08-14-2020, 08:29 AM
G'day all, hope you're keeping well. We're in lockdown here so I've been spending a bit of time in the shed this week. A friend is having a birthday and I came up with the idea of making a holder for his tablet, he seems to be using the thing a lot with zoom meetings etc so it may get some use.
I've had a few scraps of redgum in a box on a shelf since I built my strip canoe a bit over 10 years ago, I cut some chunks out of a piece of firewood back then for a couple of little accents on the canoe and the rest has been biding it's time. This little project was pretty much designed around what peices were in the box.
I don't have much in the line of woodworking equipment so the frankenmill got a fair covering of sawdust. Squaring up stock with a flycutter:
Slotting a joint:
The timber pieces assembled with epoxy;
The T-slot was cut with an endmill and the same T-slot cutter I used for the nosepiece on the frankenmill. Nearly started a fire inside the slot when I paused at one end a little long. I wasn't sure what the correct cutting fluid is for redgum.
I wasn't sure whether it was going to look any good, then I gave the timber a touch of oil and I remembered why I love redgum so much. I'm noticing that these photos don't do justice to the timber, I'll have to get a few photos in better light before I hand it over.
The colour in the timber came out so nicely that I wanted to do the hardware in brass, but having no brass stock on hand and being in lockdown led me to my stockpile of old plumbing hardware. This lot went in the furnace, along with a couple of baggies of brass swarf:
I used a small section of a broken shovel handle for a pattern; the sprue and riser were pretty much the same size so I got 3 short lengths of bar stock from the melt.
There are two pairs of knobs; the larger pair are purely ornamental finishers in the end of a tube. In this photo you can see O-ring grooves on their shanks, the O'rings give them a snug fit in the tube.
I did some hand turning with a wood chisel to dome the heads slightly, using a boring bar as a tool rest.
I nearly maxed out the Z-axis on the frankenmill just to shape the heads of those little knobs with the boring head.
I got 2 T-nuts and two pairs of knobs from my first brass pour.
Made a couple of redgum knobs with a taper to hold the tablet in place, cut down an old microphone stand and assembled the gadget.
It was calculated to leave clear access to all the controls on the ipad in either portrait or landscape orientation.
The taper of the redgum knob secures the tablet when the holder is near vertical; the brass knob adjusts tension on it and can lock it in position.
I was going to add a detail of the adjuster knob but I've maxed out the attachments for this post.
I plan to give it to my friend tomorrow. Now my wife wants one. I think i'm out of plumbing scrap.
I've had a few scraps of redgum in a box on a shelf since I built my strip canoe a bit over 10 years ago, I cut some chunks out of a piece of firewood back then for a couple of little accents on the canoe and the rest has been biding it's time. This little project was pretty much designed around what peices were in the box.
I don't have much in the line of woodworking equipment so the frankenmill got a fair covering of sawdust. Squaring up stock with a flycutter:
Slotting a joint:
The timber pieces assembled with epoxy;
The T-slot was cut with an endmill and the same T-slot cutter I used for the nosepiece on the frankenmill. Nearly started a fire inside the slot when I paused at one end a little long. I wasn't sure what the correct cutting fluid is for redgum.
I wasn't sure whether it was going to look any good, then I gave the timber a touch of oil and I remembered why I love redgum so much. I'm noticing that these photos don't do justice to the timber, I'll have to get a few photos in better light before I hand it over.
The colour in the timber came out so nicely that I wanted to do the hardware in brass, but having no brass stock on hand and being in lockdown led me to my stockpile of old plumbing hardware. This lot went in the furnace, along with a couple of baggies of brass swarf:
I used a small section of a broken shovel handle for a pattern; the sprue and riser were pretty much the same size so I got 3 short lengths of bar stock from the melt.
There are two pairs of knobs; the larger pair are purely ornamental finishers in the end of a tube. In this photo you can see O-ring grooves on their shanks, the O'rings give them a snug fit in the tube.
I did some hand turning with a wood chisel to dome the heads slightly, using a boring bar as a tool rest.
I nearly maxed out the Z-axis on the frankenmill just to shape the heads of those little knobs with the boring head.
I got 2 T-nuts and two pairs of knobs from my first brass pour.
Made a couple of redgum knobs with a taper to hold the tablet in place, cut down an old microphone stand and assembled the gadget.
It was calculated to leave clear access to all the controls on the ipad in either portrait or landscape orientation.
The taper of the redgum knob secures the tablet when the holder is near vertical; the brass knob adjusts tension on it and can lock it in position.
I was going to add a detail of the adjuster knob but I've maxed out the attachments for this post.
I plan to give it to my friend tomorrow. Now my wife wants one. I think i'm out of plumbing scrap.
Lathe (n); a machine tool used in the production of milling machine components.
Milling Machine (n); a machine tool used in the production of lathe components.
Milling Machine (n); a machine tool used in the production of lathe components.