booth is actually at a stage that can work for the event. If we find some extra time we will return to expanding the cabinets and facade. That all depends on how the rest of this month goes.

Weekend Update

2007-06-11T14:51:00.000-07:00

Umbrella: DONE - optional: add some embroidery
Umbrella Frame: DONE - optional: coat of paint, bamboo sleeve
War Club Extensions: DONE - optional: trim and file brass fittings.
Stand: DONE - optional: try to improve epoxy finish

Our focus is now on to the display cases as we work to strip down the bamboo matting so we can trim, re-weave it into one long roll and back it with fabric for stability.

Then we need to create the four cabinet sections for the back part of the booth.

still going

2007-06-10T14:40:00.000-07:00

We're halfway thru Sunday and are in the thick of it.

The Dormers have been painted with much help from Troy's talented hands.
The warclub spine extensions are about done except for perhaps a bit of trimming

The whole shebang has been assembled and tested open and closed.
The table top was decorated with a vinyl design to match the umbrella and got a bit of shading from Maya and is now getting an epoxy topcoat from Joe.

Lesson learned: don't allow me around epoxy

The final leg's damage has been cut off and is ready for its wooden prosthetic.

Still Sewing

2007-06-07T14:39:00.000-07:00

Spent some evening time this week on sewing for the umbrella. Finished shaping the dormer triangles and added ties to all of them. Next I need to add some straps to the top.

Next up:

Decorate the table and seal it
Decorate the dormer triangles
find a capitol for the umbrella
Fix the last leg
Add height pin

Then we can move on to the cabinets of the booth.

Another Weekend Push

2007-06-03T14:38:00.000-07:00

Well another weekend is over and once again we made some progress. There were a few missteps as well. We're changing directions on a few elements and more than once we measured once... and "cut" a few times.

The recap:

The Umbrella skin has been sewn, and test fitted, and finished. It looks like washing the fabric did shrink it a bit but I had compensated for that when I cut the seam allowance.
The beam extensions have been cut and dressed and only need support plates and a clear coat for protection if we're up for it.
The table top was designed and after a few hours of work we decided that we were going in the wrong direction. The detail that we had created just wouldn't have worked on such crappy wood. It is much better suited for paint than carving so we're going to cover it in fabric and seal it with epoxy.
One of the two legs that needed to be fixed has been.
I've started working on the dormer panels. Unfortunately my first design was laid out with the shrinkage considered so I will need to do it again. Painting these should be no problem after doing the umbrella top.

If only I had taken photos today

Now I just need to get caught up on all of the graphic design work I need to do.

Momentum!

2007-05-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

We had a big push this weekend and quite a bit was done.

The rest of the umbrella panels were laid out on Friday ready for the weekend of progress.

We decided to go with a water based fabric paint commonly used for silk screening. It should remain flexible and was easy to purchase in bulk. Of course it turned out that we didn't need nearly as much paint as I expected so I now have enough left over to do this at least 4 more times.

Maya, Troy and I spent around 7 hours Saturday working on the hardwood floor as we painted the 6 panels.
Sunday Maya and I were joined by Becky for a few hours as we finished the painting. Meanwhile Joe got started on the wood extensions for the umbrella as well as the tabletop for the stand.

Monday involved mostly sleeping and computer work for me while Joe continued on the woodwork.

Next up I need to heat set all of the panels before a final washing and the rest of the sewing and start working on the dormer panels.

We're back baby!

2007-05-21T10:52:00.000-07:00

Progress!
The stand was welded this weekend... and yes it looks like it was done by a pack of marmosets, but a pack of marmosets with a grinder and black paint.
Here you can see Entropy working his magic with his Harbor Freight rig. Hopefully no one will notice what a death trap it is. We still need to fix two of the feet (or redesign all 5)

We have also begun the work to decorate the fabric for the umbrella. Sadly the bleach just doesn't have the effect I was hoping for so we will resort to paint. 5 of the 12 panels have been laid out. The 6 dormers still need to be designed but I'm thinking I might use some embroidery on those.

Hopefully we will make better progress now that we have some momentum again.

Massive Delays!

2007-05-03T10:50:00.000-07:00

Wow, lost a bit of momentum around here! I spent most of the last two weeks moving stuff around and working on fezzes so little was accomplished on the actual booth. I hope to return to the process soon.

Base Build

2007-04-17T10:49:00.000-07:00

The challenge with this is to build it without needing much outside assistance and yet make it look like it was done by someone more evolved than a pack of marmosets.

Note that I did not say a pack of baboons. It is important that one recognizes their limitations.

ohhh, 3D!

2007-04-13T10:47:00.000-07:00

so I decided I would mock up the umbrella base in Google Sketch because I was tired of trying to explain what was in my head.

It's the first thing I have actually created in Google Sketch so don't expect much.

The goal here is to have it both extremely stable and portable. So that should be easy

Weekend Plans

2007-04-12T10:43:00.000-07:00

We have a bit of a challenge this weekend. It is the annual Grand Prix down here and that means there will be no parking available and the streets will be filled with race fans.

Anyway, that means it is time for us to get out of town. I don't know how much time we will have to work on this but I do hope to at least take photos and layout some artwork for it.

Planning

2007-04-07T10:40:00.001-07:00

this past week was set aside for planning. (now that is not entirely true, we expected to do other things but we only accomplished the planning part) We built the current booth and check to see how much room we had to move inside. It will be cozy but the lady in charge of vending says he is happy with it, so who am I to question that?

Hopefully we will soon get to the decorating stage and have more photos to share.

Planning

2007-04-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

fabric prepped

2007-03-30T11:12:00.000-07:00

All of the fabric has been prepped for the next fitting. The top has been sewn into 6 panels and the edges have been finished. The 6 front panels are also hemmed and reinforced. Next up is either a second fitting or surface decoration. It just depends on which I feel like tackling first.

Cuttin' & Sewin'

2007-03-27T11:11:00.000-07:00

Started doing the fittings for the roof and came up 2" short of fabric then discovered that I had given myself much more ease than I needed. So after some trimming I think I have the roof worked out.

I'm going to finish only half of the seams so I can dismantle it in the future for decorating. After one more fitting I will focus on the front panels for the umbrella.

Back to Work!

2007-03-18T11:09:00.000-07:00

Fabric has been scrounged, The wooden extensions were tested and measurements have been taken!

This week I will pattern out the sections and start cutting the fabric to give this thing some life. Soon we will be able to move on to the additions for the counters.

Bit by Bit

2006-09-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

Started working on the rib extensions for the top peaks. I'm using some cheap 1x2s cut to about 15". There will be about 8" of overlap with the metal ribs. I'm testing it with pine but will likely move up to something better if it works.

I want to not only work out how much to extend the frame but also testing if the ribs can handle the extra weight. Once the extension is determined I can go about patterning the fabric for the umbrella.

So far slotting the pine has been a pain. The Dremel wants to follow the heavy grain in the wood. I'll need to switch to the router and make a jig.

Return to the umbrella

2006-08-13T11:06:00.000-07:00

Well this project got bumped from the Tiki Invasion time-line for the Inlatable Moai project. Today as I was working on far more important stuff, my computer pointed out that I hadn't charged my mouse lately. So in my mouse-charging downtime I put in a bit of effort on this project.

Next step is to start patterning the umbrella panels. Now, I could use my mighty geometry skills to work out all of the angles but sadly I left those in high school. So my solution is to isolate the movement of the spines and simply measure distances.

Here is a photo of the cotton twill tape used to set the distance between the spines.

Once I get that where I like it I can start looking at deciding how much overhang I want.

WTF?

2006-06-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, it occurs to me that I have been a bit vague about this phase of the Fez-o-rama booth.

If you scroll way the hell down to the beginning of this blog you will see TofuJoe's excellent idea for the new booth. Now while I do plan to one day implement this, it will have to wait until I get my hands on a rolling mill to produce the rings needed. In the mean time I had been trying to work out how to make the top open like an umbrella. Ease of set-up/strike is very important to our booth designs.

Then one day I read a Humu Kon Tiki blog about a Tiki Central post by Sabu The Coconut Boy regarding the 1962 Hawaiian Pavilion at the Seattle World's Fair. (gotta love the cyclical world we live in)I don't know what it is about that roof but it has haunted me since seeing this picture.

So here is the idea. Find an umbrella to mod to imply this roof line. Well I couldn't find an umbrella with 12 spines (what we determined to be the minimum needed) so the next thought was to take two umbrellas with 6 spines and meld them together. One trip to Big Lots later and I was the proud owner of two mod-able umbrellas.

First Joe and I broke them down and worked out how to do the mods. Luckily the construction was quite simple. Plastic housings and tie wire. So Joe cut 6 more grooves into the cap.
You can see one of the handmade cutouts in the center of the photo.

We assembled both of the lower sliders onto one pole to allow us a bit of adjustment if needed.

To create the up/down of the original roof we needed to move the pivot of the upper set of spines. We simply drilled out the rivets and moved the hole back on the spines.
Finally here is a shot of the frame open
and one closed. As you can see we would need to make a few more cuts to allow the frame to close more but it works as it is.

So there you go, all caught up now.

Frankenbrella

2006-06-25T10:57:00.000-07:00

Work continues on the new addition to the Fez-o-rama booth. The Umbella frames have been dismantled and are currently being assembled into a Frankenbrella! Now I just need to pick up some hardware to replace the rivets we drilled out.

Update

2006-06-06T10:56:00.000-07:00

The exploratory surgery on the first umbrella has begun but not too far.

I'm afraid this project may get sidelined as many things have come up that need my attention. Worse case senario we roll out the current version of the booth with a tarp for shade. Let's hope for the best.

Umberellas!

2006-05-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

Well I picked up two market umbrellas to warp into one Frankenbrella. I'll take some photos of the experiment.

Mission Tiki expansion

2006-05-17T10:54:00.000-07:00

Well, we have our next public event: Mission TIki Drive-in http://tikiinvasion.com/
This time we will be outside. We may actually attempt to build the rest of the booth before then.

We'll have to add:

4 more cases
curtains to hide storage
a center post for the umbrella like roof.

We've even talked about getting some floor mats to lessen fatigue for the sales staff (I try to stay out of their way when they are working)

Home Again

2006-05-08T10:53:00.000-07:00

We're back and truth be told the booth worked out great. I'm really happy with how it packs up. The backdrop worked out great. Lighting was a bit spotty but that was taken care of by a mad dash to Target.

I'm actually ready to get back to work on it... Just over two months until the Mission Tiki event!

...

2006-05-03T10:52:00.000-07:00

Retro-active posting!

Yes. Despite not having posted about it, Sunday did indeed occur. No need to throw away your calendars, they still work.

Most efforts were spent on finishing(?) touches on the sign and working on product. Now that we are in fact only a few days out on this shindig let's look at where we stand.

Booth

needs to be packed -never made any cases for the tops but they should be ok this time.
there are still a few things that could be tweaked but I have no time or energy for it now.
Lighting - I have no idea if Joe will have something for this but we will have at least Troy's light.

Sign

need to fill the bases with cement or something
perhaps a few more finishing touches on the aging if there is opportunity

Everything else has come together pretty well. Most of the product is ready to go and while i will be working right up to the last moment, that is really no shock.

Saturday

2006-04-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

While I spent the day working on product with the help of Maya, Caroline and Natalie,

Joe was busy working out how to mount the Fez-o-rama sign for the booth. With Ikabod's help it all went together rather easily.

Tomorrow we will start the finishing touches on the sign to make it look all neglected.

Monday

2006-04-24T10:48:00.000-07:00

The Sign got its first coat of color today:
(picture to be added as soon as I take one)
The idea is to make it look like a worn-out roadside attraction sign.

The tricky part here is to make it look like it was painted by the un-skilled without making it actually look like it was painted by the un-skilled. This is totally against what I usually do. I'm usually trying to make myself look like I know what I'm doing...

Anyway, the plan is to distress to colors so they look like they've been in the sun and dirt for years, all while not paying for the right paints.

Sunday!

2006-04-23T10:46:00.000-07:00

While we had many people over working on product and the Cult booth, a bit was done for the Fez-o-rama booth.

The signage had one more sanding pass and the front side got it's first coat of base paint. Many thanks to Caroline, Troy and Cannibal for working on that.

12 days and counting

2006-04-22T10:42:00.000-07:00

Actually little was done on the Fez-o-rama booth today. Most of the focus was on the Cult of the Eye projects. We had the blessing of Tofujoe traveling from Oakland for the day to oversee the disassembly of the Tiki Booth and prep for the last of the work needed on that.

I was focused on CotE Fezzes, finally finishing the new version of the PontiFez for Stickmann.

1st Sunday after the 1st Full Moon after the Spring Equinox

2006-04-16T10:40:00.000-07:00

Well after getting a later start due to having breakfast with my lovely wife, my mother and my grandfather; we went back to work on the signage.

Here you can see some more shaping done with a knife and Dremel then later, sanding blocks.
After that we attempted to fill in gaps with expanding foam. It worked fairly well but not perfectly. I'm sure there is a learning curve here but we have no time for that.

Tomorrow I will fill in the massive gap on the backside with foam and next week we will hopefully have this in paint.

Saturday

2006-04-15T10:13:00.000-07:00

Embroideries continue! On the booth side of things Troy and my Mom came over to work on a sign for the booth. What started as a broken windsurfing board is slowly being hacked into a sign.

Troy worked up the design before we started at it with kitchen knifes.

Early testing showed that a dremmel works great for carving foam but makes an incredible mess!

Tomorrow we will do some more work on this.

Monday

2006-04-10T10:12:00.000-07:00

Went in search of stuff for the booth. Picked up raffia table skirting to use on either the front counter or as camoflage for product in the back.

I did find one lamp that might work for a base for the backdrop but I'll wait to see what Joe finds.

More work on product today as well.

Sunday

2006-04-09T10:09:00.000-07:00

Today's Players: Maya, Troy, Joe, Tiny and Irk.

Joe started right in with working up possibilities for the booth's backdrop. I was damned impressed with his use of crap laying about my home.

He also spent some time considering gels for the counter's underlight.

Tiny returned to work on skulls with Troy pulling multiple duty on Shambooâ„¢ (Irk is to be credited with that trademarked name) Glasswares and skulls.

Maya was working on Glassware and paintings.

Irk was hard at work on the new sculptures for the Tiki booth.

I was running between embroideries, vinyl and construction.

It was a very productive day!

Saturday

2006-04-08T10:07:00.000-07:00

Despite having the Long Beach Grand Prix going on Stick and Irk still traveled down to get some work done.

I wrapped the three box liners in fabric before anyone arrived.

Troy and I backed the bamboo with black fabric so now it looks much better!

Irk's work on the Tiki Booth looks spectacular! I'll let him post about that.

The rest of the day was spent on product work.

Mid-week Review

2006-04-05T10:05:00.000-07:00

Today is the one month mark for Tiki Oasis. Deadlines are looming!

Here is where we stand (in a nutshell)

Front Counter
- Plexi Tops -done
- MDF Tops -done as black
- Legs -done
- Frontage
  - need to back bamboo with fabric
  - possibly add grass skirting to lower edge
- Curtains -add to the back side to hide storage
- Skull Displays
  - Skulls -need to be decorated and sealed
  - Sambooâ„¢ Poles -need to be faux-finished and sealed
Lighting -we have three possibilities to explore
- LED lighting with battery power
- Backlight salvaged from a flatscreen
- decorative Ikea lighting.
Backdrop -possible ideas need to be compared to the limited time we have left.
Packing -create bags and totes for all of the bits so we don't lose anything.

My focus is now on the product so less and less attention is left for the booth needs.

32 days and counting

2006-04-02T09:12:00.000-07:00

Today's players: Troy, Mike, Irk and Maya.

Assembled the booth for a final look. The tops were painted black just for the time being but they look so nice I may have to leave them black.

Trimmed the edge of the bamboo. I didn't care for this uniform wave so I went for a more random edge not in the photo. You can also see the foam lining of the bamboo on the inside. This iritates me. I think I will remove that and glue black fabric on the bamboo.

We remade the shelf for the cut-out box and covered it with fabric.

Troy layed out a template to do the same for the bottoms of the plexi cases.

I spent a good deal of the day working on the new designs for this year. Graphics are done so I just need to create the cut files and then engineer the embroideries.

Maya and Mike sorted all of the glassware and assigned the designs. This is a big help for me because I usually go into vapor lock if I have do decide all of these things on my own.

Paint!

2006-04-01T09:11:00.000-08:00

No pictures today... not much to look at really.

Troy put second coat on the cabinets... I re-did the base coats on the "Shamboo"

Mostly I worked on new designs and embroidery.

Sunday!!!

2006-03-26T20:57:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-03-25T09:09:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-23T20:50:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-22T20:46:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-22T08:44:00.000-08:00

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?

2006-03-19T08:41:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-14T11:05:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-13T13:39:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-11T15:30:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-11T12:24:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-10T11:10:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-03-08T15:37:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-03-06T18:38:00.000-08:00

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?

2006-03-04T12:21:00.000-08:00

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

2006-03-02T12:55:00.000-08:00

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!

parts list

2006-02-27T15:30:00.000-08:00

Display ring based on 8ft ring made of 12 sections. 6 sections to produce 180º. The Uberfez used 2 sections to cover a 90º opening based on a smaller diameter to accommodate the wall taper.

Cases
1/2" MDF 4x8 sheet $17.89 enough to make 6 sets of bottoms and walls with a bit left over.
0.22" Plexi 24"x48" sheet $39.99 enough to squeeze out 3 display tops. The Uberfez used .09" plexi which wasn't very sturdy.

Legs
28" taper legs $5.99 per. We used 3 legs per cabinet before but if we bolted each section together we could shave off a few legs.
Threaded leg plate $1.49 each

Approx. $40 per cabinet. If we only make 3 of them with Plexi tops then we would save the $13.33 per Plexi top.

48" piano hinge $9.19 could be used to make the walls fold flat for storage.

Materials

2006-02-27T14:59:00.000-08:00

4x8 sheet of 1/2" MDF
24"x 48" Plexi

4 28" table legs
4 flat mounting plates

I already have the template materials and extra hinges. The lighting will have to be dealt with later.

Fez Booth re-direct

2006-02-23T15:59:00.000-08:00

Slight re-direct on our new booth.This year for Tiki Oasis 2006 the Fez booth will be inside.

While I still want to do TofuJoe's design we will have to start in stages.

The plan right now is to build a half ring of cabinets with the overhead elements to be worked out later.

The Concept

2006-02-16T15:25:00.000-08:00

This year we are spinning off the fez booth into its own entity Fez-o-rama. With the Tiki Oasis location change we are looking at doing a new fez booth to go to San Diego.

One of the first suggestions for the new design was brought forth by TofuJoe of the Cult of the Eye:

I have to say I really dig this design.