Making – Projects

May 26, 2022

Basket Weave Holster and Belt

My leather work only improves through practice, so practice i do. I saw this great YouTube video from Adams LeatherWorks who also sells beautiful holsters and magazine pouches as well as patterns which are available at https://www.adamsleatherworks.com. I decided I had to give it a go, and fortunately Tandy Leather was having a sale on culattas at my local store.

The Culatta from Tandy was pretty nice Veg-Tan leather, but I always try and layout personal practice stuff from the less desirable areas like the belly, so I can save the nicer portions for gifts for others. You can see that there was a ton of real estate left once I did a basic layout. I hope to share what the rest went too soon.

The pattern from Adams leather work was pretty easy to follow and like I noted above with a link. A great tutorial video on how it was created and how to use it is available. I really think buying the pattern was worth the under $10 kongbucks it cost for the results.

Tooling Practice, finish, and Basket Weave

BasketWeave_Holster_antique — BasketWeave_Holster_oil

I also got in some practice “tooling” a basket weave pattern on the holster. Really the only way to improve your tooling and stamping is to do it. I had to do several test pieces before I was comfortable enough to move on. Once it was no so wonky I did a oil and antique to the panels prior to assembly. I have referenced Don Gonzales’ https://dgsaddlery.com tutorials before which are also very great.

Assembly of Holster and Magazine pouch

I did saddle stitch the holster by had so the stitch lines did not match the pattern completely. I also joke around that I figured out why they are called pancake holsters as they look like pancakes prior to wet molding them to the gun. I need to practice my saddle stitching to improve the look, but the point of this holster is practice! I know the mahogany edges and purple thread were not the combination I envisioned, but like how it came out.

A Belt to match

A new basket weave holster would not be right without a matching belt, so I did a little more practice. I joked on Instagram that I need to go on a diet, so my future belts are less work. I did get lazy and sew the belt stitching on a machine so the thread is not a match. I also got some nice straps out of the culatta, so bonus. The stitching was not perfect but it still amazes me what a Sailrite LSZ-1 will sew. It got a 8-10 oz culatta strap with an 4-8 oz double shoulder liner sewn together. I’ll admit it was not perfect sewing as the 6-ish mm (about 1/4 inch) barely fit under the presser foot and needle. I did not feed the belt smoothly it would vary the stitch length or break the needle. Oops! I am really wanting to try the new portable servo motor upgrade but cannot justify the expense when I can hand crank. I got the Sailrite as I wanted portable. If I continue to do thick leather maybe giving up portable for a cylinder arm machine may be another option.

Not a bad result considering it was my 3rd holster attempt. I am proud of the outcome but see things I can improve on. Having a multimold gun to form the holster is nice, so I don’t have to wet mold leather around a gun. I will need to expand beyond the 1911 commander, so either more multimold or blue guns are in my future.

Like I said I’m proud of the results of a third holster attempt.

January 1, 2022

K40 gets some long overdue upgrades and testing

I have had some upgrades sitting on the shelf for a long time for the K40 laser cutter I got years ago. Some have been around since I originally got the machine, but I wanted to get all the life from the stock parts. I finally installed them.

The upgrades.

LightObjects Air assist head
18mm ZnSe 50.8mm FL lens
fresh 20mm primary mirror
5mp USB camera for Lightburn

Just a short list but they make a big difference over the stock 12mm lens and head. I got them installed along with a 5mp camera to pair with Lightburn to assist with object positioning.

K40_overdue_updates_camera — K40_overdue_updates_head

If you are not running Lightburn software with your laser cutter. You should be. It is bar none the best with very responsive development team. I am a big supporter of open source, but pay for the license to support those guys. It is worth it, and my contribution via renewal barely buys them beers. You cannot go wrong for the price and what you get with a responsive development team. They read their forum and answer questions. The great folks at LightBurn also make their 3d model available for the 5mp camera holder, and will sell you one from their store if you don’t have a printer. It was a bit too tall for the LightObject Air assist head, so I had to go low profile with this model from Prusa Printers dot org. I’m still fiddling with the knobs on the calibration but visual location of cuts is going to be a game changer. I can cut small object from scraps now.

Testing the new Stuff

K40_overdue_updates_test2 — K40_overdue_updates_test3

Prior to the upgrades my K40 had issues with living hinge cutting. It may have been my settings or focal length setting. However the new Air Assist head and Z-table combined to make a great hinge with minor scorching which was my big issue before. Charcoal does not flex well. Big shout out to DenzilMakes.com for the great test file box. You should check out his very nice work. There are lots of cool designs on the site. It made it look easy because he did all the hard work. There are even instructions on assembly available via his blog.

Sneak Peak for the future.

I did this long over due blog update while I was waiting for a fresh compile of OpenCV. I have been wanting to Open Computer Vision to convert stereo images to point clouds for a long while, for 3D modeling of real life. Well as a cheapskate, I could not justify buying a 3D scanner or Stereo Camera. What to do? Well check the parts drawer for what I have. A plain RaspberryPi zero and a RaspberryPi Zero W had been gifted to me years ago by a friend who wanted more power. I had some “Original” V1 camera modules to, well maybe they are knockoffs, but I cannot tell. The final physical piece was an OTG data transfer cable for cell phones. This will provide better resolution that my failed ESP32CAM attempt. I really should document failures too.

I got the basic Pi on the network by connecting it to the Pi W via the Ethernet gadget. I followed Adafruit’s guide for the most part. I had to do static IP addressing on the USB0 network on both of the Pies, and a little iptables forwarding. Note do not forget to enable forwarding in the /etc/sysconf.conf. I got everything working, after fighting with the camera cables a bit.

I then used Max Davaev of PiKVM’s great ustreamer to get the cameras accessible to the network for stream capture. This low latency streamer is just the ticket for the lightweight Pi’s, but full frame rate video may be a bit much for the available memory. Single image capture however is very responsive at full resolution.

I worked on my industrial design and worked on a FreeCad parametric model of a “case” for the things and it only took 3 revisions to get it usable. The cameras are 66mm apart or the normal human eye spacing, but the design will support up to 110mm for better stereo vision. I didn’t cut out the lens opening for the wider setting, but the design is parametric so one edit on the spreadsheet and a re-export and conversion of the STL into a SVG for the laser cutter. Props to tinker cad for the easy conversion from stl to svg via import and export.

K40_overdue_StereoCam_v03 — K40_overdue_StereoCam_assembly

I hope to update once I get some point clouds captured and converted to meshes. I hope to spawn the mesh processing onto the ARM BigLittle cluster which recently got a OS upgrade. end of word vomit… I saw a great makers site that is short sweet and too the point. I should really copy that style. “raw data for raw nerves“

April 14, 2021

Raspberry PiCase Overkill

Scope creep is a project issue many of us have. I always creep when I decide to mix media of my hobbies. This one gets 3 of the many hobbies.

I started with the idea to build a simple plywood box to carry a Raspberry Pi and some associated tools for on the go hardware troubleshooting. What did I get? A leather wrapped treasure chest of troubleshooting tools. I wanted to have a “pirate chest” motif with a “sample case” style flap opening that could hold the keyboard and tools. It had to highlight the “edge grain” of the plywood too. I may have gotten close on the aesthetic I wanted, but the scope creep made this more than a simple case.

The Contents of the box before cable management.

Raspberry Pi 4 8G
JYE Tek DSO Coral Oscilloscope
Bus Pirate V3
fx2lafw compatible Logic Analyzer
USB C/HDMI Full HD LCD from KYY
40000 mah USB C power brick
USB mouse and keyboard
probes and cables.
3.3v and 5v compatible USB TTL serial adapter
breadboard and 3.3v and 5V adjustable power supply

The Raspberry Pi 4 is setup with the stock OS with my favorite Sigrok and pulseview setup for the fx2lafw compatible logic analyzer. Sigrok/Pulseview is my go to tool for troubleshooting serial, i2c, and 2 wire things. I have also added my buspirate v3 inside the case for good measure, but don’t mess with JTAG much anymore. Arduino IDE is also installed including the ESP32 and ESP 8266 stuff setup as well. More on those projects to come.

PiCase woodworking

I wanted to highlight the “edge grain” of the plywood, so I used my Milescraft saw guide to cut the 18mm (3/4 inch) Baltic Birch plywood into strips and re-laminated it back together to make panels that show the “grain.” That inexpensive saw guide amazes me with the consistency and ease of use for the small price. I then box jointed the bottom for extra glue area strength and inset supports for the contents. I left the top open so the leather skin could wrap and form a rounded top. I also decided to skin the outside of the wooden carcuss with 3mm Baltic Birch plywood for extra support of the leather. Of course I used Danish Oil on the wood because it highlighted the layers.

PiCase Leather work

Springfield Leather Company always confuses me. I bought a 2-3 ounce grade “D” veg tan leather side to use for structural reinforcement for some other projects from them. It was nice enough that I started dreaming up this leather case. The description definitely under sold the quality of this 33 square foot discount side. It will make great stiffeners for other things, but made some nice “show” panels for this case. I could not justify cutting up the bend area to get the brand mark on this case, but thought about it. These mostly clean panels came off the shoulder area. I love leather for the character that it was once a live animal. If I wanted perfect I would use vinyl.

A quick swipe with the strap cutter to make some accent strips and some Fiebing’s Pro Dye in chocolate. It made the accents and I tried a new Renia Aquilim 315 contact cement to assemble and attach the panels to the case. I do like the water based cement and did not have to get “high” to make this project. Saving the last few brain cells is always good. I added some copper cut nails as accents to add to my pirate motif, as well as some snaps and a buckle to keep the sample case flap closed. I of course treated the leather with my Leather Balm V0.1.

PiCase finsh

It was a fun project that started from a simple idea to a joecad 1 cm = 1 inch scale drawing. Oh yes, I mixed metric and “freedom units” in my build. I initially did a FreeCad mock up of a wooden case, before unrolling the leather and getting scope creep and deciding on changing my design from a simple plywood box to a leather wrapped treasure chest of troubleshooting tools. I may consider adding a TS80 USB Iron to the kit, but that is just more scope creep.

It will not replace my “lab” workbench but it is mobile.

March 19, 2021

Leather Balm Batch V 0.1

I really like Smith’s Leather Balm, but I cannot justify sending an 8 dollars starter tin to everyone I make a leather item for. I know you can get them in bulk at a discount, but as I am still trying to justify a startup and if I’m going to sell stuff. I’m a tight wad. I recommend their balm you should try it. However if your like me. Monkey see monkey do making I decided to try my hand at making some balm. I started with the Wikipedia recipe for British Museum Leather dressing variation with the neatsfoot oil as I had that on hand.

50 g Bee’s wax
20 g anhydrous lanolin
30 ml Neatsfoot oil
5 ml cedar oil
50 ish ml of custom corn degreaser

Making the British Museum leather dressing based balm

LeatherBalm_Lanolin — LeatherBalm_beeswax

It is pretty simple to make. Just weight out the ingredients. More liquid oils can make the finish product a bit softer at room temperature. Melt the wax and lanolin in a “double boiler” and add the other liquids. Remove from the heat and add the solvent while stirring constantly. I skipped the hexane of the true British Museum Leather dressing and used some custom corn based degreaser which resembles “moonshine.” It is sourced by a friend and so I don’t ask many questions. It is great for cleaning parts, and is cleaner in my opinion that off the shelf isopropyl alcohol. I used the “cut” version about 80-ish proof. It is also less toxic that hexane or X-4 solvent. I also used less solvent as I did not want it to flash off to much even if it has a higher water content. I ordered some little 1 oz tins from Amazon which is the perfect size.

Leather Balm V 0.1 results.

I tested it this first batch on a very dry 1-2 oz veg tan leather made into a luggage tag. It did not darken the leather too much as you can see on the left treated vs untreated on the right. It did however do a nice job of softening this very dry leather. It is a little flaky in consistency in the tin, and I suspect some other essential oils may be added in the next batch, as the cedar oil has a strong smell. I may even rip off smiths and use some sweet almond oil as I like that smell.

I will use up this batch and see how the results compare to other treatments I’ve tried. I’m also working on a source for bees wax as I see some woodworker’s paste wax recipes coming soon too.

February 27, 2021

Holiday Pocket Journal Covers

I continue to work out processes to improve my leather craft and have been toying around with the idea of a little side business selling products. One big factor in doing this is to get consistent results. I decided to go and make a batch of Holiday pocket journal covers for my family for the holidays. Learning experience as I got distracted and it was well into February before they were in the mail. I did learn a ton on consistent crafting and process.

Die cutting with a clicker press

The first step in my learning process was to really utilize steel rule dies and clicker press. I am still working out using the laser cutter to make my own steel rule dies, and it is a slow process but now that I have a few sets of import dies. It gives me an understanding of what I need to do to get this working.

This project used a Journal cover from LEETHER Store on Aliexpress It was well made and inexpensive. They are a great resource and shipped my selections almost next day, so the delay from China was not too bad. I also used a clicker press from amazon, as prime free shipping saved me a boatload over direct from China ordering. I want one of the Weaver master tools Mighty Wonder presses, but my hobby budget cannot afford it Yet. The more I use my current dies and clicker the more I learn what I want in tools.

Holiday_pocket_journal_covers_clicker_results

Holiday_pocket_journal_covers_clicker_dies

Holiday_pocket_journal_covers_clicker_size

Holiday_pocket_journal_covers_clicker_remnants

Holiday_pocket_journal_covers_clicker_press

Leather Edge Craft

Holiday_pocket_journal_covers_edges_internal

I have also worked to improve my edge craft. I did a light burnish on the interior exposed edges prior to assembly using Tokonole. That stuff is magic. A little slicking with the Tokonole and then a polish with some canvas cloth and a rubbing stick.

A touch of water can be used first to really get a slick edge. See the main photo of the assembled covers edged. Slicked with water and then Tokonole with the drill press burnisher from Pro Edge Burnishers who’s website sadly has the 404 of sadness. I hate to see small business go, but the current pandemic climate has been hard on folks.

Journals Final Assembly

I made a glue template to reduce over gluing the pieces, and used some Barge contact cement. Once the glue had dried. I stitched the edges with the thread color of my family’s choice. I still need to work on my edge guide and straight stitching. The pen loops caused a bit of an issue with consistency. I was stitching at the limit of my Sailrite Ultrafeed lsz-1, even with the walking foot. It had a hard time with the slippery and stiff vegetable tanned leather during layer transitions. I think I could do some minor bobbin tension adjustments to get a better underside stitch, and some foot pressure adjustment to get the missed stitches during transitions under control. The transitions near the pen loop on the pattern are 3 layers of 4-5 oz leather and gauge right at 7mm (0.275591 in)assembled. The Journals are all 5.5mm (0.216535 inches) most other places but have a slope towards the edge due to the inside pockets. I will have to skive the pockets in the future for easier assembly. I have sewn thicker belts 6.5 MM (0.255906 inches) which is above the published limit of the Ultrafeed lsz-1, but all one consistent thickness. The Salirite Ultrafeed lsz-1 handles those belts perfectly especially with the monster balance wheel.

Sailrite also has some new SD1 point needles from Schmetz which may tear out the veg tan less with the new point shape. I’ll have to try some out as the DIA i’m using does tear the veg tan on exit just a bit. I some times use round point if it is too bad, but those break sewing heavy leather.

Once I got the stitches in. I did a quick 3d printed embossing stamp for each family member’s name and embossed their journal cover. These are created in OpenScad and Tony Buser’s OpenScad Bitmap Font’s Module. I update this module to mirror the text and then use my clicker press to emboss the name onto the journal cover.

Per usual I do a coat of Smith’s Leather balm and you can see in the photo how it brings out the beauty of the vegetable tanned leather. The three on the left of the rack have been balm’d and the 4 on the right are naked and pale, as are the ones in the stitching color photo.

Finally I trimmed some covers on some pocket journal sized fillers and loaded them up. I trimmed the covers as it makes it easier to insert the Pocket Journals which are 90×140 mm or 3.54×5.51 inches, into the covers without too much bending.

Holiday_pocket_journal_covers_Smiths_leather_balm

Holiday_pocket_journal_covers_glue_template

Holiday_pocket_journal_covers_stitching_color_choices

Holiday_pocket_journal_covers_embossed_name

I will likely do one more batch test before committing to actual sales of these.

November 6, 2020November 6, 2020

Tin Foil Hat Wallets and more leather craft updates

TinFoilHat_Wallet_MissionDarknes_TitanRF

I went to a talk ages ago at DefCon that discussed “drive by” attacks for RFID credit cards. My bank refuses to send me a card without “tap to pay” so I started making my own Wallets to protect myself. This Tin Foil Hat Wallets TM building is really why I started Leather craft, and here is my latest.

Tin Foil Hat Wallets TM

I use a single layer of Mission Darkness TitanRF Faraday fabric bonded to the outer shell to provide the protection for the wallet contents. My last 3 Personal wallets used this construction technique. I am just now getting into the electronics of RF testing as being from Missouri the “Show Me State” I don’t believe anything I have not seen for myself. I will update accordingly as I determine the fitness of this Faraday fabric. I will post an electronics blog post once this is proven good.

You can see the improvement in the new form factor on the right over my last revision which went a year. The new “card wallet bi-fold” doesn’t have a bill’s pocket which was a hang up for me in the past. I just don’t carry cash like I used to. The old revision had the Titan RF in the cash pocket.

I will miss the Natural Veg-Tan patina but like the combination of the Wicket and Craig Slate Skirting sourced from District Leather Supply and Sunguard Sunflower from Sailrite made a much nicer compact wallet. The Skirting is very nice to the touch, and I see myself using some more of Wicket and Craig’s fine leather in the future. District Leather treats even small crafters like myself very well, and my orders from them have always processed promptly. It is why I do business with companies like them and Sailrite. Treating the small guy like one of your regular large volume customers always gains my business.

Sewing at the Limits for Leather Craft and more

I made the decision over a year ago to go with the Sailrite Ultrafeed LSZ-1 It is a great compromise for hobbyist like myself. I want a cylinder arm machine but would never do with out my LSZ-1. I push the boundaries of sanity sewing things it may have never been designed to sew, but it has taken everything I have thrown at it and only broken down once. Sailrite made it right by sending me a replacement next day even after I told them what I was doing. I self repaired it and it continues to amaze me. They provide great YouTube videos for their customers on How To sew and repair. Here I sewed 3 layers of 5.5-6 Oz Wickett and Craig Skirting, just over 6MM about 1/4 of an inch. It handled it. I did get the thread tension mal-adjusted so it was not the prettiest stitching as after pulling the first attempt the existing holes in the leather caused the needle to wander and break a few times. Operator error.

You can see here during my testing before I messed up the tension adjustment. Smooth even stitching and even backed up into existing holes evenly on top with the Size 22 needle. The bottom with the Size 20 was fraying the V92 size poly thread just a touch, so I moved up a size.

Hybrid Sewing

I Decided on the Ultrafeed LSZ-1 because I do a lot of hybrid sewing so it was a great compromise. Even if I push its limits. This padded chrome book case is an example. Canvas and leather sewn with a rubber backed carpet padding sandwich construction. Zig-Zag stitches to keep the padding in place in the panels and leather accents and gussets. I even used binding to give the inside a finished look with the Sailrite binding attachment. I could have gotten a bigger machine but would have had to give up zig-zag and sewing more delicate things with smaller threads. I just have to get creative on setup to sew some things like the leather handle loops.

CanvasAndLeather_ChromebookCase_zig_zag — CanvasAndLeather_ChromebookCase

Up Coming Leather projects

I have been testing steel rule dies to click out Leather craft project parts as I may start gifting or selling small scale goods. Here is a teaser of the Journal covers, card wallets, and flap top card wallets I’m testing construction on. Tin Foil Hat wallets TM will be as always a special request item. I tested pre-punched stitching holes too, but my hand sewing is worse that improper tensioned machine sewing. Not to mention I would have to charge a ton for my time. I could always sell kits like the people on that annoying pin subscription site which clogs google image search with mandatory sign up request before you can see image. Must be good business as he who pays google the most gets the top two pages of search results.

April 20, 2020

MakerMask build for respirator

I always love the opensource maker movement. People will publish free to use things that are needed, and go the extra steps to get their designs reviewed by the NIH for “certification as community use.” The folks at MakerMask.com did just that. I love projects so I could not pass up the opportunity to print me a few.

It started for me as a friend

needed some work done on his new 3D printer to print some of these. I did some test prints on the printer after testing and decided I could print some for me as well.

MakerMask_dot_com_mine2 — MakerMask_dot_com_mine

I had to do some repairs to my old Solidoodle 3, which had gotten a cheap knock off E3D print head to replace the factory print head. Once I got the very annoying “air print” issue resolved. I began printing MakerMask. The beta unit to test fit and finish printed with little or no issues.

MakerMask_dot_com_beta2 — MakerMask_dot_com_beta

Assembly of the beta unit went smoothly as well once all the parts were printed. I did have to sand a few parts to ensure a snug fit. Once the 0.1 mm layer height was tuned on the printer. I could also print the valves. All the body and filter parts print at 0.3 mm layers to speed up printing.

The old Solidoodle 3 prints the body without too much drama once it is tuned up.

Now on to the next project while these print in the background. I estimate even at the 0.3 mm layer “fast print” these take about 10 hours on the Solidoodle 3 to print all the parts if I empty the bed and rotate the prints in a timely fashion. I have sourced some HEPA rated filters from some air cleaners to cut up and put into the filter housings once they are finished printing, as I don’t know the rating on available vacuum bags available.

December 20, 2019

Early Spring Hydroponics Vinyl downspout system.

Lets Get ready for Spring before Christmas! I already started some seedlings and ordered my spring seeds!

I do not deny that I watch a bunch of YouTube videos to find out how to do things. My Hydroponics endeavors are no different. My original hybrid DWC/NFT system was based on a video I saw. However, the cost of the vinyl fence post always troubled me. It is also special order at any big box store.

I recently saw the videos on “Keep on Growin’ with Mike VanDuzee” He is my kind of guy, always looking to reduce the cost of Hydroponic gardening. He has a series on using vinyl downspouts from the big box store to save cost. It easier to source and a bit cheaper that the fence post. I had to give it a go. I believe you can order pre-made units directly from him.

I also saw the “DakineApproaches” YouTube auto watering Kratky method reservoir indicators and had to add that as well. I could never thank BA Kratky enough for sharing his knowledge, and pushing me to learn more about not only design ideas but chemistry and nutrient utilization.

Let the making begin!

Vinyl_Downspout_Kratky_method_10ft_Honda

One quick trip the the Orange big box store. It always is amazing what you can stuff in a Honda Accord, like 10 ft vinyl downspouts and PVC pipes.

I decided to mix 2 and 3 inch net cups to provide the most versatility. One 10 ft downspout made into three 40 inch runs with net cups on 8 inch centers starting 4 inches from the end. I plan to use this for lettuce indoors as you can expect lettuce to bolt in the Texas heat. The larger cups can support Pak Choi as well. Lettuce will be a perfect Kratky Method crop. I just monkey see monkey do some rails to plant them in. Since I don’t have a yard at my house outdoor space is limited. The form factor is perfect for inside under the LED lights.

Vinyl_Downspout_Kratky_method_plug_epoxy — Vinyl_Downspout_Kratky_method_Net_cups

Using the closed cell foam board in a pvc pipe to indicate fluid levels is as genius as the Kratky Method itself, and testing shows how simple it is. If you see the foam the reservoir has fluid.

All the skills and hobbies are tied together.

I did a quick mock up of an end cap in Lightburn and laser cut a test fit piece in plywood. I then cut out some acrylic end caps which are much cheaper that store bought fittings. I did not follow the example Keep on Growin’Mike VanDuzee where I first saw the downspout idea. He used a heat gun to fold up the downspout ends, but it leaves it open. I may convert this to hybrid DWC/NFT like the fence post model. I also am clumsy and don’t want any spilling inside. I also hate mosquito which TX has in spades. Of course I did not have any glue so 2 part Epoxy it is. It ran a bit and I will do a full leak down test as I am uncertain about the vinyl bond with the epoxy.

Vinyl_Downspout_Kratky_method_plug_testing

Vinyl_Downspout_Kratky_method_plug_acrylic — Vinyl_Downspout_Kratky_method_plug_testing

Now the wait on the seedlings begins, but he pak choi is sprouting.

December 5, 2019

K40 for the Holidays and votive lanterns.

I’ve been in an odd holiday mood, and I am just as shocked as those people who know me. I normally get my Humbug on early and finish strong, so this early season spirt is an odd one.

Candle Lantern

I have been kicking around the idea and did a quick search on thingaverse and found thing 2755535, “Decorative LED Votive Lantern”. I loaded the thing up in Lightburn and sent it to the Cohesion3d Mini I had installed in my K40. Like magic the samples came out, and fit up nice. I got some LED Votives for them for safety. They are pretty nice for the less than half a kong buck price if you buy a pile. You cannot get the coin cell batteries for that to make your own.

Nativity Scene Votive Holder.

So now to satisfy my Christmas holiday mood I found some SVG files on Pixabay.com. The first was a Nativity Figures which I added the Star of Bethlehem and remixed the Thingaverse model in Boxy-SVG. I then fired up the Orion Motor Tech K40 with mods and presto like magic. Three wise men and their 3 camels visiting Mary, Joseph, a shepard, and his live stock all paying homage to Sweet Baby Jesus. The openings display images on the room backdrop.

Bonus Holiday spirt for others

Not everyone likes Sweet Baby Jesus holiday themes, so I gave thingaverse a search and found thing 603237. The Tie Fighter & X-Wing Laser Cut Ornaments were a bit hard to part out as they have tabs. But once freed from the card Tree Ornaments were had.

Now to decide if I should rush out some samples to all the friends and family for the Holidays…..

August 23, 2019August 23, 2019

Box of fabric shorts learning

Almost every order from Sailrite, I throw in a box of fabric shorts, as it is a great challenge to me to make something from the highly discounted fabrics inside. I never know what I will find inside, but they have been great fun. Previous boxes have yielded trix-or-treat-market-tote market-totes-again The August 2019 box was especially fun, and here are the things I built to learn.

Box of fabric shorts first piece

I got a great solid oak table as a hand me down from a friend, but my backside needed relief. I made some cushions for it. It was great practice for zipper plaques and getting the pattern to line up on the edge consistently. It was odd as the fabric had an 10 inch repeat on an 12 inch cushion.

Box of fabric shorts cushion plan
Box of fabric shorts cushion
Box of fabric shorts cushion2
Box of fabric shorts cushion twice

Box of fabric shorts second piece

The second piece out of the box was twenty seven inches of a nice vinyl coated fabric. I decided it would be a great protective bag for my folding solar panes for my Off grid Solar setup. Planning and layout was a challenge as the panels even folded are 24 inches square.

Box of fabric shorts twenty seven inches
Box of fabric shorts planning
Box of fabric shorts cut list

Once the plan was done and the pieces cut. I assembled them including a zipper plaque and continuous zipper install. The thin strip is the 24 by 1/2 inch remnant of the original piece it was a tight fit.

Box of fabric shorts zipper plaque
Box of fabric shorts zipper plaque2
Box of fabric shorts leftover

Once I got it sewn I turned it out and tested the panel fit. Perfect all 300 watts, or three by 100 watt panels and the extension cord fit inside perfectly.

Box of fabric shorts folding Solar Panel
Box of fabric shorts panel test fit
Box of fabric shorts cable too
Box of fabric shorts three all fit

Box of fabric shorts Still surprises in the box

There is a lot of learning and fun in the box still.