Early 2021 Prints

Posted on July 12, 2021 by Chase

I haven’t done a print grab bag in ages and realized I had a pile of fun and useful prints bouncing around. Let a montage of 3D printed goodness begin!

Plant Labels

Not super original, you can find a zillion of these online, but I wanted my own. First up, they are nice and big for me to read, and secondly, there is always something you have that isn’t in the list given online. The first set were just white with black paint marker coloring. I later started doing batches and swapping to black on the right Z layer to make the lettering pop.

Tool Holder

I always keep a big exacto blade and a few deburring tools around in my shop. They tended to float on my messy table top and get lost (part of the reason I have two deburring tools). In an effort to keep that area clean I made a tool holder that screws to the underside of the shelf. Previously unused space now keeps me better organized. It tilts back 10 degrees to keep them from vibrating out when I slam the door on that wall. No unexpected falling knives please!

Dispenser Bins

Sticking with the shop theme, I have a supply of semi-disposable items I always keep around. Popsicle sticks of various sizes and acid brushes are really useful for mixing, spreading or applying different substances. I used to keep them in loose piles or cups, but now I have a custom dispenser for each.

The basic design is the same in all, but with some modification to dimensions depending on what was being dispensed. The front wall slides in and has custom text for each one. A lid keeps the dust out and allows stacking. I printed them with 5% gyroidal infill and a hole in the bottom. That let me use sand to add weight, capping with epoxy. I have been using this trick a lot lately and love doing it. I used hot glue on the bottoms of each, then smashed it down on a silicone mat to make quick non-skid bottoms. The weight from the sand and the non-skid bottoms keep them from moving around easily. You wouldn’t want them to fall off the high shelf they are on.

Shark Bite Remover

Shark bite fittings are a great plumbing invention. They fit over the 1/2″ cpvc plumbing in my house and mean the fittings can be replaced without cutting the pipe. I had a supply valve go bad in one location, and wanted to switch orientations in another location. No cutting required! The trick is, getting them off is a beast. You have to push in on the release sleeve, twist and pull. All while being gentle and not stressing the pipes too much. They sell little C clips to make it easier, but I lose them and they aren’t comfortable on your fingers. Enter some printed ones.

I printed LOTS of these and sprinkled them throughout my plumbing supplies. They have more finger surface than the store bought ones, so you can get a better grip. Plus they are thinner. I found myself having to replace a fitting that didn’t have much pipe sticking out. These thin ones got in there, the store bought wouldn’t fit.

Chess Set

Moving from the shop into the house, my wife has been playing chess a lot recently. She wanted a chess set so I made one out of sparkly galaxy black filament and marble filament. I printed each one hollow, filled with sand, and capped with epoxy. The board is a set of 4 tiles printed with a color change from black to white. I put it all on a piece of MDF. That part wasn’t brilliant. I started with black polyurethane then tried to move on to spray paint. I still don’t have a good MDF painting technique apparently. The edges endlessly suck up what ever you put down. That part will probably get remade at a later date.

To hold all the chess pieces I made a box with sliding lid. The fit is good enough that it kind of blends in when fully assembled. Embossed along the sides are a symbol of each chess piece type.

Moon Lamp

This moon lamp design comes in many flavors online. Thingiverse My implementation isn’t that unique. I did copy the spline shape used to attach the moon, and made my own base to hold the bulb. The base was once again filled with sand and capped. Now the lamp is quite hefty. The main challenge of this job was that the moon print took about 3 days. I accidentally interrupted one attempt when it was 90% complete… oops. The base is 6.5″ in diameter and the moon a little over 8″.

Monitor Picture Holder

Last but certainly not least, I got this cool frame for fathers day. I wanted to keep it close by, and for some reason the top of my monitor jumped out at me as the perfect location. A simple print later, and there was a perfect space for the frame to sit. The little guy is always on my mind, and now always on my monitor.

Rolling Sink Carts

Posted on November 8, 2019 by Chase

Now that my summer slog rock project is done, things have cooled down enough to get back into the shop. I am still refining the organization of my shop and turned my attention to the area around my sink. There was a pile of spray bottles and gallon jugs of cleaners scattered all over the place. I wanted to make a little set of carts that slide out to hold the junk.

The two carts sit low on either side of the sink and roll out to expose all their contents. These are already mostly full which means I either made them too small or I need to pair down the stuff I keep around.

I designed this project back in the spring based on a gallon jug of headlight fluid and two scraps of plywood I had. Thankfully 6 months later the jug was still the same size and the plywood was still there. The design is like a two shelf book case, only with no back. I made runners to go on either side of the shelf to prevent sag and keep everything from racking.

The assembly was mostly glue and brad nails, and once dry felt quite stiff. I gave everything a single heavy coat of polyurethane. I would typically use boiled linseed oil for shop furniture, but had some old urethane around and figured these would get splashed around the sink quite often.

I found really small wheels to put on the bottom. They don’t swivel, but I don’t need them to. The carts just roll in and out. Plus their compact size means I waste as little space as possible. Lastly I printed a beefy handle on top to help me grab and roll the loaded carts.

April 2019 Prints

Posted on May 5, 2019 by Chase

RTIC Tumbler Handle

For some reason RTIC has changed the shape of their 30oz tumbler. Not sure if YETI did this, and they followed suit or what. I suspect it is a plot to sell more handles and accessories. As it stands, the old handle I designed doesn’t fit on the new style of cup any more. The taper angle and diameters are just a little different.

My old handle was printed in 2 parts because most low end printers (including the one I owned at the time) couldn’t print something that big. Now a days at least a 6×6 bed size is pretty bog standard. This new design will be all one piece. The cup is large enough in diameter that getting my calipers on it wasn’t going to work. I printed some rings of different diameters and used them to estimate the taper angle of the new cup.

With that figured out I just printed a new handle that looks a lot like the old one, only with slightly more finger room and a longer grip. Thingiverse link

Drawer Pull Centering Jig

I picked up a Kreg cabinet handle jig for one of my recent projects, and because handles are something you install pretty frequently. It is certainly possible to do them well without a jig, but that always makes repetitive work easier. The jig does a good job of setting the height and width of the holes. It doesn’t center them on the drawer though. I made a few add ons to help with that.

I took a length Kreg track that you would normally imbed into a table to make moveable hold downs. Instead, this becomes part of the top fence used to set depth. Now with a spacer it registers across the whole top edge of the drawer. That also lets you use an edge stop. Now it is all centered. Once set you can put handles in the same drawer position over and over again with no more measurements or adjustments. The only downside is that there was a scale on the back of the jig for setting depth. That no longer measures true because this vertical stop doesn’t register where the old one did.

Router bits

Storage and organization is a place where the printer continues to be endlessly helpful. I have had this nice router bit set for years, but always had trouble getting the bits back in their slot. They end up clanking around the drawer and taking up more space than they should. A simple printed tray gives them each a home and takes up a lot less drawer space. For smaller prints like this, a label maker works better than trying to 3D print the text.

More Dust Collection Adapters

Woodworking Dust Collection Rule 1: No two dust collection ports are ever the same size… EVER

Once again I find myself trying to fit a dust collection hose on to some of my tools and wind up having to 3D print a custom solution. Why is it always like this? This time it is a port for my random orbit sander to 1.25″ hose (which isn’t really 1.25″), one for my belt sander, and an adapter to go from that hose to my dust deputy inlet (which has some funky taper on it). The good news is that the ridges left over from 3D printing these always helps the adapter stay in place, even if it isn’t perfect. This is exactly why industry standards and groups like ASME and SAE exist.

Maple Closet Shelves

Posted on April 28, 2019 by Chase

I am starting to mix in house projects and longer term goals along with my shop infrastructure work. We pulled all the built in organizers out of the master closet when we were renovating. It was basic white particleboard and appeared to be rather old. We cleaned up all the walls and installed brackets that supported a continuous closet rod for hanging clothes. This gave both of us ample hanging storage space. The bracket is designed to have a shelf above it. I wanted something nice, and waited until now to build it.

Actually like a lot of my projects I started this a few months back and got side tracked by other house issues. I got the only 10 foot maple boards they had at the local lumber place and went to town planing them.

Buying rough cut wood is a bit like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get. In this case, some cool mineral darkening and nice figure.

This is an interesting transition project. I started it with my old Hitachi planer and ended it with my new Dewalt planer. The old planer has been donated to a co-worker that is starting to fill out his shop and could put it to good use.

With the boards cleaned and flattened I needed to work on the edges so I could joint them together in a panel glue up. I preserved the length as long as I could knowing that the ends would eventually get cut down some. Planing a 10 foot board by hand is hard work. I had to employ a helper to keep the board propped up. I haven’t had a power jointer in years, and I don’t see how it would have helped me in this situation.

After much time spent with my #7 jointer I glued the two shelves together and was ready to continue the flattening. This time with the new planer. The main reason I bought this one was because it was reviewed well, and there was an available helical cutter head for it. The two are a match made in heaven. No matter what, the thing produces a clean surface, no tearouts, and the carbide inserts will last a long time.

There is some really pretty figure in the wood. Another advantage of the new cutter head is that it makes really short shavings. You can see them wizzing around in the first stage of my dust collector window.

After a very minimal amount of sanding and clean up of the ends, I routed a round over on all the exposed edges.

With the boards in their correct shape I applied a coat of boiled linseed oil to protect the wood and give character. These will not see heavy use, so a tougher film finish shouldn’t be needed. The oil really pops out some of the birds eyes and other grain variation.

Once the oil soaked in and dried I installed the shelves. They don’t hold a lot now, but probably will as we collect junk in the future. With all the clothes in place you can barely see them. I almost wish I had used pine instead of this gorgeous wood. Oh well, it should be a good shelf for generations. The next owners certainly can’t say it was made of particle board and falling apart.

Hanging Bosch Flexiclick Station

Posted on January 27, 2019 by Chase

I happened across a Bosch flexiclick around the black friday season. It is a 12V driver with interchangeable heads; offset, hex driver, and regular 3/8″ chuck. Any of the 3 can go on a right angle attachment. It is pretty genius. I have owned their pocket driver for a few years and love it to death. I liked it so much I built it a portable caddy a while back. This new driver needs a home too.

I started by imaging a few things I wanted to make prints for on top of my cutting mat. It provides a good grid reference when making things in CAD. That usually gets you a 90% solution. The drill body will need a holder and the charger has no wall mount ability. Usually they have some key holes in the bottom to let you hang them from a screw.

I have a wall section with a french cleat so I arranged all the holders until I got a compact layout. Here are all the printed parts screwed down on a scrap board.

Starting off at the top is a plate that holds the charger. It is shaped like the charger with a channel underneath to allow a zip tie to pass through and hold it down. A cleat on the bottom keeps it from slipping down. The one zip tie wrap has been sufficient in holding it down with battery connects/disconnects.

The drill body has a nub sticking out where the various heads are removed. I used that to provide a good lock in mechanism. It is sturdy enough to have not fallen off yet, but is easy to plug in and out. The bottom bent section has some flex to it which is part of the magic.

The battery holder is not my design, Thingiverse link to the original designer.

Last but not least is the tray that holds the flexiclick heads. The right angle and offset attachments have a high enough center of mass that they need a little helper support to keep them from toppling over.

I bundled my three original designs and uploaded them as a group to Thingiverse. All together fully populated and with the wires bundled up, it looks like a nice drill station. I had room left over so I stuck a Ryobi charger on there for good measure.

If I were to do a review of this tool I would say it is good but would have been a lot better if it were brushless. Trying to mix this many functions together always results in some compromises. Still, I use it for small light drilling quite often, and the offset driver has gotten me out of a bind.

Heavy Work Bench

Posted on January 6, 2019 by Chase

Shop work is still mostly getting usurped by home improvement projects. In moving stuff around the shop it occurred to me that there was some space for a work bench. I want something very sturdy to attach bench tools to (vise, bench grinder, anvil, etc), but also a place I could sit and do repairs. I worked out a design that requires most of a sheet of 3/4″ plywood and a hand full of 2x4s. I started by planing 2x4s square and gluing them together for extra thick legs.

The frame is 4ft wide which goes well with a 4×8 sheet of plywood, and 8ft 2x4s. The recessed bottom shelf gives some space for storing bench equipment when not in use. It would store more and be more accessible if it was full depth, but I wanted leg room so I could sit comfortably at the bench.

I screwed together two sheets to make the top. I was going to glue them, but screwing was good enough and I can replace the top piece if it becomes damaged. This is a very stout table.

Bare, and in its final resting place it looks pretty good. Time to load it up with junk! From left to right, my big red vise from my dad, old bench grinder turned buffer, anvil, arbor press, carved depression used to hammer bowl shapes in wood, and bench grinder on the bottom.

Most everything is attached to thick pieces of wood. This lets me put the tool wherever I need it and clamp them down. I made sure the table top protruded from the legs far enough so I could clamp anything across the entire width. I kept thinking of fancy dovetail sliders, or bolt patterns, or bench dogs that would let me install a wide variety of tools. In the end a thick top and some C-clamps is simple and effective.

While I was dismantling parts of the garage to make space for this bench I pulled off these shallow shelves. It was kind of perfect for what I wanted to add to the bench. These shelves can be used to store my electrical/electronics stuff. That jives with my idea of this serving as a part time repair bench. The shelves were up against the wall and didn’t have a back. I added one to keep stuff from falling out the back.

The lower shelf has a power strip and commonly used equipment. It probably needs more organization in the top shelf. For now I am going to live with it and see what gets used often, and what can live elsewhere.

A front cover helps keep the dust out and things from falling off the shelf when banging on the table. Two bent brackets catch the front door on the right hand side, and a swiveled part holds it at the top. To remove you just swivel the one catch and slide the door left a few inches. That way it can be removed or installed even when the table is covered in junk.

I have had it this way for a week or two now and already I christened the table top with grinding detritus and grime from the next project. We all knew that pristine surface wasn’t going to last long.

Mobile Clamp Rack

Posted on November 3, 2018 by Chase

The next set of loose junk around my garage to organize are my clamps. In the previous shop, these filled every nook and cranny along one wall. Those dowel holders are a very efficient way to pack as many clamps in as possible horizontally. The professional metal brackets don’t pack quite as tight, but look nice and make the clamps easier to access. I had bought a number of them in the past, but didn’t use very many for lack of space. Thank goodness I never throw anything away!

My new shop has a lot of space, but not as much wall as you would think. Windows, doors, and a lot of plumbing stuff take up much of the available wall surface. To remedy this, I need a new wall. A wall on wheels. I cut down two 1/2″ sheets of plywood and screwing them down to a 2×4 frame.

The wall stands on a set of 2x4s with casters and is short enough to get under my garage door. I can roll this anywhere in the shop now. The frame took 4 boards, and the legs with braces another 2 for a total of 6 2x4s. I had the casters already, but went for nicer grade plywood and ended up spending about 100 dollars to build this.

I used a few of my previous clamp holders, but ditched most of the hodge podge for the nicer looking store bought metal brackets I already had. Everything got directly screwed to the plywood face. This big of a blank canvas supports all sorts of solutions and lets me pack in clamps efficiently. I even managed to get my saw/router guides and cawls onboard. I may eventually re-organize so they are grouped more by length than type of clamp, but with everything so open it is really easy to see what is available.

Lumber and Cutoff Storage

Posted on October 28, 2018 by Chase

As things slowly settle inside the house I am turning my attention to the shop. The garage is kind of a messy puzzle. You have to put something away so you can make space to put more things away. I was going to make some sort of vertical wood storage, but wasn’t sure how I wanted to do it. Instead I found a good space that would support traditional horizontal storage.

I found Lowe’s has a line of Blue Hawk (store brand) brackets and shelving that was pretty affordable, came with a weight rating, and was thinner vertically than the Closetmaid option. I cleaned out a corner of the shop and found a set of studs I could sink the brackets into. This will mostly cover up the window, but it has dark tint and blinds so it wasn’t being used for light anyways.

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I started filling up the rack and was pretty happy with my new setup. This handles boards from 30 inches to 10 feet pretty well. Shorter pieces don’t stack well and offer a different challenge. I decided to build something extra for below the main rack. I have traditionally put shorter cut off pieces into 5 gallon buckets, and let them pile up under foot. I came up with something that makes good use of the dead space under the wall rack.

This was done with a single sheet of 3/4″ plywood, but you could make two out of a sheet of 3/4 and a sheet of 1/2″ and get the price down a little. The uprights are 23×23″, the shelves are 15″ wide and 30″ long installed at 35 degrees, and the back that runs across the storage unit is a full 48″ wide and 12″ tall. The diagram below shows how I cut it out of a 4×8 sheet. Screen Shot 2018-10-28 at 6.29.29 PM.png

There is a little bit of scrap left over, but not a ton. Depending on your available space, you could adjust the angles and make it hold more or less materials. This design lets me store a stack 10″ tall before it interferes with the lowest horizontal rack. It accommodates anything up to about 34 inches, but at that length, it should go on the big rack.

I cut everything out and assembled one side to the back to start with. I then went ahead and put pocket holes in all the “shelves”. That let me screw them in horizontally to the uprights from underneath.

I worked from left to right installing one shelf, then another upright on and on. The shelves got a little higher with each one, the first is 35 degrees, the last is probably more like 40. I should have stuck a layout line on each upright to keep things on track. Still, the assembly is very sturdy and fits where I need it to. I added plastic furniture gliders to the bottom so the plywood doesn’t sit in direct contact with the floor and I can slide it out easily.

I had thrown out a lot of scrap before moving and threw out more stuff that wasn’t worth keeping before filling this up. PVC and other non-wood related items go in a bucket, but everything else gets a cubby. Most have a left and right divide of wood species. I might work out some moving divider later on.

The horizontal racks are mostly organized by wood species. This is way cleaner and more efficient than what I had at the last garage. My previous home made brackets were much taller and didn’t allow as much storage space. I need another space for sheet goods, but this should cover the rest. Hopefully I can stay disciplined in my buying and keep my collection to within the confines of this rack area.

Battery Charging Station

Posted on May 12, 2017 by Chase

I am mildly obsessed with flashlights. These flashlights take fancy 18650 lithium ion batteries that can be recharged. I have a lot of light accessories, spare batteries from laptops, and other things that need storage and organization. Similarly cameras tend to have their own specialized batteries that need storage and charging. I built a flexible station to hold all my chargers in one place. Later I added an extras organizer from a repurposed storage box.

I started with all the specialized chargers I could find. Two for flashlight batteries and two for cameras. I decided to go for the pedal board route. Guitarists can have a lot of effects pedals for their instruments. Instead of having them all splayed across the floor they tend to put them on a thin box using velcro. The box has slits that allow cables to pass inside the box out of the way.

I built it to fit a shelf in my office closet and made it wide enough to expand with new charger capacity if need be. Nothing special, just some pine I had hanging out. The chargers are held at about a 60 degree angle, and there is space in the back to strap down a power strip.

I wanted it dark to help hide the dark cables and velcro. I never have good luck staining pine, but mixed up a water based dye blend. It turned out great!

With velcro and power strip in place I could start attaching chargers.

A 4×1 outlet extender lets you plug in chargers that are supposed to go directly into a wall outlet. I added a device called a blackout buddy. Eaton makes them and they are red cross branded. It plugs in and charges itself. When the power goes out it turn on the light so can see. Now when our power goes out I can find my way to the flashlight stash in the dark. It fit like a charm on the shelf in my closet.

Next up I pulled an old drawer storage box thing out of the trash. It used to have board games in it, but was destined for the dump. I thought the all-wood construction it was worth saving. After re-gluing a few bad joints it was in good shape.

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The bottom drawer houses all the extra batteries I had from laptop pulls and random purchases. I printed a number of organizers to keep them from touching. Every organizer positively holds the battery in place so they can’t come out and can’t touch each other. Keeping them from touching is an important part of preventing battery damage and fires. Plenty of room left to store more batteries.

The middle drawer has random flashlight stuff. O-rings, manuals, cases, etc. I printed some dividers to hot glue down to keep the drawer from being a mess every time you open and close the drawer.

Lastly I threw some of my DSLR gear in the top drawer because I never really had a good place for it. 3D printing and woodworking come together to help organize and support my camera and flashlight fixations. What a gorgeous synergy!

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