Posts made by Sawduster

Well, I deleted the instances of that component and redid them and even deleted all of the unused components from the component listing. It is a large very detailed drawing of a chest of drawers with all of the parts done in detail, plus an exploded view and scenes, but I'll give it a shot.

ChestofDrawers.skp

I don't know if that was the case or not. When I scrolled in on any of the duplicates, I was seeing double lines in each one. Even moving the component out of the model context, the double lines were still there.

I had two duplicates of that component, and yes, the double guides were showing in those as well. Guess I should have saved the component to another file so everyone could see exactly what was happening.

Never had this happen before. I was editing a component and used the tape measure tool to lay out guide lines. Worked fine in the vertical axis, but every time I tried to measure on the horizontal, I would get two guidelines very close together. When trying to use the rectangle tool between two of the guide lines, the resulting rectangle could not be push/pulled as it was not on the same plane as the component surface, regardless of which of the two guide lines I had used for the rectangle. I ended up just deleting the component and started all over. Luckily, the component was a unique copy of another component which worked fine. Any ideas how this happened?

Probably not a lot of help on this project, but on future projects try using layers. Put related parts onto separate layers, i.e. face frame parts on one layer, framing on another, panels on another etc. That way you can shut off a layer and clear stuff out of your way to work on other stuff.

Actually, that is the way the joint was cut in the book I have on that covers them. I think it was an expedient by the old timers to speed things up. There is plenty of contact with the parts of the DT that hold the joint together to add the sturdiness they were looking for.

Haven't been around in a while. Been busy with health issues which are still keeping me out of my shop, and helping set up and moderate a new wood working forum. It is a totally donation driven non-commercial place, so I hope the mod here don't mind me putting in a plug for it. It is called World of Wood and the url is http://www.worldofwoodforum.com/vb/. If this is not kosher, mods are welcome to cut out the plug.

Anyway, a few years back I made a case for some of my sensitive measuring tools and used that opportunity to try making Secret Hidden Dovetails. Showed some pics of the box in partially assembled and fully assembled view on the forum and folks about the hidden DTs. Well I didn't have any step by step pictures when I made them, so I did a SU, exported some stills and wrote up the tutorial. Today I added scenes to the skippy and will try to post it here if I can remember how.

SecHidDTTut.skp

Heck, I've go a bunch of web space as well as bandwidth available on my website and no ads or popups or such and I'd be willing to host good stuff like that rather than have folks risk all sorts of adbots and such from those "free" hosting sites.

When you get it to add or subtract dovetails when you make a drawer taller or shorter, then . . .

Every now and again you will run across a correction to a plan in a later issue of the magazine. Doesn't help the fella who jumped right in and went to making the project, and I suspect that is how many of the problems are discovered.

I've never been very successful at cutting all of the pieces of a project to the cutlist, then assembling the project. Incorrect dimensions in a plan is only one of the problems with that method of building. A bigger problem is that there is some small amount of error in every measurement and cut that you make. Some of this is due to the measuring device being used, and then there is parallax error. Even the thickness of the marks on the measuring device can throw you off sufficiently to cause a visible seam where two parts come together. And, as Murphy would have it, these errors are cumulative rather than canceling each other out.

Over my years of wood working I have developed the attitude that dimensions in the plan are no more than suggestions and approximations. When actually building, I use the plan dimensions for the perimeter parts, then more or less toss the measuring devices aside. These perimeter parts are then dry assembled, squared and clamped, and I use a story stick or the actual workpiece held partially in place to mark them for use in setting up for making the final cuts. This is an old hand tool method that lends itself well to machine work.

I downloaded and installed the plug in, and though I haven't used it in a project, I did play around with it, and you're right. It is better than sliced bread.

Structurally, I think you could probably go with wider spacing, even if sheathing and roofing material will be added, but if a snow load is a possibility I might go with 2X8 timbers to span that 8 feet or so.

Now, if that is simply for shade and will not have any sort of sheathing etc, then the more important aspect is how it looks, and how many hours of shade it provides given the dimensions of the lumber and the spacing. It's orientation to the path of the sun is a further determinant for that as well. I built this Pergola on the back of my house using 2X8 on 12 inch centers.

But that was only due to design purposes and not a structural need.

With the spaces between the "rafters", I think you might be able to eliminate the strips on top the run perpendicular to the rafters as they serve the same structural purpose as the spaces. Or you could eliminate the spacers instead if they are not needed for design purposes or for contributing to the shade.

I'm not real sure what it is you're trying to find out. Lumber for framing construction is typically regional in choice. Historically, folks used what they had available in the area, but these days they use what grows well and quickly near by as a means of sustaining supply. For instance, in the U.S., geography determines what you will find at the construction lumber store. Southern Yellow Pine grows quickly in the south and southeast, so that is one of the favored lumbers for construction. In the Northwest, Douglas Fir is the choice. Both of these are coniferous trees and therefore grow more quickly than some others. They are also both a bit harder than some other choices, but still soft and flexible enough for framing. They are also relatively non-reactive to metal fasteners.

For general framing, rot is not generally a big consideration since construction methods protect the wood from the elements which would cause rot. For wood that will be exposed to the elements, there are a number of choices. First, some woods such as the soft cedars and cypress have chemicals in them which repel the insects and fungus etc that cause rot. Another choice is impregnation with chemicals that do the same. Paint is also a choice for protecting wood from rot.

Construction methods are regional as well and are also a determining factor. Stick construction like is prevalent in the U.S. makes the softer coniferous trees a good choice. Timber frame construction requires harder woods available in larger sizes and relies more heavily on joinery than fasteners for holding the thing together. But again, I think a big determining factor is local availability, and this likely had a lot to do with the construction methods that evolved in different parts of the world.

Not to change the subject, but concerning the rb in the original post, I followed the links to the fella's blog, then the link to where the rb was stored and it was a real PITA to get it to download using Firefox. I did finally get it downloaded and it works great. Thanks for the tutorial on it, Dave.

Very Cool. I did a SketchUp of a Shaker clock featured a couple years ago in Popular Woodworking Mag and submitted it to their collection at the 3D warehouse. Here's a link.

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=86450875c3197c64738e43095496b061&prevstart=0

Great job, Ron. I see you've got several "versions" on the 3d warehouse site. Which one are you gonna build?

Hey, I like those. You can even use the dado tool to make tenons quite quickly. Thanks.

Glad you posted this problem for Dave, Kevin. I would have spent three times as long doing the first profile on the leg, copying and rotating it, mating the two and then intersecting and erasing all of the extraneous stuff.

Well, that caused another change to the way I am used to working. I've been building components on the final layer on which they will be placed rather than on the 0 layer, then moving them. Might be why I sometimes end up with some extraneous geometry at the intersection of components when I do the first explode/implode of a model.

I used to do all of the mortises by measuring them out with the rule tool. Generally ok, but add in arithmetic when there is a reveal, and that becomes more than my small brain can handle. Going X-Ray was a bit confusing at first, but with some practice, it becomes second nature.

I sorta get a warm fuzzy feeling scrolling from scene to scene, too, unless the scenes are too far apart in the display. Then I get motion sickness.