I finished up a couple of embossing plates on the HAAS 'cause I couldn’t find my 1/4" to 1/8" adapter for my router at home. I swear someday I’ll find the drawer I left them in.
Anyway, the first is for an oval belt buckle insert, the 2nd is a wallet back plate with celtic knotwork and a place for initials. cheers!
Finished a bunch of resin cast mini nuke mugs to take to wasteland weekend with us for trading and selling.
When I get back I want to try to slip cast them and use some cool glazes on the insides so they are more food safe.
Milled my own proof of concept name sign with inspiration from this. I still have to paint it and face off the high parts. Thanks @nicksilva for supervising and approving me for unsupervised Haas use.
Well, my glasses broke in half this morning, and as it is currently a 70 mile round trip to “town” and I don’t have my prescription with me, I used a creative workaround and 3D printed a temporary set of frames to use in the interim.
Thingiverse and my Monoprice MP Delta Mini to the rescue. Only downside of using the Mini is that I had to slice both the face frame and the legs in half so they’d fit on the bed. They look pretty crappy but at least now I can see that they look crappy, and I didn’t have to even leave the house.
While waiting for my new glasses to print, I also did some leatherworking. Here are a couple of knife sheaths I made using a rattlesnake hide a neighbor shot.
And here is a pouch I made for holding my blacksmithing punches and chisels.
I made some mosaic pin blanks for custom knives. The techinque is to use hollow brass tube, fill it with more pieces of brass, then use an automotive vacuum pump to draw 2-part epoxy (tinted with a few drops of Testors enamel paint) up between the pieces.
Once the epoxy comes out the top, you clip the plastic tubing and seal with painters tape. Once cured, you cut off the rough ends to expose the mosaic.
The trimmed tubes are about 5" long: enough to make four pins from each.
I had a lot of time between helping one of my students and teaching the HAAS2 class so I finally got a chance to do my ‘turners cube’ on the hass. It’s 1.8" square.
My boy would love one of these. Any chance we can chat about how you made them?
I’ll be working on more at the space later this year. I plan on making some throughout the year to pay for wasteland next year
I’ve been experimenting with using the laser for scrollwork. Was wondering…how thin a detail can it cut and still be well defined? Think I have my answer. If you get a chance to see the shadowbox during the 10x10 show, look at the owl’s beak.
The 10x10 show is a wonderful size for experimenting with new ideas and techniques. Have had an incredible amount of fun learning about Inkscape, working with thin plywood and mdf, assembling layers, and the limits of the laser.
But the scrollwork detail was lost against the backing plate when light wasn’t raking across it. So I experimented with rubbing silver paint across just the surface and buffing it out - used my rejected original as the guinea pig. Here you can see the difference:
I like the results very much. Now to finish before the 10x10 deadline!
Very nice/creative, Stephanie! I’m jealous…
Thank you for the kind words, Marshall. I know what you mean about being jealous…my current jealousy-leads-to-inspiration is @Kim’s layered topographic maps! She is contributing one to the 10x10 show and it looks amazing. Am definitely going to learn to make a topo map; the assembly techniques I learned on the shadowbox should give me a head start. Design is in steps, not leaps.
I made a layered topo map a year or so back. Here’s a couple of tricks I figured out.
Print some Guidelines
One trick I figured out was to put all the layers in one file, and color code them. Then, when printing, I would select the lower color N for cutting and the color N+1, above, to be etched into the lower piece. When it came time to assemble the layers, I used the etched lines to get the layer above properly aligned - much easier than eyeballing it.
Save Wood When Cutting
Note you are limited to 7 main colors (plus white for the background) that the laser will recognize. I cycled through those colors and reused them in order. Then, I cut layer N and N+7 from the same piece of plywood. This saved a lot of wood, as the higher contours are relatively sparse. Thus, I was able to cut 12 layers out of 8 pieces of wood (7 colors + the base layer).
Use a Spreadsheet to Save Mistakes
I put together a spreadsheet which told me which color to etch and which to cut for each layer. It’s easy to lose track without memory backup.
Save the Frame for Last
I waited until all the pieces were assembled and finished before I cut a frame to fit. That way, any slight shifting of the layers won’t keep the piece from fitting into the frame.
Hank, wanted to let you know I’ve saved your tips forever via a Pinterest pin. I also have them saved in a pdf which I am sending to the Laser Committee for inclusion on https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/Laser_Committee#Tips_and_Tricks. Your hard-won tips can live on to help others.
Worked more on my turners cube. I needed to get it as close to a cube as possible. I’d say I got pretty damn close. It is 1.372 x 1.373 x 1.373. I probably should have used a mic instead of dial caliper to take the readings. This was done all on the Colchester.
Been on bit of a ‘turning’ phase this last month, here are a few of the pens I made.
Mesquite with laser rastered name
Ironwood (might be my favorite now, can’t see the full shimmering beauty in the photo)
and turquoise acrylic
So apparently, after about 8 years of being used in a hot garage workshop, the original glue used to construct the handles of the $100 Ryobi will expand and cause the handles to fail and fall off. (it was quite impressive)
Thankfully someone donated a branch of walnut so, lathe to the rescue!
Fancy walnut handles makes a cheap Ryobi drill press all the more fancy 
Last, but not least, project for this month was a quick upgrade to our gaming table/dining table.
Two sheets of 24x48x1/2" MDF, some craft-felt (cause i’m cheap) from jo-anns, a little time on the laser and boom. A flippable/foldable covering for the table.
Felt side for board and card games, hard side for D&D.
Boy approved.
Squares!? You’re supposed to use hexes man! 
Glorious nonetheless.
I’ve been working on building a DC-15S Blaster for a friend. All parts were 3D printed at the space. I’ve got it to the point of just needing to prime and paint it.
Video of the Light here: https://imgur.com/fxWUwVK
