Interesting Domino Application/Modification

[peter halle]

Rick,

Congrats!  [thumbs up] [thumbs up] [thumbs up]

Peter

 

[Rick Christopherson]

If it is not too nosey a question, is there anything you care to share about what it took to get them interested in carrying the product, not pricing but how you went about it?

Thanks,

RMW

RMW, that's an interesting question that I don't normally get to share with others. This will be kind of fun for me to answer. I have a long history with Rockler that put some things in motion a decade ago, but only part of this is pertinent to them carrying my guides. Simply that it told me what doors needed to be opened, not necessarily opening those doors.

I've known, and been known by, the editorial staff at the Woodworker's Journal since before it was the Woodworker's Journal. I've done some freelance writing for WWJ over the years, and WWJ did a "What's New" product description for my MGS guide last year. Rob Johnstone and his wife were part of the editor's trip to Festool-Germany that Festool invited me to as a "Thank You" for the manuals I have written. Rockler and WWJ headquarters are on the far side of town from me.

Earlier this summer, Rob Johnstone sent me an email saying, "hey, don't you write manuals...and would you be interested in writing for some of our new products...." Normally the magazine and product groups aren't related, so this gave me new contacts in the product development and purchasing group. I was mainly dealing with their product development engineers, though.

This took place while the SCG Guide was still only half in my head and half in the computer, so I didn't reveal the new design to them just yet. The product manager had seen my MGS-30 guide, but I hadn't told them about the SCG-10 until the week I released it to the public.

I had several meetings at Rockler for the manuals I was working on, so I set one up with the product manager to show him the new SCG-10 guide. He was impressed with the new design and we started cutting the "red tape" (lots of paperwork) to carry the guide pretty quickly. With the paperwork out of the way, I delivered a small quantity of guides to them with the understanding that I would have a large quantity held in reserve for 24-hour turnaround in case the sales spiked as hard as I suspected they could.

The sales did spike as I predicted, but it took 2 weeks instead of the 1 week I predicted for them to run out of inventory. Because of that 1 week delay, I let my guard down, and got blindsided by the large purchase order they sent me late last week. Over the weekend, when I wasn't in the workshop with Tanner building the table, I was up in the office building guides. (Thankfully I had the distraction of watching Tanner play his XBox on the office TV, otherwise I would have gone stir-crazy.) I delivered the full order of guides to them yesterday.

I don't normally mention it publicly, but I also had the normal shipment of guides to Festool-Australia to complete this weekend too. Festool-AU is the equivalent to Festool-USA except they are privately owned and can therefore distribute my guides at the corporate level through the dealer network. Festool-AU can do this, but Festool-USA is prohibited from distributing my guides. This is why I cannot sell guides to Australian customers through my website. There is an exclusivity agreement for the whole Australian continent.

 

[Tezzer]

I don't normally mention it publicly, but I also had the normal shipment of guides to Festool-Australia to complete this weekend too. Festool-AU is the equivalent to Festool-USA except they are privately owned and can therefore distribute my guides at the corporate level through the dealer network. Festool-AU can do this, but Festool-USA is prohibited from distributing my guides. This is why I cannot sell guides to Australian customers through my website. There is an exclusivity agreement for the whole Australian continent.

I got one and its not to bad, massive improvement on the original. Well done.

 

[Rick Christopherson]

We finished up the tables yesterday, just in time for Mom's Christmas present from Tanner tonight. So I thought I would throw the last couple of pictures into this thread.

Since there was no school on Friday, I dragged Tanner and his sister to my house for the night on Thursday. The chore I was dreading was cleaning out the gunky sludge from my airless sprayer that hasn't been used in more than a year. It took about 30 seconds of 1200 psi pressure to blow the hardened plug of lacquer out of the end of the line, but after that, the rest of the cleaning was routine.

Now that I am no longer using the airless on a regular basis, I am going to convert it to a hopper-feed (versus bucket-feed) next week, so I can easily flush the lines after use instead of waiting until I need to use it again. (Found all the parts on-line for the conversion last night.) When it was getting used regularly, all I had to do was prime the pump and the pressurized lacquer would clean everything else.

I masked off the granite and sprayed the legs and tops separately. I found this picture that Tanner took of himself on his Facebook page, so I swiped it from him.

Darth?...Lord Vader?....is that you?

[attachimg=#1]

I used 2 coats of pre-cat lacquer, but didn't bother with a sanding sealer this time. Normally I would use 1-coat of sanding sealer and 1 or 2 coats of top-coat, but this was too small of a project to mess around with flushing the lines.

Oh, I had left these parts exposed to UV light long enough before finishing that they did at least take on some good coloring. It's not the right time of year for it, but they did sit outside in the low sun for 2 days to at least lose some of their brightness. This wasn't obvious until the lacquer went down.

The next step was creating the substrate that connected the top frame to the base legs. This was 1/2" ApplePly (like baltic birch, but a higher grade). Because this was a simple operation, I made Tanner make all of the cuts with the TS55. Because the Granite is not perfectly square, neither is the substrate, so this was the perfect operation for the TS55 and guide rail. The two substrates were marked and cut to fit perfectly within the rabbetted  frames. (This is a live picture, but I did move in to grab the off-cut before Tanner finished the cut. And if you are foolish enough to comment about the absence of safety glasses, be forewarned, that you will receive the full wrath that that comment deserves. So think about it before you make it!  [scared])

[attachimg=#2]

Oh, you may have noticed the TV in the background. That is actually part of my video camera dolly I made last year. My Canon 3-CCD XL1s video camera mounts above the monitor so I can see the monitor for feedback or as a teleprompter. When not in use for video production, it also serves as the shop TV, because I can't stand "silence" in the shop. I need some noise. (Extra credit to anyone that can identify the movie.)

[attachimg=#3]

 

[Rick Christopherson]

After the substrates were "tweaked" to fit perfectly in the rabbets (with the edge sander), the screw locations were marked, drilled, and countersunk. I used my "go-to" general purpose faceframe screws to secure the substrate to the endgrain of the legs, so they were 1-1/2" coarse-thread faceframe screws (I buy in bulk) at 2 screws per leg. Yes, a countersink is not the proper profile for the pan-head screw, but it is sufficient to sink the head below the surface of the substrate. (We used a Festool 492520 countersink, which is outstanding!!).

[attachimg=#1]

Here is a picture of Tanner and his finished table. Yes, there are several motorcycles in the workshop right now. It does make it tough to work, but I have a normal business project going that required my garage for a large piece of equipment I am documenting, so the motorcycles had to move to the basement for a couple months.

[attachimg=#2]

Here is a picture of both of our tables. Of course it has the gratuitous backdrop of the "Wall of Shame".

[attachimg=#3]

 

[arbfincarp]

great job guys merry Christmas

 

[Rick Christopherson]

With these tables completed, I am curious about what other people honestly think about the design. The design suited the need I had for my original table before Tanner asked to make one for his mom. I'm still "on the fence" for my opinion on this design even though it fits nicely for the original purpose.

Of course, "attaboy's" are nice to hear, but I am self-confident enough to ask for critical comments without being offended by negative thoughts. I would like to hear about those aspects of the design that other people find to be less than flattering.

For one, I think the overall height is too tall, and will likely cut the legs down by an inch or even two. However, my biggest question is whether the flowing shape of the legs fits with the squareness of the top. This was the reason I added the round edges of the fluting, but I am not sure it is sufficient to pull the two pieces together aesthetically.

 

[ScotF]

Hi Rick,

I think these came out very nice -- I really do like the leg design and I agree a little shorter might be nice.  I love the edge profile too, but I might lighten the top just a little -- maybe cut a slight bevel or make it a little thinner.  Overall I think that these came out nice.

Scot

 

[Rick Christopherson]

Funny you mention that, because the original design did have a slight bevel on the frame that I did not implement on the final.

I agree that the top is a little heavy for the design. Unfortunately, the thickness of the granite is not something I can control. The granite is 1" to 1-1/8", so all I can do is make this either less prominent, or part of the design. Yup, I could shrink the frame down to this thickness, but I would need to come up with a new way to connect the base to the top. The difference is due to the thickness of the substrate.

Nevertheless, this is a good thing to keep in mind if I decide to make similar designs using this granite. Maybe I could find a better way of hiding the substrate?
Thanks!

 

[woodwreck]

You have a lot of highly unique things displayed here and/or stated, so I am prompted to ask at least one question in response - at a glance I count roughly 200 freely acquired granite offcuts.

What on earth did you intend to do with them, e.g. make similar frames to fit each off cut, or do you plan to machine the pieces to size? In the case of the latter, what machinery would you use - that stuff is incredibly messy and airborne toxic beyond the residential/garage tolerances just for starters.

TIA

 

[Rick Christopherson]

I didn't really have any specific plans when I got the granite. I knew it would work great for small coffee tables and end tables. That was the main thing I had considered. A lot of the pieces are in pairs in terms of size and color. I don't have a way to polish the edges, but I suppose I could put a small chamfer on the corners so I could use smaller framework in most cases. I do have diamond blades for my DeWalt grinder and also TS55.

Oh, I completely forgot about this, but 3 years ago I had started creating a design around a matching set of tan pieces of granite. SolidWorks used to let me incorporate actual pictures as the color of a surface, so the center piece in the image below is the actual granite.

 

[RONWEN]

Rick, Good idea and I really like the table design.  I'll reply to your e-mail hopefully later today, thanks very much.

 

[RONWEN]

I am more than just a little offended that you would imply I would endanger my son's safety needlessly. Please explain how a router bit in the fully enclosed base of the MFK700 poses any immediate danger. I know it makes you feel important to point out perceived safety violations in pictures, but there is a whole Tommy Silva thread for that. Knowing when safety is a concern is just as important as knowing how to protect yourself from it. If the operation was dangerous enough to warrant safety glasses, he wouldn't have been performing it in the first place. I don't make my son wear a bicycle helmet either, but he does wear full protection on the dirt bike.

HEAR, HEAR!  I always wear my glasses while using the Domino but only because I need them to see.  [smile]

As far as wearing a helmet while bicycling I'm a proponent, years ago while doing my first "century" bike ride a rider a little ways in front of me hit some gravel and went down hard right on his head (no helmet).  We kept track for several weeks (then months) and he was still comatose.  I've lost track of him but I doubt he made a (full) recovery.  I always wore a (bicycle) helmet after that.