MatthiasWandel

I'm pretty sure that wood was birch.

As for gaps in joints, if its a small gap, it doesn't hurt. I actually did some tests in that regard, linked from the article. http://woodgears.ca/joint_strength/glue_methods.html

A small gap actually helped. Probably because the glue soaks into the wood, so a joint without any gap sort of runs out of glue too quick (my theory). But it suggests that putting glue on and leaving the joint open for a minute may be beneficial.

Yes, screws are fine for most applications, but at a right angle, if strength is critical, not the best option.

That's right :)

Paul sellers is all about spending the time on it, vs just getting it done.

Yes, for outdoor applications, the glue usually doesn't hold, though sometimes, for some joints, if its tight enough, the glue can keep the moisture out. See here: https://woodgears.ca/deck/repair.html

Hey, cool to see my article on the front page of hacker news. Never expected THAT article to hit hacker news. Got a question, I could answer.

It had initially been my intention to have a camera and regulate it, but once I realized how hard it was to keep it going reliably, I decided not to bother with that. If a slinky slinks, and nobody is watching, does it matter? And if someone is watching, it's fun to be doing the cranking to keep it going :)

Yes, that would be the right thing to do. The article itself does link to my work (it's my creation) but it's hardly highlighted, and near the top, where nobody would look. I'm very disappointed in makezine. Just stealing stuff. Could the link itself be changed to actually point at MY article?

Exactly. For some joinery, a CNC would be handy. But with the pantorouter, I can cut just about any joint a CNC can cut, but without a computer.

It would be too hard to do, add too much complexity.

I write HTML using a text editor. The 1x1 gifs help count pages, because bots tend not to fetch them. Though I don't monitor traffic that closely.

oops, fixed it but went to bed before pushing the change to the server (using GIT)

Most things I make aren't made of plywood. Yes, you have to be aware of poor crossgrain strength (varies with species) as well as seasonal shrinkage and expansion from humidity changes.

Always had access to my dad's wood shop. Wood is fast and easy to work with - unlike metal.

Well, in that case, spend $5 and buy a padlock.

Yes, certainly thought about it. But for most of what I do, a consumer grade CNC wouldn't be able to do it. And for most of the cuts that a CNC could do, I can cut it much faster by hand. Yes, in theory, I don't have to be there while the CNC runs, but in practice, if I can cut it 10x faster by hand, that doesn't matter.

Safety, like security, or religion, unfortunately, is exempt from rational analysis. Which is to say, nothing good will become from writing about safety. I don't want to get into a religious discussion.

It wasn't really by plan. I quit my job at Blackberry (then called "Research in Motion" and decided not to work for a while. The website was good to spend time on, and it just grew from there.

Looks like I answered too many comments, cause hacker news is telling me to slow down. Oh well. No more answers!

You could go to more numbers. Though it gets awkward to dial, and cumulative precision become an issue.

I get asked that not infrequently. So I wrote about it a while back :)

http://woodgears.ca/beginner

I don't really know. I have always tinkered with wood. Could be comparable to becoming good at computer programming.

Hi, it's Matthias here (I built the lock). Got any questions for me?