I was surprised to find that, as I started, I couldn’t even view the website because the hosting company had updated some software without updating all the requisites so the site didn’t even work!  Sigh…

In any case, if you’ve been one of the ones who have been checking in, I apologize for letting this languish and will try to do better in the future!!!

So, I decided to make a Corian Carved top on a wood turned box as a gift for one of my sisters.

Completed Carved top box.

Magnolia Box opened.

Carving the Corian top.

Turned Cherry box showing inside and back side of carved top.

This came out so well, I had to do another!

Turned Box with Carved top

CircleFish Carved Corian top, Maple wood turned box

I looked into a couple of really inexpensive units based on the popular 3018 CNC platform.  Unfortunately, the two systems I tried all suffer from a woefully inadequately stiff gantry.  Any attempt to machine something that’s either hard or trying to cut quickly produces sloppy errors and poor cut quality due to shifting tool bit during the cuts.

Consequently, I decided to go back to OpenBuilds and get their C-Beam 1060.  It’s larger that the 3018 and also much stiffer.  The general design concept is the same however.  The Gantry doesn’t move in the Y direction, but the work is held on a moveable platform to introduce Y displacement.  This adds to the gantry stiffness and makes for a simpler Y transport.  The downside is that the material is now held on a moving platform limiting the weight and size of the material that can be cut.  These limits are fine for the Little House in the Village and this makes a useful tool to play with during the ‘cool’ Summers

Here is what the unit looks like.  I’m sure I’ll have more to show in the future!

Smaller CNC Router for the Little House in the VIllage.

I purchased an NEJE Master 2S Plus 30W laser and added an Ortur Rotator:

NEJE Master 2S Plus laser with Ortur YRR Rotator attached.

While it can’t cut wood (very well) or do anything to acrylic (the light from the laser diode goes right through acrylic), it still is very useful for engraving.  The nice thing about the open frame is that I can move it to the work, rather than having to have the work fit under the laser AND it is a larger exposure area than my CO2 Laser (420mmx255mm vs 300mmx200mm).  Consequently, if I need to engrave something 6 inches thick, I can simply lift this frame over the workpiece and expose it.  A 6 inch thick piece would never fit inside my CO2 laser.

Since this laser is much lower power and a safer wavelength than the CO2 laser, the open frame doesn’t pose any serious safety issue.  I still wear protective glasses, but it’s much easier to manage.

The rotator is very flexible and with the work bench jig I made for it, I can hang the laser over the side and handle fairly large diameter objects.  In the photo above you see a wine glass on the rotator.

Since the glass is clear, it will pass the laser light through, but, with the arcylic paint I sprayed on the glass, the paint absorbs the laser light and etches the glass.  The process it pretty easy (once I tuned the technique) and here is the first useful result:

Prototype of Wine glass etched with Laser

The plan is to update our current glassware at LHV adding the logo to match some glassware our daughter gave us for Christmas.

I ordered one about 8 weeks ago and it finally arrived last week!  Having built the previous one, with the help of the entire family, this one was a breeze to assemble, although it did take longer in elapsed time doing it single handedly (about 5-6 hours).

I considered going with a different printer, lower cost and not a long lead time, but the quality and features (Auto calibrate being the most significant) of the Prusa convinced me to stick with a winner!

I noticed a few improvements or tweaks in the design since the previous unit telling me that the company is constantly monitoring their product and continuously making improvements – a very good sign!

So here it is:

Finished Printer with miscellaneous parts. Note the mounted camera to the left.

I did make a mistake in assembly that cost me during the calibration cycle (you can see a nasty dig in the right hand side of the platen).  This can be replaced, but, so far, I haven’t printed anything so wide that I would need that area of the bed.  Since then I was able to realign the assembly and was able to perform a good calibration of the unit.  I think this unit has much better print quality than the first one.

I switched cameras on this one, using the small camera designed specifically for the Raspberry Pi.  The reason for this is that I discovered that the camera really needs to be mounted on the platen, otherwise the timelapse videos will drive you nuts as the workpiece keeps moving with respect to the camera.  With this arrangement, the camera and workpiece have the same frame of reference and you can easily see it being ‘built’.

The camera mount came from www.thingiverse.com/thing:2113975.  However I made a mistake printing this in PLA.  The part connected to the platen ‘drooped’ after I printed a couple of ABS parts (which has a much hotter platen).  I’ve since reprinted the one piece in ABS.

Closeup of camera (Raspberry Pi Camera V2.1) and filament dust filter enclosure. This is a hinged piece printed in a single pass.

The 3D Print server works very well with this camera:

View of screen running 3D Printer server, complete with video!

Having a queue of projects and add-ons for the printer, I spent the next couple of days printing various items…

Close up of Extruder Filament guide adapter plate. Teflon tubing connects this to the filament dryer filament feed guide. Also note the filament dust filter. Normally this will be located just before the upper feed guide as the tubing will keep the filament dust free after that.

3D printed drip valve, just waiting for the PCB to control it.

Miscellaneous parts printed on the new printer. Overall the quality appears better than the printer at the House In The Woods. Probably due to better calibration and newer printer firmware.

With my limited space at LHV, I knew that the printer would be relegated to the garage/workshop, which is both dusty and humid.  Humidity and 3D filaments don’t mix well – or, I should say, they mix TOO well with 3D filaments LOVING to absorb any moisture in the air.  So, I needed a setup where the filament was kept in a dry spot.  After some research, I discovered that Food Dehydrators are very popular mods for 3D printers and this led me to this next series of photos…

Filament dryer base (Cake Transporter) with final modifications sitting on top of unmodified Food Dehydrator. Note lazy susan bearing and 3D printed hub to keep spool aligned and turning easily.

I found a Food Dehydrator and a plastic Cake Transporter that appeared to be ‘right sized’ for this application.  The Food Dehydrator was PERFECTLY sized with the cake transporter base fitting just inside the rim of the dehydrator, I didn’t need any modifications for the dehydrator base.

I was then able to cut out openings in the cake transporter base with a flush cutting router bit in my trim router.  The lazy susan, used to allow the spool to spin freely, was also ‘off the shelf’ and it just took a couple of simple 3D printed add-ons to complete the dryer!

Filament dryer base (Cake Transporter) with final modifications sitting on top of unmodified Food Dehydrator. Note lazy susan bearing and 3D printed hub to keep spool aligned and turning easily.

Filament Dryer with spool and filament guide. The fitting holds a teflon tube that guides the filament down to the extruder.

Completed Filament Dryer, drying a spool of PLA.

I’m trying a simpler enclosure (a large cardboard box) this time around, but I may go the same route as HIW as the cardboard box is a bit too rickety.  We’ll see and I’ll update this when I reach a conclusion…

Finally, after much planning, work, and scheduling (not to mention diversions that had nothing to do with the LHV!), the Kitchen Cabinets are done* and we have a usable kitchen that we enjoy!

Here is what we started with!

Here is the original kitchen.

And here are a few ‘glimpses’ of the finished product:

In case you’re wondering about the two cabinets that don’t have doors, the corner cabinet was built in place so the door was assumed to be custom fitted.  The doors for the cabinet over the dishwasher were, uh, ‘overlooked’ in the fab sequence.  These two cabs will have doors added next ‘visit’ to LHV…

The Veritas Twin Screw vise fit the bill perfectly and I managed to acquire one about two years ago.  Unfortunately, with its large size, my previous workshops really didn’t have enough clearance to add this vise without downsizing the vise in some way.  That seemed to defeat the purpose of the vise so I had to bide my time and keep the vise in storage until I had both the room and the time to install it.

My new workshop definitely has the room, but it took a final ‘inspiration’ to get around to installing this vise – I needed a front vise for the workbench at the Little House in the Village.  So… I stole the left one from this workbench, leaving open the space to add the full depth vise.

The result?  Voila!

Full depth twin screw end vise! This is 33 inches wide, 7 inches deep, and opens a full 12 inches! Very nice!

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