Crafts / Craftsmen / craftswomen (craftspeople, I suppose)

You may want to have a look at your competitors before marketing those shelves.

https://www.untothislast.co.uk/collections/shelving-step-shelving/products/cd-100

1 Attachment

Valchromat is quite expensive in smaller quantities. Like a lot of different boards, anything outside of ply/mdf/chipboard is a big step up in price and harder to obtain.

Thanks! They do a same size, for £65 in white finished birch ply. I don't think I could realistically do it cheaper/nicer.

I'm guessing they use a jig and router to cut it, or a cnc router. If you got set up for large amounts the cost would come down but £65 is already very cheap.

I wasn’t suggesting you try and undercut them. Good on you if you came up with the design independently. Knowing they’ve been producing it for years though, I’d say it’s questionable to produce an identical product.

Nuce!

I might have seen that or something similar, but wasn't a deliberate thing. Making stuff to sell is hard. You can't get away with the little bits that you know are wrong but can't be arsed to fix. So on mine the painting is a bit shoddy and one of the tips has split quite badly.

Finished table for eldest child bedroom, made from off cuts, unfortunately due to not wanting to waste any wood it is too big! Smaller one made from scant and scaffolding boards.

Anybody want a table...?

4 Attachments

First full “sample” before I throw some gold onto @Hulsroy pride and joy

An old frame a friend gave me that had just been recoated. Went down well. The key line for the letters is around 1.5mm, all hand painted using 1shot size, 23ct leaf and 1shot black enamel.

Hatcher Components is it

First interesting making in a while. Test pot made from a vacuum mould out of coloured dental plaster.

Plan is to scale up to make a concrete one about a foot tall.

Note to self: Inner hexagon needs to be more central.

2 Attachments

Hi,

I was wondering about your wood carvings. Do you use a dremel or something similar to carve/sand them? If so what attachments do you use?
Thanks

I mostly use various shapes and sizes of Pfeil gouge to shape the wood, though to speed up the process, I'll often saw out some parts, or even ( carefully ) drill into the initial shape, as it's not only quicker, but can also be less risky than just whacking away with a mallet and chisel.

This soup ladle was cut to shape with a couple of saws ( I'd love a bandsaw for this ) and then the bowl was drilled out, before carving the shape with gouges and fine tuning the shape with wood rasps.

Carving in progress:

Finished ladle:

@dangeek - This guy uses a Dremel type tool, and makes some really nice stuff :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fhwwMOaqa4

https://www.instagram.com/jonasolsenwoodcraft/

Cool thanks.
It's actually some cooking spoons I'm making. I've made some in the past from green wood but this time I'm trying the process you've used for the ladle.
I want to speed the process up to make in small batches.
Eventually I hope to sell them and give the money to a charity which provides food to people who are in need.

those spoons are great ^

little bits of making here. train pass/ticket holder, wallet and a door wedge from a salvaged bit of oak

5 Attachments

laser cut leather stinks btw :)

first time on the lathe. good fun. would lathe again.

How do people store lumps of tree wood to minimise splitting?

5 Attachments

As far as I know, you take the lump of tree and put it on the lathe to get a rough cylinder, then leave it to dry. As it dries check then and if you spot a crack forming put it back on the lathe to take it down until there is no crack.

theres been some talk of leaving it in the shed so it doesnt dry out too fast. given the state of my shed roof it will probably get wetter :)

I know there's some argument about painting the end grain with emulsion to stop it drying out too fast...

I guess this is probably the right place to ask... Can anyone suggest a CAD package for drawing up a design from sheet material?

I've been using AutoCAD but afaik it doesn't have anything built in that will helpfully convert the design to flat shapes, figure in tolerances or check for stress points. It's also a ball ache to design in 3D.

Fusion 360 has a sheet metal function, I’ve not used it too much but it seems ok.