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!!!

How could I refuse?

These were engraved and cut into 3mm Baltic Birch plywood with my CO2 laser and then sanded and finished with a clear coat of water based varnish.  I made 18 of these so that all the kids would get one.  Great fun!

Batch of 12 Valentine’s Day ‘Cards’ drying in Finishing room.

I figured a nice Brass Knob would look good.   Something with a nice smooth curve and a polished look.  As I thought about it, however, I realized using the Lathe cross slide controls would make it very hard to get a smooth continuous curve.  Reading up on this kind of turning I learned that smooth curves like this, if not cut on a CNC lathe, are generally turned freehand.  I’ve done enough wood turning so I thought I’d give it a try…

Brass Knob with initial curves established.

Heck, that wasn’t so hard…  Let’s continue…

Brass Knob, all turned and polished, ready to be parted.

Here is the setup of the support I used to freehand turn the brass knob. The carbide turning gouge rest on the 123 block held in place with the magnet.

Brass Knob, ready to be removed from the brass rod stock.

Finally, with the knob left with just a little nub at the bottom of the base, I needed to make a clamp that would hold the knob while I machined the base.  I couldn’t use the vice directly on the soft brass, so…

First time I used the Boring head with the new MT2 post I got as a Christmas present. I needed the adjustable boring head to machine a two level hole exactly the same diameters as the brass knob.

Cross-section view of the clamp. Note the two tiers of diameters so the knob is held tightly at top and bottom without marring the polished surface.

Here is the knob, clamped on the Mill so that the nub can be milled off and a threaded hole can be machined exactly into the center of the base.

And here is the result!

Bandaid Dispenser upgraded with Brass Knob!

Bandaid Dispenser positioned near the Workshop to Office door!

The box was made of 3mm acrylic, cut on my CO2 laser and ‘melded’ together with acrylic solvent.

To cover prototyping and last minute additions and changes, I made over 200 blanks.  Good thing, too!  There were a few cutting mistakes, some name misspellings, some last minute additions (subtractions weren’t a problem), marriages, divorces, and even a ‘he’ becoming a ‘she’…

Here a couple of ‘random’ examples of the tags I made…

Examples of the name tags I made for Kate’s Wedding reception. The stands are made from HDPE that I machined in my workshop. The gold one is after Paul painted all the ones used at the reception. Pretty fancy!

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 made a variety of exposures and left them around our yard for our granddaughter to discover!

Laser Etched Slate

Coaster engraved on to ceramic tile.

He liked it so much he ordered a bunch for his friends and certain employees of the National Park Service.  I consider that success!