Bit late as it was a Christmas pressie - I got a new angle grinder. Wooh!
So now I say goodbye to my old reliable one:
Bought this GMC grinder from a hardware store that no longer exists, pretty sure somewhere between 1998 and 2003. Had it for a long time and despite having several rather dangerous quirks and being very reliable - it really was long overdue for replacement.
Going to be much safer using the new one!
Still ongoing with the plaques, learnt a few things and also made a few mistakes.
Looking at the previous update, there was a typo on one, which was a bit frustrating. But since these are tests on scrap wood, no biggie - just sand it back and try again. Here's their current state:
The blank one at the back is the sanded one. The others I had another go at with water and rubbing to get the paper off and looked mostly ok. Then I made the mistake of trying out a "light sanding". Did the one on the left first, didn't notice some of the writing was rubbed off. Did the one on the right and with the first stroke saw lots of writing removed. Whoops!
I gave them a coat of varnish anyway, the damage can be "rustic look". Plus I wanted to see how much of the paper would still show after sealing. There was a definite white "sheen" of paper fibers prior to adding the varnish but happy to see that the writing showed through strong and clear after. Photo taken just after applying, need to assess after it's all dried out.
Lessons learned: pick a font between the two - the thicker one is too obvious when there are issues or damage to the ink, the thin one does not stand out enough from the wood grain. And spell check!
Here's a progress update on the first ones:
The good:
Design works well, amount of toner is good, toner stuck well and I couldn't find any spots where the toner had fallen off. This point is after a first pass wetting and removing the paper, next step is to let it dry and do it again to try and get as much of the paper off prior to sealing.
The bad:
The mod podge needs to be evenly spread out over the entire face of the wood - I only applied it where the text is. This means less paper stuck on that needs to be removed (the reason I did it) but has the side effect that there is a colour difference between where there is and isn't mod podge. Also, one of the reasons polycrylic gives better results is that it is basically a liquid plastic, whereas mod podge is water soluble and there is a constant risk of removing the printing when trying to remove the paper.
I'll let it dry before doing another pass to try and get more paper. And frustratingly, one has a typo! Luckily this is just a test with scrap bits so it isn't a big deal, but I won't bother sealing that one.
And as a bonus - my phone informs me that I've spent four hours less on my phone this week than last week. Not a lot, but definitely a step in the right direction.
Well, not doing too bad so far - 3rd of Jan and making okay progress.
Today I cut up and sanded some wood for the quotation project, we'll see how that goes. I think the acetone method will give better results but I'm going to start with the mod podge method seeing as I already have that and may as well use it up before buying more supplies.
Also made a couple of apple pies, they'll be good for freezing. Unless they get eaten first!
Or not. Maybe just polish up the old me, make a few improvements here and there.
I'm pretty sure I've posted the old joke here before, where I said years ago that my New Years Resolution was to not make any more New Years Resolutions! So I don't really do them, but I do try and improve myself where I can.
One thing I did notice late last year (actually a few days ago!) was that I am spending way too much time on my phone. Brilliant devices, great that they help us out so much but it's become my default activity. It's depressing seeing how much time I waste staring at that stupid little screen.
So one of my goals this year is to spend less time staring at the phone. Tied to my ongoing goal of trying to do more creative stuff. We've got a stack of great machines like the new Cricut plotting cutter which is fantastic for some craft projects like sandblasting and metal etching. And for Christmas my awesome wife got me a bunch of tools which I can't wait to start using.
And the big goal for the year is to get onto our property - going to be so liberating to be have a workshop or shed that we can use for creative projects!
Rode to work and back today on the fixed flat. I swear it feels like the pressure is lower and gives more rolling resistance, but pressure gauge says it's holding. And I'm sure if it had a leak, I couldn't have done two 16km rides (there and back) without it getting noticeably low.
So I'm going to declare success and say it's holding. In my bag of tricks I'm now carrying a spare tube, so if I do get a flat on the way to / from work I can just swap out the whole tube and worry about repairing the one with the puncture when I'm at home.
In other non-bike news (it seems like all my posts recently have been about the bike) pretty much all my other hobbies are on hold. Not for any particular reason, but it seems like lately I haven't had any motivation to do any of my other creative outlets. It's like all I do when I get home or have some time off is sit and stare at my phone. Very not happy about that, almost getting to the point where I want to install some type of parental control app to reduce the amount of screen time I have. Or at least quantify it so I can have some hard numbers. Though "too much" should be all the data I need.
Getting pulled in all directions at work, constantly playing catch up. I'm getting very annoyed with myself to be just vegging out on the phone and not doing anything creative. But I just don't have the energy to get up and get going. I have a few ideas on things I want to do and they are all achievable (without spending a buttload of money). But it's the energy that's running low.
Sucking at something is the first step to getting good at something - but need to start first!
Overall, not a bad weekend. Didn't do as much as I would have liked (still spending way too much time on my phone - need to work on that), but I did get two projects finished.
One was replacing the cigarette socket in the car. The old one had a plastic shroud on it which had decayed and caused the old one to fall out. Needed to make a new blanking plate as the new cigarette socket was smaller than the old hole. Managed to do that with the Dremel - the gift that keeps on giving. <3
The other was my current cross stitch project. The stitching is now complete, need to frame it and get it ready for display. Can't say too much about this one yet, might be able to share some photos soon.
No progress on any other fronts, trying not to start any other projects yet until I can get a few others finished.
Here we are in 2022! Still scattered around, still planning loads of things, still not getting things done. Dang. I still have that puppet idea rolling around in my head. Probably because it'd be relatively easy to do - up to a point. And then we hit a wall - what's the point? Having a puppet would make video creation easier - just record in real time. Much easier than digital animation, and way less effort than stop motion animation (trying to do stop-mo in a house with cats [plural] is an exercise in masochism). But there isn't much reason to be creating video content if I don't have something to say.
That might be the biggest holdback on some of my creative endeavors. I tried writing, drawing, animation and a video production over the years and the biggest issue I have is that I'm trying to create content for the sake of creating content. Not because I am trying to say something, or because I'm passionate about it. Most of "the greats" in the various art forms became great because they were both passionate and had something they wanted to say. There are many people who have fantastic technical skills on different art forms but who's projects are very "meh" because they're just ticking boxes.
I'd like to avoid ending up in that camp.
Following on from the most recent project (the laptop stand, which has now been painted blue) my awesome wife gifted me a Dremel set for Christmas. This opens up a lot of new options not only with wood, but also with glass and stone. Admittedly stone would put a lot more wear and tear on the bits and the motor, and glass always has the option of shattering... so the primary focus will be wood.
It's what the device is intended for, I have some wood on hand, and I should be able to get scraps to work on relatively cheap. Should be interesting to see what projects I can come up with to make.
Made little laptop stand for my laptop.
I wanted one that was a fair bit taller than the standard ones you can get, plus I wanted to use up some leftover wood and paint that I had from older projects. I made all the measurements (except one!) and made a paper template to cut out the sides. Four screws, and it was assembled. I sealed it with some varnish prior to painting but didn't do the multiple coats with lots of sanding to make it all super smooth. Mainly I was looking at putting something together and using up the materials, and it effectively cost me zero dollars.
Can't beat free! Plus I got to make something.
No idea why, but lately I've been watching a lot of videos on how to make puppets. All sorts of different types, ranging from the "cut up old shag carpet" muppets-style monsters, to foam latex insanely-complex articulated full-feature puppets to finger puppets and "kids can make it at home from old socks" style puppets.
It's a bit silly, because although I could just use the camera on my phone (or the actual video camera that I have) to record puppet shows for free, it would still need sets, backgrounds, lighting and who knows what else to put something halfway decent together. Great if there is plenty of spare cash lying around, not so good for my circumstances.
The biggest issue is that a single puppet doing on thing on the screen is inherently boring. So I'd need some fellow puppeteers in order to have two or more characters on the screen at one time. Or green screen it and try to do the puppets separately and then composite them together. That's something I can totally do, it's just a lot of extra work... and I don't have a green screen. I used to, but I sold it years ago along with my other camera gear.
I don't know how much of a puppet-making community in this town, but I don't see it being a huge hive of activity. We're not exactly known for creative endeavors. I've also had a look at fabric prices, and that stuff isn't in the "buy a bunch on a whim" range.
Maybe have a look at animation, again? I did have a bit of a go back in 2017 (and 2007 if we count my Lego stop-motion, but I no longer have the Lego and trying to do stop motion in a house with four cats is an exercise in futility!)
Here I go again, off chasing a new dream.
After many years of looking for and trying out different creative outlets, I'm giving cross stitching a go. I've tried writing (I like the idea of it, but have no passion so all my writing comes out flat), drawing (also like the idea of it, but don't practice enough to improve), music (both digital and on physical instruments - digital came out extremely simple and synthetic, physical I don't practice enough to play properly), making stop-motion video (with LEGO - fun product but requires a lot of time and effort), actual video (I suck in front of the camera and suck at convincing others to get in front of the camera) and artisanal stuff (woodworking, metal working, a touch of painting - all have the same issue: not enough funds for tools / supplies and more importantly no work space).
So now I'm giving cross stitching a try. It's something that (so far) has been relatively easy for me, but it's time consuming and requires patience so it can look impressive to others. I've only completed two small projects so far (cheap little all-included beginner kits) and I had fun putting them together. I currently have five ideas that I'd like to put together, but we'll see how I go.
Went shopping today for supplies and bought a quantity of string (sorry, the proper term is "floss") in a few colours. I have some patterns saved that I used some free on-line tools to go from digital design to pattern (may need to print them out). Next step is getting a hold of some cloth, without breaking the budget.
Like most of my projects, I just need to focus on doing a few smaller things first to improve my skill and get better rather than trying to go all-in on an overly complex single piece and then not finishing it. We'll see how I go!
Apart from the options already mentioned in my last post, there is also lost wax casting. This can tie in with either pewter or aluminium casting and works well for complex shapes that won't work with a two part mould. Although the wax can be partially reclaimed and padded out with cheap candle wax (the proper wax comes in various grades, and buying softer stuff can be offset by melting in harder candle wax), it's still too expensive.
So it looks like we're back to the "custom poker chip" idea. Or something similar. I found a supplier of blank, white plastic tokens. I've ordered their smallest quantity, a ten pack, to test how well it works.
I had found a supplier of "blank" poker chips in baches of 120 chips for $12 - which amounts to 12c each. This is in line with buying the poker sets from BigW or KMart - they have 200 and 300 chip sets for $20 and $30 respectively. The ten pack of blanks cost me $3 (including postage) so that's 30c per blank, but they also have 100 packs for $16 (16c each).
That's still higher than the blank poker chips (which aren't blank, they have designs on the borders) but the poker chips have the big disadvantage that they come in sets of four colours. The white ones came out okay, the green ones looked okay, but the blue and black ones were very meh. So being able to buy all white ones makes printing designs much easier.
Okay, I have a bit of a conundrum. As I've mentioned before, I'm getting into this whole Geocaching craze (okay, that's a slight exaggeration since this hobby / game started twenty years ago and there aren't that many active players at the moment). Part of the appeal for me is a chance to flex my creative muscles and make stuff.
The reason for this is that part of the game is "swag" (Stuff We All Get), which is basically little trinkets that people leave in the caches so that other players can swap around (a bit like "take a penny, leave a penny" setups). The idea is players put in things they think are worth something and other players can swap them out for things they think are of roughly equal value. Of course, not everybody is going to put the same value on something as another person - but we'll ignore human psychology for the moment.
For me, I don't plan on taking any swag, and I don't have the funds to go buying a bunch of stuff to drop off and give away (as much as I would like to).
So I'd prefer to custom make little thingies. At the moment the main thing I'm looking at is "coins". Not money, some custom made little things that I can keep updating and changing the design on (such as putting the current month and year on them so if other people find them, they can see how long it's been in play).
At the moment my main priority is cost. And I'm looking at six different options.
So, not quite sure which way to jump. And odds are, whichever technique I try first, I'll need to stick with that system because I won't be able to afford to switch to another. I just need to make sure I focus on my priorities:
Having said that, I did send an email of enquiry to a Taiwanese engineering firm to see how much it would cost for them to produce a steel mould for me. If I wanted to do aluminium casting, then I can't make moulds out of silicone rubber or plaster due to the heat, and sand leaves a grainy texture that needs to be machined to make it look good. A steel mould gives brilliant results - if you can afford to get one made!
Also, I want to build gadget caches, but that's a whole Pandora's box I don't want to open just yet...
Well, I've successfully found more ways that salt etching doesn't work. Or more acurately, the toner transfer.
I tried a few variations on the dry transfer and hot iron method, but the toner wouldn't take. It either won't mount onto the paper, or won't transfer onto the metal.
I'm going to have one more go at doing a transfer with the soak method, but then infill with something (sharpie? nail polish?) to try and compensate for the thin layer of toner.
Which I'm 80% certain is the cause of my issues - the printer not laying down enough toner. I could try printing at work, but even if that proved an instant success, it would be of limited value to me. It would be a pain to have an established method that works great but then have the work printer replaced, or get sent to work at another spot where they don't have one.
If the next attempt is a fail, I might give in and drop a few dollars on proper photosensitive film and do up the transfer that way...
Curses! I thought I might have been getting a decent result. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Current biggest issue is getting a decent resistor onto the aluminium with enough detail that I can get crisp lettering. I think at the moment the issue is that the printer that I have is either low on toner, does not deposit enough toner or is set up to maximise toner and I can't turn it off.
So the first thing I tried was the first method (glossy magazine paper) with a bit of nail polish remover. I also added pressure by using a clamp I picked up from the hardware store. However, I feel that my mistake on this attempt was that I used two bits of metal (the aluminium stock and bit of scrap steel) and it didn't put equal pressure across the toner.
Result: toner didn't stick.
(Also, didn't clean up the metal first either, which can't have helped.)
Second attempt today was using the second method (back of sticker paper - waxy type). This is the one that is supposed to give the best results. The immediate issue was that the toner didn't stick to it going through the printer. Not what I was expecting, I poked around the settings a bit and managed to get a bit of toner onto the paper. The result was … lacklustre.
So I went back to the first method, but this time I put some padding paper between the paper carrying the toner and the steel sheet, and this time I managed to (finally!) get a decent amount of toner onto the aluminium. Yes!
So hooked it all up, got the juice flowing and the result was … about the same as the first time.
It's definitely an issue with the toner. It isn't on there thick enough to stop the salt water from eating away at the aluminium, which leaves it with that chewed out look and rough lettering. I can't think of any other way to get the amount of detail on there that I am after other than printing it. I was looking at the photoresist film, which could work. But that would require buying the film, plus some UV light(s) and who knows how much more equipment. I know we need to buy more toner for our printer, but there should be plenty of black.
I think for the next effort, I'm going to have to try a heat option. Which will either mean investing in a hot air gun or using the oven. Toner should need about 100c to melt the toner, the trick is to not burn it. More experimentation needed!
Yes, this is another Geocaching post. :)
With Geocaching, there are different levels of commitment to people who want to play (read: decide how much money you want to spend), and one of the things which is "a thing" in the game is to drop swag in to caches for other people to find (and possibly move around). From what I've seen, swag can vary between something really nice and expensive like a collectible coin to assorted "junk" (cheap stuff from the dollar store like little plush toys).
As much as I would like go throwing around wads of money and buying toys and keychains and other cool little knick-knacks to give away, I simply don't have the money for it. So I figured I'd try and make (modify?) existing things to hopefully make them a bit more interesting. The level I'm aiming at is interesting enough that someone sees it and goes "that's interesting" but not so interesting that they decide they want to keep it and add it to their collection! It's a fine line to aim for (made a bit harder that one person might look at, say, a hot wheels car and go "meh" while another might go "yes, score!")
So a while back, we found one of those cheap poker sets that someone threw out during verge pickup, so I used this tutorial (YouTube, 2min) to make a couple of little stickers to put on the middle blank part of chips:
So far, the cost for these is:
With these little thingies that I'm making to release out into the wild, I'm trying to keep my costs down to a minimum, due to not having a lot of spare money. However, I'm classing this as both a hobby (having fun) and being creative (making stuff). I've already had a go at etching aluminium (which I need to refine, but the concept is sound) and now I've made these stickers (I was aiming for waterslide decals, but these will do for now) and odds are that I'll want to figure out how to make other stuff on the cheap.
With these, the only thing holding the tape (and toner) onto the plastic chip is the residual glue from the tape after dissolving the paper backing (and on these I wasn't as thorough as I should have been and found there was still a bit of paper on there after it dried). I'd like to add some epoxy resin over the top to really make them pop, but another consideration apart from cost is not getting involved with too many toxic chemicals. That's why I went for salt etching instead of acid etching (which is faster).
I figure that I might need to drop a few more dollars and get a can of spray lacquer or other sealant to make the stickers a little more robust … but that'll be something for another day.
Due to varied reasons (one of the main ones being a desire to create something), I wanted to try my hand at etching aluminium. I've had prior experience with it from one of the places that I used to work at and from College, but I was hoping to avoid having to use Ferric Chloride or other strong chemicals. After a bit of browsing I found that it is possible to do with salt water and a bit of electric current. That seemed like a better idea than to be using toxic chemicals (and then trying to dispose of them).
The first couple of prints failed because I was trying to print an Australian flag, but the detail was too fine. My very first print I rubbed the paper too hard and it ripped, so I scrubbed that one. The second one had many defects of missing toner or details covered by paper pulp. I used magazine paper, and that wasn't blank so some of the toner from that ended up filling in what was meant to be blank spaces.
For my third attempt at a print, I opted for large lettering, but even that was fairly dull and blurry once transferred onto the ali.
The setup … looked dodgy as anything!
Basically running a 5V DC power supply. A bit dodgy to have a stainless steel knife in a salt water bath along with the piece of aluminum being etched. I could see it not taking much fort things to shift around and get a short.
I did tape the knife to the side of the container to try and reduce the risk. Long term, I'd like to maybe get a holder 3D printed or something in order to make it safer and eliminate the chances of a short. But that's a long term thing - right now I'm trying to keep my costs down to a minimum. Current spend: $2. Not counting prior items that I already owned (such as a multimeter to check the polarity of the wires).
The result … is less than what I was hoping for.
I'm 95% certain that the reason for the failure was not enough toner on the print. I needed to use a destructive method (soaking in water) to remove the paper backing, I may need to explore other methods to get a cleaner deposit of the toner onto the aluminium. A pretty decent etch (depthwise, I mean) for only a few minutes of effort.
The end goal is nice crisp writing, and I think I am going to either need better transfer medium to get the toner onto the ali, or a better printer. I think buying toner is going to be my next step, unless I can find another option of paper I can use. Fingers crossed!
