Category: Projects

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How many bench cookies are enough?

3d printing them myself makes them around $0.90 per cookie. Do you use a bunch of them or just a few?  I have never used them.  Recently, I printed a bunch of painting triangles.  They are used to lift a piece from the work surface during a painting or finishing process.  Any drips on the edges will drip off and not stick the piece to the table.  Triangles are good for lighter pieces.  They don’t hold the piece in place.  There is not any friction.  Here is where the cookies show their strength. 

Shown below are a few cookies.  Soon there will be some rubber circles glued on the top and bottom of the cookie.  This will hold the piece still and also hold it up from the table.  A key is to not put the cookies on the edge of the piece. Let the piece hang over by pushing the cookie under an inch or more.

How many bench cookies are enough? 3d printing them myself makes them around $0.90 per cookie. Do you use a bunch of them or just a few?
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Arm day. #sanding

Sanding is not a glamorous part of any project.  No matter how much we try to avoid it, sanding makes a huge difference in the final look of the finish.  This desk will be finished with Rubio.  Thankfully Rubio only needs to be sanded to 120 grit which isn’t very fine.  Advanced planning and tight fit up between pieces mean there isn’t much sanding to do.  My failure was not cleaning the glue sqeeze out approprately.  I used a blue show towel, either dry or wet.  That makes the mess worse.  This means I sand.  A trick I learned recently (too late for this project) is to let the glue dry for about 15 minutes and then run a chisel under the glue.  It will peel the glue right off.  Next time. 

Arm day. #sanding
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#tbt – Couple years ago I welded a custom dog kennel to go in the custom cabinets.

At my old house I made a bunch of custom cabinets with frame and panel doors.  I left a space for a place to keep the dog while I was at work.  The original kennel had wood and metal which didn’t hold up well.  It was time to make a dog prison.  The metal supplier sold me some square tubing and 0.25” metal rod.  That’s right, this prison will have bars.  Welding the pieces was easy, but very time consuming.  I mainly TIG welded the metal.  It was rather difficult to get the final product in the basement, but once in place, it fit well.  Knowing how heavy the metal would be, a wheel was added to the door to make it easier to open.

#tnt Couple years ago I welded a custom dog kennel to go in the custom cabinets.
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