“College works for many, many students — just ask your physician! But the truth is that students are not one size-fits-all. College is not the predetermined path from cradle to career that we think it is. We coddle and coerce, we tutor and talk, we insist on the square peg fitting snugly in the round hole.”
February 4, 2012
Shop Class
October 17, 2011
The Good Old Baylor Prop Build
A few weeks ago I got a call from Baylor University. They heard that I build props for the Sing and Pigskin and wanted to know if I could build them a new Baylor Logo prop to replace their aging 30-year-old big Baylor seal. They had the design all worked up from the marketing department and wanted to know if it was something that I would be interested in. Hey hey! Yes, I would! Is it something you can get to us in three and a half weeks? uh… (gulp)… yes. So I set out to build the new Baylor corporate logo prop over a whirlwind fifty hours. I had a lot of fun, it was a lot of work using some new techniques, and I’m tremendously proud of the results. Read on if your’e interested.
Step one was to get the official Baylor logo in digital format. The “BAYLOR” logo (aka “wordmark”) and symbol (“logo”) are both custom-designed by Baylor’s marketing department so I couldn’t just print out any old font. It had to be the exact “BAYLOR” that nobody else owns. The spacing between the letters is also critical as it’s part of the overall registered trademark. Once I had this file I took it to Kinkos and paid $65 for them to print it out on their large format printer. It’s pretty cool that you can get just about anything printed out in any size. Good to know for future projects.
Here’s a pic of the symbol and wordmark before I cut them up. I had to measure the spaces between the letters to reproduce them exactly once the thing was built. The overall length of the whole thing is about 23 feet!
The next step was to carefully cut out the letters and logo with an X-acto blade. I cut them just slightly proud of the design since I would then be fixing them to pieces of MDF with spray adhesive and then carefully sanding the MDF to the exact outlines of the pattern. These MDF pieces became my templates for making all of the letters and parts of the Symbol:
Yeah, my 42 year old eyes can’t focus that closely any more with my glasses on. I suppose there are bifocals in my future.
Detail work!
Here’s the symbol once I attached it to my MDF template and carefully cut to the line. For the symbol I ended up having to remove the archway and side supports so I could sand the edges of the building. Later when I attached the building layer to the background I had to sand and fill the cut with body filler. It’s an invisible join, even up close.
A little bit of mineral spirits and the paper template comes right off.
Next I cut out the paper silhouette, stuck it to some 3/4″ plywood, and used my scroll saw to remove the outline. I did the same thing with the numbers (you can see the holes I created there). I’ll eventually make a stack of the background layer, building layer, silhouette layer, and numbers. A nice 3D look.
I made the template for the letters in exactly the same way. Cut out the paper template 1/32″ oversize, attached it to a slab of MDF, cut and sanded the MDF to final shape, then removed the paper with mineral spirits. I did this will all six letters until I had a perfect example of each. Why? (I mean Y?)
Pirates!
What the “L”?
Oh!
And there was much rejoicing “LAAA!”
In the picture above you can see the almost completed “L”. I didn’t get a picture of this next part of the process, but what I did was take the perfect MDF letter templates and use them as a pattern to make the 12 layers that comprised each letter. With 12 layers of 3/4″ thick plywood I was able to construct a 9″ thick letter. Basically I would lay the MDF letter onto a piece of plywood and trace it out, trying to fit as many of each 30″ tall letter as possible onto a 4×8 sheet. I ended up using almost 30 sheets of plywood for the whole job (that’s a grand in plywood, btw). The I would rough cut out each plywood letter, screw the template onto the rough letter, and then use a pattern maker’s bit to follow the template and thus cut an exact copy of each letter. Any imperfections in the pattern got translated to subsequent layers so I had to be really particular with the master pattern letters. Some errors still crept in but I corrected those later. Here’s a pattern bit so you can get an idea how it works (I didn’t get pics):
All told I had to cut out 72 different letters. It looked like an explosion on Sesame Street (minus the muppet body parts).
I then glued the layers together to make each chunky, 9″ thick letter. Then I had to sand each letter to get rid of any imperfections. If there was even a slight error in my template this error would be transmitted through the stack and you’d see a groove or dip all the way along one edge. My next step was to coat the outside of each letter with a layer of super sandable Bondo. It’s called Rage Gold and is used by the aftermarket auto body guys to make cool shapes in their cars, construct custom dashboards and radio inserts, etc. I used about 1.5 gallons of the stuff. I’d scoop some out, mix it with the hardener, then quickly (it begins hardening within about 90 seconds) spread it on the plywood edges of the letters. I spread it on thick to cover imperfections and to try and fill in the rough edges of the plywood. Once it dried I went back over it and sanded away probably 95%, leaving a glassy smooth surface. My entire shop was covered with blue-green-pink dust from the stuff. It’s nasty (but I wore my breathing ventilator).
The next step was to give each letter a coat of primer in prep for the base coat of paint. I didn’t want to use a brush or roller since the fast dry times caused by the 112 degree summer heat would mean horrible brush marks, so I purchased a paint sprayer from Lowes. Brilliant decision as it made the final finish so much better. Unfortunately, I only had room on my paint table for one letter at a time- and I gave each letter three coats of primer! I ended up sitting in my garage all day long with my laptop literally watching paint dry. Every 30 minutes I’d get up and give a letter another coat of primer until all the letters were done. A sweaty, hot, boring day.
Paint station (my neighbors love me)
Spraying the R
What I actually did most of the day
Finished letters
Unfinished letters:
Incidentally, the symbol that’s hiding behind the O in the above picture started out as a solid 9″ hunk of plywood, but it weighed well over 100lbs! So I had to cut each layer into a hollow donut then cap the front and back with solid pieces to make it manageable. It still weighs about 40lbs. The neighbor’s kids came over and we signed the inside before closing it up (hi neighbors!).
Next I gave each letter a coat of Official Baylor Green (helpfully supplied by Home Depot and Glidden- they have the contract for official college colors, thank goodness). I had to build a makeshift paint spray booth in my shop out of leftover plywood (cut into strips) and plastic from HD. You can see in the pic that I had some overspray onto my shop floor. Whoops. Time to ask the neighbor if I can borrow his pressure washer. It took me four days to paint the letters starting around 7am every day (one coat every four hours) and ending right around sunset. Three coats per letter:
Finished letters. Time was very short (remember that three week deadline?) so I didn’t paint the backs of the letters. No big deal as they won’t be seen from the back anyway. The flash catches the plywood layers here but in person it’s much more subtle.
Next I taped off the symbol and gave it a spray of green (the building will be painted yellow later). The nooks and crannies of the building (Pat Neff if you’re a BU grad) were particularly difficult to tape around:
After the green dried (and one day from deadline) I hand painted the details of the yellow building where it met the green background using a magnifying glass and a lot of patience. I wish I’d waited until it was painted to attach the yellow building to the background but for various reasons this was the best way to do it. Still, it was a pain in the backside, taking several hours to do a single coat, then going back over and correcting mistakes with green paint after the yellow dried. I gave the yellow layer three coats as well.
The yellow layer is done!
My eyes hurt.
Finally (and literally the morning I drove it up to Waco) I applied the silhouette and numbers, then filled in the micro nail holes with putty and a touch of paint.
Finished!
Here it is in front of the house, all set up:
Yes, I got weird looks from drivers, but that’s half the fun!
An hour later I had loaded it up in my (well padded) Tacoma bed and trucked it up to Waco for delivery. Here it is in the Ferrell Center waiting for its public unveiling… which I never saw because I was told the wrong time! Oh well.
But someone was kind enough to send a few pics of it on the stage. Hopefully I’ll see it all set up in person someday.
So that’s the story of how it took me 50 hours to construct Baylor University’s official new corporate logo prop. I’m extremely proud of it and feel honored to have gotten the job. Hope you enjoyed this little how-to in case you want your very own giant collegiate logo. Just don’t do THECOLLEGEOFWILLIAMANDMARY. It’d take forever.
October 12, 2011
Cat House
A real-life Harry Potter cat house. I’d have loved to have gotten that commission.
September 26, 2011
Just Finish It Already
The finishing step in any woodworking project always makes me extremely nervous. No matter how much work I do in selecting the right wood, observing wood grain patterns and movement, joinery, design, or sanding, a bad finish can pretty much ruin everything. That’s why so many woodworkers opt for the beauty of a hand-rubbed oil finish. You literally can’t mess an oil finish up. You open a can of boiled linseed or other type of oil, pour it over the surface, and then rub it in until the wood won’t take any more. Then you wipe off the excess and repeat. Easy and beautiful.
I suppose I can finally spill the beans here since I haven’t been asked to keep it a secret. I’m not under NDA and the thing gets revealed this weekend: four weeks ago Baylor University asked me to build their new corporate logo prop. This is an extremely prestigious thing to be asked to build since it’s the prop that is replacing the 30 year old prop in public assemblies. It’ll be put onstage behind dignitaries, presidents, and other guests. It’s a 19′ long version of this:
Each letter stands about 30″ tall and all parts are 9″ thick. The second pic above shows the BAYLOR letters in a box, but in reality they’re independently built 3d letters. It’s fun to spell out crazy stuff by scrambling the giant letters. My neighbors just drive by and look confused. “Who is RAY LOB?” I just wish they spelled out JOHN GALT.
Anyway, I constructed the letters by painstakingly cutting 12 identical copies of each letter out of 3/4″ plywood and then gluing them together into a giant plywood sandwich. In total, I cut 72 letters and 12 layers on the symbol. I went through about 25 sheets of 3/4″ ply and 4 sheets of MDF (the top letter was also my MDF template for each following letter in the sandwich). I had to then hollow out the symbol so it didn’t weigh a ton. It’s a 9″ block of plywood after all and if I hadn’t hollowed it out it would have probably weighed 200+ pounds! As it is it’s about 40-50- bulky but moveable.
I needed to paint the letters the official Baylor Green and the symbol Baylor Green and Gold (the pic above has the letters in white but they’re going to be green to match the official logo). Luckily, Home Depot has a partnership with Glidden and Glidden paints have licensing deals with all of the pro and college sports teams across the U.S. (except for, oddly, U.T. which has a copyright on their specific burnt orange color). I visited HD yesterday and picked up a gallon of official Baylor Green and a quart of Baylor Yellow. But how to put them on? I wanted a better finish than a roller or a brush would provide. I’m really happy with the build but wanted the finish to be as perfect as possible.
So after a lot of research I decided to buy a professional paint sprayer. Those of you who read this and know my propensity for equipping my shop will now be rolling your eyes and saying “of course he bought a professional paint sprayer”. 
Well, the pay for the prop was easily enough to cover a few tools (and then some), so I just considered the new Graco Project Painter Plus sprayer the cost of doing business. In the past whenever I’ve had a commission I’ve rolled a percentage of the money back into tools for the shop so that I’ll have more capability for the next job. I’m pretty well outfitted now (okay, I did have to buy a $40 router bit for the letters), but a good quality airless sprayer wasn’t in my arsenal yet. It is now. Airless sprayers really deliver a good coat but you have to be careful. They pour out a lot of paint (you can stand and watch the level in the paint can drop when you hold the trigger). Getting a smooth coat with no runs takes some technique.
So last saturday I spent the day spraying coats of primer onto the letters and figuring out (unsuccessfully sometimes) how to avoid runs. I think I finally got it- lots of very light coats with a long wait time between each. As my friend Giles says, I’ve got more time than chances to get it right. So I wait. For the next four days I’ll be spraying two letters at a time in Baylor Green in my backyard with a four hour waiting period between coats (3 coats). I’ll have to babysit the letters for an hour to make sure no birds land on them, then after that the paint is dry to the touch with a 4 hour recoat time. I’ll hand-detail the yellow part of the symbol with a brush and small roller. I’d use my airbrush but I you can’t thin latex down enough to work in an airbrush.
It’s very stressful being at this stage as I’ve already spent about 40 hours building the rest of the prop, and if I screw up the finish by allowing the paint to run or letting the finish be marred by falling leaves or bird footprints then that’s all the client will notice. I really need a dedicated finishing room, but for now I’ll have to make do with a couple tables in the backyard and lots of praying for no wind.
I’m a perfectionist in an imperfect world.
I’ll take pics and do a step-by-step of the process after I deliver it to Baylor on Friday. If you happen to be at an event at good ol’ B.U. and see the giant BAYLOR on stage with the school symbol, you’ll know where it came from. Sic ‘em Bears!
August 29, 2011
Shop Time!
Worked on the Baylor prop today for about 5 hours in the 107 degree heat (okay, it was in the garage, but it was still a scorcher). I got 4 days of work done according to my original (and totally wrong) work schedule. SO nice to get back out in the shop, even though I probably lost five pounds of water weight.
August 27, 2011
I’ve Gone and Bought the Cherry Cabinets
We have some relatives who tell a funny story about remodeling their kitchen a few years ago. They went into it wanting new cabinets, so they got a local cabinet maker to build them some beautiful cherry cabinets. Once they started seeing the cabinets being constructed, they realized that their floor would have to be replaced. Then the old appliances started to look rather dull, and after this the countertops. They ended up changing out pretty much everything in their kitchen and it’s now a stunningly beautiful place. It’s a conundrum familiar to anyone who has done remodeling. The beauty of the new outshines the old so much that you just end up replacing everything.
Last year I purchased a rather large sample upgrade to my sound library. It was a significant investment and it’s paid dividends in much better sounding work. However, the brass sounds still were not up to par yet. So a few days ago I upgraded my brass sounds and ho-lee-cow, what a difference. The portamento french horn alone was worth the upgrade cost. I’m working on a rather huge orchestral project right now and the new brass sounds are getting a workout. Check out this example:
Keep in mind that there isn’t a bit of “live” orchestra in there. It’s all midi triggered samples. Based on the strength of these demos, as well as my experience with the sample library from the past year, I went ahead and bought the brass library.
It’s wonderful. The horn makes you weep, the trumpets are declamatory, and the low brass is big and bombastic the way low brass should be, without a hint of “midi-ness” that often accompanies these libraries sometimes. The problem? Now my strings sound mushy by comparison.
The company has issued a single “orchestra-wide” sample set, which I purchased last year, and which is very good. But then they’ve gone in and started focussing on each of the individual sections (strings, brass, woodwinds, perc, etc) and started issuing whole libraries of just these sections, with much more depth and realism to their sound sets. I have the new brass set, but, like the new cherry cabinets, the spectacularness of the new sounds is making me crave the Wolf fridge… I mean the string sounds:
So now I’m listening to the online examples and thinking well, with this job I could easily pay for them… and they make my stuff sound so much better.
Curse you, cherry cabinets.
August 23, 2011
Quoth
Inspirational, and something I need right now. Thanks Katherine.
The real essence of writing is moving past fear and that success comes when you get to that place where you push past the demons and go ahead with what you ought to be doing.
Katherine Coble
August 22, 2011
That Good Old Baylor Prop
Wow, I’ve just been hired by Baylor University to build the new official hanging logo.
They want to replace the 30 year old big round official logo that hangs in Waco Hall with the new updated logo design. They’ve got the design done and now I have to realize it as a real-world object for all the world to see.
Pretty amazingly cool that I get to do such a prestigious prop. Guess they heard that I build stuff.
July 17, 2011
Day 2 Door Repair
So today I reapplied the outer trim to the door frame as well as caulked along all of the trimwork and the new repair. Overall it looks very nice, except that I noticed a palm-sized hole at the bottom of the door trim that clearly shows the interior woodwork of the house. No big deal, the builder just didn’t bother to cover over the sill plate or some internal studs. Ugh. A generous dollop of caulk and all was fixed.
I also got a new door sweep and Erin and I spent about an hour unscrewing the door and removing it from the house so we could install the new sweep with the door up on sawhorses. No big deal but it was weird to not have a door for a while. When it was back on I discovered that my 100% seal is actually about 99% now. The new sweep doesn’t quite cover everything and you can see a small crack of light at the bottom of the door that’s about 1/4″ by 5″ long. So I went and got a small piece of metal with a rubber sweep that attaches to the inside of the door and acts as a secondary seal. I’ll have to drill some small holes in the metal door when I install it tomorrow, but then we should finally have full weather tight-ness.
Home repair can be frustrating (as it was when I stripped a screw in the transom, then broke off my screw removal tool trying to get it out!), but overall I’m happy with the repair. Sure was a lot cheaper than a new door ($40 vs $600).
Final coat of paint tomorrow and it’s all done.
July 16, 2011
Repair, Man
Ten years ago when our house was built, whoever installed the door did a rather poor job of it. You could see light leaking in at the bottom corner, and they didn’t seal the end grain on the outside trim boards very well (read: at all). As a result, the boards had become rotten over the years from water being drawn up into the grain and decaying several layers of wood back into the wall. The rotten wood has fallen off in the past few years and we had developed a hole that was about 4″ x 4″ that started outside and was beginning to creep inside. You could clearly see through it to the outside when the door was shut. Bugs were a problem (rolly-polly invasions!) as well as all the heat/cool air we were dumping outside.
It was really bugging me so tonight I got out the hammer, crowbar, and sundry other tools and went to work. I tore the whole trim board off and chipped/dug/carved/cut out a chunk of rotten board about 15″ tall all the way back to the in-wall studs. What a mess. Over the next few hours I fashioned a replacement piece from some hard maple that I had lying around out in the shop- a really nice wood to use, granted, but it was all that I had that was close to the dimensions I needed and I didn’t want to use pine and then have the same thing happen in a few years. I then went to Home Depot and got new weatherstripping, caulk, and a few other things.
We now have a nice new door frame on that side that is done properly. Since it’s a patch you can see where the joint is since the new wood buts up against the old stuff but once it’s caulked and painted it’ll be almost unnoticeable. I’m glad that it wasn’t very hard or expensive. It cost me less than $20 and a few hours with my tools to carve out the replacement pieces. When you consider the fact that a new door would have been over $600, I think it’s a win all around. I’ll caulk and paint it over the next few days. We’re good for another decade.
It made me feel really good to fix what was would have been a fairly expensive and involved repair if I’d have called a handyman or gotten a new door installed.
It’s good to be able to fix things.
May 20, 2011
Wine Cellar
Friend Catriona sends these pictures of an amazing wine cellar. Hit the link for more pictures. Wow.
February 4, 2011
WorkSharp
I’ve been trying to get a solution to sharpen my various shop tools (gouges, chisels, planes, etc) for several years. There are tons of gizmos on the market that seem specifically designed to separate gullible woodworkers from their dollars. I’ve spent my share of money on some of them, and none of them ever really worked. The result was that I usually operate with sub-par tools; a condition that is not only annoying, but potentially dangerous as well.
WorkSharp has a nifty gizmo, er tool, that a lot of people swear by- the WorkSharp 3000. Unfortunately, it’s around $200 street price, and I didn’t really want to spend that much. However, a few weeks ago some of the folks on a woodworking list that I frequent posted that Home Depot was blowing them out for $60. I quickly jumped on line and ordered one. A few days later, all of us eager beavers got notice that the item had been mismarked (a $140 rebate on a $200 product? You don’t say!). After enough woodworkers raised a fuss, Home Depot decided to honor their original price and reinstated our orders. Yay! So yesterday my brand new WorkSharp 3000 was dropped off by UPS. Looks neat. I just finished watching the included DVD video and I think this thing will finally keep my tools sharp with a minimum of fuss.
The only downside to the whole thing is that one of the small plastic bolt-down feet has a small piece missing, and the rubber foot wasn’t included. I’ll call the company on Monday to see if they’ll replace the broken parts. The thing will work just fine without them, though, so I’m loathe to make too much of a fuss, especially in light of the fact that I got such a good deal.
People often remark at my tool collection and think that I must have spent a fortune on my shop. Here’s the secret: I’m pretty patient and generally buy tools when I can get a really, really good deal. Craigslist is my friend, too. A few years ago I bought a top-of-the-line Dewalt Scroll saw, normally $650, for $250. Brand new. Score! My whole shop has been more or less bought for about that much of a discount. Over time I’ve spent far, far less than you might expect, and I’ve earned some money with it, too! I think it’s about break-even at this point, and gives me a whole lot of enjoyment.
Anyway: new tool. Always a good thing. Better thing: more space. Can I get that at a discount?
January 11, 2011
In Praise of Shop Class
Some educators resist giving woodshop the chop – Boston.com: “”
I took shop class in 6th and 7th grade and it showed me I could make things and take pride in a hand-crafted object. I was one of those kids who was never great at math but excelled at spatial thinking. Glad my generation still had access to dangerous tools while in school, and I’m glad that they’re making comeback.
January 3, 2011
Paging PeeWee Herman
The new Grizzly Tools catalog is here! The new Grizzly Tools catalog is here!
December 24, 2010
December 17, 2010
Prop Days
Just finished two days (about 20 hours) of prop building in the shop with a terrific group of Sing Chairs. A wonderful time. We breezed through the construction of six great props on day one and came back thinking it would only take us an hour or two to build the final prop. It took 8 hours. Not because we were particularly stymied, but just because we realized we had the time so why not have a discussion about the why of this prop? After talking for a while, we made the decision to redesign it and go completely over-the-top. It’s not a gigantic monstrosity or anything, but I’m really proud of it. My best description of it is that it looks exactly like the real thing- because it essentially is the real thing. I got a chance to teach the group the difference between “prop tolerances” where you can forgive an error of 1/2″ or so because the audience won’t ever see it, and “furniture tolerances” where it’s going to be viewed from close-up. They totally got into it and we had a blast being stupidly picky and perfectionistic.
Even though this prop will never be seen by the audience from less than 50 feet, it still stands up to a very, very close inspection. It’s something that most people wouldn’t mind having in their homes (if they had the, er, room).
Anyway, it was a great two days for teaching craftsmanship, doing woodworking, and getting to know each other. What does it say that I’m incredibly sore but would love to go out and do it again tomorrow?
December 8, 2010
Plastic Fantastic
I have been enamored of 3d printing for a long time. The ability to print up anything you want (as long as it’s a solid body form and can be made from ABS plastic) is so totally science-fictiony that it makes my little Maker heart skip a beat. I’ve waxed nerdish about this nascent technology on the blog for a while now, but I’ve always felt that it was just out of reach, both financially as well as technologically. The first version, the “Cupcake CNC“, was a little clunky, had a small print platform, and was very much for the tinkerer who didn’t mind early adoption woes.
They’ve solved the first few problems with the new version, the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic.
This 3D printer uses the same ABS-melting print-head design as the CupCake to slowly build up a 3d object using progressive layers of melted plastic. Think of an inkjet print head slowly going back and forth across the same spot of paper. Eventually the ink gets thick enough to start to rise up off the page. 3D printers use the same idea, except instead of tiny ink streams they use a spool of ABS plastic melted into much thicker blobs, like thin toothpaste from a tube. You feed the printer a design and it prints the bottom-most layer, then moves the print platform (that contains the newly printed and cooled layer of ABS) down slightly and prints the next layer up. Over a few minutes it builds up in 3d whatever design you fed it. Neat, huh?
The beauty of this system is that there is an incredible online source of free designs available to anyone with access to a 3d printer. There are literally thousands of things you can download and print. Currently, the machines are only capable of making plastic objects (no electronics or metal- yet), but even when you’re limited to plastic there is an incredible array of objects at your disposal. Here are a few examples:
First, some very simple and silly things:
Christmas ornaments:
Tree:
Porsch (it’s just a model!):
Cookie Cutter (any design you want):
These examples fall squarely into the “I need something simple with a little bit of customization” camp. Say you want a cookie cutter designed like a giant eyeball (doesn’t everybody?). Take the Thingiverse design, alter it a little bit in the free Blender program, and send it to the 3d printer. Come back in a few minutes and there’s your new cookie cutter, ready to make your gruesome cookies. Sicko.
But above these simple things are some more complex and intriguing objects:
Broom Head mount to fix broken broom:
Motor mount and gear sets for custom applications:
wind turbine blades for science projects:
Water pump (just add cheap electric motor):
Espresso tamper:
Now things are getting interesting. These objects represent a second tier of complexity. A person might be forgiven for scoffing at your expensive 3d printer if all it does is print plastic stars, mini Porsches, anatomical cookie cutters (pervert!), but when you start saying “custom motor mount”, “water pump”, and “espresso tamper” then you’re starting to get into the area where even the uninitiated sits up and takes notice, because each of these things was formerly only available either at a traditional store, or in the case of the custom motor mount, through an expensive and time-consuming custom manufacturer. Remember that all of these designs are completely free to download and use. They only cost the few pennies in raw plastic and maybe a couple of cheap components to get something useful. And soon even the cheap extra components will be printable.
Finally, we get into the truly interesting, high-level printable objects. These represent days or even weeks of patient trial and error design by someone out there in the world. Each design is optimized to print on the 3d printer, solves a real-world problem, and is totally free.
Ball Bearings:
Musical instruments:
Printable gyroscopic copter (add electronics):
Early replacement game tiles (or even a complete game):
(wait a second… Hasbro isn’t going to be too happy about that)
Even (most interestingly) the plans to print up an identical… 3d printer.
These last two items, the game tile and 3d printer offspring, are the most interesting. They represent the legal challenges and technological promise of this new tech. If I can print out a perfect (or even just “workable”) version of something that I would previously go purchase, what happens to the idea of going to Toys-R-Us to get a Scrabble game? What happens to the idea of a “stuff-based” economy? Will patent/I.P. holders get more serious about enforcing their intellectual property? Will the idea of the knockoff become forbidden?
And when a new 3d printer- an entire 3d printer- is as easy to print up and gift to a friend as that cookie-cutter, just what does that mean to society? I don’t know, but it’ll be interesting.
What we’re talking about here is a new technology that will change the world as much as the computer did. As much as the standardized screw did. As much, I believe, as the idea of standardization itself. True, it’s still in the early-innovation, messy-hobbyist phase. But that is exactly where computers were in the late 70′s. A decade later the database spark caught on with businesses, and a few years later computers were starting to infiltrate the home. 3d printers are at that early stage right now: nascent technology that is being frantically improved upon by a subset of tinkerers. The only difference this time is that the previous technology – computers – is being used to bootstrap 3d printers to make them better at a much faster rate. An accelerated, Darwinian, online process of rapid development and experimentation is taking place behind the scenes that will soon spill out into society. Go check out the Thingiverse or search for “Mendel RepRap” if you don’t believe me.
Soon, everyone will have a 3d printer at home. We might not be able to print iPhones and microwave ovens soon, but for a very, very large proportion of what we use in our everyday lives, a few minutes at the 3d printer will replace a trip to Wal-Mart. Give one to a small village in Africa and the world trembles.
All these thought were spinning through my head early this morning while lying in bed (one of the very few benefits of chronic insomnia is lots of undistracted processing time). I’ve wanted a 3d printer since I saw the early MakerBot CupCakes, but it was hard to justify the price for the limited utility of this early-adopter model. Just recently, MakerBot Industries announced the new and improved version- the Thing-O-Matic (nice hat tip to Nick Park there, btw). The Thing-O-Matic has a larger, heated, moveable build platform for multiple unattended builds (the just-printed object is rolled out of the way so a new one can print), a bigger print area, and improvements to the print head and electronics. Overall, it’s a big improvement on the CupCake. But it’s $1250. Ouch.
There was no way that I could responsibly go out and spend that much money on the thing all at once. World-changing or no, it just felt like too big of a step. But then I remembered the ancient and almost forgotten concept of saving for something. Crazy, right? This morning I opened up a sub-account in ING titled “MakerBot”. My plan is to put $50/month aside. Fifty bucks isn’t a distressing amount. It’s what I put in my gas tank every time I fill up, and since I work from home, that only happens once or twice a month. At $50/month, in a mere 2 years I’ll have enough to order my very own Thing-O-Matic. Christmas 2012. Even better- in 2 years they will have either introduced the next version, or made big improvements to the current Thing (all printable on current machines, naturally).
I normally don’t talk finances on the blog, but I figure anyone can see what these things cost anyway, so why not? Plus, I hope that those of you that share my enthusiasm for these kinds of geeky things might want to vicariously experience a 3d printer with me. And if you’ve read this far, you’re one of those.
Finally, how will I use a 3d printer? Well, the main thing that I can see immediately (and there will be many things I don’t anticipate) is in my prop business. I build props for the show that I write, and being able to design a prop, then print out a small version and place it in context on a scale model of an actual stage will be a tremendous help in visualizing what a prop looks like. I think potential customers might like that, don’t you? I even think that little extra service might earn me enough business to pay for the machine. Certain of it, in fact.
Check back periodically as I update my MakerBot savings account balance as well as periodically dip into improvements to the design. I’m really excited about this. I’m interested to hear your thoughts in the comments (or via email- I can post them as updates if you can’t get the comments section to work for you).
November 22, 2010
My Bad Bosch Tool Experience
Hello readers!
The following is the letter I would like to write to Bosch tools about my failed Bosch Colt PR10E router. I am having difficulty doing so because their website does not list a physical address and their automated email systems character limit is too low. I’ll keep trying, but in the mean time I would like to post it on the internet as a possible warning to anyone who is considering the purchase of a Bosch tool.
Dear Bosch tools,
I received the Colt PR10E router as a gift for Christmas 2008. Later that week in a fit of post-Christmas tool glow I used it for about thirty seconds and it abruptly stopped working. Since my wife bought it on Amazon we decided to heed the plea included in the packaging and call you directly instead of returning it to the seller. I called you and then took it to the local repair center you recommended for the warranty work. After a very long wait I finally got it back. When I asked the repair center what had gone wrong with the unit, I was told it was the “Main board” that needed replacement. Huh? I didn’t know power tools had motherboards (or “main boards”), but okay.
I brought it home, fired it up and let it run for a few minutes and it seemed to work okay. Then the weather turned hot and I didn’t work in my shop for several months.
Yesterday I went out to cut some laminate using the repaired router. It worked for about ten minutes, then abruptly quit again. It is a dead router, gone to whatever sad afterlife is reserved for unreliable tools that fail immediately. I now have a two year old Bosch router with a little over ten minutes of use on it that is a useless chunk of Bosch-colored plastic. It sits on my shop closet shelf in its brand new plastic-looking beauty taunting me with its nonworking…ness. I will continue to be disappointed in the tool only because I had the poor fortune to not need to use it until the warranty expired. It literally has zero shop scratches, dings, or even dust. A more pristine but useless tool you have not seen.
I realize that some products have issues, and I understand that stuff happens in production, and even that “authorized warranty repair” centers are not necessarily bastions of white-coated technicians bustling around saying things like “bring me an A6 Torx wrench and a bottle of graphite, STAT!”, but that doesn’t stop the fact that I’m still out of luck. Worse yet, it’s my wonderful wife who wasted her money for a gift that doesn’t work, which makes me feel even worse about Bosch tools. I mean, it’s one thing to feel taken advantage of when it’s your own money, but when your spouse gets the short end of a bad tool purchase, a guy feels angry AND helpless. And since this was my “big gift” for Christmas, I bear a special kernel of frustration toward any Bosch tool I see.
I heard a lot of good things about this little router, but in my experience it wasn’t worth the money, time, or heartache. I realize that I am outside of the normal warranty period, but I would like to respectfully request either another warranty repair (hopefully one that works this time), or, better yet, a completely new unit. I would even be willing to pay any sort of upgrade to the next higher tool in order to be assured that I don’t again fall afoul of whatever inherent design flaw might be lurking in the PR10E. When you see my little router’s complete lack of any scratches, markings, or even dust, you will understand that it has seen very, very little use. It does, however, sport a sad little tool-shaped afterlife halo.
I don’t think it earned it.
Please let me know what I can do to resolve this.
Thank you,
Jason Young
if your customer relations people ever happen to read this and would like to contact me outside of your severely limited online email forms, I would love to hear from you. You can reach me at jasony3131@(REMOVEFORSPAM)yahoo.com
I’ll let you know how (or even if) they respond.
November 20, 2010
Prop me up
Incredibly sore after a 12 hour day building props for the upcoming show. We have another 10-12 hours tomorrow. The garage is full of enormous props and I’m really proud of them.
Advil, please.
November 5, 2010
Entomology Etymology Entomography
Reading all about the recent election results I keep coming across the term “shellacking”. President Obama said Democrats nationwide had received a “shellacking” and I’ve seen it repeated over and over in the press. Which makes me wonder: why this specific word? I use shellac in my woodworking projects all the time. Believe it or not, it’s the excrement of the lac bug mixed with denatured alcohol. It’s a totally non-toxic and natural substance and modern chemistry has had a tough time coming up with something better than this humble goo. You know that stuff that makes your veggies shiny and oily feeling in the supermarket? Lac poo. Yup, shellac has tons of uses. It’s great stuff.
So why is it when someone is beaten soundly we say they were “shellacked”?
UPDATE- Friend Daniel writes in with a link to this definition:
shellac:
1713, from shell + lac (see lacquer). Translates Fr. laque en écailles “lac in thin plates.” The verb is 1876, from the noun. The slang sense of “beat soundly” is 1920s, perhaps from the notion of shellac as a “finish.” Shellacked “drunk” is from 1922 (cf. plastered).
Not a totally satisfactory answer in my opinion, though. One note: contrary to what some may have thought, I was posting about it for etymological reasons, not partisan ones. I just think word origins are cool.