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I built a large laser cutter for my partner to cut synthetic fabric on, but also decided to have a go at using it for a bit of a craft project by making a step stool out of scrap plywood I had left over. This is just a trial assembly with the parts pushed together but not glued, also missing two pieces that somehow came out undersized despite the entire process being computer controlled from design to manufacture... Even so I was able to stand on it which is a good start.  My entire garage reeks of burning wood now though so honestly I kinda regret making it! The laser has an extraction system but it doesn't go far enough outside currently so a lot of the smoke was blowing back in and the cut wood also stinks. I think the stool will be ok once I sand and finish it with some kind of polyurethane coating but the garage might take some time to air out.
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Mar 18, 2024 05:32
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I'm guessing that's plywood? You should be aware that plywood (and MDF, OSB, and other manufactured wood products) contain chemicals that are hazardous to inhale when burnt, such as formaldehyde. You should wear a respirator with VOC filter cartridges, and do your best to contain the fumes.
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Mar 18, 2024 13:18
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There's also the standard "protect your eyes from laser damage" warning that goes with laser cutters, homemade or not. Chances are the plans you followed are safer than some of the Temu level cheapo cutters but it's still something to be aware of.
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Mar 18, 2024 13:54
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Didn't follow any plans, just designed it and made it myself (bought the bare motion hardware as a kit though) but I'm an engineer who has done some factory automation work in the past that involved building a large YAG laser welder so I'm pretty conscious about keeping my eyeballs intact. It's fully enclosed with a safety switch on the door to enable the laser and a small window of acrylic rated to block the wavelength of laser I'm using plus I bought some proper safety glasses rather than using the random non-certified ones they include in the kit. I have some gas struts on the way to hold the door open but for now it's just getting propped open with a bit of aluminium extrusion lol. Definitely need to be better with the fumes though, I have a 1HP dust extractor sucking air out through the laser bed but I need a longer exhaust hose to run outside so the smoke doesn't just blow straight back in through the door.
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Mar 18, 2024 19:05
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Blackhawk posted:Didn't follow any plans, just designed it and made it myself (bought the bare motion hardware as a kit though) but I'm an engineer who has done some factory automation work in the past that involved building a large YAG laser welder so I'm pretty conscious about keeping my eyeballs intact. Is that 1/2" plywood you cut with it? What's the feed/travel rate like? How wide of a cut/kerf does it burn?
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Mar 18, 2024 19:16
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Is that 1/2" plywood you cut with it? What's the feed/travel rate like? How wide of a cut/kerf does it burn? It's 9mm plywood, so about 3/8"? Cutting at 8mm/sec and 80% power for 2 passes. Kerf is about 0.25 to 0.3mm.
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Mar 19, 2024 02:07
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Ok if lasering is legit I made some game box inserts that, despite boxes.py and the laser doing the work, I am pleased with…
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Mar 20, 2024 08:33
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I do a lot of laser work as well but figured this wasn't the ideal place to post it in the past. As my business picks up I find the sanding process is slowing me down the most (doesn't it always). I am curious if anyone has tried sanding small 3mm thick plywood parts on a drum sander. I really just need a single light pass with 220ish grit to clear off any residue and make the parts feel nice. My parts are as small as 20mm x 20mm x 3mm. keep it down up there! fucked around with this message at 16:48 on Mar 20, 2024 |
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Mar 20, 2024 16:44
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I would say the laser stuff has crossover with like the 3d printing thread and other things like that, but IMO if you're working with wood and this is the wood working thread then  your wood work!
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Mar 20, 2024 16:47
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Yeah fair. Since I sell stuff its always a tight line of sharing and not being a schill. For more details, I make a lot of board game accessories from veneered plywood. Some of the parts are small gears with numbers engraved on them. Examples of the type of items:  Currently I use a ROB sander, which isn't awful but if I can increase productivity with a thickness sander that would be nice. Lee Valley has a Laguna one I was eyeing. https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/tools/power-tools/sanders/115861-laguna-supermax-16-32-drum-sander-with-open-stand?item=03Z1632 But that's a huge investment if its going to ruin the parts or send them flying.
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Mar 20, 2024 17:11
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keep it down up there! posted:Yeah fair. Since I sell stuff its always a tight line of sharing and not being a schill. Are you sanding individual pieces or could you leave tabs on the parts and just sand the whole piece? If you need to do them individually, you would probably need to secure them down first, tho I am not super familiar with drum sanders where the platen moves-the ones I've used had feed rollers at the top like a planer so small stuff definitely wouldn't work. I suspect fixing them down individually with double sides tape or whatever would take longer than just a quick swip with an orbital sander. If you do the same parts all the time tho you might be able to make a board with cutouts for each individual piece that they fit in to run thru the sander.
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Mar 20, 2024 18:22
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What about an oscillating belt sander? You just turn it on and then rub each piece on it for a second, do the other side, then grab another piece. Might be a little tricky not to sand your fingertips on some smaller pieces maybe. 
Elysium fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Mar 20, 2024 |
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Mar 20, 2024 18:36
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yeah i drum sand whole sheets of laser feedstock (cause it's much much cheaper to make the nice stuff from scratch, mostly) but doing it to individual little parts coming out the other end is going to mostly just lose them. Masking tape to keep the tar off the pieces or hand sanding a finished assembly will do you better.
A Wizard of Goatse fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Mar 20, 2024 |
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Mar 20, 2024 18:39
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Appreciate the insight everyone. All the parts are small, and yeah taping them down would be more work than doing it by hand. I don't mask with tape for the same reason, weeding is just way slower than hitting them 1 by 1 on the ROB. Sounds like sticking with hand sanding is the best bet. For anyone curious, here are some finished items.       I mostly make addons for games like Gloomhaven, MTG, D&D, etc. Looking to expand greatly this year now that I have a good workflow and a new laser.
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Mar 20, 2024 18:57
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what kind of laser are you using?
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Mar 20, 2024 20:24
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keep it down up there! posted:Appreciate the insight everyone. Cool stuff, I wonder if one of these V-drum sanders or flatmaster sander would work, you run the piece over like a jointer, so it would be pretty quick to sand doing one pass with a push pad. I've only ever seen home built ones, but appears like you could also get commercial versions. https://stockroomsupply.com/collections/flatmasters-and-diy-drum-kits
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Mar 21, 2024 01:15
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A flap/brush sander would probably work. (you'll have to figure out some work holding)
deimos fucked around with this message at 01:38 on Mar 21, 2024 |
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Mar 21, 2024 01:35
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My Spirit Otter posted:what kind of laser are you using? 100W Aeon Mira 9. I was using a Glowforge Basic at the start. It died after about 250 hours or so. Their repair facility was being moved at the time so they sent me a new unit for $750 rather than dealing with a repair. I was paranoid after that and never ran it at full power, as I had read it lowers the tube life, and tracked every job time length in Excel. It died again after 197 hours. Now they want $1700 to ship it back, have it repaired, and then shipped back to me which could take a few weeks. I only paid $2400 originally. So that was the last straw. I 100% regret ever buying that thing. Luckily when things started to pick up I was already researching replacements just in case. In the end I went with an Aeon Mira 9. A huge upgrade for sure (that Im still paying off). A large reason for it was their Canadian location is very local to me and they can overnight parts/handle support in person. Ive been using it rather heavily since August with zero issues and very happy with it. Meow Meow Meow posted:Cool stuff, I wonder if one of these V-drum sanders or flatmaster sander would work, you run the piece over like a jointer, so it would be pretty quick to sand doing one pass with a push pad. I've only ever seen home built ones, but appears like you could also get commercial versions. deimos posted:A flap/brush sander would probably work. (you'll have to figure out some work holding) These do seem more ideal for what I need. Especially that kit. I bet I could make the opening much smaller and quickly pass items over it with a push block. Thanks! keep it down up there! fucked around with this message at 07:00 on Mar 21, 2024 |
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Mar 21, 2024 06:56
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keep it down up there! posted:These do seem more ideal for what I need. Especially that kit. I bet I could make the opening much smaller and quickly pass items over it with a push block. This is a very expensive one and way overkill, but this is a good introduction video to the style I have used: https://youtu.be/bNaH8h83bxs
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Mar 21, 2024 14:53
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Goons I very much underestimated the tenacity of that goddamn varnish when I started this project but I’m making ok progress.  Having a better feel for the wood I think I just haven’t to this point been scraping nearly enough to avoid clogging a bunch of sanding disks. I can’t work this out though, this is what I’m scraping off and I can’t tell if it’s varnish, wood, or both. It seems like it goes from curlies and ribbons to fine dust as more comes off and that’s how I’ve been judging it ready to sand. 
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Mar 28, 2024 01:16
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Hard to tell for sure based on just shavings but the base still looks finished to me. Be sure to scrape with the grain, if you get long clean shavings that are lighter than the previous layer/finish you should be headed in the right direction.
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Mar 28, 2024 05:33
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Old BLO or similar oil finish maybe?
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Mar 28, 2024 16:09
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ReelBigLizard posted:Old BLO or similar oil finish maybe? I don’t know how to tell but that crossed my mind, the stuff sure seems to be part of the outer surface of wood rather than sitting on it.
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Mar 28, 2024 21:25
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Never done this before. One down, 3 to go:
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Mar 29, 2024 21:27
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I know there's some hand tool nerds in this thread I'm restoring a Miller's Falls #14 (no5 equivalent) The lever cap has a tiny bit of a pivot in the middle of it, unlike all my Stanleys which are one solid piece throughout the body. I say pivot, but mostly it just means that the front 1" of it wiggles around by 2mm in any direction when it's not clamped into the plane body. I can't for the life of me figure out what benefit this has over the solid body design. It makes it weird to hold in the hand, harder to use as a screwdriver to undo the cap iron, was a real pain in the rear end to remove rust from, etc. Is this just MF trying to dodge lawsuits from Stanley or is there a practical reason for this design? 
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Mar 30, 2024 20:26
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Not having owned a MF plane, allegedly it was to make the connection between the chipbreaker and the iron more secure: https://smallworkshop.co.uk/2018/03/25/the-millers-falls-two-part-lever-cap/
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Mar 30, 2024 20:42
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HappyHippo posted:Never done this before. One down, 3 to go: Tidy stuff, good job.
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Mar 30, 2024 21:08
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Thanks, assembled another one today (I'm essentially limited by clamps at this point), two more left and it's on to face frames.
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Mar 30, 2024 21:56
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I just got a pocket hole jig myself, looks nice
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Mar 30, 2024 22:29
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Sockser posted:the front 1" of it wiggles around by 2mm Spoken like a true American 
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Mar 31, 2024 03:39
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Doing woodwork and also 3d printing every single day has really broken my brain I have an Adam Savage-style ruler tattoo and there is a reason it has both imperial and metric
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Mar 31, 2024 04:17
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is it useful
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Mar 31, 2024 04:30
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The unit that made a French acquaintance of mine cringe was when I was talking about adding mineral salts to water for homebrewing, and talked about grams per gallon. But it makes sense! Of course I'm gonna measure my salts in grams, they're tiny! But my water's measured in gallons because that's what makes sense!
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Mar 31, 2024 04:48
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more falafel please posted:The unit that made a French acquaintance of mine cringe was when I was talking about adding mineral salts to water for homebrewing, and talked about grams per gallon. But it makes sense! Of course I'm gonna measure my salts in grams, they're tiny! But my water's measured in gallons because that's what makes sense! Litres is a superior unit of measurement compared to gallons or pints.
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Mar 31, 2024 04:58
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Mederlock posted:Litres is a superior unit of measurement compared to gallons or pints. Counterpoint: a pint's a pound, the whole world 'round.
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Mar 31, 2024 05:03
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more falafel please posted:Counterpoint: a pint's a pound, the whole world 'round. it literally isn't  "The Imperial pint contains 20 British fluid oz equal to 28.413 ml each. The American pint, by contrast, contains 16 US fluid oz equal to 29.574 ml each. This makes the US fluid ounce 4% larger than the Imperial one. The Imperial pint is approximately 20% larger than the US pint."
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Mar 31, 2024 06:31
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Leperflesh posted:it literally isn't This is why I'm on a crusade to get people to stop calling american units "imperial". Inches are inches in both US units and imperial but volume is a shitshow.
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Mar 31, 2024 08:38
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One day I swear I’m gonna rewire the DRO on my planer so it displays in metric and switch the whole shop to metric but it hasn’t happened yet. One place I switch my brain to metric is with the domino since it’s all metric, and wow are mm easier to divide by two than 1 17/32”. European cabinet hardware also usually makes more sense if you flip the switch to metric but it plays reasonably well in imperial too.
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Mar 31, 2024 14:27
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Funny thing is that in some parts of Europe, plumbing (pipes at least) is referred to in nominal imperial sizes (but are metric standards). Also 32mm is awesome for cabinets.
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Mar 31, 2024 16:04
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PokeJoe posted:is it useful Yeah! It's by no means a precision tool but it's good enough to get rough measurements in the field without hunting down a tape measure or sizing up loose screws I find on the shop floor, or giving my broken American brain a quick mental reference for metric measurements vs inches   Woo
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Mar 31, 2024 18:01
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