Ring box[es] part two

first up, im posting a picture of the template of my build for any who want it.

next is the music im listening to. i just love this old song! heard it in blacklist the other week and cant stop playing it :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8rR7E6NfY4

anyhoo...

boy was that video edit a learning curve! took far too long. lessons learned though. any dialogue i plan in my next video will be well thought out and directed to the camera. it must also be a proper take with no editing required. the rest of the video recording will be done in silence and an audio dialogue track will be done post build during editing. its just so time consuming getting everything to sync up and look right.

I also decided to add a backing track for this video. I was of the opinion that if you needed music your video lacked substance or could not stand on its own merit. im now of the opinion that low level music can add a depth of feeling and mood. finding good music is another ball game entirely. this time just to get er done i chose a freebie from youtube which has no doubt been used exhaustively.

still struggling to get the time down on the video, i think this one was still over 12 minutes! oh well...
here it is

this weeks Ring Box build

This week i wanted to do a quick one day project. Ha! it seems a small build is just as time consuming as a larger one. I was keen to make my first box which included a hidden hinged lid with brass dowels. As i often do, i wanted to make a much smaller item, and once ive ironed out the kinks as well as my stupid mistakes i would make a full size box.

so with these build boundaries i set about using a scrap of mahogany that i couldn't bring myself to throw out. it was a piece too small to make a regular bandsaw box and just to big to bin.

i took my existing sketch of my hidden hinge box and shrunk it down in word to a size that matched my block of mahogany. My decision to make a ring box allowed me to make three boxes from this one block of wood.

Making three permitted me to make mistakes and learn better ways to build, all in one project. obviously as a result, all three boxes have turned out erm lets say unique! i learned the folly of not exactly aligning the holes for dowels on each end. as a result my first box is a little skew-if. because the dowels centre had a 1mm difference on each end! i learned that clamping the box up after gluing can cause the lid to be very tight. A future work around for this will be to place something, for example, a playing card on each side of the drawer which should prevent the glue drying the box too tight.
A tight box results in the need to sand the lid or sides of the box in order to ease the lid. doing this is difficult to do without sanding over a corner ruining the clean lines of the lid/sides.

between one thing and another it still took all week to make these three tiny boxes. I've been playing around with better lighting better audio and perhaps better video. this has dramatically increased the time it takes to build something, and a large part of me wants to give up on this aspect of my wood working. due to health reasons, everything takes tens times longer than it should at the best of times and so adding video, lighting, audio setups is laborious.

regarding my light changes. i went uber cheap! i bought one of these... £15


http://www.screwfix.com/p/portable-site-light-240v-400w/46377#

and one of these... £12.50


http://www.screwfix.com/p/portable-work-light-120w-240v/55370

my workshop now lights up like the "Blackpool illuminations". without converting them to a soft box kind of setup ive had to be very careful about positioning the lights as they can cast huge shadows or cause huge reflections, for example on my glasses. im sure they will be great for photographing the finished products and achieving that white background i want.

they have caused a few problems on camera two. i bought a holder for my phone so i can use this to film simultaneously from two positions and avoiding glare from the lights that support my main camera is tricky is such a small space. im learning.

i wonder though if im over complicating things. i could just film during the day under normal shop lights from one camera and be done with it. my problem is, i always want to improve, whatever i did last time can be better this time. this mind set can create unnecessary burdens.

my editing job for the finished video is becoming too much. i need to work on a storyboard or something so as to have a clear path and order of steps. apart from anything it has to be watchable, so edit edit edit. so now i have two video feeds to edit plus im now using a separate audio device called m-audio microtrack 2.


It creates a wonderfully clean audio track. something i wouldn't normally notice, but when played alongside the audio provided by the my video camera, its hugely better so i cant bring myself to not use it in future videos. this despite the obvious audio sync drama. im considering completely redoing the audio and creating an audio track at the time of editing instead of during the  build. we shall see...


pictures and youtube video of my ring boxes to follow... tomorrow!

slippy sandpaper

I mentioned in casual conversation the other day, what a numpty i had been, that for years i didn't realize you had to tighten the nut on a drum sander kit in order to secure the sandpaper. if you don't do this the paper slides around, especially when you press a piece of wood against a spinning drum.

This was new information to the person i was speaking to, and naturally they were pleased to find out how to secure that pesky sandpaper.

It made me think that maybe there are others out there (as daft as me) who despite being intelligent individuals, they may have just concluded that they had bought a rubbish product that didn't do as advertised.

 If the 2 minute video that i posted today helps one person out, im happy to have helped :)

Analysis of heart box build and video

As I go through this learning curve I thought i'd share my thought process and we can maybe learn together.

here is the video and build under review...

what do I like... ummmm.

ok, i like the fact that i lowered the audio when a power tool was on. there is nothing worse than watching youtube at midnight, you listen to someone explaining what they are doing then a shop vac and table saw power up. there is a reason we wear ear defenders! shouldnt need them in front of my pc!

what needs improved for next time?

1) better lighting. i have a few small lamps that support the lighting in my workshop that i must set up each time i film something. its a pain moving everything each time. adding considerably to the build time.
2) be more aware of camera position. sometimes i block the camera with a shoulder. its unsafe to be thinking about the camera while cutting something so i need better setups here.
3) good grief speak up man! i must next time enunciate! mumbling is not the way to go. i may even record audio seperately on another device post production and add it to the video when editing. since im not directly looking at the camera just now its not a sync issue. i will try next time, and see what happens.
4) succinct! i want to be able to maybe half the length of a build video. how do these other guys cut it down to 7 mins???
5) i want to try a wider view of the shot and maybe pinch my sons camera and get a close shot to show both when for example making a cut on the bandsaw. this may solve problem 2 but make problem 4 more of an issue. vee shall see.
6) I hate looking at my hands through the video but not sure what can be done there.

so thats video sorted. what about the box build itself?

well when it came time to glue the back on... @ 4:10 i only glued the back!!! forgetting to glue the joints of the two half's of the heart. doh! this has made for a weak joint. i tried separating the box a little and squeezing a little glue into the 'crack' it helped a little but it has left a line where the two bits of wood meet. dont do that again Stewart!

the magnet 6mm is a little bit too strong for this size of box. it reeeeally clamps shut. so maybe next time either use 1 magnet instead of 2. i had one top and bottom. maybe a small nail or something would suffice.

more care needs to be taken over the placement of the magnet when placing on the box. it caused the one on the lid to be dangerously close to the edge.

i love combining two species of wood and i like the look of this box. maybe a redder wood for the lid and back wood have been better in this case as its well, you know, a heart!

im very pleased with the over all dimensions and plan to make several of these.

Box Beginnings part 2

As I made more boxes and had increasing numbers of willing recipients, it kept getting suggested that i sell my boxes. This is where i find myself now. im more or less done making these boxes as gifts so its time to try and market a product! (talk about cheapening something) anyway its really quite therapeutic for me to build these boxes and so if i can maintain this expensive habit by selling some boxes, it will allow me to keep supplied with fresh exotic hardwoods and sharp blades.

to that end, i have finally engaged with social media, https://www.facebook.com/stewart.gaskin.1

and  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ6UlnGwAuFBsHpQLta2URA

below are the videos i posted these past few days...

this was my first. i just liked the idea of showing a block of wood morphing into a beautiful box. this box is for my aunt who will be collecting in person this saturday :)

I plan to make boxes for certain times of year, for example, below is a heart shaped box i finished today. (its design needs a few tweaks but  looks nice)

the format i plan to do for a time is to make a video like this, kind of like a product display. and then follow up with a build video, kind of a step by step how to. we shall see. example below...

If you are interested, feel free to subscribe to my youtube channel and follow me here on blogger. i will update throughout the year. i plan to comment on things pertaining to my builds that i dont get to mention in the videos, so check back when i load a new video. 

Box beginnings...

So i've had a band saw for years, but only used it for the most mundane of tasks. tired of years of making beds, cabinets, book cases etc. I decided i wanted to go much smaller.

I've always loved boxes, small tins, hidden compartments in things. working with wood, I love it when someone wonders, how did you do that? almost as if there is some magical mystery involved. i want my pieces to be touchable, for people to want to touch, to see the pleasure on their face as they enjoy holding the work that i have made.

with this in mind late last year I set about practicing making small boxes with well documented band saw box techniques. using pine scraps I had lying around i quickly discovered what makes a good box and what ruins a good box. I was eager to move on to hardwoods and to combine species of wood highlighting their rich grains and tones. below is the first small 2 drawer box I

 made with  a hardwood. it was actually wood I got off of my parents. I had built them a new fire place and got to keep the wood from the old one. the wood sat for years with no purpose. im glad the old fireplace can live on in a new form. in fact i gave this box to my mother and it now sits next to the fireplace in her living room.

My sister got wind of me making small boxes and after seeing the one I made our mother she was quick to donate a piece of wood. Mahogany, as it turns out, it was a piece left over from when she had a fireplace built for her. I could have the wood... but would I make a box for her??? So this was her box...

I have a tendency to go big! I find it quite a challenge to make anything small, so of course I would next have to make one with four drawers!

Reminding myself I was supposed to be making small boxes I slowed things down...

a few single drawer boxes if you please! I even played around with polymer clay when making this box for my daughter...

not likely to do that again it was so much work, such high maintenance, so much effort for such a small package. it became somewhat of a metaphor for person it was made for...  ;)

talking of which, my daughter wanted more!! so I gave her a choice of boxes, naturally she choice the one requiring the most work. it is beautiful though and im glad i got to make it...

made from ash it really brought out the carver in me. you really got to love sanding to make this one!