Gorgeous 1940s Lathe Restoration
Practical Machinist forum member macona restores a Monarch 10EE lathe. Hack-a-Day has the story, nicely summarized, indexed, and linked.
Workshop
The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for the industrial arts from metal and woodworking to CNC machining and 3D printing.
Re-Blowmolding Turns Pop Bottles Into Piggy Banks
[viddler id=1409630 w=580 h=330] In this video from Core77, designer Taylor McKenzie-Veal uses a toaster, a two-part wooden mold, and a bit of compressed air to turn an empty sports drink bottle into a plastic piggy bank. So much win. [via adafruit] This Little Piggy — Taylor McKenzie-Veal Design More:Homemade Blow-Molding Gun
Tool Review: NEMA 23 Stepper Motor Covers
Over the last year I have been finishing a project to convert my X2 manual mini mill into a fully enclosed 3-axis CNC milling machine. Once I had the stepper motors mounted and running, I worried that the wire connection at the base of the motors might be a potential weak point in the design. Eventually I want to use mist coolant when machining parts but I do not want to run the risk of shorting out the wiring due to spotty connections.
Copy Carving a Rotary Dial Telephone
Matthias Wandel of woodgears.ca wrote in to share his Copy Carver project, with which he carved a telephone: So far I had just copied a wrench with my copy carver, so I was looking for a more complex object to try. I had recently acquired a rotary dial phone, just for nostalgia’s sake at a […]
Mixtape Coffee Table
From Jeff Skierka Designs comes this scaled-up handmade mixtape coffee table. From Jeff’s site:
This coffee table is a 12:1 scaled replica of a cassette tape. It is made of reclaimed maple, walnut and lucite. Dimensions are 47.25″ x 30″ x 5″ with a 3/8″ plexi top. This is a first prototype and one of a kind table. Future versions will be CNC machined out of high grade plywood with a variety of ply combinations and a glass top. This table has been an obsession of mine for 5 years! It is amazing to finally have it come to fruition. The table is completely reversible (sides A and B).
Review: HP TopShot LaserJet Pro M275
Photo: HP TopShot The HP TopShot LaserJet Pro M275 is not your average scanner/printer. Unlike a 2D scanning bed, which can only take images of items that can lie flat, the HP TopShot has a camera and lights attached to an arm that takes pictures from directly above the scanning bed (six images are captured […]
Whirligig of Doom
Everybody’s favorite slingshot aficionado, Jörg Sprave, is at it again. Got an old set of steak knives sitting around the house collecting dust? Why not turn them into a battery-powered whirligig of doom? Using a battery powered drill, some MDF, and a timing belt, Jörg constructed one mean looking rotary slicer.