lost your keys in the spacetime curvature again

January 12, 2023 11:06 AM

Woodworker Olivier Gomis builds a wormhole-themed coffee table.
posted by cortex (37 comments total)

A very nice result, but someone buy that man a push stick.
posted by jedicus at 11:16 AM on January 12, 2023 [6 favorites]

He did use one at one point ... he also has the chain-mail gloves
posted by mbo at 11:30 AM on January 12, 2023

I admire the ability to think in 3D terms when using the 2 woods to create the final curvature-of-space effect
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:46 AM on January 12, 2023 [3 favorites]

Yeaahhhhh noooooooo turning that enormous thing with the corners flying around at 800 rpm I myself would have tried to think of literally any other solution to shape it up to and including cnc tooling or the deep magics. Dude's young, still has his eyes/fingers, hasn't learned the last few lessons of woodworking yet. Very pretty result, though, the potential cost, yikes. Do not endorse.
posted by seanmpuckett at 11:48 AM on January 12, 2023 [6 favorites]

I watched this recently and I love the process and the way he took an idea he had and figured out the steps needed to turn it into a reality. That's always been the appeal of woodworking for me. It's all about the puzzle.

I also had some concerns about his tablesaw practices but I figure he's come this far he probably knows what he's doing. But then again most nine-fingered woodworkers also know what they're doing.

Yeaahhhhh noooooooo turning that enormous thing with the corners flying around at 800 rpm

I've turned some square and triangular things, though nothing that big, and it is absolutely terrifying. You're cutting a lot of air so you can't really see the wood. You do it mostly by sound and feel, and it's a little bit like trying to carve an airplane propeller while the propeller is spinning. In fact it's exactly like that. I can't imagine doing anything this big.
posted by bondcliff at 11:56 AM on January 12, 2023 [4 favorites]

Trimming the cylinder edge between the table saw blade and fence is what had me most scared - if that thing bound up he essentially just made a big wheel to deliver his hand to the blade, yeesh. Yet he is clearly much more experienced than me so what can I say.
posted by Think_Long at 12:14 PM on January 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

I was thinking, “ugh, why is every woodworking discussion so chock full of safety trolls?” but watching it - no end grain cutting board/coffee table is worth risking life & limb for.
posted by brachiopod at 12:24 PM on January 12, 2023 [3 favorites]

The end result looks fantastic but - all those lovely walnut boards to make a bunch of little cubes?? *whimper*
posted by TomFrog at 12:40 PM on January 12, 2023 [10 favorites]

I don't think a chain mail glove would protect you from a table saw for very long; I'm of the opinion that gloves of any sort are something for the saw to grab and pull your hand in faster. Also, don't do stupid stuff (trigger warning: shockingly fast, tiny bit of blood, but SawStop did its job)
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:47 PM on January 12, 2023 [5 favorites]

That was amazing.

But your post title beat me to it. Clearly he doesn’t have a toddler, or that hole would be filled with little cars and Goldfish by the end of the first afternoon.
posted by Mchelly at 2:43 PM on January 12, 2023 [5 favorites]

This is neat. Thanks!

(I very strongly recommend that others avoid following his band saw and disc grinder safety choices.)
posted by eotvos at 2:58 PM on January 12, 2023 [2 favorites]

Beautiful, but (spoilers) not a real wormhole.
posted by sammyo at 4:07 PM on January 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

Someone I know sliced off several fingers doing a very routine cut on a table saw not long ago, so the safety stuff is what I notice the most. In addition to being scared for his fingers in every scene, I think he probably inhaled his body weight in dust, even with the dust collection system. Maybe twice his body weight.

With all of these videos, I am jealous of his shop setup and tools, as well as having the time it takes to first make the jig, then the second jig, and so on before you even make the actual thing. I don't have the workshop space or budget to go down that path.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:12 PM on January 12, 2023 [2 favorites]

Oh, that is absolutely lovely. A whole lot of work but what a result!
posted by rmd1023 at 4:37 PM on January 12, 2023 [3 favorites]

I'm not sure the infinity-mirror insert added much though; and I really really wanted him to spiral a marble down the wormhole at the end.

why is every woodworking discussion so chock full of safety trolls

Because every otherwise-relaxing woodworking video is chock full of OH MY GOD GET YOUR FINGERS AWAY FROM THAT BLADE moments.

Relatedly: we are fond of the bushcraft genre of "rugged bearded dude builds a makeshift shelter, has a relaxing camp in the wildnerness" videos: no narration! nice scenery! and the genre seems to have expanded to include some spectacularly lovely drone shots! But these also every now and then have a "and now I'll whittle something" segment and these are almost all GODDAMNIT DUDE CUT AWAY FROM YOUR BODY anxiety-inducing.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 5:31 PM on January 12, 2023 [5 favorites]

I like jigs

So we gathered.
posted by y2karl at 5:55 PM on January 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

2:03 Les américains ne connaissent pas ce type de machine alors je leur fait une démo

Americans don't know this type of machine so I made them a demo
posted by zamboni at 6:39 PM on January 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

There are perfectly safe and stable whittling grips in which one carves towards oneself. Notably not involving high rpm death machines.
posted by janell at 6:43 PM on January 12, 2023

But also this is a cool table. The maple spacers are the magical key to making it read like math. (I did find the interlude of clamping related violence to be pretty startling and not at all charming funny haha).
posted by janell at 7:02 PM on January 12, 2023 [4 favorites]

Very cool!
posted by doctornemo at 7:15 PM on January 12, 2023

Space Time Vase at Olivier Gomis's Etsy shop. "Please note that this vase does not feature an infinite mirror like the wormhole coffee table on my YouTube channel".
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:42 PM on January 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

That's some amazing lathe work, respect. My dad nearly ripped off the tip of his thumb doing something similar - it is dangerous crafting.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:22 PM on January 12, 2023

My uh-oh moment was putting electronics at the bottom of the drain.
posted by adept256 at 11:03 PM on January 12, 2023

Though I guess the price tag on this thing means it will never have a bong put on it, instead living it's life in some corporate lobby.
posted by adept256 at 11:08 PM on January 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

Beautiful if scary work.

In my home that hole would fill up fast—with cat toys, bird treats, and random crumbs. Nice idea though.
posted by kinnakeet at 3:04 AM on January 13, 2023

This was totally my jam, and beautiful lathe work, but I would have liked it at least twice as much if it was done with offcuts from other projects instead of cutting a large beautiful piece of walnut into tiny squares.

The whole table being little squares was a little too much for me, visually, but I'd looooove the wormhole alone as a side table (with a glass top so it doesn't become full of Everything I Own)
posted by stillnocturnal at 6:25 AM on January 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

A spectacular piece of work. Truly a joy to watch it come out of his mind and into reality, one painstaking step at a time.

He is a master.

~~~~~

I have two friends who could pull this rabbit out of the hat. They are both artists. Neither of them have the tools that this man has but both could and would get them if they decided to build something of this level of artistry and craftsmanship. One is a master of wood, the other a master at anything I have seen him turn his hand to, truly a spectacular human being.

~~~~~

The wood. It pained me to watch these beautiful pieces of walnut cut into bitty pieces; it could easily have been done using different wood to start with, smaller pieces. But it is his business. There is enough walnut to go around it seems, perhaps at his level he's not looking to save each bit of wood, just wants to get on with it. Still, it did pain me to see that.

~~~~~

The very first thing I do with any saw I purchase is rip off and throw away all of the gawd-awful ridiculous guards that make working with the tool unpleasant if not impossible to work with. There are times when you're going to be at hazard when working with most any tool, it's part of working with tools. I've been very lucky over the years, lots of close calls but never the bad luck I've known others to suffer. My wood artist friend got horribly injured a few years ago, a piece of real nice tightly grained very dense and very heavy wood he was putting through his very powerful table saw bound and was hurled at him, crushing his pelvis, pretty much as bad as if you'd sit on a bag of potato chips. And he was the only person in that building, he had to crawl to the elevator, crawl out of the building til someone saw him and called an ambulance. Anyways, the idea of not being in danger is just not possible. Be cautious, be smart, and be lucky.
posted by dancestoblue at 8:47 AM on January 13, 2023

One reasonable argument I suppose for cutting up those big pretty planks of walnut vs. using a mishmash of offcuts is it's going to minimize variability in the wood over time; building something on essentially a fairly fine-grained 3D grid has got to sort of raise the stakes there I'd imagine, since warping (heh) pretty much anywhere would probably be somewhere between conspicuous and catastrophic to the look of the piece. But for all that I have the same feeling of oh, man, but, but, such nice wood! Such nice big boards! Ah, well.

I do definitely worry more about this guy than most woodworkers I've seen, in terms of general safety practice. He's clearly skilled and thorough, but there's ample evidence here that he's also lucky and luck isn't a skill you can hone. His brief series of violent shitfits during the clamping failures aren't really compatible with high powered saws over the long-term. But I hope his luck lasts as long as it needs to.
posted by cortex at 8:55 AM on January 13, 2023 [3 favorites]

dancestoblue: It's less of an issue now that we have pocket phones, but in the landline past, I've seen folks specifically specify that a shop should have a phone that is reachable from someone on the floor for exactly that reason.
posted by rmd1023 at 9:29 AM on January 13, 2023

The Sawstop continuation patents mostly expire sometime in the next few years, if memory serves.

I have some vintage woodworking machines that I'm reluctant to use for a lot of operations due to the lack of even basic safety features (a RAS and a combination machine, no guards or riving knife etc). But I'm not going to buy a new table saw unless it's a Sawstop or it's after the other brands start making equivalents.

The wormhole table design is very cool, I'm blown away by the ability to conceptualize something like that mentally in terms of layering the strips and the veneers and etc. But I agree about the mirror and lights; and I also would have rounded off the corners on the end.
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:55 AM on January 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

I bought a Saw Stop a couple years ago and it's one of the best things I've ever bought for myself. Even without the safety feature it's an excellent saw with some features I've not found on other saws. I treat it as if it doesn't have the safety system. I use the guard and the anti-kickback fingers. I've heard people say those things actually makes saws less safe but they help remind me where the spinny sharp thing is. I haven't triggered the brake yet but I'm sure it's a matter of time. Most people seem to do that by using wet wood or touching the blade with something metal.

I don't quite get the complaints about cutting up a piece of walnut to make squares. The result is still beautiful wood. Cutting squares out of offcuts would be very time consuming and difficult. Much easier to cut a board into strips and then squares. I do it all the time making segmented bowls and the grain still shows in the end, though more random than continuous.
posted by bondcliff at 12:11 PM on January 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

AzrealBrown's SawStop link was eye opening.

The patent is also interesting. Human skin conducts (electricity) much moreso than wood - if skin contacts blade, it disengages the driver, engages a sacrificial aluminum block break, and retracts the blade - all in about 5ms.
posted by porpoise at 3:19 PM on January 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

The inventor famously shopped the prototype around to the big companies and they all turned it down; leading him to start his own company that has become something of a patent troll. I can understand the spite, but it will be better for everyone out there actually doing woodworking when the feature becomes commonplace in the coming years.

The turning of the large pieces was also super scary, but turning is generally black magic to me anyway, with some of the shapes that can be made.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:14 PM on January 13, 2023

This is pretty impressive. I used to work for my dad building custom circular stairs, and I never liked having to lathe down a custom newel or balusters; even sawing as much excess wood off as I could before starting to turn it, it always felt uneasy and a bit dangerous. (Laminating up the stringers & handrails, and then shaping & sanding them, was conversely kinda relaxing.)

> Clearly he doesn’t have a toddler, or that hole would be filled with little cars and Goldfish by the end of the first afternoon.

Or a cat. Every cat I've ever had would have loved that wormhole, and a few were dumb enough to have somehow gotten themselves inextricably wedged in there.

All it's missing is a tiny intarsia Farscape-1 module circling it.
posted by Fiberoptic Zebroid and The Hypnagogic Jerks at 4:36 PM on January 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their wormholes, or why.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:39 PM on January 13, 2023 [4 favorites]

Jigs!
But no featherboards?
posted by skyscraper at 6:37 PM on January 13, 2023

Also relatively loose long sleeves…
posted by skyscraper at 6:40 PM on January 13, 2023