difalkner

I have been working 40-50 hours/week from our two-car garage turned fulltime shop for the past 3 years. Until recently I didn't realize I have been quarantined for 3 years! So I guess I'll keep doing this for a while... David

Young people continuing to gather - 'we won't get it because we're young and strong' - also causes spreading. They may get it and recover but they'll pass it on to their parents and grandparents, many of which will not survive the virus. Our governor, John Bel Edwards, actually said something smart for a change - "Everyone needs to act as though they already have the virus." David

Well, a lot can change in a short period of time; Louisiana has just been placed on lockdown by the Gov until Sunday night April 12. It's a 'loose' lockdown because some, like my wife in financial services, grocery store workers, etc. can still go to work. But many won't be able to do that. For us it will be a regular schedule in that I stay home and work in the shop and Sandy goes to the office. Many won't be so fortunate. And all of this could change again but as of now that's how it stands for us. David

I do woodworking all day long every day in my home shop so I've been isolated for a few years. About the only time I get out is for supplies, groceries, and church. My wife works in downtown Shreveport in an office with about 20 people but she has her own private office and they are practicing good social distancing. She rarely sees clients but if one comes to the office they meet in the conference room with plenty of space between them. This is the first Sunday in about 11 years that I haven't been to our church for our two morning services and have only missed a half dozen evening services so this is WAY out of the norm for us, to be home on a Sunday morning. However, gotta' love technology 'cause our Pastor was live on FB giving a Sunday School lesson (listening while I'm typing ). I play in the band and we met Wednesday evening to record music for today. Our Associate Pastor brought a live message broadcast on FB at 10:30 and they used the music we recorded Wednesday to do our best to still present a good service. Past that we aren't having kids or grandkids over and they're doing their best to stay home, as well. We keep over 30 homecooked meals in the freezer at all times and over the last few days we've added another 15-20 so we're good on food and we've got plenty of water and paper. I guess the only thing we'll have to replenish is fresh fruit and other produce. There are a handful of cases here in NW Louisiana and we're just trying to be smart about all of this. Hoping and praying this goes away quickly but it looks like it's gotta' run its course first. David

That is really nice work and a great looking desk, Ronn - good job! David

Thanks, Mick! We bought it outright during the introductory period and it's the full Carveco package. At this point I probably won't continue maintenance past the 12 month period but if it really begins holding its own in the shop I may reconsider that decision. Davd

I used vinyl covered 3/16" wire rope cables and cut them to about 6" each piece. I cut a spacer to place between the plates for consistency between each camera mount. One side note - I couldn't cut the cable with anything I had so I had to buy a bolt cutter. Even that didn't want to cut this stuff until I realized that when I first cut the vinyl with a razor then the bolt cutter had no problem cutting the wire. In every case it cut all but about two strands and cut those with a cold chisel on my vise anvil. Any project that requires the purchase of a new tool is a good project!! Here you can see the camera mount threaded lock, just like on a tripod – The top plate where the camera mounts has a floating nut to hold the threaded lock and allow for secure mounting of the camera – Set of three camera isolation mounts (upside down in the photo so they'd sit flat on the table) – Cable close ups – Camera on the column – Close up of camera – Camera with isolation mount. After our first test we realized that 8 cables were too stiff so I took one out of each quadrant. Comparison grabbed from monitor shows how still the view is on the left and how the right one is moving. It was actually worse than this but this is the best I could grab in a video. Also, this was just a CD playing and not the live band which I understand shook the columns much more than the CD. I'd have to say this is a successful project in that a simple, low cost solution, to which I could provide a solution in a couple of days, solved a problem that would have been an ongoing issue. And it was a fun project, too! I had the opportunity to design, engineer, and build something I've never tried and it worked. Hmmmmmm, I wonder if there's a market for these! LOL! David

The back story - A couple of weeks ago our church bought a new camera system for our live Facebook feed and it includes a control panel system for live streaming and 3 new cameras. The cameras mount on rigid steel brackets and two were mounted on columns on the side walls with one on the back wall above the media booth. So the first Sunday morning when these were set up and ready our associate pastor had the pulpit so our pastor could babysit his new 'toy'. After the first service with choir and piano/organ I asked our pastor how the cameras worked and he was pretty pleased. Then, we had the second service... the one where we have the live band and far more lively music (I play acoustic guitar in the band). Music like bass guitar that can rattle the ceiling tiles. So I asked the pastor how he liked the second service and he was dejected because the two cameras mounted on the side wall columns were vibrating too much to even switch to them. We like our music loud, I guess!! They added screws into the column mounts, locked everything down, added screws to the cameras, and nothing worked. I told them we need isolation mounts but nobody knew what I was talking about so I didn't push it. I recognized that the problem wasn't the mounts, rather the problem was that the sheetrock around the columns was vibrating and resonating with the music. That meant no matter how hard you locked the cameras and their mounts down they're still going to vibrate. So Monday morning I sent Bro Terry a link to some isolation mounts and asked if he wanted me to make some to which he quickly replied, "Yessssssssssssssssssss!!!" The ones in the link I sent were $500 each, btw. This will take two posts to get the photos in but basically I drew this in Fusion 360 and cut them out of Baltic Birch since I have tons on hand as cutoffs from all the Longworth chucks I've cut. Drawing in Fusion 360 - Plates cut on the CNC. This can easily be done on tablesaw and bandsaw, or with a template and router, etc., but I have the CNC so that's what I used. I also used the CNC to mark where to drill holes for the cable clamps. Plates and cable clamps. I drilled the holes on the drill press and split the pieces on the bandsaw. I could have done this with the CNC but chose to use the other tools instead. I did use the CNC to mark where to drill the holes and cut each piece, though. Cable clamps cut - Gluing the cable clamps in place and using a drill bit for alignment. I had predrilled the plates so this made it easy getting the clamps in the right location. Clamps finished and fixed on the plates - Knobs cut on the CNC. Again, this could be done with a bandsaw but more consistent and much easier on the CNC. Painted flat black to match the brackets and ready for cables - Ok, I'll do another post shortly with the rest of the photos. David

Well, it's only been about 6 or 7 months since we bought Carveco and I finally watched enough tutorials to hack something out - yay!! I have been feeling guilty spending so much on software and not using it so I picked something that brings Fusion 360 to its knees - lots of text. I love F360, very powerful software. It does not handle text very well at all but it's the sweet spot for products like the Vectric line and Carveco. Not wanting to use my pricey hardwoods I picked up a 12"x48" glued up board of Spruce/Pine/Fir (I think this is Pine) at Lowe's and figured I would start with that. This also represents only the second or third time I have had Pine in the shop in the last 5 years - it tears my allergies up like crazy! So, on to the project; it's 9.5" x 12" x 3/4" thick, cut with a 5/8" diameter 60° bit, 100 ipm, 18k rpm, and cut with two passes. The first pass took most of the material and I did a follow up pass lowering Z by 0.005" to clean up any fuzz although there was far less than I would have thought for Pine. Cut time was about 12 minutes (per pass). I squared it off with the table saw rather than cut it out on the CNC. The finish is Nitrocellulose sealer, sanded, one coat of gloss lacquer, sanded, Mohawk Van Dyke Brown glazing stain, sanded, final coat of semi-gloss lacquer. The finish took about 30-40 minutes including drying time. Here's the finished plaque - Plunge router and keyhole bit for the hanging slot - I was surprised how cleanly the Pine engraved for this tiny logo, which is about 1.5" across, and cut with a 1/8" 60° bit - Using Carveco for the first time was kind of fun and a wholly different approach than using Fusion 360 but there's a lot I want to do with it, including some 3D work. Actually 2.5D, I guess, because the bottom will be flat. This isn't truly the first thing I have cut with Carveco but it's the first thing I can show. Last week I asked our pastor's teenage daughter to send me a photo of her and her new dog but didn't tell her why. So I took the photo and V-carved it and it came out really nice and she loved it. But since she's a minor I don't plan on posting any photos of that project. Enjoy! David

I had 2,300!!! I'll start shopping for a Ford GT or Ferrari tonight! David

I watch car videos like Shmee150 and Stradman and those guys are buying supercars right and left, building houses, buying land, etc. and they say their income is largely based on YouTube. Shmee has just under 2 million subscribers with over 3,900 videos and views in the 150k and up per video with many in the 500k and higher range. Stradman has about 2.4 million subscribers with about 750 videos and regularly hits over 1 million views per video. April has 278 videos with 1.14 million subscribers and each video gets viewed at least 100k times but many are pushing 1 million and some are over that number. They're all doing quite well from YouTube and other merchandising, ad support, and branding their names generate. My little YouTube channel has over 750 subscribers, about 80 videos, and the total views from all of those videos equal about one of the lower viewed videos from the folks above. Rest assured, I'm not making a dime from YouTube and don't even meet the threshold for seeking monetization. Plus, it takes me too long to produce my mediocre videos to ever make any money at it! David

It's great, isn't it! When we decided to use our two-car garage for our shop I wanted to be able to run everything without having to chase extension cords so I put in a subpanel and outlets (I had an electrician friend check my work). The only tool other than an ROS or jig saw that needs to be plugged in to use is the same planer you have. If I used it every day I would keep it plugged in but for now I plug it in when I need it (also a 20 amp circuit like yours - the only way to go in the shop!). This makes all the difference in the world, for sure! Right now I only have one free single phase 220v outlet left. David

Most broadband providers supply asymmetrical feeds, faster down than up, because that's typically what's needed. You can get a symmetrical connection - same speed up/down - but be prepared to pay for it. David

I just started using Instagram a couple of months ago and uploaded a few dozen photos, all square format and a few times I did the max allowed each time (10, I think). Only after I posted these did my daughter tell me that my landscape photos of Yosemite, my widescreen photos of my work, etc. can be posted as they are and not square. So I now post full size photos in wide format. To do that use the icon/button on the bottom left to toggle between square and widescreen. Square Widescreen David

About 5 of us started a club in Nov '18 and with a little word of mouth managed to get 15 to our first meeting. We meet the second Tuesday of each month at various member shops. Here we are about 15 months later and we have about 75 members but still run about 15-20 at each meeting. Usually the hosting member does a demo of something they do - turning, carving, sawmill, resin pour, box joints, CNC, etc. - and it's been fun to be in on the start of the group. I do all the notifications, line up hosting shops, help with demos and demo prep as needed, send all the emails, etc. so I'm right in the thick of things. There's a turning club just across the state line into Texas and some of our members belong to that and there's also a carving club in town that all the carvers are enjoying. David