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Here I am back at the annual "Tractor and Industrial Swap Meet" and as usual you never really know what is going to be for sale at these events until you attend them. Last year I picked up a great little woodworking plane, this year, I left empty handed, but I still had fun snooping around and seeing all the different things for sale.
This year there was not the volume of woodworking tools but there was a nice variety of woodworking and re-finished furniture for sale that I often use for ideas on other pieces I might want to make.
One thing that did catch my eye this year was the use of iron and wood used together for tables, mirrors and other things, something I might experiment with in the future. There is something about mixing different kinds of mediums together that can make for some interesting furniture pieces.
I am looking forward to the 2017 swap meet and in the mean time there are plenty more other swap meets around to take up my time and help cultivate new ideas ....
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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.
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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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Anyone who follows my YouTube Channel will know that from time to time I am out doing vids in other people's shops, art galleries, shows and so on. I always use a tripod when I video tape, either inside or outside. When shooting inside I have often wished I had a tripod dolly with me. I checked them out on-line and found that most of them seem to start around $100 price and go up from there. After carefully looking at them, I think I can make something at least as usable as what I have seen but for a lot less money ... and for the amount I need it, the cost of a 3 wheels and a few nuts and bolts it should be fairly easy to make.
The only real disadvantage of mine is the arms will not be adjustable, which I really don't need or care about anyway.
It will fit all my tripods and that's all I care about. To figure out the size, I dropped a plumb-bob down from the center shaft of my favorite Slik Tripod and adjusted the legs to where I would like to have them for indoor shooting. I discovered that the length was 21 inches from the centre ...