Making, Crafting, Creating... aka Whatcha workin' on?

They sell the lids, but there are a ton of tutorials on the internet on how to make them from scraps of PVC.

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I do have a can of pipe weld lying around.

Tomorrow I’m bringing my Ford Falcon to a car show that is being put on by my workplace. My car isn’t in pristine shape, though, so I was thinking to just theme it appropriately for one of the big projects that my workplace is involved in.

I used a 3D printer to ad an extra word to the car’s emblems. The rest is just foam core.

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I’ll take terrifying table saw operation for a thousand, Alex.

That’s also just a bit more complicated than I want. I’m thinking outlet centered on the lid and inlet at the edge and angled properly so the air is drawn against the side of the bucket. Maybe a mesh over the outlet to stop the more pesky bits of sawdust. Everything in the lid so if I screw it up I still have a bucket.

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Victory!

(Got the “best work in progress” trophy due to the rusty dent that needs fixing, but I’ll take it.)

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I’ll pretty much watch any video by Mathias Wandel!

His dust collector has evolved a lot over time; these days I think it has a wooden turbine driving it instead of a shop-vac.

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I saw the Texas on the end of the gun there, and my brain immediately screamed “Yeeeeee Hawwwwww! Don’t mess with Texas!” :joy_cat:

Looks good though! Good work!

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Congrats! Looks cool!

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This black walnut log deserves to be a couple of 4x4s.

Unfortunately it has termites, but fortunately they are all in the pith and bark, neither of which I was going to use for anything anyway.

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Work in progress (cropped)…a long-term project for my neighbors and indirectly for myself (as an opus painting for advertisement).
It’s a medium-sized canvas, 24X15, but it’s going to take some time because of a woven straw hat, many ringlets in the hair, and patterns in both the dress and pavement. I’m just going to take it in shifts, layer by layer, so I’m not muddying the paint or getting my hands in it.

Side Note: I really need some short money now, like yesterday (Food! Drink! Kitty Litter!).
I have some small panels ready for painting that I’d like to find homes for - two 6X8s and five 10X10s if anyone is interested. I can start as low as 50 bucks + mailer shipping. Feel free to DM me if you want my email.

Since they’re small, please no intricate subject matter. Simple is best.
Making my own reference photos is better, but I would accept very good photos as reference material. One subect, no intricate patterns, good focus, high resolution.

Example: Here’s my cat, Ruby. She has a simple fur pattern, and I’m not having to paint ringlets, woven material, or text. Hey, if you want a painting of Ruby, I’d do it!

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Ended up keeping it stupid simple. Inlet is two 90 degree elbows angled to direct incoming sawdust along the wall of the bucket. Outlet is a short section of vertical pipe in the center of the lid with another 90 degree elbow on the outside for ease of use. Seems to work well enough in my testing.

It’s hilarious because it’s his penis.

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I started working on one of Ruby, while the big painting is drying, for an example of how they could look. This one’s 10X10, in a diamond pattern. 3 1/2 hours progress, in an alla prima style. Figured I should break until morning or I’ll fudge something up royally.
Pores, finer sculpting, and whiskers tomorrow.

Cropped…

Original…

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I’m working on my latest webcomic, the graphic biography of David Bowie. I’m already 100 episodes in and it’s so meticulous that I’ve only reached 1960 at this point!
You can check out updates on my page: facebook.com/con.chrisoulis.artist

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Getting close to finished. I’ll be done tonight. Her coat is so full of neutral colors, I thought I’d perk it up a bit with some coral matched with her nose.

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In my quest to find uses for lesser Raspberry Pi 2s that have been replaced by 3s, I needed some speaker output. Rather than order a perfectly good Adafruit amp module, I decided to see what I could re-purpose from the local discount warehouse.

Portable Bluetooth speakers are everywhere, so older non-Bluetooth ones are sliding down the price scale. These “Splash” speakers, in fuggly green or purple, take audio and deliver surprising output (3W), powered/charged by USB. In ~$6 range depending on the clearance sale.


Naturally I dissected one. Board date stamp is 9/2012. The main board has an op amp, stereo jack (only right channel used), USB mini for power, a blue LED that could be used for emergency lighting, The 3.7V 320mAh battery unit seems to have all the power/charging/volt-shift stuff included. (I haven’t explored with a multi-meter yet to see what’s going on.) There are a couple of diodes on the main board, probably to prevent back-feeding to USB connection.

I tried driving it from a Pi, via a USB sound card, sending the amp output to a Radio Shack Minimus-7 speaker, and it wasn’t bad. Not head-banger, but loud enough for me.

Meanwhile, the grill fits nicely into a sanitary tee of 1.5" PVC tubing. I won’t be mounting them that deep, but exactly how will depend on what I can find. (A 2" brass washer with 1.5" inner hole would be perfect.)


The Pi, screen and power bank will fit into a 3" PVC piece. Still thinking about it, but hopefully the end result will look like Captain Nemo’s Atari.

ETA: The thing about PVC bits is that a piece that accepts 3" inner diameter pipe will have 3.5" inner diameter female hub connectors to fit it. A 1.5" bit will have 2" hubs. Some bits have male (pipe) connectors, but it’s mainly hubs. Go to Home Depot and see what they have. When the guy asks what you’re looking for, tell him it’s for a Victorian retro-science fiction computer project. No problem!

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Surely any gentleman’s calculating device would have copper or brass fittings and tubes? Admittedly finding those in 3" these days may be more difficult than it used to be?

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I did see a set of small brass knobs/caps that should look nice around the circumference of main tube, mounted on the shafts of push switches. (The display has 4 switches on it, but as they’ll be behind a 3.5" magnifying glass on the front, not much use.) Careful use of paint might make the PVC look brass-like, but that’ll mean building it, taking it apart to paint it and putting it back together again. Frivolity is a stern taskmaster.

Hmm. Do you think TSA would have a problem with it in my carry-on?

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