Dallas Makerspace Show and Tell - September 2017

White oak, Bois d’arc, ebony and found wood with a cut quartz crystal are the components that make up this very space-y turned container. I have visions of Marvin Martian running around holding this piece.

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So jealous…Stuck working on bids for our grain then may need to take yours as a refresher

It’s not focused and it’s flat on one side so I’m clearly having issues with movement but you guys IT’S ALIVE! I’ve been using skills from DMS to attempt repairs on a laser cutter, got a crashed 3D printer sevicable and assembled our X carve. (No time for test cuts yet on that one) Considering I started the summer impressed when I could blink an LED I’m feeling proud. (Although expert advice is definitely appreciated)

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So, Last Thursday evening myself & @BobKarnaugh worked on the smaller 4 Jaw. We had to take off a few thou off the back of the chuck. It had some really big high spots. We put in in the vise on the Bridgeport & used a face mill the machine it flat. Due to that we then also had the take some off the backing plate as well. We then measured using the pin gauges, we did find that the one of the factory holes was about .005 out from being square. We took dimensions & run out readings from the backing plate to be sure how & where to measure from. The center was out of round but the OD was good. We set the backing plate up in the Bridgeport & then after finding our centers, started drilling. The final size drill (size Q) ended up being duller then hell, a quick sharpening on the bench grinder got it into cutting condition. We did had some bit wander even though we were doing pecking drilling. So after drilling we then tapped the holes in the backplate for 3/8-16. When installing the back plate, that is when we noticed the holes wandered a bit. We then had to make the clearance holes a little larger. All this said & done we put it on the machine & checked the runout. We only had .0035", this could have been to the paint on the chuck. It doesn’t matter too terribly much, since you center your work in the 4 jaw anyway.

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Today, I picked up 5/8 key stock today to fit to my coupling hub. Initially I came by & just used the cold saw to cut about 2.5’ off. They key stock is just a hair over .625. My key slot on the shaft is right at .625 & so was the hub. When I went to my job to do the fine fit, I found that the motor hub side keyway needed a radius on the corners. So back to the space. I put the 4 jaw chuck on & centered appropriately the keystock. I then took about .050" off the corners. I then faced the ends to make it look better. Then over to one of the surface plates to do the final honing & fitment.

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Fantastic work!

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Finally finished a bowl I have been working on. I am not much for posting stuff I’ve made, but two things make this one interesting:

  1. What might be at first perceived as a live edge is actually from the inside, not the bark, of the tree. That’s because this was a Cedar Elm tree in my neighborhood that was brought down by a lightning strike late last year (or early this year? I forget…). So that is char from the lightning blast. I think I’ll call the piece “Wonder Boy”.

  2. With help from the lovely and talented @nick I was finally able finalize my maker’s mark (which also happens to be one of my favorite bourbons!). I was able to produce exactly what I wanted quickly on the Zing, but it’s bed does not have enough depth so I had to shift over to Thunder and RDWorks and that was a bit of a problem for me, but now, at long last…I can do it! So THANKS NICK!


Many thanks to @mkart for artistic help in understanding that I actually want to keep all that crappy black stuff rather than cut it away, and for the usual help with my gouge technique, etc. Same thing for Jimmie “I have no Talk handle” Arledge.

And thanks to Tom “I have no Talk handle, either” Cook for the racy action pics. As it “turns” out, he a can make anyone look sexy. Well…almost anyone.

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I designed a simple scoop for making my morning coffee. Smooth and faceted versions are available on Thingiverse ( I like the faceted look), along with the OpenSCAD program which renders them.

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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!

FullSizeRender (6)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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!

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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.

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