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

[John_Marlow]

I call this a taper slide rip fence (for my smallest table saw). As the tapered slide moves along the fence, the distance to the blade changes, allowing me to make very small distance adjustments without moving the entire fence.

It has a couple boo boos and it isn’t pretty … but it’s functional! (I bought the hardware).

The slide-related pieces required 3.5 degree cuts. I used the T-slot bracket made by @mikeglass to clamp the Sherline mill’s rotary table into the Bridgeport.

I’m sure I was silly looking with my magnifiers trying to mill a bunch of calibration marks using a 1/32" endmill on the Bridgeport!

[Eric75252]

The table I refinished in April has chairs.

Of course about 3-4 layers of paint needed to be stripped off.

Here is both of them stripped. And once it was done i realized why they were painted.

So we went two tone.

[John_Marlow]

This is a 1:12 scale “William & Mary sideboard” that I made at miniaturist “summer camp” (IGMA Guild School in Castine, ME). It’s made from cherry, with swiss pear banding and poplar drawer components. The photoetched brass hardware was made by a friend at Dr. G’s Brasshole. I added wire/tubing bails.

I’m not too crazy about this historical period, but I was attracted by the richness of the craftsmanship and skills required. I turned the legs with a duplicator template on a Taig lathe. The carcase is a combination of table saw and hand work. The sides are connected to the back with half-blind dovetails. They were tough to make in this scale. I think my favorite part is the wet-bent trim that lines the curves along the bottom.

[mrjimmy]

I cast my first piece in about 25 years. Very happy how it came out. It’s fine silver with some easter island obsidian. The stone was cut and polished at the space as well.

[Bug]

I had no idea it was gonna turn out like this when I saw the wax mold!!! Absolutely stunning!

[John_Marlow]

That’s beautiful. Clever idea to run the sprue all the way through the center to the front.

[mrjimmy]

That was @nausser915 's idea. It worked great and was easy to saw out.

[TBJK]

I have been slowly trying to get my garage more organized. I took down a small shelf all my aerosols were on. I came up with this made from 18 gauge sheet metal. Its actually my 3rd shot. The first 2 were with aluminum that didn’t turn out well. Hindsight I would have redesigned with the mounts facing inwards. I cut it on the Cnc plasma without incident. Then took it to the magnetic brake to bend it up. I spot welded it together at the tabs with our spot welder.

[TBJK]

Took some video of the cutting on the Plasma cutter, not really too exciting.

Aerosol can rack, Plasma cutout only

[Lordrook]

Made the Mrs. a new purse. Approximately 15 hrs of labor, 11sq feet of 6oz Horween leather, and total cost at about $100. I need to find a cheaper hobby, lol

[John_Marlow]

@Lordrook

I need to find a cheaper hobby, lol

It’s beautiful, but you’re way off the mark saying you need a “cheaper hobby”. Not only is it gorgeous, but just think about the several hundred dollars you saved by not buying a new purse for the Mrs. !!

[Context]

Very neat! This post led me to look up the IGMA. Seems like an interesting organization

[coloneldan]

@John_Marlow

(IGMA Guild School in Castine, ME)

This video from the school at Castine, ME is most interesting. Gives a little insight into what skills you have and the craft you’re an expert in.

2022 Guild School Slideshow

[HankCowdog]

@TBJK

…took down a small shelf all my aerosols were on. I came up with this made from 18 gauge sheet metal. It’s actually my 3rd shot. The first 2 were with aluminum that didn’t turn out well. Hindsight I would have redesigned with the mounts facing inwards. I cut it on the Cnc plasma without incident. Then took it to the magnetic brake to bend it up. I spot welded it together at the tabs with our spot welder.

I lasercut something similar a while back for holding craft acrylic paints. Mine mount to the vertical posts of my craft desk and can rotate.

I made two and stacked them.

There are two layers of holes: the smaller interior holes are scaled to match the bottle tops and hold the paints perpendicular to the front. Putting them in tops-first allows the paint colors to be viewed through the bottom of the bottle.

[John_Marlow]

You see a lot of glasses, bifocals and magnifiers in those pictures! And the occasional undignified lobster head hat …

[Lordrook]

Made a small pouch and an example minimalist wallet for my upcoming class.

[bertberaht]

My first (and probably my last) intricately detailed carve that took over 20 hours of continuous cutting with a 4mm ball nose bit. Image is from the Hindu tradition and the carved section is 21"x 33. 5". Material is Spanish cedar.

[bertberaht]

OK about this carving project. I guess the only way to make something of a mistake is to own it, learn from it, and if appropriate, share. I just had a refresher course on a favorite quote I first heard attributed to Artemus Ward: “It ain’t so much the things we don’t know that cause us trouble, but the things we know that just ain’t so.”

My largest CNC will once ever so rarely reset the internal control values. I never have figured out why between me and the machine, but it happens. I know it happens and typically catch it quickly. As a complete absence of luck would have it, such a reset must have happened about the time I got to the Hindu carving project. BUT since I KNEW this was an intricate design and uses a tiny bit, I accepted my fate as I watched this play out for over 20 hours. Today I was doing something much more routine and realized it seemed to be taking too long. Sure enough, the control values had reset to snail pace. If I had recognized Artemus’s warning Sunday afternoon, I could have finished in a little under 11 hours.

My KNOWING something that “just ain’t so” … was painful!