Week 40, 2014 – MAKE COOL…whats?

Hey, welcome back!  I’m still alive somehow!  First bit of news I have to report is that I’m almost to the point where I can begin commercially screenprinting!  Progress has been slow, because I’m still recovering from all the calamities that seem to befall me with alarming regularity. However, I’m close enough that it has warranted a domain purchase!  So, say hello to MAKE COOL SHIRTS!

In keeping with my usual shenanigans, I wanted the name to be tongue-in-cheek, so originally I was going to go with ‘Shirtstorm’. (Because, for starters, I thought the fact that it sounded like ‘shitstorm’ was funny… I am a simple creature.) And the logo would be a tornado of t-shirts… But apparently that name is already in use, so I said to hell with it.  ‘MAKE COOL SHIRTS’, using a t-shirt as the T literally came to me first thing in the morning, and by the end of the day I had the domain, and the domain had a splash-page with the logo.  Looking back now, it seems like the natural extension of this site, given that developing my ability to screenprint to such a degree was a direct result of my need to MAKE COOL THINGS.  :D

Second bit of news besides the fact that I’ve drastically expanded my screenprinting capabilities, is that I bought a sheet metal bending brake from Harbor Freight.  I’m going to detail all the screenprinting stuff in the next post, because I still have one more order coming in that actually serves to really enable my press.  I also haven’t even unboxed the brake yet, it arrived Friday, and it’s still all bagged and slathered in what I’ve come to call ‘slow-boat grease’, as it’s what anything rust-prone and Made In China arrives from Harbor Freight utterly drowned in… So that will have to wait for later, too.  I should note that I got it– and ordered some aluminium from ’80/20 Garage Sale’ on eBay –in preparation for making my own flash-drying unit for curing ink on the shirts, because a heat gun was not cutting it.

Week 43, 2013 – Links and Things

Well, I ordered some more stuff from Harbor Freight…  I took another shot at getting the air compressor, I bought the powder coating system, and picked up some little bins.  The air compressor was on sale for only $99, less than last time, even!  But guess what? They didn’t ship it this time either! Well, this warranted a phonecall.  It turns out that despite being on the frontpage of every flier, and being part of every damned sale every week, it has in fact been DISCONTINUED for several months!  So now I’ve even got a powder coating system I can’t use without an air compressor I don’t have…  (And then my family made the remaining money disappear…they’re really good at that.) It’s always some god damn thing, isn’t it?

Anyway, some of my projects are on hold, but other than that, the lack of visible progress is mostly me being lazy.  Not that I’m completely idle, I’m just not documenting anything I’m doing, which is part of the reason I came up with these status reports.  Though at the moment most of what I’m doing involves putting my ducks in a row…which isn’t terribly interesting anyway.

Let’s see here… My current expenditure priorities for the next couple months are…

  1. Paying for my webhosting… Which I’m not even sure I can do entirely come the first, and it’s already past due.  Gotta email them.
  2. Getting lithographic film, chemicals, and darkroom supplies.
  3. Getting an air compressor.
  4. Getting the extended bed for the lathe. (It sure would be nice.)

My father and I are also both rather interested in joining the ARRL, in case there were any doubt that we are both enormous nerds.  Maybe do that for Christmas, or early in the new year.  I’d really like to get the 100th anniversary version of the 2014 ARRL Handbook.  We’ve got to get out to Burlington to take our license exams though.  I took a practice exam and got everything except questions about specific frequencies.  (So, with no prep at all, I almost got a passing grade.  I shouldn’t have a problem after I actually learn what I need to.)

Some nifty links!

The YouTube channel of John Grimsmo, knifemaker and just fairly awesome guy. Him and his brother make some totally amazing knives using some crazy materials like Titanium for the handles and hardware, and do it all using CNC.

A photo-heavy Home Model Engine Machinist forum thread about a project 1/4 scale V8…  Usually when you see something like that they don’t mean EXACT SCALE REPLICA… But this thing’s a real internal-combustion engine with electronic fuel injection, using an ECU and everything.  He even made his own scale spark plugs.

very cool robot thing, with an especially impressive neck joint.  Lots of gears.  The video details a bit of the machining process.

A series of videos detailing the design, fabrication, assembly, and test flight, of a very nice carbon fiber quadcopter frame.  The second video (coincidentally enough posted on my birthday) proves an idea I’ve long held; the only truly smart and safe way for the hobbyist to mill or route carbon fiber sheets is if they’re submerged in a shallow water bath to catch the particles.

And last but not least, I learned a new word.

Week 37, 2013 – Harbor Freight Sale

So, I made an order at Harbor Freight to get in on the Labor Day sale, and I used the main sale coupon to get 20% off the already absurd price on their Chinese knock-off ‘Porta-Band’ (Portable Band Saw), getting it for a mere $65.  I was going to get their horizontal band saw, but that would’ve been all my money, plus I found out that it wasn’t even on sale.  Then I saw the Porta-Band.  At any rate, I needed one or the other to cut stock into manageable pieces.  Especially cutting down round rod for the lathe.

I’ve only made a few test cuts with it, I’m ordering some more suitable bi-metal anti-vibration variable pitch blades from McMaster, and then I’ll probably be able to really review it next week or the week after.

I also bought their 1500-watt dual-temp heat gun, because I was really getting tired of having to lug around my SMD reflow soldering hot-air workstation just to shrink-tube something! It was 30% off at $10.

I ordered an air compressor, something I’ve desperately needed for YEARS, and it was 20% off, bringing it down to just $104…  But for some reason, they dropped it from my order and refunded the money.  It wasn’t out of stock or anything.  So now I have a compressor accessory set, an air filter, an airbrush hose…and no goddamned compressor!  What’s more, if I were to re-order it, I wouldn’t get the $25 off… I’m going to have words with them about that, but for the time being, I said screw it and decided that the $100 could be put into materials for projects in the meantime.

I found these great ear plugs at Amazon.  I’ll review them after they get a bit of use!

Review: HF ’40 Bin Organizer’

Today I’m cleaning up the lair/lab/workshop/world-domination-command-center so I’m on a bit of a storage and organization kick.  In keeping with that, I figured if I’m going to add any content to the blog today, a couple reviews may be in order.  So here’s my review of the ‘40 Bin Organizer With Full Length Drawer‘ (SKU 94375) from Harbor Freight.

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