- What’s Happening Now – May 2022
- We added a Cliprail picture hanging system in the gallery. We have a 60 foot wall, 14 feet high for pictures – so we rented a scissor lift to get the job done safely. We also have two moveable gallery wall segments that each have 20 feet of space for pictures. The Cliprail system is good – it feels pretty solid and will handle the weight of the art we need to hang. And all the fittings are hidden, which is nice. We got it from Lee Valley tools.
- I am continuing on the Bell project. I had planned to use Raspberry Pi 4 computers to control the ringing at each bell, but they have become difficult to find these days, and the price has jumped from $40 to $160. I am looking into alternatives, including Arduino Uno Wifi, and the small and inexpensive node js boards. I need to lock this down in order to finalize the daughter card that will have the relays, sensors and power supply needed per bell.
- We placed a big steel order, and got quite a lot of big, heavy steel. And sore backs for a day.
- I’m continuing the Voronoi cubbies project – I’m going to do a series of these boxes with varying numbers of cubbies: 1, 2, 3, 4… up to 15 or 20 cubbies. It is interesting to see how the Voronoi pattern evolves as more points are added.
- What’s Happening Now – April 2022
- Working on Voronoi Cubbies. I really like the Voronoi pattern, as used in nature by the patterns on a giraffe and the wings of a dragon fly. It’s an interesting mathematical solution for filling a space. I designed a square shelf unit, and then filled out the shelves using a Voronoi pattern. I cut the top and bottom plates on the CNC router, and then cut the dividers by hand, carefully fitting them into the slots provided by the CNC router. It’s been an interesting project. I’m considering making a bunch of them. The cubbies will be painted.
Fitting dividers for the cubbies 
Fitting dividers for the cubbies 
With the top plate fitted.
- While cutting the Voronoi panel, I had an error in my cutting tool path, which ended up with a loose piece of wood being in the path of the 1/2″ router bit. As the cutter passed by, the piece of wood was thrown from the CNC router, and exited the building via a window in the garage door. It was slightly exciting.
Hole where the CNC Router flung a piece of wood - I am continuing to work on the bell project. I have shifted focus to the design of the IO electronics board for a while. I’m planning to use a Raspberry Pi 4 as the control computer, and the IO board will connect using the 2×20 pin bus. The IO board will have relays, inputs, power supply, servo connections, etc. It has to be adaptable to power all the different kinds of mechanisms that will be required to ring bells, from thimble size, to church size! It will ring bells via solenoids, stepper motors, and dc gear motors. The inputs will be used for limit switches and user buttons.
- We’ve been installing a gallery picture hanging system with rails, and cables that hang down.
- We are upgrading our dust collection. Our current dust collector is a Laguna system, and it’s not meeting our expectations at all. It was pretty horrible to assemble, and just doesn’t work well. We are planning to relegate it to about 1/2 of the shop and are trying out a Harvey Woodworking G-700 for use with the table saw and jointer. Why don’t dust collector manufacturers provide more than one remote? Or even the option to buy multiple remotes??
- Looking into making more Voronoi cubbies.
- The main shop air compressor is failing. It could be the motor or the relay that controls the motor. We are looking into it!
- Working on Voronoi Cubbies. I really like the Voronoi pattern, as used in nature by the patterns on a giraffe and the wings of a dragon fly. It’s an interesting mathematical solution for filling a space. I designed a square shelf unit, and then filled out the shelves using a Voronoi pattern. I cut the top and bottom plates on the CNC router, and then cut the dividers by hand, carefully fitting them into the slots provided by the CNC router. It’s been an interesting project. I’m considering making a bunch of them. The cubbies will be painted.
- What’s Happening Now – March 2022
- Back from Workbenchcon in Atlanta. It was a lot of fun to catch up with everyone again!
- Getting back to the projects. A lot of things to do!
- Dealt with some Plumbing issues
- Dealt with some sound system issues
- Working on a series of videos for students
- Making stands for bells
- What’s Happening Now – February 2022
- Starting to travel more these days – heading to Workbenchcon.com at the end of the month. I guess I have to dig out my suitcase!
- Working on Bell stands and mechanisms for ringing bells.
- Ordered some cool stuff from StickerMule.com – we’re getting some stickers and pins with a picture of the sign on ’em! Very cool.
- Also, getting some winter toques with our logo on ’em. Hit me up at Workbenchcon!
- Playing with Rhino/Grasshopper and generative design some more – working on some Voronoi cubbies, and also a large sculpture.
- What’s Happening Now – Jan 2022
- We’ve been working hard on some infrastructure things – there’s a lot of stuff that just has to get done, but isn’t all that glamorous…
- Cleaning up our storage area – getting things into boxes, big clear labels on things. Looking forward to this for a long time
- More work on the Bells project – this is a long term project with a lot of aspects. I’ve been working on making display stands for the bells we have now, which will help with the design of the mechanisms to actually ring the bells, and will help me determine how many different ringing mechanisms we’ll need for all the various sorts of bells we will have.
- Looks like I’m heading to Workbenchcon this year – gotta book flights and hotel for that.