Hardware Holes in Backs

[Gary Campbell]

Neville...
He does seem to have drifted over to "the dark side". I keep trying to convince him to use the same construction methods as I do, so that he can whine for me!

[Kerry Fullington]

Gary,

I am not whining, i am just reminding the programmers of an important feature that most certainly should have been in the eCabinet Systems software from day 1. I am sure it shouldn't take them ten minutes or so to fix this terrible oversight now that they are aware of it.

[Gary Campbell]

Kerry...
Or a few seconds if they use a computer!!!!

[Neville Bastian]

Hmm Kerry coming over to the Dark side? Does that make him Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader? Not a big Star Wars follower so got to be careful here.
I guess we can all use work arounds to get things done with Ecabinets but many times the solution doesn't quite make the new release but definetly promised be in the next release, which it is not. There are a number of areas this has resulted in frustration by Thermwood owners which is the main reason Ecabinets was developed to overcome frustration on using the Thermwood to its full potential. More Thermwood sales to people using Ecabinets and people who may be using other software to dump that software, save money and use it to buy a few Thermwoods.

It has been said before, Ecabinets is great software but why does it take so long to take certain features from being good to outstanding? With all this free user advice from power users its a shame it goes on a white board that no one has seen. I had a guided tour of the Thermwood boffin room and saw no white board. The pizza boxes were still there..only joking.

Without sounding negative I'm hoping a few areas that we have all harped on come in the next release. I won't say what my wish list is but I'm hoping I will get a few things and others who use the program differently get a few things.
I'd love to see Ecabinets be a real threat to the big software guys and be help to all those cabinetmakers who are struggling against other countries cabinets & furniture imports (unless the come from Australia of coarse ) Hey thats all of us. We are all doing it hard.
Keep those fingers crossed. Maybe Ken & Jason have something up their sleeves.
Regards

Neville

[Kerry Fullington]

Neville,

The feature I am looking for has never been promised but I am applying the principle that "The Squeaky Wheel gets the grease".

I don't want to come off negative either. There are a couple of features I would like but all in all my first job cut on a Thermwood went great. I was surprised how easy the whole thing was. I put a lot of stuff in this first job as experiments. (assembly marks, clipped corners, sink cuttouts, pocket holes, pilot holes, extra slide holes for adjustable roll-outs, scooped fronts in the drawers, notching and drilling on drawers for undermount slides, slanted sides on roll-out shelves, hole patterns to center and mount lazy susans) and everything has worked great. The flip-ops first feature is fantastic. On this 35 sheet job only one sheet did not have a flip-op.

The barb dado is working great, I may need to fine tune the fit clearance on very long back joints. I am still clamping the boxes because I am a bit obsessive about everything but probably would not have to in the real world.

I had to use some work-arounds on this job for slide and hinge holes but the fact that I was able to work around problems using the eCabinet Systems software is a testimony in its favor.

I am looking forward to trying out the profile modeler next week.

For anyone looking into a Thermwood machine, Learn eCabinet Systems software well and the machine part is easy.

Kerry

[jason galbraith]

Cool stuff Kerry. Before you know it you'll be using metal sided draws and saying to yourself, "what was I ever thinking? These are awesome!"

[Neville Bastian]

Yeah Kerry start using metal drawers. We need you on our squeeky hinge team. More squeeks the better. To one squeeky Thermwood user to a new sqeeky Thermwood user sqeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek. May the force be with you.

When you use the profiler with the Thermwood you will be in awe of the result. Just make sure you don't look at the watch. This is a powerful area where a bit of human intervention could be used. I won't spoilt it but just do a 45 degree edge on a cabinet side when you have a 45 degree router bit in the tool rack. If you haven't what it needs is to be a bit more agreesive with a big ball cutter and remove more material before the final cleanup.

Opps being negative again. Back to the sin bin

Regards

Neville

[Gary Campbell]

I stand corrected. What I meant to say was, I want Kerry to use the same methods as I do so that he can "SQUEAK" about them.

[Kerry Fullington]

Jason, Neville,

I don't think the metal drawers is ever going to happen. I am not sure I can live with the plywood drawer boxes.

Neville,

I don't think the Profile Modeler was intended to be used for joinery (mitered corners), that would be better cut by conventional methods, however the modeler says it uses tools from the group in the order you list them so if you need a big ball to remove material, put that tool at the front of the list and then use the 45 degree tool at the end to clean up. It will still take a lot more time than running the piece through a saw.

I want the modeler for decorative work, arches fluting and false panel cuts as well as relief carvings.

My ultimate use is for things like this block front chest.

My thoughts are that with the router I can glue up one big blank and cut this entire front as one piece then saw it into individual fronts then each front will be a perfect match. The base would also be modeled. I will have to find a way to do the feet as they can't be cut on a 43.

[Neville Bastian]

Hi Kerry.
Yes I see what you mean with metal drawers. Wouldn't look right on that period piece. I'm a bit focused on Euro style kitchens so my questions and wish list is focused in that direction.
The legs would be better on a 43 but thinking out of the box a bit if that leg was sliced up like a piece of cheese in say 2" slices so that out of one piece of timber it cuts 3 or 4 slices that you then glue together then sand the variations away would that work? I guess you'd couldn't have any undercut routing only face angles? I know at Atlanta 08 Thermwood had a 3D scanner that scanned a plaster mould of a human face. Could they scan a diced leg and give you that geomentry?
Shoot me down if this is too radical or impratical.
When we were in the US in 2009 I bought a American buffet type cabinet which is a style of furniture we don't have in Australia. It wasn't very dear like $800.00 but when we packing it up it had a stamp made in China on it. Making furniture for the US market mustn't be easy now. Maybe I should have got you to make it up. Next time I'll have to flat pack version from you.
With the profiler we still use it for the 45 degree cut as its part of the nest. So if takes a extra 5 minutes, thats OK. The great thing is that it is very accurate compared to manually cutting. We have tried a number of things to speed up the process but once you start using it you will realise that there is still room for human overides but programming that would be a nightmare.

Regards
Neville

[Kerry Fullington]

Neville,

The furniture pieces are just for fun. Don't think I can make any money on them however the rustic furniture I have been doing like this armoire have been popular.

This one was made from Spanish Cedar but the next one I will use knotty alder. These are solid hardwoods throughout, mortise and tenon construction, distressed by hand.

I have been thinking about getting a real job and build furniture as a hobby.

Kerry