Tag Archives: Wood

Wooden Word Wristwatch Wows Woomies

Posted on by

[HakuG] wanted to make a watch for his roommates, and had a design project due. He killed two birds with one stone, and then some. The result is a classic word clock, but with a refined all-wood look that’s also small enough to wear on your wrist.

Nothing good ever comes out right the first time, and the log of [HakuG]’s different versions is full of different attempts, all of them just fine in their own right, but none of them “perfect”. Kudos to [HakuG] for sticking with it and refining the project far past the initial prototype stage to …read more

Continue reading Wooden Word Wristwatch Wows Woomies→

Wooden Word Wristwatch Wows Woomies

Posted on by

[HakuG] wanted to make a watch for his roommates, and had a design project due. He killed two birds with one stone, and then some. The result is a classic word clock, but with a refined all-wood look that’s also small enough to wear on your wrist.

Nothing good ever comes out right the first time, and the log of [HakuG]’s different versions is full of different attempts, all of them just fine in their own right, but none of them “perfect”. Kudos to [HakuG] for sticking with it and refining the project far past the initial prototype stage to …read more

Continue reading Wooden Word Wristwatch Wows Woomies→

Scissor Lift Table From the Wood Shop, for the Wood Shop

Posted on by

The value of a mobile adjustable height cart in the shop can’t be overestimated. From moving tools around to installing heavy fixtures on walls and ceiling, a scissor-lift platform is a great tool. Commercial versions get a bit expensive, though, so a shop-built scissor lift table made of wood might be a nice project for the budget-minded to tackle.

Wood might not be your first choice for a fixture such as this, but it’s what [Marius Hornberger] is set up to use, and with proper species selection and careful engineering, it can make for an amazingly sturdy table. [Marius] chose …read more

Continue reading Scissor Lift Table From the Wood Shop, for the Wood Shop→

This Method of Gluing onto Curves Sucks!

Posted on by

Sometimes the right tool for a job can be unusual, and this sucked only in the sense that vacuum sealing was involved. Recently [Martin Raynsford] found himself in a situation of needing to glue a wood veneer onto a curved surface, but faced a shortage of clamps. His clever solution was to vacuum-seal the whole thing and let the contour-hugging plastic bag take care of putting even pressure across the entire glued surface. After the glue had set enough to grip the materials securely, the bag was removed to let the whole thing dry completely. Gluing onto a curved surface …read more

Continue reading This Method of Gluing onto Curves Sucks!→

Simple Shop-made Taps for Threading Wood

Posted on by

Wood can be the material of choice for many kinds of projects, but it often falls out of the running in favor of metal or plastic if it needs to take a threaded fastener. But with a little ingenuity you can make your own wood taps and cut threads that will perform great.

Making wood do things that wood isn’t supposed to do is [Matthias Wandel]’s thing. Hackers the world over know and use his wood gears designer to lay out gears for all kinds of projects from musical marble machines to a wooden Antikythera mechanism. Woodworkers have been threading …read more

Continue reading Simple Shop-made Taps for Threading Wood→

Nominal Lumber Sizes Land Home Depot And Menards In Hot Water

Posted on by

Hard times indeed must have fallen upon the lawyers of the American mid-west, for news reaches us of a possible class-action lawsuit filed in Chicago that stretches the bounds of what people in more gainful employment might consider actionable. It seems our legal eagles have a concern over the insufficient dimensions of their wood, and this in turn has caused them to apply for a class action against Home Depot and Menards with respect to their use of so-called nominal sizing in the sale of lumber.

If you have ever bought commercial lumber you will no doubt understand where this …read more

Continue reading Nominal Lumber Sizes Land Home Depot And Menards In Hot Water→

Summer Is Approaching. Are You Prepared To Relax?

Posted on by

[Blake Schreurs] found himself in dire straights — there was a critical lack of available hammocks in his immediate vicinity, and he wanted one. Fast. So he built a hammock stand in half an afternoon.

Initially dismayed by the cost of store-bought models, [Schreurs]’ hammock stand is perfect for woodworking-newbies and yard-loungers on a budget alike, as the build requires only a few straight cuts and some basic tools to whip up.

After cutting and laying out the lumber to make sure that it will all fit together as intended, [Schreurs] aligned and drilled holes through the pieces — don’t …read more

Continue reading Summer Is Approaching. Are You Prepared To Relax?→

Digital Clock Goes with the Grain

Posted on by

This good-looking clock appears to be made out of a block of wood with LED digits floating underneath. In reality, it is a block of PLA plastic covered with wood veneer (well, [androkavo] calls it veneer, but we think it might just be a contact paper or vinyl with a wood pattern). It makes for a striking effect, and we can think of other projects that might make use of the technique, especially since the wood surface looks much more finished than the usual 3D-printed part.

You can see a video of the clock in operation below. The clock circuit …read more

Continue reading Digital Clock Goes with the Grain→

Tiny Robot Clings To Leaves With Static Electricity

Posted on by

Flying is an energy-intensive activity. The birds and the bees don’t hover around incessantly like your little sister’s quadcopter. They flit to and fro, perching on branches and leaves while they plan their next move. Sure, a quadcopter can land on the ground, but then it has to spend more energy getting back to altitude. Researchers at Harvard decided to try to develop flying robots that can perch on various surfaces like insects can.

Perching on surfaces happens electrostatically. The team used an electrode patch with a foam mounting to the robot. This allows the patch to make contact with …read more

Continue reading Tiny Robot Clings To Leaves With Static Electricity→

How To Sharpen Your Woodworking Tools On A Budget

Posted on by

Wood may seem like a soft, weak material if you’re used to working with steel, but to do good work, you’ll quickly learn you need your tools sharp. Buying and maintaining a good set of tools can be expensive for the home gamer, so [shopbuilt] put together an Instructable on how to sharpen your woodworking tools on a budget.

The trick is to use sandpaper. It’s a good quality abrasive material and is readily available. You’ll want a selection of different grits – low grits to get started, higher grits when finishing. The reason this is cheaper is that you …read more

Continue reading How To Sharpen Your Woodworking Tools On A Budget→