• Back from some travels out west. Built a cool lamp using the outline of my brother’s face.

  

• @theGrantAlexander needed a Tesla logo for a project of his. I cut it for him on the CNC – the whole thing was just over 48″ tall. It came out great – I think it would look cool backlit.
• I ordered a Prusa 3D printer (MK3S+). It is really great actually. One of those “it just works” printers. 3D printers have come so far from the first ones – I used to have to spend hours tuning the machine before I could print something. Now, just walk up to it, and print – and it works! My first printer was this: Printrbot
• I updated the sign in front of our studio: By Grabthar’s Hammer!

• I’m taking a bit of time off in August – There won’t be as many updates as normal.
• Working on a big improvement to the shop compressed air supply. A proper air dryer is in progress, as well as automatic tank drainage.
• Working on tiles for the Quicktime project.
• Bells are arriving, which is interesting.
• Breadboarding a fairly complex Raspberry Pi Pico hardware system, and then to write some code. Excited to try MQTT on Raspberry Pi.
• Updated the sign outside our studio: Make Art Every Day
• Working on a silly little lamp. The Andy Lamp.
• Writing a bunch of code these days.

• People are liking our postcard dispenser! Nice to see whole families stop by to pick up some postcards.
• Working on some interesting CNC pieces based on the Google QuickDraw dataset. 
• We’re working on a video about how we made our Pride display. This should be out soon.
• I got the letters off the big outdoor sign for my old company “InGenius” and I’m figuring out what to do with them!
• We have put some letters on the roof of the shop – now just have to wait for Google and Apple to take pictures from space!
• I took the little “Bonhomme” logo and mounted it on a piece of plywood. We’ll put that up in the shop somewhere. And by little, I mean 5 feet tall.
• I’ve got a bunch of Python code running to process the Google QuickDraw dataset – creating GCode, SVG images, and a CSV File we can use to do a big mail merge. Still trying various techniques for how to reliably CNC carve, and then paint these wood pieces.
• Working on a “Birds” piece for my sister-in-law, based on her awesome IG Channel “onehundredbirds” 
• Updated the sign with the chemical formula CH3COOC5H11 which you can read about here.
• Added lighting to our laser, and properly calibrated the USB camera that lets us view and align things on the cutting surface.
• Made a “Fragile/This way UP” stencil for a large box we’re shipping soon.
• Made a t-shirt using the UP stencil
• Set up a water hose system with a hose reel. 
• Changed the sign outside our studio: Lets Dance Like: Evan Finds the Third Room – which is a cool video we like.
• Working on a large “In” sign that will light up when I arrive at work, and turn off when I leave.
• It’s Gise’s last week! So, we’re filming a bunch of overdue video things.
• Finished the In sign – it’s 6 feet square and completely ridiculous.
• Got a video up about repurposing  the large letters from the old InGenius sign.
• I started buying some bells for a new long term project, which I think is pretty interesting.
• Cut some 3.5 inch disks for ReallyHorribleEnterprises
• Bought some wood for making QuickDraw tiles.
• A schaublin 102 lathe has arrived, and that is excellent.

• Just finished off a few stools – basically playing around with various design ideas and fabrication techniques. Furniture is hard! Very picky to get something that feels the right size for multiple people.
• Thinking about some ideas for Pride month.
• Also thinking about some more public projects. Some outside, publicly available things. Probably longer term ideas.
• Refinished and welded an aluminum outdoor bench. 
• Building a banana-shaped holder for postcards which will be attached to the sign outside our studio
• Helped a friend fix a kitchen drawer
• Met with Daniel Marciano, an interesting woodworker here in Ottawa
• Had a nice BBQ lunch with our good friend Jon
• Finished and installed the postcard holder

• Working on a Pride project…

• The Clock video was released and got a lot of nice comments.
• We updated the sign outside our studio – “Lets be effervescently strange.”
• Completing a set of bookcases with a built-in sleeping platform – should be done this week.
• Welded up a spike to hold a bird feeder in the front yard of our new house.
• I got the camera working with our new-to-us X700 laser – so you can see an image of the item you are going to cut on screen in Lightburn and line up the cut quite precisely. I’m impressed by Lightburn.
• Working on a new video for the Plasma Cutter. It will be nerdy video.
• Working on a 3 foot by 9 foot live-edge walnut island for the kitchen in the studio. I’m welding up some legs for the island out of 2 inch square steel tube. This is a bit of overkill. I’m using a combination of MIG and TIG welding to weld all the pieces together. Gotta keep practicing the TIG! The photos below show the base with primer paint.
• And, here’s the finished table!!

• Also working on a stool. I’m starting with a design by Frank Gehry, and then I’ll see where it goes from there.
• Finished that stool, and learned a lot. Too heavy. Impossible to sand. Add more alignment pins. Pin nail as assembling each layer. Hard to apply finish. All that said, I really like the looks of it. It’s pleasant.
• Working on another stool, of my own design. I’m sure this one will also have it’s challenges! Photos soon.
• I updated the sign – XYZZY which is a transporter command in an early video game. 
• I plasma cut some address numbers for our cottage. I think they came out nicely!