Working with Plastics to Build an Engraver Stand
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There are many things that plastics can help us out with in the workshop from creating certain jigs to making new throat plates for your table saws. The nice thing about working with plastics is that you can pretty much use all you existing woodworking tools to cut drill and shape it into the form you need. There are a few things to know about working with plastics, like what bits and blades to use, but other than that, it's not difficult at all.
For our part, we are building a stand for our laser engraver that will have a place above the engraver for a laptop computer to sit. This will save us a lot of space by stacking the units rather than having them side by side.
Working with plastics is fun and something different to do and for some projects, it's can be used to make special jigs or augment new or existing projects.
Building an Arrowhead Picture Frame
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Now everyone has the pleasure of having "family heirloms" that can be passed down in families ... sometimes you have to start somewhere with something that can be passed down, which is precisely what this Arrowhead Picture Frame project was to accomplish. Many of the arrowheads in this collection were broken, probably during their making. I'm sure with the rudimentary tools that were used in the making of flint arrowheads, a good portion were damaged or broken during their making.
The few, more-less complete arrowheads that survived have been granted a special picture frame that can be handed down family to family over the course of time and will become a coveted collection over time.
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Making a Standing Desk
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"What's new is old and what's old is new". I haven't heard that saying in a long time but I had forgotten how true it is. Standing desks have been around for decades that I know of and probably for centuries in one form or another, but all of a sudden, they are "new" and "trending".
The main reason of course that standing desks are becoming so popular is not because of where they are used but because of why they are used ... to get people standing in stead of sitting, which of course burns off more calories and helps to reduce our overweight society. Not a bad idea really.
Standing desks have, and are being used in many commercial and industrial situations. Shippers and warehouse people couldn't function with out them, they are always on the move but still need a place to fill out paperwork before they are on the move again. Architects and people in the art world, especially those working on larger pallets need these kinds of desks because they are moving around them in many cases, and the list goes on.
The neat thing about standing desks is that if you find your need to sit at them for s longer time, you just need to pull up a stool and now you have a place to sit, and the good things with stools, they still make the body work because they don't have back support so they still help us burn more calories while exercising our muscles.
More Tips, Jigs & Demos
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Not every video is in need of an article and this video is one of those ....
Laser Engraver in Woodworking
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Despite that fact that woodworking in one form or another has been around since the dawn of man, and word "traditional" is thrown around like mainstay in the industry, there are always new tools, techniques and ideas being introduced and adapted literally every week. Many years ago, when working in another industry I discovered that a company down the street from us could provide us with some promotional products, including some very cool clear glass coffee mugs with our logo engraved on them. When I went to place the order, they showed me the machine that would be used. It was of course a laser etcher and I had never seen one before. That year was around 1995 ... and I wanted one of those machines from the first time I ever saw it. They were, and still are expensive for the commercial versions and I could never really justify the expense ... but move forward 20 years and technology has changed and now there are "hobby" or "home" versions of laser engravers that are affordable for non-commercial use, and the one that I am using was provided by www.banggood.com
I received the engraver in large cardboard box, well packaged in plastic packing and all in pieces, which is what I expected. Because of such a large international customer base there are NO instructions in the box, you go to their website to watch the video for assembly and how to download and use the software that drives the etcher. Think it took me ...
How to Make a Custom Guitar Stand
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Many musicians yearn to be different and unique and although a custom guitar stand might not improve their guitar playing techniques it will certainly be an eye-catching accessory. Custom guitar stands are not new but they are somewhat rare, at least compared to the hundreds of thousands of off-the-shelf versions that abound in the music industry.
In my case we are taking what, at first blush, appears to be the top end cut off Fender Stratocaster guitar, and manufactured into a guitar stand, and that is what it is supposed to look like.
Unable to find any kind of a plan for this project, I did start off my making a very rough mock-up to get some ideas of angles and shapes. I discovered that the backbone of the stand in the shape of an inverted "Y" was an easy and strong solution.
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