Monthly Archives: January 2018

Scribing Tools

Posted on January 28, 2018 by joel
First project on the metal lathe! This weekend I made a pair of scribing tools for use in the metal shop. They are made of aluminum with a sewing needle for a tip, and are used to scribe layout lines on stock. They should help me a lot on future projects. They gave me practice drilling holes, tapering (for the tips), knurling, and using the auto-feed for getting a good surface finish on the bodies. Although I still need a little practice on that last one - the surface looked a lot better when I used the auto-feed, but I still think it could be better.

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Makerspace

Posted on January 28, 2018 by joel
In the old house I had my makerspace/tinkering workbench in a corner of the basement. It worked, but was a little space-limited. Plus, the kids would often want to hang out down there with me but they didn't have anywhere to sit or any space to do their own stuff - so they would hang out for five minutes, get frustrated, then wander off. But the new house had a finished room in the attic, so I built a bunch of work benches up there and now we've all got our own space to work. The family computer is up there too, plus a bench for Lori to do puzzles. It's been great! Sean especially loves it up there - he's actually camped out on the floor a few times since I finished it.


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Metal Lathe

Posted on January 28, 2018 by joel
One other great thing about the new house is a small finished room in the basement with a concrete floor, which I can use as a metal-working shop. I've wanted to get into machining for a while, but didn't have the space in the old shop to add any more tools - plus mixing a metal shop with a wood shop is a recipe for a fire once I start grinding or welding. So now this little room has a brand new Grizzly mini-lathe! I'm hoping to learn a lot about it, and maybe add a small benchtop mill to this room in the future. I'll bet this little lathe will be the source of many new project posts in the near future.

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New Workshop

Posted on January 28, 2018 by joel
I know these photos aren't going to look much different than the old workshop, but it really does feel different in person. Because the new house has sort of a third garage bay (it's not car-depth), I no longer need to share my woodshop space with bikes, generators, snowblowers, etc. It lets me spread my tools out a lot more, and makes the shop a lot more fun to work in. Plus a little natural light coming in through the man-door between the garage doors is a great bonus.

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We Moved!

Posted on January 28, 2018 by joel
It's been pretty quiet here on the blog, but I've got a good excuse - we moved! It's only a couple of miles from the old house - we wanted to keep the kids in the same schools. But it gives us more space, plus a neighborhood that we can actually walk around - and the kids have friends in this neighborhood too, which is a big plus. Here are a couple teaser pics of the new place.

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