Dallas Makerspace Show and Tell - December 2016

Post a picture and description of anything you are working on this month at the 'Space here!

It can be anything from a small craft project to a large CNC router project to building a table to 3D printing to a science experiment and so much more. There are lots of people doing cool things at DMS all the time, but most of us don’t get to see it. Post it here and share the interesting things you are doing this month!

Posting here helps not only promote Dallas Makerspace, but could inspire others to make something. It will also help PR post a monthly look at what can be done here on a blog post (with attribution to each maker of course).

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I programmed and stitched some “samplers”. I used SewArt64 for the programming and the Babylock embroidery machine for the stitching.

The samplers show the stitching choices that are available using SewArt (for instance, there are 75 different fill styles). When I program an embroidery file, I stitch small sections with the stitch parameters I am considering before I program the whole enchilada. I thought a visual sampler would provide a better starting point. I created the samplers in anticipation of possibly teaching a class on how to use SewArt64 to program your own embroidery.

On two of them I dye-sublimated the legend (one before stitching, and one after stitching). While the rayon embroidery thread actually tolerates the heat of the dye sub press well, it does somewhat smash the stitching, so for the third sampler I hand-marked the legend. That sucker took nearly two hours to stitch and I didn’t want to do anything that jeopardized it!

These took an inordinate amount of time between the programming, my own learning curve, and the stitching. I will gladly provide the stitching files to anyone who wants to make their own copy. These will likely end up nailed to the wall in CA so they don’t walk off.

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We have new pallets that should be stronger to replace our existing plastic pallets. If you are working on a project that doesn’t fit on a project storage shelf please be sure to put it on a pallet, never directly on the floor!

I tried to swap all the old pallets out I could(so that all the ones we have can stack instead of having 3 different kinds), if you have something on an old pallet please swap it for a new one and throw away the old pallet. (There are currently 4 old plastic pallets and 1 wood pallet behind dumpster if someone wants them)

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My new Kitchen Backsplash!
This is a project from November, I’m just now getting around to posting the pictures.

The panels were made from galvanized sheet metal bent around 1/4" plywood. I applied a patina to give it the dark grey look. Then gave it a wax finish.

Thanks to Lee for all your help with the metalwork.



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Very nice! Nice and sleek looking.

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Getting more SewArt64 programming experience …

I designed and paper-pieced five snowman quilt blocks. These will be on the back of the quilt for which I programmed The North Pole in November. Using SewArt64, I programmed the faces, coal buttons and arms for the snowmen, then stitched them up on the Babylock.

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Mostly pendants but I also have some unfinished cups in ceramics (I’m obsessing over glazes for those).


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Tim helped me cut out my first dxf on the plasmacam. I’ll weld threaded extenders on the back cover with 1/2" OD square tubing and mount to a back board of stained white oak with routed edges offset an inch. My daughter wants it pink, so the soccer ball metal will be painted pink.

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Made a few pens this weekend for Christmas presents. These are Manhattans. The woods are mesquite, Texas ebony and silver leaf maple. The silver leaf maple was some of the DMS woodpile maple. I found some spalted maple in the stack. This very cool looking figure is from that spalted maple burl. That tree had some amazing figure to it. The mesquite was given to me by @jeffbob.

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Here is a sample buckle made for the Leather covered buckle class. I made the front design as a stamp specifically for the class. I’ve given this buckle over to CA for display. cheers!

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Makerspace Ingenuity,

I’ve been trying to find a spot to hang a dartboard in my house for years, but every usable wall is either a window or window adjacent. @USprofessional and I came up with a funny solution to mount the board in my pantry.

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Cool solution. But…my dart skill would result in many punctures to the liquid containers just below the dar board.:fearful:

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Yeah,
If I wasn’t as good at darts this wouldn’t be a viable solution. I sent a picture to my mom and here reaction was nearly as good.

yeah baby! Love seeing metal art

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We are getting ready to sell the forklift, the key was being flaky so I hotwired it for now to move it around, replacement key cylinder will be in in a couple days since amazingly Amazon prime had exact replacement

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Last week I noticed oil slung around under my truck. The seal on the driver side output shaft of the front differential had started to leak. I replaced it with a new one. The maker part of this is the seal press made on the laser cutter versus the roughly $100 seal press from GM. It worked great, except I smashed the shit out of my thumb twice holding it. Next time I’ll add a handle.

The surface was beat up pretty bad but the cheap plywood did the trick. If you find yourself needing to press a bearing or seal in give this a shot!

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Nice ingenuity … using wood that gives and won’t damage the new seal! … good job …

Why sell a running forklift?

  • We have little use for it, so it takes up space doing nothing 99.99% of the time
  • The operator cage travels up and down with the forks, so its maximum effective lift is perhaps five feet while our ceilings are more than 12 feet

If we need a forklift in the warehouse, there are far better options. And the new 3-ton gantry does most of what we need a forklift for.

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I learned to make a bracelet out of a piece of copper pipe.

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