Category Archives: Made

Plastic Injection Molder – Part 5

I got a very little more done on the injection molder frame: That’s the arm and piston mounted (clamped) in place, and the center cross member bolted in. This thing is pretty solid, and pretty heavy, but I’ll still need to bolt it down eventually.

New shop storage

For those of you that don’t know, I spend my days working for a communications firm here in Milwaukee. This company has its roots in advertising, and there are still some artifacts of that history around. One of them was a bunch of flat file cabinets which were used to store proofs, works-in-progress, presentation boards,

Plastic Injection Molder – Part 4

I’ve been swamped at work with a couple of pretty big projects, but I got a bit more work done on the injection molder frame and controller. First the controller:   Yup, all wired up and working. I’ve got it heating the chamber and have had it all the way up to 400 degrees. I’ve

Made by Hand No. 2: The knife maker

This is an amazing project, and an amazing episode… take a little time to check this out. Made by Hand / No 2 The Knife Maker from Made by Hand

Plastic Injection Molder – Part 3

I am finally getting back to work on the plastic injection molder. We recently moved offices at work and there was a fair bit of stuff headed to the trash. I grabbed a busted old VGA repeater/extender and gutted it. After a bit of cutting and drilling, and a quick shot with my trusty can

The Pirate Ship Collins

My son’s birthday has, since the 1st, been celebrated with a significant amount of effort and excitement. It happens to fall right at the end of the summer, right before school starts, and very near to Molly’s birthday. As a result we usually end up with a yard/house full of people. We have also ended

30 Days of Creativity, Day 6: Ring Clamp

I’m posting this from the train to Chicago, from Milwaukee. I’m also posting it from my phone, so we’ll see how this goes. First, a disclaimer: if you don’t have a desire to make a ring clamp, but need one, just buy one. It took me three hours of messing around to get this one

30 Days of Creativity, Day 3: Annealing pan

Some of you know that I am slowly adding some metalworking capability to my little home workspace (Mike’s lent me his Sherline mill, Frankie dug up an old welding outfit, my dad supplied the bench grinder, etc.). As I save up for the items and services I’ll need to pay for, I’ve started to build

30 Days of Creativity, Day 2: Sweet Moleskine Cover

So, yesterday’s plan to etch some stuff didn’t really work out. The toner didn’t stick well, and so I never even got anything into the etchant. Today, however, I have. The original plan was/is to use a special paper that allows me to print my design, transfer it to the material to be etched, and

30 Days of Creativity, Day 1: Brass Bookmark

I don’t remember how I ended up at http://30daysofcreativity.com, but I remember thinking “Wow. What a neat idea. I’m going to do that.” Well, here I go… I’m working on a project that involves etching thin sheets of brass, and I’m having a bit of trouble with the process. The result is that I have a