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For a 5" random orbit sander, I've settled in with a Bosch. For me, those sanders are disposable. I can get maybe a year out of one before I kill it.
They have the most consistent feel of spin speed to orbital feel, from sander to sander as they get replaced.
For my countertops, I like my trusty old 6" rigid, home depot sander. I've had that one for close to ten yrs now. Still going strong.
I go through a lot of sanding pads.
After a bit you can feel that they're not cutting as well. At that point your just wasting time grinding away. Toss em' and put a new one on.
I move length wise, then cross grain, then both diagonal angles, then finish up with the lengthwise pass. Light pressure and slow speed, to avoid sanding swirl marks.
Sanding's a pain in the ass, but makes the wood grain pop when it's done right. Especially when you get to the finer grits.
That's my problem with this kind of stuff. Don't have the budget to afford the quality I would want and can't stand paying anything for garbage so end up doing nothing. The wife loves it.......
I did residential and, multi family from 98-07 before, switching over to commercial full time. Most if what I did was rough in plumbing. Trim was easy. Dealing with old shit and, mismatched valve stems? Fuck. That shits for the birds lol. As previously mentioned. I wanted to kick that valve through the wall.
The Shop
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
Oopsie!
Seems like a good time to bring this thread back to the top.
As it's full of people who aren't sitting around bemoaning their station in life with cries of, tax the rich.
My last project was for a person of considerable means. Produced what he wanted, was compensated well, and asked for more.
Working on that now, matching bedside drawers, and with talk of a matching armoire as soon as I'm finished.
Not to mention two others who have seen the dresser, and want something custom for their home.
Ambition.
And supply side economics in full display.
While I agree, those birds are usually fat and happy as a result. Haha!
Man, you do outstanding work.
How does this custom stuff go? Do they sketch something up, or do you make suggestions and submit drawings?
This is a much different world than the one I reside. My world is being handed a drawing and having to make it reality, there's no artistic influence.
Not sure if I'm making sense, but I'm struggling to get my head around taking a huge swing at a job with hopes that it's what they wanted.
For the dresser, they found something on pinterest.
I took it from there.
Then took it up a couple of notches.
The homebuilder I worked for let me deal directly with the homeowners.
(Taking a project off his plate)
With my photos and theirs, a conversation or two, and then again took it from there.
And sometimes there were rough sketches given to me.
I fairness, you must also have an incredible ability to "read" people. You can be the most talented person and make the best armoire ever and if it's not the "look" that the customer wanted, in the trash it goes. My wife has that ability also. She was contracted to fabricate some elements for the Jacob's (the family that started Qualcom) house in Rancho Santa Fe. They had 3 meeting with Denny Jacobs and the "designer" kept presenting designs that Denny didn't like. My wife was getting irritated as each meeting was a waste of time. So in the third meeting, over stepping the designer, my wife pulled out a sketch and said "maybe something like this?". NO more going through the designer and turned into 4 times the work. Of course she never would have gotten the original nod if her work wasn't top notch. I have zero artistic ability, but there was a time when you gave me a mechanical issue to design.............
TM
That's me, buddy.
If you asked me to hand draw a horse, you might be able to identify it. Now if you wanted a timing gear off a 350 Chevy engine, no problem.
I have less than zero artistic imagination.
Man I love, and miss, new construction.
You have your chance to build out an office, workroom, bedroom, display or entertainment space, that's going to make them happy every time they enter.
I like homeowners who are actively involved with their build. (Most subs hate that)
But going into someone's existing home, you can get a feel for their style.
I've been fortunate enough to have worked for some very good interior designers. And picked up a lot of tricks.
Especially how to listen to, and deal with people. Especially the women.
It's all part of the game.
I've also done more than my share of commercial jobs.
The catholic cathedral in Knoxville.
Tons of radius work, dental mould, coffered ceilings, layers of trim.
This was a once in a lifetime project.
WOW!
That looks very intimidating.
That was one where you had to stick to the drawings.
And there was some New York architect who came down once a week with his magnifying glass to give it all the once over.
That was new construction?
I knew we were related. 😁
There's some bad ass talented people here! You sir are one of them!
TM
Pit Row
Incredible work @Joey Bridges.
I know there are some CNC nerds in here. Cool CNC frame. This will ultimately be a carbon fiber part in production. Made alu frame so we can build up prototype to get test pilot walking on knee sooner.
I definitely enjoy having the privilege to create cool things that help people live, walk, do surgery, find cancer, etc. but I still make sure physically making things is a core part of my existence. It's a huge component to my design approach. Too many engineers are simply CAD jockeys these days without a real grasp on how shit is actually made.
My employer would prefer me to just design things all day though. I'm an expensive machinist in reality 😂.
Here is a very 'smart' little shock I designed. Similar to an MTB shock. Twin tube design. 3D printed piston with crazy flow channels instead of a traditional shim stack we are used to seeing in moto or MTB suspension. Removed as much material as possible to make it as light as possible. Endcaps and outer tubes will be black, main shaft chromed. I had to pass a valve cable through the main shaft and out just below the eyelet. I ended up pinning the eyelet on to accomplish this. Interesting design challenges on this one.
For you wood working nerds. Some things I appreciated at a friend's place near Griffith Park this past weekend. This was hidden behind popcorn ceiling when he bought this place. He has a few beautiful homes done by famous architects I think. Met this dude at the grand canyon a few years back as we were both there with our German shorthairs.
Sweet stairway.
Here's another sweet stairway. This was at a 5 story condo in SF I happened to get really tuned up at before a Zach Bryan Concert up there. Stellar work whoever did this.
EDIT - More stairs because I like nice woodwork.
It's kind of funny. I work around a bunch of PhD/Masters people, and I'm the "redneck" with a fake engineering degree. But being the scrappy broke teenage kid that desperately wanted to ride dirt bikes, involved lots of wrenching, improvising, breaking myself and learning about surgeries, medical equipment, etc.. It ultimately gave me my competitive edge to end up alongside people who spent a lot of time and money on education to acquire knowledge and titles.
I tell my mom dirt bikes, the work ethic I developed as a result of feeding my dirt bike obsession, and the associated injuries were the most valuable education I had. In some ways I'm grateful my parents didn't fund my moto bug as a kid.
Cool Beans! I wish I had those skills. I can operate a drill press. 🤣
In all seriousness, impressive!
TM
Bandsaw is still probably the most dangerous tool in the shop 😂. I didn't do all the machining on this frame, but I did design it/knee assembly and roughed it before our actual machinist finished the job. I can do 3/4 axis programming but I haven't had the opportunity to fiddle with 5 axis much. For what we do it's generally fine, a few more setups on a prototype part or five is not the end of the world.
Actually, bandsaw is the second most dangerous tool in the shop, the first is when the mechanical engineer enters the shop and engages with his/her environment.
Capacitor blew in my 3 phase converter. Felt like wiring a bomb but she's a runner again. Now I get to nerd out and set parameters on this damn edge bander, then wait as something else decides to shit the bed. Rinse and repeat.
Nice work.
Haas and Kurt vices match. Who knew.😃
Same part numbers ,different color paint. The crappy part is the Kurt has English hardware and the haas has metric hardware. I have to keep different bolts around for changing jaws.
Have that same Kurt vise. But mine has been modified. Has 1 extra hole I'm sure yours does not have. 🤣 weighs less if you have to remove it lol
BTW at the end of the day, what oil do you put on the vise leadscrew threads?
Nothing specific, right now there happens to be a can of PB blaster at the machine so I've been using that. I usually just use what ever lube in a can i find around the shop.
Whoever drew the original doesn't look like he actually knows what he wants.
If it's 3 parts, make 3 fucking drawings.
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