The State of the Workbench: October, 2014

Moving sucks.

I've gotten to the point where I've got less than two weeks to get everything out of the apartment. This means I've had to start tearing down my workbench and storing all my tools and materials for the haul across town. It's hard to realize just how much stuff you have until you have to put it all into boxes. I was kinda amazed by how many tools I've accumulated and by how often I use almost all of them. Guess I never realized how deep I am into this hobby.

Here's what the workbench looked like a few hours ago:

Not the best photography (The lighting in that room

is terrible) but you can plainly see a big pile of stuff

and tools neatly hung on the pegboard

And here's what it looks like now:

There's still quite a pile, but you will notice the tools

are gone!

Yes, I've had to box the tools. I tried to be as organized as possible, but I don't have an ideal toolbox system- that is, I don't really have a system at all. I do have all the random toolboxes I've purchased over the years, though so I had to make that work. Here are a few photos:

 Drafting tools. Gotta have a well made plan to have

a well made thing

 Standard tool drawer. You know, files, screwdrivers,

lockpicks... basic stuff

 Cutting tools and glues. So many kinds of glue

and I use them all. That's crazy.

 Other stuff that doesn't fit a category

 I call this my "Finishing Box". It has all my paint,

polyurethane, rub-'n-buff, and tools to get the finish

just right

Tape, sandpaper, dremels, and PPE.

Like I said, I have a lot of stuff. It is kinda a sad thing to pack it all away, really, but I am glad it gave me the chance to re-organize things. Hopefully it won't be too long before we are unpacked and back in action!

I have no idea how to effectively sort and sore various grits of sandpaper. If anyone has any ideas on that, leave me a comment or something.

-J

Breaking down Lego

Hello again

I've not done too much this week (see my last post about that) but in preparing to move, I have had to break down some of my Lego creations.

Yeah, that's right. I said "Lego." Kat and I promised each other we'd never actually grow up and playing with Lego together is an important part of that promise. We've made some sweet stuff together. I always hate taking Lego creations apart but it's better to do it myself than let the act of moving destroy them for me. At least this way I can keep parts sorted.

So first I had a bunch of Minifigures (Lego people) to disassemble and sort.

These unfortunate souls are about

to be split into parts and placed...

...Here. Kinda reminds me of some sort of sci-fi movie.

A big bin of spare people parts.

I've spent a great amount of effort and time to get the Lego organized. This is something I've always fantasized about since I was a kid and over the years I've made several attempts, all of which failed. This time I'm serious. I've got these awesome containers that hold smaller containers that can be arranged in a nearly infinite number of ways. Each of the yellow rectangles can come out of the case and sit on the workbench. This is awesome because I can grab just the bins I need at the moment and have them handy. Here's some shots of what I have done so far:

 All the specialized tiny bits that are always

impossible to find

 The flat tile parts from 1x2 up to 2x10

Bricks, bricks, bricks!

So yeah, I'm pretty proud of that. I have so much more sorting to do- I'll probably end up with more than 12 of these containers.

Now on to some stuff Kat and I made!

We had the idea to make a town. We started at the most logical point, the very heart and soul of a town- a pizza place. We wanted a "downtown" vibe to our building so it's a pizza place and a post office with apartments on the second floor.

Pizza and Post office- what else does a town need?

On the ground floor you have the pizza

oven and serving counter. On the second,

a man getting home from work.

We also decided we needed a high rise apartment building downtown. Something that looked kinda old fashioned, like it had been built decades ago. Something big that could house a lot of Lego people. We got a little ambitious and actually ran out of grey bricks. We need to buy more (which we can do via Bricklink.com or Lego's official online "Pick a Brick" store) but here's what we have done so far:

 What better way to convey "Old building" than to

design it with a Gothic theme and ivy on the walls?

Kat did all the interior stuff, from beds and tables

to a terrarium with a frog in it. She's awesome.

So yeah. You don't need fancy power tools and special skills to make fun, creative things. It can be done with plastic bricks and patience.

I love building and goofing with my wife.

-J

In which life gets in the way

My note to myself to not do anything fun until my stuff gets taken care of

Well, gang, October is going to be an interesting and stressful month. I've got a lot on my plate. I'm in the process of enrolling in school for my very first time. Kat's mom is moving this month. Kat and I are moving this month. There's so much to do in a very short few weeks. I have much paperwork and hoop-jumping in order to register for classes. I have a veritable ton of packing and cleaning to do. Kat's mom is such an amazing mother-in-law and I feel I owe her so much so I want to help her in her move in any way I can. Ugh. There's lots of work to be done and it isn't necessarily the fun kind.

But there is a pretty awesome set of silver linings.

Firstly, I'm enrolling in Grand Rapids Community College's "Tooling and Manufacturing Technology" program which I am all kinds of excited about. I'll get to learn really awesome stuff like CNC machining and welding and all kinds of skills that I have always wanted to have.

Secondly, we are moving into a house with a garage, so I may end up having more space to do my projects in which is a huge plus.

Thirdly.... I'm sure there's a thirdly but it escapes me for the moment.

...probably because I'm stressing out over all the not-hobby stuff I have to do!

-J

In Review of "Print the Legend"

I watched the documentary "Print the Legend" on Netflix just now and wanted to share a few of my thoughts. I'm no titan of the 3D printing industry, but I do own one of the machines and was quite interested from the consumer standpoint in what the filmmaker had to say about the industry and the printers themselves.

If you haven't seen the film (Which I suspect is true of almost all of my friends and family), it tells the story of how a few of the 3D printing industry's most notable businesses got started- namely Makerbot and Formlabs and follows their growth from garage-based start-ups to major companies.

My first thoughts right off the bat are twofold:

1. I thought it was a well constructed documentary that told several separate stories simultaneously, yet wove them together into one well-structured arc. That arc, unfortunately, had nothing to do with 3D printing as a technology or a consumer product. The overall story told by this film is one about businesses and the people who found them.

2. The biggest takeaway by far for me was "For the love of God, whatever you do, do NOT go into business with friends."

To me, the overall theme of the documentary was a sort of cautionary tale about what greed and ambition will drive someone to become. In one of my favorite podcasts, "Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project" (Found on Tested.com- my favorite website), Adam Savage said something to the effect (I'm too tired to go through every episode to find the exact quote...) that corporations exist for a single purpose: To make as much money as possible. The product or service that corporation sells is ultimately immaterial to that goal. That is the feeling I got from watching this film.

What was shocking to me was really how similar Makerbot and Formlabs were in their infant stages. Both companies started with a small group of friends who were fascinated by and obsessed with innovation in the 3D printing industry. Both of these groups came up with some very creative and interesting ideas that gained popularity. Both groups then started tiny start up companies to develop and market these ideas. Those tiny companies were tight-nit and fun places to be. They were both populated by people who shared the passion for their product with the founders. Eventually both companies gained lots of money and suddenly, one of the founders (each company had three co-founders) was tasked with leading the company. In both cases, the one co-founder in this position gradually became more egotistical and arrogant and pushed the others away. In the case of Makerbot, the CEO's focus shifted from the product to company growth. This causes an even larger rift between the co-founders and eventually one or more leave the company.

So the moral of the story is "Money and power turn good friends against each other and good men into assholes."

Also, they interviewed the crazy "Everyone should be able to 3D print a handgun" anarchist guy. That was annoying. The association of 3D printing with making illegal firearms is really upsetting to me but that's a post for a different time (and perhaps a different blog).

Ultimately, I'd say it was a very good documentary. I didn't find myself getting bored at any point in its 99 minutes. The soundtrack was also very good. My main disappointment is that it wasn't really a documentary about 3D printing. It did make me really wonder if starting a company is ever a good idea. Maybe that was their point.

Oh well. I don't have a Makerbot or a Formlabs printer, I have a Solidoodle 4.

And I love it.

-J

Preparing for a nuclear holocaust (war never changes)

I'm a huge fan of the video game Fallout: New Vegas. It's a vast, open world game set in a retro-futuristic post-nuclear-holocaust Southwestern United States. The story is long and complicated to explain, but the crux of the matter is that while the world engaged in nuclear war, many survived by living in underground communities called vaults. Once the fallout settled, the survivors left the vaults to pick up the pieces and re-establish society. It's a great game in a great series and I strongly recommend it.

Why do I tell you this? Because I'm replicating some of the props from the game! The characters in the game use salvaged bottle caps as currency. The soda they get the caps from is called- get this- "Nuka-Cola".

So I am making Nuka-Cola bottle caps.

First, I needed bottle caps. They sell unpainted bottle caps on Amazon, but my budget calls for things to be on the cheap side of free. I spoke to the barman at the restaurant we were eating at one Saturday and he was more than pleased to offload his bottle caps.

I had to get them the right color before applying the Nuka-Cola logo. This meant stripping off the existing paint. I did this with my Dremel and, after a bit of experimentation, I found that grinding bits work best for this over sanding bits and wire brush bits.

After several minutes, I had a nice pile of raw bottle caps ready for paint. (The edges aren't as important to get stripped, as we will see later.)

Following a coat of paint (which I don't have photos of) I carefully cut out and glued Nuka-Cola logos (found here)

In order to keep the paper logos from absorbing paint I coated each label with two coats of polyurethane and let dry before I moved on to the weathering. Weathering is one of my favorite parts of making props but it is one of the easiest to do wrong. I took my time, doing a little bit at a time. the trick to it is to apply a bunch of paint, let it sit for a minute, and then wipe the whole thing down with a rag. a little color will stay behind. I do this over and over again until I get the look I want. I used black and burnt umber for the bottle caps.

And there's what I have done so far. A small pile of post-apocalyptic currency. Just in case.

I also decided I should have a Nuka-Cola bottle, for good measure.

Yeah, that's the grail from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in the background. It's nearing completion

Anyway, thus concludes my Nuka-Cola making from Fallout: New Vegas. Let me know what you think!

-J

I make, therefore I am

Greetings, all.

I'm a maker. I'm always tinkering with something. I've always got a project or two or ten on the back burner. Since many of my family members and friends seem interested, I decided that a blog would be the easiest way to keep everyone up to date with what's on my workbench. I figure regularly writing about what I've been doing will also help keep me motivated to keep working. For now, I'm thinking I will update every weekend and every Wednesday with what I've been up to. I may come up with more features to regularly include in the future, but we'll play that by ear for now.

While you are here, here's a few things to remember:

1. While I get a lot of enjoyment out of making things and designing things, I don't claim to be any sort of professional. I have a few skills but I'm constantly learning and improving and screwing stuff up. Be nice to me, please!
2. I have pretty eclectic tastes, so I have a lot of kinda random, kinda odd stuff that I end up working on. You never really know what will jump out at me and say "You need one of these!"
3. This is a hobby and it means a lot to me. I put a lot of work into these projects and I get a lot of satisfaction out of them. Again, please be nice.

I hope you all enjoy following along with my work!

J