steve cooley presents

here’s an awesome photo tour of the Hull-Oakes Sawmill, the last steam powered sawmill in the country. They can mill timber up to 85 feet in length!

thanks, wood magazine e-newsletter!

Hey, I just spent 2 hours yesterday constructing a 3rd work bench for my shop using Simpson Strong Ties. Check out a timelapse video of the short two hours it took to build a workbench.

These strong ties are great because you can walk into home depot, grab four or five 2×2″ studs, a 2×4′ plywood panel, the right number of strong tie brackets that you need, and a box of screws, and then go home and have more storage space and a work space in a couple of hours. I’d highly recommend doing this if you need storage and you’re short on cash. They even have the plans online… and a pretty good website, overall.

btw, background music is Dub Pscience “Drop it in the slot”… a pretty good breaks album for being busy to.

to Bruce Sterling:

hey, Bruce!

I thought you’d be interested in something I’m discovering about the pseudo-MMORPG Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com) …

Second life is an _excellent_ ten dollar 3d modelling/virtual prototyping environment. I wanted to create a laptop stand for my treadmill so I can dork out while I’m getting a workout.. due to changes to the powerbook line, the magazine rack no longer works very well on al-books, so a stand became necessary.

prototypes in second life:

http://www.earthorbitdesign.com/oow3offline/index.php?album=2005%2F03_march%2F01_laptop_stand&dispsize=800&start=0

end result with real wood and metal:

http://www.earthorbitdesign.com/oow3offline/index.php?album=2005%2F03_march%2F06_laptop_stand&dispsize=800&start=0

What’s cool about second life is that you can log in with some friends and they can suggest ideas, or collaborate in 3d. Seems like this might be an interesting tool to try out in the classroom?

Hey, I love what’s going on with your blog! I’ve been keeping up since the veridian days, so thank you for such an interesting read!

my blog… http://www.earthorbitdesign.com/wordpress/

Hey, check out a timelapse movie of me creating a couple of work benches using some Simpson Strong Ties. These things basically turn wood into Lego. I’m thoroughly impressed. Very cool stuff. For about $130, I now have two 2′x4′x36″ workbenches, one open front, and one with a shelf. If I’d gone down the route of both being open, it would have been about $30 less. I think it would be pretty freakin’ hard to beat that price!

It occurs to me, I haven’t posted about allinbox.com, even though I’ve been soaking it up for about a month over there now. This is a little piece of DIY LCD Projector heaven in French. Each photo on that page links to multiple pictures of each build. I definitely appreciate all the great ideas there. Amazing stuff.

Well, I’ve been real busy on the projector project. jono and I did one for him… learned a lot about 0.5mm pitch flat flex cable that time. I bought a couple of monitors. One didn’t work for this project, one did. Here’s the design I came up with for the CMV CT-529a 15″ LCD, stripped out for use over an overhead projector:

more angles here … This monitor was so great to work with, I’d recommend it if you’re going to do something similar. I got mine from Memory Labs in San Jose, and was able to pick it right up instead of waiting for shipment. Tell them Steve sent you if you buy one from them.

I was able to bandsaw out the on screen display (OSD) controls and slap them on the corner of the unit. I think the design is working pretty good. I may need to counterbalance the “glass end” as the “electronics end” is heavier and on certain projectors, I may not be able to orient the glass this way for the image to appear correctly. Also, heat doesn’t appear to be a problem on the projectors I’ve tested on, but I may need to figure out forced air ventilation… many things to think about.

Also, I’ve been prepping the extra 17 projectors I have for resale. They were filthy when i got them, so they require a good scrubbing to get the tape, stick on labels, packing slip pouches, saw dust, dirt, and general funk off of them. Some have damage from shipping, so, I’m trying to franken-fix the best ones from the parts I have. I’m learning a lot about front surface mirrors, balasts, optics, heat dissipation, lens throws, and doing a lot of fun problem-solving-fabriation.

Dave Bayer provides one of the best webpages I’ve ever seen, on a topic I’ve never heard of before, making a Chitarra, or a Pasta Guitar. No skimping on details or notation! This is truly what the web can be. Let all who create web pages take a lesson from his example. Informative, philosophical, technical, and illustrated. Nice work!

I’m just sitting here eating some oatmeal (…ok, tmi)… thinking about a headline I saw on fark. (yes, I’m back. it’s after the election, so, I feel like I can go enjoy the photoshop contests again) It asked something like… “Why do some men build model train sets?” and I was thinking that there’s not much of a difference between the draw of scale model train set builders and Second Life builders. There’s no point other than to create, escape, focus, craft, and enjoy a model of a system you put together with your own hands. But that’s quite a point. Some people enjoy the feeling of pride in crafting working systems… hence computer programmers, second lifers, train set builders, woodworkers…. Most of our modern employment requires building or maintaining systems of a different kind, and so very few people get to enjoy maintaining their own systems for a living. I think that’s why we like model trains and woodworking and second lifing.

although, in light of that, I did just sell my land I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse, and I haven’t seen Jopsy in months, so when an offer for sell for about 80 bucks came along, I figure I made my money back for as long as I’ve been sitting on that land. Now I’m landless. But also at a zero-overhead for logging in since I bought my 10 dollar membership first, then bought land… now that I’m landless, no more land ownership fees. No more art gallery, tho Sigh..

But, with my new bandsaw, I figure I should probably spend a lot more time with that IRL instead

My bad ass bandsaw has arrived.

here is a time lapse of it arriving… daaaaang, it’s big. Check out the height in relation to me. I’m 6 foot. Jumbo bandsaw, w0000t!!!!! I got it all slopp-i-ligned up and tried it out. Bad ass. I had to laugh at myself as I was rapidly looking around the garage for ANYthing to cut.

jules: “Vincennnnt? Are we happy?”
vince, staring inside the glowing briefcase : “… huh? Oh, yeah, we’re happy.”

7 Photos of unpacking…

update march 3 2005 – I love this bandsaw. I use it every week. I just changed to a 1/4″ 6 tpi blade last night as I probably totally thrashed the blade it came with… I tried cutting almost everything I had in my shop.. soft wood, hard wood, plastic, PVC, aluminum, steel (umm, don’t do that)… I’m totally satisfied with how it performs. I only wish I’d sprung for the factory fence when i order the bandsaw… been struggling a bit with what to do about a fence since I didn’t buy the jet fence. I’m just now wondering if I should try grinding out half the teeth in the factory blade for a skip-tooth config, and maybe try sharpening it myself? maybe too much work… new blades cost about $20-200, depending on quality. Hmm.

So, we went to our new place armed with a laser measuring tape and took a bunch of critical measurements. The current/soon-to-be-former owners were super nice to let us in and let us do that. I really appreciate that so much from them.

Ok, so, I blew away my rather nice art gallery in second life in anticipation of building our new place in 3d so we can scope out plans for what furniture goes where, what the walls would look like with different color paint, etc.. So, I’m just now getting in and laying out the basic square footage for the various rooms…

my new garage is 18′x18 ish… with a bit more space on the side. the cutout area is where the staircase overhangs to some degree.

wait.. can this be right? This is how much land I own in second life…

Oh my god. It’s so small.

Oh boy… about 7 years ago, I bought some monster ElectroVoice T-55 speakers and a crown k2 amp to drive them… I was planning on setting them up in the garage … and there I was looking at some bad ass bandsaws, too… before I drop a grand on a resawing solution, now is probably the right time to start thinking about a serious soundproofing effort first. New terminology: “STC” or Sound transmission coefficient. This is the industry measure of noise reduction. Higher is better.

• Art Ludwig has an interesting recount of his experience installing a listening room in his apparent 3 story house on the 3rd floor. My needs are different as I’m going to be on the ground floor in contact with the poured cement foundation. No need to soundproof the floor, but the walls and ceiling are going to need some work. Anyway, Go up one level on his site, oof.. this guy must be pretty serious about sound.
• Craig Mazin is a drummer who created a room within a room for his 3am-playing-drums-as-loud-as-I-can sessions with apparently “no one the wiser”… excellent tips on how he did it, but with — ouch — a $5,000 price tag.
• Woodweb has a short discussion thread with more evidence of the need for “room within a room” construction. Joy.
• DIY Net has a blurb advising more mass to the walls, in the form of more drywall, only they advise to run the seams of the new layer perpendicular to however the seams exist on the current layer of drywall to minimize sound leaks from them.
• Hello, nasty!
  

  Acoustiblok® is a unique 1.1 lb. psf U.L. Classified, high S.T.C. reinforced dense noise isolating material which is utilized as a structural treatment for reducing sound transmission. It contains no lead or asbestos materials.It is specifically formulated to meet rigid requirements such that is approved by U.L. for walls, ceilings and floors (see U.L. classification), also U.K. tested “B.S. 476: part 7″. Acoustiblok® is typically applied as part of layered wall, ceiling or floor construction. It is usually stapled to wood studs or screwed to metal studs prior to drywall. Each layer of 16 oz Acoustiblok® reduces sound transmission by as much as 30 db depending on the frequencies (see “Riverbank Lab” test results below). It has more sound deadening effectiveness than some treatments with lead. A typical 2 x 4 gypsum stud wall is usually 33 to 35 STC. Acoustiblok® installed in the 2 x 4 wall is lab certified at an amazing “STC of 52″

  STC 52, holy crap. I just emailed their sales department for a quote.

• Netwell has a list of semi- to very- industrial transmission loss products with referrals for distribution and installation, I suppose. Also, they have bass traps that look dead-simple to install in the corners. And that wicked looking super deep foam triangle junk. Although, that stuff is not fireproof by any stretch of the imagination, so… that’s probably out. There’s other sound absorption materials here.

So, I’m gonna have to wait to get back into our new place to take some photos of the garage and see what’s there structurally, and see what’s possible. We may already have double walls, I just don’t know yet.

A couple of weekends ago, the family and I went to the Utah State Fair. I like the atmosphere, but mostly I’m a bit of a sucker for a good pitch. I’ve been looking at a Shopsmith for about 10 years now and, it looks like it’s the right tool for what I want to do. The best part is that it is small enough to fit in my “shop” with my cars. I just don’t have room for separate tools if I want to be able to get the cars in as well. I can’t justify leaving 60K worth of cars outside to house 5K in tools and make probably $500 in toys and furniture

I went down the path of building a shop out back, but after getting a couple of bids, that was the end of it.

I did at least get the model 520 and the salesman assured me that the table lines up well and is sturdier than the base model. The fair demo looked really good. I already have a table saw, so I?ll have some flexibility as to whether to tilt the table or the saw depending on the project.

The sales experience was funny in that I spent a bit of money, but had nothing to show for it except for a book of cool projects for me to salivate over and a video that screamed ?I know you spent some money, but have nothing to show for it. I promise that it?s on the way ? PLEASE don?t call and cancel!?

It worked, I?m salivating and I haven?t cancelled. I?ll be sure to say some more once I?ve had a chance to use it. Until then I?m counting down the seconds? 108,120 to go.

Here?s the link…
http://www.shopsmith.com

They also have some good projects at…
http://www.shopsmithhandson.com/

Hurry, Hurry, Hurry, Hurry, Hurry……

Amazing video of a circular saw that can tell the difference between wood and skin. Link (Thanks, David!)

[Boing Boing Blog]

To be a total woodworking nerd and snob, it’s not a circular saw, it’s a table saw. Going to their website however, does reveal that they’ve adapted this to a very scary looking chop saw, and to a bandsaw now. Very cool. I just wish someone would license the tech so I can benefit from both worlds… ahem, delta? Pleased with the planer, in the market sooner or later for a real tablesaw…. ahem…

littlemachineshop.com
if I use a faceplate attachment for the shopnotes 73 minilathe, then bolt this faceplate attachment to it:

then, shouldn’t I be able to secure any 3 or 4 jaw chuck to my lathe like this one?

That would kick some serious ass. Turning between centers is fun and all, but… not needing to roll up the tailstock at all would seriously improve the range of stuff I can do on my lathe.