my heritage is English but my jeans are all Levis.

thanks for that tip Gidon. up until now i had created the layers first and than drew the corresponding groups and components on the named layer. sometimes i forget which layer im on and end up with bits of geometry all scattered about but your method makes sense and keeps the modeling time productive. thanks.

between my partner and i we have the following cordless drills-driver-impacts
Dewalt 14.4v impact - good all around shop driver
Dewalt 14.4v drill- limited use due to short battery time but can drill about 10- 2" holes in plywood on one charge.
Dewalt 18v impact- this is a literal nut buster
Dewalt 18v drill- can handle most everything we throw at it in the shop or the field
Hilti 15v drill- tremendous torque and fast speed for drilling in lumber but limited run time compared to others. hammer drill mode is fast for drilling Tapcons
Bosch 10v Li impact- great tool for hardware install, small but packs plenty of run time and torque. can drive 3" deck screws in PT with ease but i rather not push it too hard.
Bosch 10v Li drill- very limited hole size, 1/2" max, and power but fits in small places like inside cabinets or a tool box
Hitachi- all garbage

the hammer drill feature is nice for limited use(its hard on the drill and the user too) but rarely do i ever use it. i have corder Hilti hammer drills that i use for all concrete drilling applications.

@chiefwoodworker said:

itimas,

Have you considered building the curved doors using many pieces of vertical boards with the inside face narrower than the outside, the edges beveled, and when all are clued together form a near perfect curve, which can be made a perfect curve with the right amount of sanding and hand planing. Then you can veneer it, ob both sides of course. You would have to account for seasonal changes in width, but with the overlay added should be no problem.

Great design. Make sure you show pictures of the end product.

i like that idea because the end result is a solid wood door and not MDF kerf board. this project will get posted on our website when completed.

This is the latest, and most complex, secret door that we have designed. the client has given his approval of the initial drawing and we are scheduled to start on it in 2 weeks. I'm looking for some design and construction ideas. this cabinet has two tangent curves to the front of the cabinet on the doors and face frame. the FF rails are standard width but the stiles are aprox 6" wide. I'm looking for some input as to the method of building the curved FF and doors. the doors will be either slab with onlay trim or flat panel. my initial method would involve laminating two layers of 3/8" kerf board, 48"x48", back to back to follow the tangent curves. the FF and doors would be cut from the same piece and 3/4" solid wood edge banding would be added to the doors to make it an overlay door. this is a paint grade project. i feel good about doing it this way but want to here from anyone who has a different approach to doing radius front cabinets. i would also like to hear any ideas on the design too.secret door calkins.skp

joe,
yes the client was very pleased with the finished piece and i had fun making it too.
here is our website. its still under construction.
http://www.tooltimetims.com

cheifwoodworker,
i checked out your site and saw your work, you've made some really nice stuff there. and thats what you're toolbox should showcase. i think it should exemplify the level of quality you put into your show pieces yet still function as a piece of equipment.

i recently had a client come to me and ask me to build him a bed. he didn't say much as to what he wanted it to look like except that it be made of cherry and have two side tables built into the headboard. i thought this would be a good opportunity to use SU to provide the client with a 3-D rendering of his project. his existing headboard was built from a combination of cherry and walnut and he wanted me to use some of that wood in the new bed if at all possible. it sounded just like a challenge that i wanted to tackle. i included the 'before' drawing and the 'after' final product. i explained to my client that the drawing was not an exact blueprint for the bed but rather an artistic rendering of what the overall style and theme would be. in doing so i allowed myself some artistic freedom when it came down to the actual building process. the dark strips are the walnut from the old headboard and the rest is cherry. i finished it with 2 coats of danish oil and two of wax.

It hit me like a ton of bricks last night, so hard in fact that I'v been thinking about it all day today.
"Smustard, the companion to Sketchup"
Smustard and Sketchup as in, "Would you like some Smustard and Sketchup with your Shamburger and Shotdog."

It hit me like a ton of bricks last night, so hard in fact that I'v been thinking about it all day today.
"Smustard, the companion to Sketchup"
Smustard and Sketchup as in, "Would you like some Smustard and Sketchup with your Shamburger and Shotdog."

S.M.Titmas
Freedom of speach means having to hear things that you don't agree with

Those quotes made me laugh so hard that my dislocated rib is killing me now, thanks it was worth it.

Before I read your reply I didn't know that Panasonic had came out with the next DMC, the TZ3. I can speak to the durability of the TZ1, which i have, its real rugged for a camera. many times at work when I'm documenting a project I'll just put the lens cover on and throw it in my tool belt and it has suffered no ill affects. Good camera in my opinion and Im sure that goes for the TZ3 as well but now you got me thinking about the TZ3. Thanks

I have the panasonic DMC-TZ1
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0602/06021 ... nictz1.asp

It has some great features like
1 a real lense
2 fast start up and auto focus
3 powerful optical zoom
4 'anti shakey' mode

Plus its very durable, i carry it around with just a lense cap in my briefcase and it has held up on the jobsite for almost a year now.

Danke vielmals

I cant seem to find the window to set the time delay for the scenes in anamation. I had it for the last piece of animation i did but im drawing a blank now. can anyone point me in the right direction?

@maggy said:

Could be useful with fixed points if you have to cut the same ellipse over and over again.

Carpentry entails being able to perform a selected action over and over again(ie, measuring, cutting, nailing) accurately and with consistant repeatability. This jig accomplishes both as well as being adjustable to cut any ratio of major/minor axis. Here is a good example of some ellipises i cut using this jig, different width but same height.

Gaieus,
I guess in all the back and forth of uploading the model i didnt realize that i had saved the model at the last scene instead on scene 1.

ps. on the actual jig itself the two bearings that ride along the jig and the plywood are adjustable and their location in relation to the router bit determines the major and minor axis of the ellipse.

it took me a minute to figure out how to upload a model but once i figured it out its really very simple. this is my test piece for animation. it might be a bit overkill with the amount of scenes it has but it was good practice. click here to download my SketchUp model. or here, Download SketchUp Model

its a skp. and 106 kb

Im working on uploading the file and not just an image but i must be missing something cause it only displays the image and not the whole file.