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!