Misadventures in Laser Cutting

...l wood box. Laser cutters can also cut entirely through thin materials so that opens up more possibilities to do things that would be difficult to do by hand. I’m intrigued, for instance, with the possibilities for making three dimensional folding paper cards. You could also use the laser cutter for screen printing, making stencils, wood inlay or marquetry. Many thanks to the knowledgeable staff of the Octavia Lab!...

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Making the Shed Great Yet Again

...le I worked on our then 90 now 100 year old shed. Guess what I’m doing over 20 years later? Working on the same shed. Me in 1999. In 2020 I need glasses. The shed has gone through two previous improvement battles starting with shoving a foundation under it, electrification and strengthening the floor followed by a somewhat misguided attempt at insulation and ceiling covering. Over the past few years the shed went from being Kelly’s work space to a...

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Saturday Tweets: Bird Eyesight, Making and Marginalia

...ly obscure memes pic.twitter.com/qXkJg16iCV — max ✨ (@naxxramen) August 27, 2017 The meaning of "premium mediocre" https://t.co/PKuaU2pcVK — Root Simple (@rootsimple) August 30, 2017 Beautiful flag by Violet Juno in the last Opposable Thumbs podcast https://t.co/UzKG3lNqRt. And thanks for the shout out @robdeadtech! pic.twitter.com/vZVoNDgTtm — federico tobon (@wolfCatWorkshop) August 31, 2017 The August WolfCatWorkshop Newsletter is out now. Chec...

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Adventures in Extreme Making: The White Rose

For reasons I can’t fully articulate, I often think about an obscure film by the artist Bruce Conner called “The White Rose.” Conner’s film documents the moving of a huge and mysterious painting by the artist Jay DeFeo. The painting is so large that the moving company had to cut a hole in the wall of DeFeo’s second second floor apartment to get it out. Perhaps the appeal of this film is the problem solving or the obsessiveness of DeFeo. Or maybe...

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Waxed Cloth Food Wrap (Made in a solar oven for bonus self-righteousness points)

...d be perfect for this project. Now, with the sun higher, it rockets up past 200F pretty quickly even without the clips. So, at this time of year, working at midday, all I had to do was watch the time and temperature to make sure the oven didn’t get too hot. I put the tray in the oven, closed the lid (no clips, making the heating is less efficient on purpose) and waited about 10-15 minutes. The temp would quickly rise above 150F and the wax would d...

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