Perpetual DIY thoughts, musings, learnings, and small projects

I've been researching how to make wooden rings, because I recently got engaged and would like to go a different route than spending a couple grand I don't have on a diamond ring that is nigh unintelligible from the thousands of other rings on the market. I've always believed something handmade means more than something bought, especially when it's for someone who means the world to you. A quick google search brought me to bentwood rings, and oh my god are they pretty-- but now I'm here wondering what I want the inlays to be.

I plan to either go with an ebony, rosewood, or balsa base ring, and then inlay one groove with a contrasting wood color, and then inlay a secondary groove with a crystal of her zodiac sign; either that or pyrite. Or I could go the opposite direction, and inlay rainbow moonstone, which is one of the stones associated with my zodiac sign, and I'll wear one that corresponds with hers. I'm still in the conceptualization phase, but I've got a couple nifty ideas here, I think.

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30439351#p30439351:3b8cmxtx said:

JustBreathe[/url]":3b8cmxtx]I've been researching how to make wooden rings, because I recently got engaged and would like to go a different route than spending a couple grand I don't have on a diamond ring that is nigh unintelligible from the thousands of other rings on the market. I've always believed something handmade means more than something bought, especially when it's for someone who means the world to you. A quick google search brought me to bentwood rings, and oh my god are they pretty-- but now I'm here wondering what I want the inlays to be.

Click to expand...

I made our wedding rings too. I carved the waxes then sent them off to a caster, who just clipped them off the sprue and sent them back to me for finish polishing. We lived in an apartment at the time and I couldn't get her blessing to try centrifugal casting in the alley.

The one thing I'd worry about, which you may or may not, is what to do if we put on some weight later. With the gold rings, they can be sized up or down with minimal fuss (in fact I mis-judged my wife's ring size vs the gold shrinkage after casting and had to get it embiggened so much that the jeweler had to cut and fill the band). Bent wood, not so much. But they're definitely pretty!

pondo said:

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30439351#p30439351:2rqbe8k5 said:

JustBreathe[/url]":2rqbe8k5]I've been researching how to make wooden rings, because I recently got engaged and would like to go a different route than spending a couple grand I don't have on a diamond ring that is nigh unintelligible from the thousands of other rings on the market. I've always believed something handmade means more than something bought, especially when it's for someone who means the world to you. A quick google search brought me to bentwood rings, and oh my god are they pretty-- but now I'm here wondering what I want the inlays to be.

Click to expand...

I made our wedding rings too. I carved the waxes then sent them off to a caster, who just clipped them off the sprue and sent them back to me for finish polishing. We lived in an apartment at the time and I couldn't get her blessing to try centrifugal casting in the alley.

The one thing I'd worry about, which you may or may not, is what to do if we put on some weight later. With the gold rings, they can be sized up or down with minimal fuss (in fact I mis-judged my wife's ring size vs the gold shrinkage after casting and had to get it embiggened so much that the jeweler had to cut and fill the band). Bent wood, not so much. But they're definitely pretty!

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Well, even if it does happen, with veneers priced the way they are, making a new ring could turn into a once every five years kind of project for the missus and I. I mean, she's a tiny gal, I don't think her fingers will get any thicker than what they are currently; but if the rings need to be resized, I can easily just make a new one.

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30450935#p30450935:2mf7lt3f said:

JustBreathe[/url]":2mf7lt3f]I mean, she's a tiny gal, I don't think her fingers will get any thicker than what they are currently; but if the rings need to be resized, I can easily just make a new one.

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As long as she's not the sentimental type, that shouldn't be a problem.

My wife is upset that I can't wear the ring she gave me during our wedding ceremony. My hands must have been swollen when I tried it on, because after we were married, it was loose enough that I was worried it would slide off in the shower. And being tungsten carbide, it is not re-sizable. So I was forced to buy a smaller size and wear a different ring.

Some people don't care and any ring will do as a wedding ring, though. Maybe your wife-to-be will appreciate the continued effort as a sign of your ongoing love.

AmigaPhreak said:

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30450935#p30450935:2snvaljs said:

JustBreathe[/url]":2snvaljs]I mean, she's a tiny gal, I don't think her fingers will get any thicker than what they are currently; but if the rings need to be resized, I can easily just make a new one.

Click to expand...

As long as she's not the sentimental type, that shouldn't be a problem.

My wife is upset that I can't wear the ring she gave me during our wedding ceremony. My hands must have been swollen when I tried it on, because after we were married, it was loose enough that I was worried it would slide off in the shower. And being tungsten carbide, it is not re-sizable. So I was forced to buy a smaller size and wear a different ring.

Some people don't care and any ring will do as a wedding ring, though. Maybe your wife-to-be will appreciate the continued effort as a sign of your ongoing love.

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Both her and her mother requested that I not bankrupt myself over a ring, and we've had an ongoing tradition for the past three years that with exception of our engagement rings, everything we've ever gotten each other was handmade. I think she'd be cool with it.

Plastic. Because nothing saying, "I love you" like poly-hydrocarbons.

CUclimber, I'm loving your move into the world of CAD and a nice shop! Keep it up! And don't you just love working on a lathe (even when things go a little wrong?)

In keeping with your OP, my harshest lesson of late was losing my entire cache of exotic hardwood plywoods to termite infestation. My sheetgoods had been stacked like vertical cards in the shop for a bit over two years while I was around the country, and when I returned, I was dismayed to see that the outer-most sheet of shopmaple looked as though it been shot with a 12GA and birdshot. There was termite poop all around the floor and my heart sunk when I noticed that the stack of wood sounded like a giant rainstick when I started moving the sheets. Card in the deck had the same pattern of the outer 'scattergun perforation'--it looked as though a large hive had decided that boring horizonally through the plywoods was a nice way to find more food. I ripped quite a few sheets on the big saw to see how bad things looked inside, and it was like discovering a cache of face-hugger eggs. They were tunneling fucking everywhere! Disgusted, I chainsawed the entire stack of lumber into chunks, filled my truck, and tossed all of it into the transfer station. K, so termites suck.

Nice trick: While building a small addition in the mountains of Humboldt, CA, where no electricity or other powered concrete mixer was available, 120lbs can be mixed really quickly with three strong guys working as a mule team. One guy stabilizes the wheel barrow while one guy adds water, and one guy is furiously scraping the crete around with the blade of a Mattock (*not a shovel*). When the scraping guy keels over after 20 seconds, switch out and in about 90 seconds you can pour your concrete. It's actually faster than a portable mixer, but holy Jebsu we were tired after doing that for a couple of hours. Incidentally, the incrementally-poured slab cured over absolutely perfectly and a blister-measuring contest ensued.

I'm in the middle of a lot of projects and always learn something while designing, building, and installing (where applicable) so I'm going to have to come back to this forum once I get my present project finished; bringing internet service down to the home that I built (that project is full of its own fails/wins as well), because I always document what I'm doing. Some of the things will make good threads and fit in here. Others are more pedestrian such as my edible landscaping efforts, though I'm going to have fun with IP cams around the property there, and the time-lapse captures might make for fun discussion here.

Oh, yesterday! 3/8" wire rope is hellishly heavy and stiff. I should NOT have cut the rope that the renter had tied around the spool. What happened to the wire spool I'll never know. The things you find in your bushes out here
Bonus: 4WD low and chains with shackles can drag said pile of wire rope! WTF: what do I do with the wire rope now? Must be at least a thousand feet!

Upcoming (major projects):

Aquaponic system for raising tilapia
Major house addition (much of 2016)
Surveillance system
Papaya orchard
single-family vegetable farm/garden (already started)
Chicken coop!
Dog Turret (think watch tower for your watch dog with internal spiral dog ramp)

OK, I'm going now.

Ostracus said:

Plastic. Because nothing saying, "I love you" like poly-hydrocarbons.

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That sounds like a hellishly quick way to have the engagement terminated xD

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30570595#p30570595:3r5e1rj8 said:

CUclimber[/url]":3r5e1rj8]

CUclimber, I'm loving your move into the world of CAD and a nice shop! Keep it up! And don't you just love working on a lathe (even when things go a little wrong?)

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Yeah, I'm loving it. And even the frustrating or unproductive days in the shop are great.

In other news, I'm seriously considering one of these puppies:

It's the Omio X6-2200. As far as I can tell it is the most powerful and capable desktop CNC machine out there, with a 2200w spindle. The next step up would be the new Tormach PCNC-440, but that costs 3-5x as much ($5k-$10k) and takes up way more space. This one is around $2k, with maybe another $750 in cutting tools, vices, and other accessories. It looks like it can do all of the aluminum cutting that I have in mind for some projects, albeit at some pretty conservative feeds/speeds. I wouldn't consider anything less powerful than this either-- there are videos of wood router-based machines carving aluminum, but they seem to really be pushing the limits of what the spindle is capable of and I'd guess that the tolerances are pretty poor.

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Just think of all the cool new case designs the Case and Cooling Fetish forum will have.

Awesome project, CUClimber. I'm also jealous of your shop space.

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30439263#p30439263:1uazavrd said:

CUclimber[/url]":1uazavrd]Used plenty of clamps to glue it up.

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How do you like those JET clamps?

I've been growing my collection of Bessey clamps every time I can find a sale, but I really like the bench dog option with the JET clamps. I may pick up a pair if I can ever find them on sale for less than $TEXAS.

Could someone share some learning on a discrete, noobish issue? I'm attaching a large aluminum heat sink to a square tube frame system. The heat sinks will essentially form the walls of the frame, and the square tubes will be the internal structure. Thus, I won't need to screw and unscrew them repeatedly like some of the other components that will go inside.

Do I need to tap holes for it? Can't I just drill a pilot hole and screw in?

NYCEsquire said:

Could someone share some learning on a discrete, noobish issue? I'm attaching a large aluminum heat sink to a square tube frame system. The heat sinks will essentially form the walls of the frame, and the square tubes will be the internal structure. Thus, I won't need to screw and unscrew them repeatedly like some of the other components that will go inside.

Do I need to tap holes for it? Can't I just drill a pilot hole and screw in?

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What material is the square tube stock? Are you fixing the heatsink (presumably aluminum) to the frame or the other way around?

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30603923#p30603923:1pkvq49e said:

Carhole[/url]":1pkvq49e]

NYCEsquire said:

Could someone share some learning on a discrete, noobish issue? I'm attaching a large aluminum heat sink to a square tube frame system. The heat sinks will essentially form the walls of the frame, and the square tubes will be the internal structure. Thus, I won't need to screw and unscrew them repeatedly like some of the other components that will go inside.

Do I need to tap holes for it? Can't I just drill a pilot hole and screw in?

Click to expand...

What material is the square tube stock? Are you fixing the heatsink (presumably aluminum) to the frame or the other way around?

Click to expand...

The square tube stock is also aluminum. it would go screw head ->washer->square tube->heatsink.

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30603571#p30603571:2vhalu5z said:

NYCEsquire[/url]":2vhalu5z]Could someone share some learning on a discrete, noobish issue? I'm attaching a large aluminum heat sink to a square tube frame system. The heat sinks will essentially form the walls of the frame, and the square tubes will be the internal structure. Thus, I won't need to screw and unscrew them repeatedly like some of the other components that will go inside.

Do I need to tap holes for it? Can't I just drill a pilot hole and screw in?

Click to expand...

How thick is the material, and how big are the screws? Most machine screws aren't designed to cut their own threads the way wood screws do, so you either need the right sort of screws (either sheet metal screws or dedicated thread-cutting screws), or you need to use a tap. Another option, if space allows, is to drill clearance holes all the way through and use a nut at the back end.

Unless you are sure everything is flat, you probably won't get very good heat transfer. This would be where a thermally conductive epoxy or something would help you out.

Or, if the material is thin enough, your fasteners may pull the material flat (probably the heatsink pulling the tubing flat).

Walter Sorrells - Knife Making. My biggest regret in buying the house we did is that the proximity of the neighbors prevents me from doing any metal-working. Next house though...

My brain is broken when it comes to sharpening a knife. Unless I am using the cheapo ceramic thing you buy from Walmart or whatever, it feels like a butter knife when I am done.

I'm looking for feedback on a silly idea I had. After moving and having to leave my crappy turntable with crappy records behind, I'm trying to recreate the physical aspect of "put a record on". Hipster, I know, but there's something about not using a screen to get some music on, and also I enjoy having a curated list of records to listen to.

Anyway, this is mostly an excuse to have some fun, right?

The idea is using NFC tags that correspond to a Spotify album/playlist. Print the album cover on a nice piece of card, stick the tag to it, connect an NFC reader to the Mac Mini HTPC. Camouflage the NFC reader using some pretty enclosure. Then pick up the "record" you want to hear, place it on the NFC reader, Spotify starts playing the one album. When the album finishes, take it off, put on something else and so on. Add in some physical movement, e.g. rotate the physical thing while playing, even better.

Thoughts?

I think that is a good idea. I hate having to use screens to do stuff too.

Put it on Kickstarter when you are done and I'd buy one.

Gut an old record player. Install a USB NFC reader (may need more than one for both sides (location, location, location) Use the original sleeve records come in. A SBC of your choice with enough USB ports, and appropriate distro.

Heh, if I had room for a normal record player in this apartment I'd just get one and be done with it (Rant: I got a nice big AV receiver but it gets so hot I shouldn't put anything on top of it, and can't hide it under a cupboard or something).

I was looking at finding one of those old portable 45rpm players and ripping the innards, keeping only the spinning platter as a gimmick. However the european eBays don't seem to have much to offer on that front.

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30655049#p30655049:3ma9uasg said:

AmigaPhreak[/url]":3ma9uasg]My brain is broken when it comes to sharpening a knife. Unless I am using the cheapo ceramic thing you buy from Walmart or whatever, it feels like a butter knife when I am done.

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What are you using to sharpen? My favorite feeling in the world is shaving a little hair off my arm with a freshly sharpened kitchen knife.

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30737643#p30737643:i3mwms4v said:

danrik[/url]":i3mwms4v]

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30655049#p30655049:i3mwms4v said:

AmigaPhreak[/url]":i3mwms4v]My brain is broken when it comes to sharpening a knife. Unless I am using the cheapo ceramic thing you buy from Walmart or whatever, it feels like a butter knife when I am done.

Click to expand...

What are you using to sharpen? My favorite feeling in the world is shaving a little hair off my arm with a freshly sharpened kitchen knife.

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One of the Norton combination waterstones. I thought mine was 400/800, but I don't see that any such combination exists in a Google search.

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30737801#p30737801:2hjniub9 said:

AmigaPhreak[/url]":2hjniub9]

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30737643#p30737643:2hjniub9 said:

danrik[/url]":2hjniub9]

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30655049#p30655049:2hjniub9 said:

AmigaPhreak[/url]":2hjniub9]My brain is broken when it comes to sharpening a knife. Unless I am using the cheapo ceramic thing you buy from Walmart or whatever, it feels like a butter knife when I am done.

Click to expand...

What are you using to sharpen? My favorite feeling in the world is shaving a little hair off my arm with a freshly sharpened kitchen knife.

Click to expand...

One of the Norton combination waterstones. I thought mine was 400/800, but I don't see that any such combination exists in a Google search.

Click to expand...

Eew gross. Combination stones are always a bad idea. How are you lapping the stone?

The Raspberry Pi 3 is official: https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspbe ... 3-on-sale/

Highlights: faster, 64-bit processor (but Raspbian's staying 32-bit for now; don't hold your breath for native 64-bit there considering how slowly they move) and built-in wifi and bluetooth. Form factor and GPIO stay the same, so should be compatible out of the box with essentially all of what's out there for the Pi 2.

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30737845#p30737845:ax67rkgv said:

danrik[/url]":ax67rkgv]How are you lapping the stone?

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I'm not. But it's basically new/unused.

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30741523#p30741523:h3jdpb95 said:

AmigaPhreak[/url]":h3jdpb95]

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30737845#p30737845:h3jdpb95 said:

danrik[/url]":h3jdpb95]How are you lapping the stone?

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I'm not. But it's basically new/unused.

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And you're trusting that it arrived flat?

I personally don't like stones at all.

Are you freehanding it or using a jig?

Anyway, some more constructive advice now that I have a keyboard:

Source: The following is information that I've gleaned from extensive conversations with two acquaintances who are full time fine cabinetmakers. I can source some of this to blog posts by well regarded woodworkers online, but I'd rather not spend time looking up the articles.

In list form, because heck yeah lists!

• Waterstons are really difficult for novice sharpeners to use well. They start going out of flat the moment you put a blade to it, and if you use a jig that contacts the stone, that hastens it even faster.
• Dual grit waterstones are especially bad about this; the grits will wear at different rates, and you also stand a pretty good chance of cross contamination.
• If you are looking to get a set of sharpening gear, and are confident that you'll make good use of the gear, high quality steel plates with diamond abrasive are a much better investment. They never go out of flat, last ages, and tend to simply abrade to a finer grit rather than "wear out." They are easier to use consistently. They require almost zero maintenance.
• If you need to get some sharpening gear, but don't want to invest a lot up front or aren't sure if you're in it for the long haul, then scary sharp (gluing sandpaper to a known flat metal, glass, or granite surface) will give a novice more consistent results, but will be more expensive in the long haul.

If you're looking only to sharpen various knives, and don't need to sharpen chisels or plane irons, you'll probably get the most consistent results from this kit, which includes three diamond hones and an angle registration jig. The jig is also available separately and works with regular bench stones (though you'll need to measure the angle of the blade with a digital angle meter).

So, given all that, and knowing sharpening is a fine skill requiring practice and proper tools, how does a busy IT guy keep his kitchen knives sharp enough?

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30743369#p30743369:1a5izp0o said:

jungwolf[/url]":1a5izp0o]So, given all that, and knowing sharpening is a fine skill requiring practice and proper tools, how does a busy IT guy keep his kitchen knives sharp enough?

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I believe in being upfront about my qualifications, so you can take my advice with a grain of salt.

I've been sharpening knives for years, but mostly using ceramic rods in a crappy jig I made when I was a teenager. I only fairly recently got into the super serious sharpening scene because I decided to get back into woodworking after a 15-20 year hiatus (spent a lot of my formative years dicking around with my grandfather in the shop).

I'm a professional research scientist, so I instinctively do extensive literature surveys when I decide to tackle a new problem. I have fairly high confidence that my opinions are valid, and I'm more than happy to admit when I don't know what I'm talking about.

So.

To address your question, the last nugget in my last post would be apropos:

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30742779#p30742779:1a5izp0o said:

danrik[/url]":1a5izp0o]
If you're looking only to sharpen various knives, and don't need to sharpen chisels or plane irons, you'll probably get the most consistent results from this kit, which includes three diamond hones and an angle registration jig. The jig is also available separately and works with regular bench stones (though you'll need to measure the angle of the blade with a digital angle meter).

Click to expand...

It's a good set. DMT is probably the best regarded manufacturer of diamond lapping and honing plates. It's not super accurate, but it is precise. That is, it may be a couple degrees off from their table, but it's consistent across the length of the blade.

Honestly, though, unless you've got a ton of knives (if you do, you should re-evaluate. Few people should need more than 3 or 4 total), or want to help friends and family, I'd just take them out to be professionally sharpened every 6 months or so, and be diligent about using a honing steel every once in awhile. Most uses of knives in the kitchen, as long as you aren't being an idiot and using glass/metal cutting boards or putting your knives in the dishwasher, aren't that hard on the edge so they only need frequent honing, not sharpening.

I just want a pocket knife that will cut through an orange peel without having to saw at it. It would be a nice skill to learn how to do manually, instead of having to grind away the blade unnecessarily. But anything more than a 5 minute process with a bare minimum of tools is beyond my level of interest.

I may try sandpaper and a piece of tile. I set my angle by eye, using a piece of paper folded diagonally three times (to get a 12 deg angle) as a rough gauge.

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30745835#p30745835:28ufmep8 said:

AmigaPhreak[/url]":28ufmep8]I just want a pocket knife that will cut through an orange peel without having to saw at it. It would be a nice skill to learn how to do manually, instead of having to grind away the blade unnecessarily. But anything more than a 5 minute process with a bare minimum of tools is beyond my level of interest.

I may try sandpaper and a piece of tile. I set my angle by eye, using a piece of paper folded diagonally three times (to get a 12 deg angle) as a rough gauge.

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Thirty seven bucks. Might be able to find it cheaper elsewhere. You can add additional grits later as needed.

You get a slightly better value going in on one of the kits that has more plates (up to $100 invested), but I'm not sure you get much more easy, quick, and repeatable than that.

so the raspberrypi3 is out and of course they had to go screw something up, which screws me over lol.

on PI/PI2, the GPIO is wired to the hardware UART. on PI3 they wired it to a software mini uart and moved the hardware uart for the bluetooth.

I'm triyng to use this on my pinball machine with rs485 doing 10mbps, i need the hardware uart on the gpio where it was. hopefully the GPIO can be rewired on software configuration to fix this.

ugh.

suddenly i had nightmares of reworking my pinball design all over again

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30746215#p30746215:3b2ngrg3 said:

BloodyCactus[/url]":3b2ngrg3]so the raspberrypi3 is out and of course they had to go screw something up, which screws me over lol.

on PI/PI2, the GPIO is wired to the hardware UART. on PI3 they wired it to a software mini uart and moved the hardware uart for the bluetooth.

I'm triyng to use this on my pinball machine with rs485 doing 10mbps, i need the hardware uart on the gpio where it was. hopefully the GPIO can be rewired on software configuration to fix this.

ugh.

suddenly i had nightmares of reworking my pinball design all over again

Click to expand...

How does this "screw you over" and force you to rework your pinball design "all over again" when you can continue to use the Raspberry Pi 2? They didn't announce that all older Raspberry Pis are now going to self destruct...

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30746385#p30746385:29rygo40 said:

Jonathon[/url]":29rygo40]
How does this "screw you over" and force you to rework your pinball design "all over again" when you can continue to use the Raspberry Pi 2? They didn't announce that all older Raspberry Pis are now going to self destruct...

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the increase in GPU speed would be a huge benefit. the increase in cpu speed would be a benefit. I'd love to upgrade to pi3.

It makes sense to keep making the lower$ A board. It makes sense to make the new PI3 B board... it makes no sense to keep making the pi2 B board, that uses pi3 capacity/parts/etc etc

In 6 months or a year when someone wants to buy my pinball boardstack, I'll have to say, go on ebay and find a pi2 because despite the GPIO pinout on the PI3 is identical to the PI2, you cant use it because they decided to swap a full hardware 16550 uart out with a cutdown mini uart that half works in software and is not compatible.

the better decision would have been to leave the hardware uart on the gpio, and wire the new BT module to the spare unused mini uart (spare and unused!). that requires no change to existing design and keeps 100% backward comparability. nobody (me! lol) gets butthurt.

[url=http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30739761#p30739761:29rygo40 said:

Jonathon[/url]":29rygo40]GPIO stay the same, so should be compatible out of the box with essentially all of what's out there for the Pi 2.

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that would be incorrect!

*zing!*

despite my rage :devious: it *should* hopefully be fixable by reconfiguring the GPIO devicetree file.. not 100% sure, but hopeful that is the case. it just takes me down a whole nother rabbit hole i was hoping to avoid.

anyway I'm making mountains out of molehills with this.