Noah B Woodworks

I had a pretty decent weekend of crafting and woodworking. After making those ornaments for my co workers, I ended up doing more epoxy work. It’s a fairly convenient way to get a decent result with the CNC without having to do all the complicated setup for wood on wood inlays. I made another ornament for our Christmas tree, and an epoxied cribbage board for my mom and stepdad. I held off on the EFA topo map for my dad. I did a bunch of the CAD work only to realize I didn’t have the right router bit. I’m fairly certain that the CNC carve for this topo map is going to take a very long time. It’s a 7.5 x 7.5 inch square, and I’m sure it’ll take most of next weekend to complete. I’d like to put a frame around it and make it into a wall hanging piece and send him a nice big 3d printed topo map he can carry around to meetings as a visual aid for where work is getting done.

I’ve printed a ton of gridfinity which is an organizational system for drawers and small workspaces. I’m looking to do our catch-all drawer in the kitchen next. This will most likely take the rest of next week. It took almost a week and a half to do an entire drawer in my office, and there are a few more to go. I printed the grids for another drawer in my office, which took around 8 hours. There are four 4×4 grids and they fit perfectly into these drawers that came with my desk. I’ll most likely stick to the translucent blue filament I used for the first drawer, but I need to order more.

I changed the blade on my band saw, which was long overdue. I also purchase a few different sized blades to see which I like most. I used the middle size one, which I believe was 3/8″. It seemed to cut much better than the old blade, and I’m getting more familiar with the bigger saw’s setup, which is also long overdue. It is a very useful tool.

I’ve been weary of doing a bunch of projects right now. The cold makes wood glue not work and after last year’s mishaps I can’t stand compromised joints. It feels like wasted time. I’d like to make a bunch of end grain blanks for the CNC, but these require a lot of glue ups. End grain blanks are made by rip cutting a bunch of strips of wood, gluing them together again, and then cross cutting even widths along the length of the glued board. Then you turn these widths 90 degrees so the end grain is facing upwards and downwards, then regluing the pieces back together. It’s how end-grain cutting boards are made, but they’re also very useful for 3d carving as the end grain does not shear away as easily as side grain, making detailed 3D CNC carves more accurate.