Show and Tell April 2023

[jast]

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 at Dallas Makerspace 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 or other social media (with attribution to each maker of course).

NOTE: Please try to include the following on each post, to help make for richer social media content!

• a decent QUALITY photo
• a notation about WHAT you’ve made
• WHO you are (for attribution on the blog)
• HOW you’ve made it
• and WHY

And thank you for sharing!

[bertberaht]

Remember the post about the 13"D x 152"L x 95"H bookshelves installed on the 3rd floor of a townhouse in Dallas? The project where the color nailed the customer’s sample and the size was spot on …

Well shortly after I posted that, the customer called to say he made two mistakes:

1. picked the wrong color after all
2. requested shelves that were too deep

After much discussion between the customer, my finisher and my old body … I agreed to disassemble, haul it all back to my shop, cut from 13" deep to 8.5" deep, have them refinished, and then reinstall. (Yep, that’s the source of the oak cutoffs I gave away on Talk.)

They now look like this. He’s happy and I have suggested he not expect me to answer the phone!

[samiles5637]

Finished this 3.4 ct Malaya Garnet for my daughter this morning. It started as a 9.95 ct piece of rough.

Cut on an Ultra tech V5.

Lap and grits: 245 sintered, 600 sintered, 8k diamond on zinc+, and 60k diamond on DIAMAX.

This design is from gemologyproject.com and is by Marco Voltolini.

[David_Steele]

Thanks everyone for attending this afternoon’s HANDS ON! - Build A Robot! class! We had a full class and everyone went home with a robot!

[Lordrook]

I hung out with the talented @jnorine saturday and we made a few of these leather dragon head Keychains to test them out. Anyone want a class for these?

[CaryF300]

Those are cute! I love how the stitching is integral to the look.

[jessegrubbs]

A good friend of mine asked me to restore an old axe he had. he handed me a big square piece of rust with a broken handle jammed in it. He should have known I would have gone over the top.

• Jesse Grubbs
  
  

[Andrew_S]

Some of my pieces are on display at the Plano public library.

[Andrew_S]

Also made some earrings and gift box sets.

[Swimcoyote]

Heck yes! I would love to see a class to make these!

[samiles5637]

Here is a gem design I did for a working group on gem design. This month we are working on round designs. This particular design is meant to handle sunstone but will work for a wide variety of materials.

This was created using Gem Cut Studio, the software I discussed in the recent Introduction to Faceting class I taught.

DMS is trying to get a GCS license set up, but you can get a trial copy for yourself if you want to experiment.

I am going to cut this as soon as I finish my current Topaz project.

[david_schirato]

[jphelps]

I saw this today by @mdredmond and offered to post it up here as I think it’s an interesting use case I’d not seen practiced on the DMS Multicam before. He uses a 3d printed adapter and some magnetized work holding to print very neatly on Mylar storage bags.

[Rebecca]

Finished my tanktop. 44 hours over 4 months.

Machine stitched the main construction, hand top stitching, and hand sewed in the ditch to perfectly align the lining and fashion layer so it can’t warp over time since they are two different fabric types.

I recognize I should have ironed it for pictures but I was so ready to be done

Learned:
Top stitcjing
Stitch in the ditch
Pattern alignment
Full length lining

Leveled up:
This tanktop pattern
The spageti strap construction
Machine sewing
Hand sewing
Welt seams

Opportunities for improvement:
Machine tension on 5% stretch fabric
Welt seam puckering on curves
Encasing the lining in the hem instead of hemming two layers

[Rebecca]

Me too! @lordrook what an amazing design

[Marmarcloud]

This is so cool a class would be awesome : D

[Lordrook]

Tried a new thing. I think they came out well for my first attempt.

Maple burl wood, stained a rich mahogany.

[AndrewG]

They turned out great! Great talking to you the other day!

[ESmith]

The speakers for my desktop computer have been wonky for months. Left channel tended to cut out at random for unknown reasons. Some futzing with the cable suggested it was bad. Figuring Monoprice was an OK make and offering an $8 tribute to the 'Zon was reasonable, I swapped the cable. No love no matter how carefully I seated the connectors nor which output I opted for on the desktop. I might have to suffer tinny monitor speakers or - the horror - replace the speakers.

After some further experimentation with the power switch and the L/R swap switch I decided that it was probably neither the cable nor the RCA connectors and did some searching. The fact that starting to search for CR3 speakers helpfully pre-populated CR3 speakers not working hinted that this is a common problem that might have an answer. I came across an iFixit guide that amounted to “bridge these two connections on big through-hole components” and got to finding the soldering iron, solder, and wire. I only found the first two and made the blithe assumption that this switch probably doesn’t handle a lot of power and bridged the contacts with just solder.

the bigger the blob the better the job amirite

Success! Spent more time tracking down materials and cooling the iron than doing the repair.

If the solder melts or - more likely - my cold solder joints fail I’ll break out the wire, a higher-wattage iron, the flux, and do it the right way.