I just finished this piston clock for my brother-in-law. He just bought a Boxster so I found a piston and rod on eBay and 3D printed this base for it.
I just finished this piston clock for my brother-in-law. He just bought a Boxster so I found a piston and rod on eBay and 3D printed this base for it.
This was a test, I made this nightlight out of an old jar.
In reply to Patrick :
Beautiful
Just finished this for my son:
Shelf for the living room. Going to go above the tv and hold family photos 
You know those plastic caster wheels that you never use because they just fall right out of the bottom of whatever they are supposed to be attached to?
My Dad and I started this mudroom setup Friday and finished yesterday evening. Just need to add hooks and a couple of trim pieces. There is a litter box hidden under the bench.
That's awesome. I wish I was good at woodworking like that! And had tools.
I really want to make a cube shelf.
I "built" this bicycle for my four-year-old's birthday (the 23rd). He can't quite stand over a 16" bike, so I had to look for a 12" one to build upon. I found this Dora the Explorer thing at Savers for $5. The frame was unisex-ish and the red wheels would fit with the colors my kid requested:
So after disassembly, various stripping and sanding products were employed, parts were purchased, paint was applied...
I ended up with this:
The paint is all Rustoleum: primer, metallic blue enamel, and their clear coat for wheels.
TIL Chinese bicycle parts are one of the few things you can't get cheap from China.
Made a shift knob for my buddy's Thunderbird.
AWSX1686 said:Made a shift knob for my buddy's Thunderbird.
That's just nuts!
</dadjoke>
Patrick said:I made this flower in the glass sculpting studio
I get the big end is for your weed but where is the small end on the other side? was the teacher watching?
I made a dollhouse for my daughter over Christmas break. It stands at 81" tall. Just needs paint now.
Proto type in cardboard for new radiator mounts so I can use a bigger radiator in my Alfa Romeo spider 
these are not full size, just so I have a 3d idea
In reply to freetors :
20 years , 31,000 hours so far
I've been working on this...
The theater needs a new concessions bar. Our old one is made of plywood and MDF and has so many layers of paint on it that it's hideous.
Started with this: Found some granite for dirt cheap. Two slabs of 34" x 85" granite for $125.
Then I started to build the cabinet. I knew I wanted it to look classy. I wanted it to suggest something out of an old pub with ornate decorations, but also look clean and simple. I built a framework from some scrap pine I had around the shop and skinned it with Birch plywood. I gave it some maple frames on the front and maple korbels, and the base is a pine frame skinned with Shorea, Phillipine Mahogany, and Meranti wood... which is a fancy name for Luan.
One coat of Ebony stain and three coats of gloss polyurethane later....
One of the neater things I added was retractable casters under the bottom. I mounted casters on a hinged 2x4 under the frame that can be extended or retracted via these levers in the cabinet. Roll it into place, lift the levers, and the whole thing sits on its own frame for stability.
fidelity101 said:Patrick said:I made this flower in the glass sculpting studio
I get the big end is for your weed but where is the small end on the other side? was the teacher watching?
That’s old school. Nowadays it’s all edibles and oils, that way you don’t smell like a stoner after using it as medicine
Not long ago I was inspired to write a thank you note to my high school art teacher. At the time I gave him a lot of grief but he introduced me to tons of media I would never have considered; from carving to stained glass. It includes a bunch of stuff I make for fun:
The reason I wanted to contact you though was to thank you for introducing us all to such a wide range of the arts! I still have the foil on glue project from years ago (mine was of a 1966-ish Chevy II doing a burnout) but I'm mostly thinking of all the cool things I've been able to do since then. I don't have the craving to do art for the sake of it anymore, but I've given gifts using a wide variety of media. Most of the creativity has been funneled into birthday and Christmas gifts for my brother, typically related to 80s Transformers robots. I wanted to show you a few things, I guess just to let you know that your introduction to things like carving/sculpting, wire sculpture, paint, etc. really did open up some minds- well, mine, at least.
One thing that oddly stuck with me over all these years was your critique that my wire project (a horse trying to run free, dragging a chariot that was falling apart -- which I still have) was more of a "cage" than whatever the actual assignment was supposed to be. Each time I see my newer wire project, I think back, "okay, I see what you mean now!"
That's Soundwave, a transforming tape deck, if you couldn't tell. On one shoulder is a rocket launcher, on the other is a transforming pterodactyl / cassette tape, named Laserbeak. He even stands on his own
Next up is a little figurine I made for my brother, one of Optimus Prime, a robot who transforms into a semi tractor. Here he is changing his own flat tire. I think this was my second attempt at sculpting, and it's pretty ambitious. It turned out really well though.
My first sculpting adventure was of my three nephews. I made little figures of them and my wife and I made a stop-motion short film of them enacting the story of David and Goliath. It was a real blast. We asked them to act it out for us over Skype and then I spliced the audio where it belonged in the story. To make the figures I first made rough skulls and baked them so we could modify facial expressions without losing the whole thing.
I guess really the first step was drawing caricatures of them, something I had experience with from working at Worlds of Fun one summer. Afterward, I modeled the boys' heads off of those.
Next up is another clay sculpture, this time for my mom. She really likes pigs.
Below is my first "real" painting. Basically, a guy I worked with in IT had a very crudely drawn stick image of him and another guy riding a stick-figure unicorn. His actual-artist wife drew it up or something. It was so ridiculously hilarious to me that I constantly used it for any filler image or icon, even going so far as to color it in in MSPaint for greater effect. When he resigned his position I took those last two weeks to make this for him. I thought the contrast of the realistic unicorn with the scaled up stick figures made for good comedy. It's acrylic.
It's hard to tell here but it's LARGE. Last I heard it was still hanging up in the youth room of a local church.
Back to the Transformers for my brother, I tried my hand at carving wood here. In hindsight, balsa wood is terrible for getting good detail down. I should have used something harder. In any event, this is a transforming shark robot, a Sharkticon, twisted up with a hammerhead shark. Of all things, this one does not translate well into a picture.
I've since done another large painting, putting a childhood toy of my brother's into a scene from Wall-E, and also some computer image manipulation. Before that, I did a mural of cool cars on my friends son's walls. At this point I'm not afraid to try anything; art projects tend to turn out pretty well. My current hobby is doing sand casts with molten aluminum. Some day I'll get the casting process down so I can make real progress.
TL;DR? look at the pictures
Also, I'm REALLY impressed by you guys on here!
Also, totally understand the kid thing. You could burn everything I've ever owned or made and I wouldn't care - compared to them.
P3PPY said:Not long ago I was inspired to write a thank you note to my high school art teacher. At the time I gave him a lot of grief but he introduced me to tons of media I would never have considered; from carving to stained glass. It includes a bunch of stuff I make for fun:
The reason I wanted to contact you though was to thank you for introducing us all to such a wide range of the arts! I still have the foil on glue project from years ago (mine was of a 1966-ish Chevy II doing a burnout) but I'm mostly thinking of all the cool things I've been able to do since then. I don't have the craving to do art for the sake of it anymore, but I've given gifts using a wide variety of media. Most of the creativity has been funneled into birthday and Christmas gifts for my brother, typically related to 80s Transformers robots. I wanted to show you a few things, I guess just to let you know that your introduction to things like carving/sculpting, wire sculpture, paint, etc. really did open up some minds- well, mine, at least.
One thing that oddly stuck with me over all these years was your critique that my wire project (a horse trying to run free, dragging a chariot that was falling apart -- which I still have) was more of a "cage" than whatever the actual assignment was supposed to be. Each time I see my newer wire project, I think back, "okay, I see what you mean now!"
That's Soundwave, a transforming tape deck, if you couldn't tell. On one shoulder is a rocket launcher, on the other is a transforming pterodactyl / cassette tape, named Laserbeak. He even stands on his own
Next up is a little figurine I made for my brother, one of Optimus Prime, a robot who transforms into a semi tractor. Here he is changing his own flat tire. I think this was my second attempt at sculpting, and it's pretty ambitious. It turned out really well though.
My first sculpting adventure was of my three nephews. I made little figures of them and my wife and I made a stop-motion short film of them enacting the story of David and Goliath. It was a real blast. We asked them to act it out for us over Skype and then I spliced the audio where it belonged in the story. To make the figures I first made rough skulls and baked them so we could modify facial expressions without losing the whole thing.
I guess really the first step was drawing caricatures of them, something I had experience with from working at Worlds of Fun one summer. Afterward, I modeled the boys' heads off of those.
Next up is another clay sculpture, this time for my mom. She really likes pigs.
Below is my first "real" painting. Basically, a guy I worked with in IT had a very crudely drawn stick image of him and another guy riding a stick-figure unicorn. His actual-artist wife drew it up or something. It was so ridiculously hilarious to me that I constantly used it for any filler image or icon, even going so far as to color it in in MSPaint for greater effect. When he resigned his position I took those last two weeks to make this for him. I thought the contrast of the realistic unicorn with the scaled up stick figures made for good comedy. It's acrylic.
It's hard to tell here but it's LARGE. Last I heard it was still hanging up in the youth room of a local church.
Back to the Transformers for my brother, I tried my hand at carving wood here. In hindsight, balsa wood is terrible for getting good detail down. I should have used something harder. In any event, this is a transforming shark robot, a Sharkticon, twisted up with a hammerhead shark. Of all things, this one does not translate well into a picture.
I've since done another large painting, putting a childhood toy of my brother's into a scene from Wall-E, and also some computer image manipulation. Before that, I did a mural of cool cars on my friends son's walls. At this point I'm not afraid to try anything; art projects tend to turn out pretty well. My current hobby is doing sand casts with molten aluminum. Some day I'll get the casting process down so I can make real progress.
TL;DR? look at the pictures
Also, I'm REALLY impressed by you guys on here!
Also, totally understand the kid thing. You could burn everything I've ever owned or made and I wouldn't care - compared to them.
In the future for carving use Basswood. It carves easy without fighting the grain yet it’s actually considered a hardwood. The good part is it’s a readily available wood without a commercial market. In fact here in the Midwest it’s a common yard tree that is frequently blown over in high winds. Very large leaves, relatively fast growing, but not that strong of a root ball.
However learn to sharpen using what’s called the scary sharp method. Basically using finer and finer sandpaper “glued” to glass using motor oil. Makes carving so much easier.
For the last 25 years I've run a prototype fabrication shop for a subminature LCD company. Pretty basic machine tools with the main tool an old Hurco CNC machine. It uses conversational programming and can use CAM but we don't do that often enough to stay current. We work mostly in structural plastic with a few very small forays into aluminum. Most of the time I'm doing something in metal it's for a motorcycle or a car.
Six years ago I bought an Audi B5S4 and then got sucked into the 2.7l twin turbo APB/BEL engine. I've got three S4's and an A6, along with three "extra" 2.7t engines.
About five years ago, a friend asked me to make a set of FSI coil adapters for the 2.7t. The original coils for the 2.7t as well as the 1.8t and the 4.2 V8 are somewhat problematic and most of the builds do away with them and replace with the newer FSI coils that Audi/VW have used in nearly all of their gas engines since 2004. The problem is they mount differently and require adapter plates. Most of the tuners, 034, ECS, and others have made adapters but my friend was unhappy with their offerings and thought I could do better. So I did.
Here's the thread in which I introduced them: https://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/452609-Teaser-2-0T-Coil-packs?p=9537204&viewfull=1#post9537204
Over the last 5 years, I've made over 200 sets of the 2.7t version and another 50 or so for the 4.2 RS6 V8 with not a single dissatisfied customer. They actually turned out much better than expected.
edizzle89 said:I made a dollhouse for my daughter over Christmas break. It stands at 81" tall. Just needs paint now.
Finished up the dollhouse this weekend and got it moved into my daughters room. I had to remove the roof as the doorway into her room measured at 80.5" and with taking the roof piece off it took the overall height from 81" to 80.25" so it just barely cleared. It also would have never made the corner into her room if the bathroom door wasn't across the hall and just offset from her door enough to get it rotated in. Needless to say is the only way I'm taking it out is in pieces.
In reply to edizzle89 :
Very, VERY cool.
Aluminum hood pins for the back edge of my Lemons car.
Clip install fixture for an auto-folding headrest.
Steering coupler for the manual steering rack on the Lemons car.
And my real job designing then machining, plumbing, wiring, assembly of a weld fixture.
Lamp made from car parts. The housing is setting on a cam gear.
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