Let There Be Light Part III

This is part III of a III part series read parts I & II here.

I began working on the light ring stand at about 8:30 pm. It had to be completed that night, for in the morning it was to leave on a cross country drive. If that deadline wasn’t enough, it was also the first night of the newly resurrected #woodchat. Besides making the stand, I was tweeting and Google+ Hangouting for much of the night.To construct the base, I used a 1” thick, factory made sheet of finger jointed pine. I find that using sheets like this for non-decorative pieces is cost effective and the boards I rip from these sheets are much straighter than dimensional lumber would be.

The partially assembled light ring stand.

The entire stand is made from strips, about 2” thick, except for the upper half of each leg. As I ran out of the 1” think sheet and it was 10:30 at night by that point, I used the only dimensional lumber I had in the shop, pieces of 2”x4” Timberstrand to make the tops of the legs. Almost all of the joinery is made using T-nuts, 5/16” threaded rod and plastic knobs for easy breakdown. I set the T-nuts and install short pieces of threaded rod in each, secured with LocTite Threadlocker. Luckily, I had Ari around to cut the threaded rod lenghs for me while I fabricated the stand. The only permanently attached pieces are the receivers for the legs, where are permanently screwed to the feet.

The completed light ring stand with the light ring in place.
The stand is assembled with clamps as the LocTite was not yet dry.

When assembled, the stand is about 7’ high and can hold the light ring, centered at any height from about 3’6” to 6’9”. The light ring is simply placed against the upper legs of the stand and ring’s handles are clamped to the stand using small quick clamps.

To use the light ring, simply stand behind it, and take your photo through the ring, so that your subject is evenly illuminated on every side of the photo.

The stand, broken down and ready for travel.

Broken down, the stand is made of up 9 pieces, none longer than 4’. Though I didn’t have time to do so before the light ring and stand left of the west coast, I told Ari that if I picked up some large Velcro straps, it would make the stand easier to transport.

The light ring is now at home in LA, and its cooking with gas.

The light ring is now in LA, and soon it’ll be illuminating the stars.What odd projects have you made to meet your friend’s needs?

Let There Be Light: Part I

Let There Be Light: Part II

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MWA Review 1 Rough Cut Woodworking with Tommy Mac

A few months ago the founding administrators of the Modern Woodworkers Association were given the opportunity to review the new Rough Cut book from Taunton. It’s a companion to the first season of the TV show entitled “Rough Cut - Woodworking with Tommy Mac”.

The book dedicates a chapter to each of the season one projects with an additional chapter on finishing. It does a good job of walking readers through the projects and with a basic understanding of woodworking and the corresponding episode as a supplement most of the projects should be easily achievable.For our full review, please listen as four woodworkers banter on and on about actually having read a book.We’re working on setting it up in iTunes and we’ll update this as soon as we do. Until then, please listen here.Also, thanks to my fellow MWA Admins for making this happen.This post originally appeared at modernwoodworkersassociation.com

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Let There Be Light Part II

When I was done with the front ring piece, I layed it on a piece of ½” Baltic Birch and traced the ring shape out. I then made a template handle out of ¼” luan plywood for the light ring. I put the template on either side of the drawn ring on the ½” Baltic Birch and drew the handles on.

My handle template.

I used a jig saw to cut out close to my marks. I then used the front ¾” ring as a guide and template routed the inside and outside circles of the back ½” ring. For the handles I clamped on the luan template and template routed them as well. Finally I routed around the handles with a ¼” round over bit and both circles for the light ring were formed. The last step was to quickly break down the tear out and rough edges with a 60 grit sanding sponge.

Using the template and a bearing guided bit to route a handle to final size.

Once both pieces had been properly milled I layed out the light sockets again. I marked the center line of each by making 12 equal marks around the outside of the circle and connecting lines across the whole thing between opposite marks. I also marked the center and the outside edge of each socket using a stop rule. I was then able to lay the sockets on the marks and with a pencil trace out where the mounting screws would go. I predrilled for the mounting screws (all the choice though, since this piece is only the light ring’s face) and then used a ¾ auger bit to drill out the centers. The ¾” holes will allow me to run the wire from the trough on the back of the face piece into each socket.

The wire holes are drilled for the 12 light sockets.

I took a measurement between the drilled out centers, and cut 11 lengths of wire and one (1) cord. Before inserting the wire lengths into the trough and holes, I stripped & prepped them. With the wires fit into the face piece (which was face down), I dropped the back piece over it, lined them up and camped them together. Then I flipped the clamped ring assembly over and screwed the two (2) pieces together with 24 1¼” course Kreg screws.

All wired up.

It was finally time to install the light sockets. As exciting at this stage may sound, it sucked. As I didn’t want to deal with excessive wire preventing the sockets from sitting properly, I kept the wires short. This worked out well for sitting the sockets, and very tedious for wiring them. Thankfully I have a Klein electrician’s screwdriver with a small post that helps bend wires.

Installing the sockets . . . and installing . . . and installing . . .

Once all 12 were wired,I attached the sockets using #8 stainless steel pan head screws (I love stainless steel screws). I started the screws with a 12v impact driver, but finished them by hand because the I didn’t want to crack the plastic light sockets.

All 12 work fine, I just need more bulbs.

Once everything was assembled, I plugged it in and ran a single bulb though all 12 sockets (I didn’t have 12 bulbs on hand). Success.With the light ring assembled, it was time to set to work on the stand.Let There Be Light: Part I

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Shop Tour M Scott Morton Part II

Pickup up where we left (Part I) off in Mortons shop at the sliding compound miter saw corner, if you then turn left, and run along the wall opposite the door, you’ll find his SawStop Cabinet Saw and his dust collector. While the saw stays set there against the wall, the dust collector does occasionally move, as it’s not permanently connected to most of the stationary equipment.

The router table, OSS, storage cabinet and bench lumber.

Moving passed the saw, the next corner is occupied by Morton’s Ridgid oscillating spindle sander (OSS) and Bench Dog router table. A storage cabinet of small draws rests next to the OSS and the lumber for Morton’s future bench lays next to the router table. On the walls above, a very small window frame and adjacent former window frame serve as cubbies to store toolboxes and other small items.

Notice how Morton takes advantage of the recess in the wall to
achieve a great deal of storage with no floor footprint.

Rounding the OSS and router table corner brings us along Morton’s storage wall. He took advantage of a recess in the the middle of this wall section to build a storage rack for his Festool collection (bigger than mine, I’m pretty sure) and clamp racks. Because of the the recess in the wall, none of these racks steal valuable floor space.

Storage on the back of the shelves in the "dead end" section of the shop.

If we stay along this wall and follow it to the end opposite the OSS, we’ll find a dead end created with the installation of shelves between a column and the wall between the shop and family room. Both sides of this “dead end” are used for storage. Some of it (like his utility and sharping bench) is kind-of organized. Some of it is not.

As we all do, Morton has shelves in his shop that hold a bit of everything.

The kind-of organization also extends to the opposite side of the shelves. They house old tools, light fixtures, wine and all sorts of others, miscellaneous stuff. Moving passed the shelves brings us back to the shop entry door and through it, the family room.As I mentioned above, Morton has the lumber for his new bench acclimating in his shop now. Like many of us, he’s caught the winter 2011/2012 workbench building bug. For now, he makes his torsion box assembly table serve double duty as a bench. It’s a fairly function bench, with a typical metal face vise and plenty of storage beneath that dead flat work surface.

The existing, torsion box bench.

Between his lumber storage, equipment, assembly table and future bench, Morton’s shop is a high functioning woodwork space that’s proofing perfect for producing his high quality custom furniture.p.s. - since my visit in November, Morton has added a small child’s bench area to the shop for his kids. You can check out his post about it here.

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The Greenwich Frame Part IV Completion Presentation

Because I was responsible for the entire completed frame, finishing the construction & finishing still meant I had glass, matting & hanging hardware to obtain and install.

The finished frame, ready to be accessorized.

I began with the matting and went to our local Michaels on December 15th. They told me that having them custom cut the matting (as I have alchoices done) would take ten days. Since I had to give the frame as a gift on Christmas Eve I found myself instead buying a piece of matting off the shelf in a similar color. The layout was rather straightforward (I had already figured it out, thinking I was supplying it to Michaels). Trimming the outside of the matting also proved easy, using my 8" shears (every shop should have a giant pair of scissors). What I was really afraid of was cutting out the center of the matting, as I had never before attempted it. Thankfully, it proved easy. I cut the matting using a straight edge clamped over it and a sharp X-acto knife. I started from the corners and worked in, wanting to ensure that I didnt over-cut any of the edges. After a few gentle passes, each side was cut. Three quick reallignments and the matting was cut. I kept the knife plumb in order to make a cut perpendicular to the face of the matting. While I prefer matting that has been cut at a bevel to reveal a narrow white band around the picture, I didnt think I could keep the inside corners clean or the bevel consistent with an X-acto knife. The simple square cut kept it neat.

Apparently, I can cut matting.

For the glass, I did what I alchoices do when I make a frame; I went down to the local hardware store and ordered a piece of 1/8" plate glass, cut to fit.Assembly consisted of washing & installing the plate glass followed by the matting (with the picture taped to the back) and then a simple piece of peg board. I used window glazing points to hold the whole assembly in. I then attached a wire to hang the frame with  using #6 x 3/4" pan head screws.

The back of the completed frame.

The last thing I did was install 4 clear plastic self-adhesive feet to the frame. Ive never done that to a frame before, but I dont like it when the top edge of the frame sticks off the wall due to the hanging hardware. I figured that the clear feet would hold the frame evenly off the wall.

The completed, assembled frame.

Hopefully the feet idea will work, and the whole frame will look good in its new home. I gave the frame to my Dad for Christmas and its now hanging at its new home in Greenwich. I havent been up to see it yet, but Ill certainly let everyone know what it looks like in place.The whole Greenwich Frame Saga:The Greenwich Frame, Part I: DesignThe Greenwich Frame, Part II: Fabrication BeginsThe Greenwich Frame, Part III: Plugging Achoice

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Let There Be Light Part I

A few months ago, my good friend Aristotle Dreher starter Arisitotle Photo. In order to assist with his fancy studio shots, he asked me to make him a light ring. He’s a good friend, who’s done all my shirt and blog design work, so how could I say no (it also seemed like an interesting project)?

The raw materials.

The light ring consists of 12 light sockets arranged in a circle. The middle of the circle is open and the camera is placed there and the photo taken through the ring. This provides balanced light on all sides of the image (or at least this woodworker thinks it does).

Determining the ring layout.

I began the light ring project by buying 12 cheap plastic light sockets. I asembled them in a circle, and used that to determine the size of the ring. I also used the width of their bases to determing the width of the ring. I left about ½” of space between the sockets and on the inside and outside edges.

The ring itself is constructed from two (2) pieces of Baltic Birch plywood. The front piece is ¾” thick. This was the first piece I made. Because all of the circles are referenced off the center, I worked from the outside to the inside so that I didn’t cut out the middle and then realize I still had to reference it.

After determining the outside diameter of the ring, I marked it out and cut close to the line with my jig saw. Then I built a trammel out of scrap Baltic Birch and routed exactly to the line with a fixed base router and ¾” diameter straight bit.

The outside is milled.

Once the outside circle shape was finished, it was time to route the wire trough. This trough is centered on the width of the light ring. I made it using the same ¾” straight bit. I used a small piece of wire to determine the proper depth using relative dimensioning.

When routing with a trammel, plunge routers are more versatile.

That’s when I realized my mistake. You can’t use a fixed base router to plunge a trough into the center of a ring. I switched the trammel setup to a plunge router (this required running out for longer mounting screws), reset the circle diameter and depth and went to town.

The center trough is milled.

I routed the center trough in three (3), roughly equal depth passes. The feed rate was nice and slow and I thoroughly vacuumed between passes. It still resulted in a bit of burn on the wood and on the router bit. Since it’s a functional (rather than aesthetic) piece, I’m not sweating any burn.

Just about done with the front ring.

Once the Center trough was done, I re-set the trammel again and hit the inside of the ring. I paused briefly and considered switching to a narrower bit for the inside (as I only needed to cut through, not create a trough wide enough to house wire), but since the trammel was already set up for the ¾” bit in the router I just went ahead and routed. I again made it though in 3 passes and had about the same level of burning as I did for the trough.

The connecting trough.

I finished the center piece by routing one (1) more trough connecting the center trough to the outside edge at the bottom. This trough will allow access for the power cable. I first made this trough with a pattern bit to keep it straight, but when it proved too shallow, I deepened it with router freehand.

Next, on to the back . . .

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