Here’s Taz done in low relief for a wallet back stamp. Cut into Aluminum using the HAAS. cheers!
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I now have most of the parts in hand that I need for phase 2 of the '03 Ranger lighting upgrade: the relay mod.
What’s a relay mod you ask? Vehicles equipped with halogen headlamps often have wires that are simply too small to supply adequate current to their headlamps, reducing output well below what they are rated for. The automakers do this to save money - thinner wires are cheaper and they’d rather just switch the power through that switch on the dash/stalk than use relays. It’s common to use 18 and 20 gauge wires for this task rather than the 14+ gauge wires you really need.
By installing relays, you can improve the brightness of your headlamps markedly using otherwise OEM parts. Daniel Stern explains this well and offers fantastic customized customer service should you be interested in this yourself.
Here’s a sketch of how I plan on implementing this scheme on my Ranger:
Ordinarily, the factory harness just plugs into the headlamps. For this modification, I will preserve the factory harness but use it to control the relays that switch power to the headlamps via much shorter wire runs via heavier-gauge wire.
Using fuses on both sides of the relay is a tad silly, but I happen to have a 6-position fuse block and that’s how I sketched it in. In reality, I’ll likely reduce it to the HI and LO common fuses for simplicity’s sake, to reduce the number of contacts I have to make, and to save 'block capacity for future projects.
Next up: finalizing the design, sourcing wire (16/18 gauge for signalling and an appropriate heavier gauge for power) and nailing down wire lengths for the actual harness layout.
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Making rockets with @Nick and C. J.
Making rockets with Andrew “Zoz” Brooks.
PGI 3" comets
Another Texan making a Girandola
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Started yesterday with my turners cube. Yesterday was just cutting the 2" solid aluminum round stock to about 1.5". Then facing off both ends. Today I started squaring it all up.
They are down to nominal size, not quite a cube but close. My finished passes on it, I will use brass shim stock to keep from marring the final finish. This was all done on the lathe, no other machines. When it’s done there will be several cubes inside it.
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Spent all Thursday night making new button packs! The process is now super easy to pay, just put your cash & or receipt from the square in your button bag and drop in the drop box! That way we can reuse the bags to save time in remaking packs & it keeps the payment process simple. 
We are currently out of magnetic buttons, but once I have those again I will put those packs in the small button box.
We are currently out of magnetic buttons, but once I have those again I will put those packs in the small button box.
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how do I take this class?
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Thank you @kyrithia for a great wire wrapping class. Here is the first part of bracelet we made in class. I still need to finish adding some wrapping in the split, but it already looks like an actual bracelet.
Also, thanks to the new 1.5" button maker, my wife made 102 buttons last night for a work event.
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Your comment. Perhaps rethinking before hitting send to check for appropriateness would be a good idea. Thank you for doing so next time.
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We had a wire bracelet class last night (lots of fun, amazing how folks picked stuff up!) and this was the sample I made for it earlier this week:
And then below, the one I made as the demo during class, I decided to do a mix of gold-filled and sterling silver…I’ve done plenty of those, mixed in some kind of pattern, but had a sudden Why Not, and grouped the wires totally half and half. Okay. That was interesting, liked it.
Then I started the part of the demo of how to do final step of attaching beads, then folks either hung around to finish or left to do it later.
And I kept staring at that strongly mixed metal bracelet…then had an idea to adapt another viney swirly thing I do elsewhere but haven’t ever on bracelet tops, used couple wires of different sizes vined around each other…so after class was over, I cut off the beads I had started, then did this instead:
I like it a lot, something new, and will be adding it to repertoire. And I’m having some other ideas trailing off of this I’m about to chase…
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I made more decoden. This one is going to be for my daughter who likes pink but also likes zombies. I hope there will be another class because this is incredibly addictive.
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Whelp, Unfortunately my white vase with lid was to heavy to enter into the Texas State Fair.
Fortunately I had a lighter weight brown piece to take it’s place.
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this was a custom stamp I made for someone. i love it when I get to do cartoon characters. brings out the 6 year old in me.
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That is awesome!!! It’s awesome to see the finished picture after seeing the work in progress. We will look for the brown vase at the state fair. 
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Welded (TIG) this up today. It has to go in a spot on a 1" thread-alet for a flow switch. It is a thermal dispersion flow switch. Yes they make adapters but time isn’t on our side.
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This is the newest addition that I recently donated to the Dallas Makerspace Machine Shop. I converted a Sherline 4000 Lathe to Manual/CNC Operation. I designed and built the aluminum enclosure as seen in the photos. The enclosure contains the variable speed spindle motor power supply. The front panel Manual Pulse Generator (MPG) knob works similar to that on the Haas Mill and will incrementally move the X and Z axis. Internal circuitry consisting of eleven TTL logic gates generate all the required signals for the Stepper motor drivers. A simple toggle switch on the rear panel will convert the unit to full CNC control. The connection of the external computer with the CNC software is a future DMS project. This unit is located in the Machine Shop next to the other Sherline Lathe and Mill.
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