A bed for Amelia
My grand-daughter Amelia has grown to the point where she needs to move from crib to bed. Her new bed design is a blend of Isla’s Bed and her older sister Olivia’s bed. It retains the best points of both. Key points include: Platform bed with storage underneath like Olivia’s bed Short foot board to […]
Laser Engraving Water Bottles and Tumblers
When I added the rotary chuck to the laser, the primary use was to be for engraving powder coated water bottles and tumblers. These make nice gifts and I wanted to be able to do “full wrap” designs. With a “full wrap” design, as you may have guessed, the engraving goes all the way around […]
Laser – Close Loop Stepper Alarm Interlock
Previously I had upgraded my OMTech 3555 130W CO2 laser from open loop to closed loop stepper drive on the X axis. See: https://bronkalla.com/blog/2022/10/17/converting-the-laser-to-closed-loop-stepper-drive/. The closed loop stepper driver has an alarm output. This is used to signal the controller that the stepper driver has encountered an error that it cannot correct. The particular driver […]
A dresser for Hadley
My grand-daughter Hadley needed a new dresser. Her old one was “commandeered” to use for her baby brother. The dresser needed to fit a rather narrow space in her room. The height allowance was flexible so I went with 4 feet. She will be able to reach into the top drawer in a few years. […]
D-Bot 3D printer linear rail upgrade
Background My D-Bot is now 5 years old. It has worked well, but the Z axis has been getting sloppy, tilting slightly as it moves up and down. I tried tightening the bearings with no improvement. A few years ago I had upgraded the X axis to using IGUS bearing surfaces, but these are not […]
Converting the Laser to Closed Loop Stepper Drive
Background I wanted to see if I could speed up the engraving on my OMTech 130w CO2 laser. The engraving speed is primarily dependent on the X axis drive. The velocity and acceleration of the X axis and the lens head are the main factors to improve without losing steps. As delivered the X axis […]
Elegant Step Stools
Not every woodworking project needs to be a multi-week adventure. Sometimes something simple is needed. In this case it is some step stools. We now have 7 grandchildren ranging form newborn to 6 years. We have them over on a regular basis (3 days / week minimum during the school year). With the kids running […]
Doll Cribs
Our grand-daughters are at the age where they love to play with dolls. They are infatuated with the American Girl style 20″ dolls, now adding the American Girl Bitty Baby 15″ dolls. To go with them, they want additional “furnishings” beyond the cases I built last year. A couple of them have their hearts set […]
Isla’s Bed – Completion
After staining, I waited a couple of weeks to let the stain fully dry. The reason being that the gel stain used is oil based and with the winter weather, I needed to use a water based finish. My favorite for spraying in the winter is General Finishes Endurovar. It generally flows out well and […]
Pork Ribs – Sous Vide & Smoke
For the last 30 years or so Drunken Ribs has been my “go to” for ribs to serve family and friends. Typically these are “baby backs”. Meat prices have been crazy this last year. However, pork prices are now coming back to earth and I picked up a rack of pork spare ribs an special […]
