photos

A quick attachment piece for the tablesaw dust port

Some of the camera clip pieces, modelled up in Sketchup

CLose-up of the attached camera clip base

DSLR camera slotted into the camera clip, with safety strap attached

DSLR attachment piece here -- doubles as a tripod mount

Car airduct-mounted phone holder. Works with wallet-style phone cases

Original inspiration for the pattern I used on the phone holder mount

The finished end table, looking all shiny and nice

The finished end table, tucked away in a corner

How I glued the second leg section up: interlocking-ring style with the first section

Just for fun, an idea for a totally different end table, made by flipping the leg sections

First leg section glue-up. This was the straightforward one

First test fit of one of the leg sections. All the pieces came together pretty well

All the end table leg pieces, with half-lap dadoes cut

Original inspiration for my end table -- a square-tube piece in Walla Walla

(mostly) finished wood+resin bottle opener. I couldn't find a photo with the piece fully polished and rivets installed...

Another angle of the wood+resin bottle opener

The cat tree's carpeted test platform gets some end user testing

The final state of the ill-fated cat tree, before demolition. It was looking so promising!

The Catan board is mounted and hung up on the wall, with wave motif around the edges

Felt is fitted behind the Catan pieces, to hold them in place and cushion them

My makeshift compass, or, how to draw a hexagon with a pen, a screwdriver, and a bit of modelling aluminum

Catan pieces are test-fitted into the aluminum loops. Proof of concept complete

Catan pieces being partially slotted into final aluminum loops. I think it looks pretty good

A look at the completed Diplomacy board in action, with finished pieces in play

The completed board, hung up on the wall for display and admiration

Another look at the completed Diplomacy board

The ambiance for a lot of my painting work on the board -- here, working on the mainland colors

A look at the board, just before territory labels are added

After redoing my original grid system, the coastline appears once again on top of the water

Due to some poor planning, I completely painted over my original coastline. I used yarn to lay out a grid for the second time...

Using a grid system to replicate, I've gotten the entire coastline laid out accurately and in detail

Temporary Diplomacy board -- this inspired me to go the whole way and just make a dedicated Diplomacy board

A post-installation pic of the finished Subaru shifter knob. Looks and feels great

Another angle of the installed shifter knob

My finishing setup for sealing the shifter knob in wipe-on polyurethane

A test fitting of the roughed-out shifter knob. This is prior to a few hours of sanding and sealing

Another angle of the rough shifter knob, before testing it in the car

Inspiration for the design of the shifter knob: alternating, high-contrast grain lines

The finished Catan castle. The first of several, if I ever figure out a revised Catan ruleset to govern them

Another shot of the finished castle, slotted in with some surrounding pieces

Showing off some of the drybrushing and wash techniques that I think really make this piece pop

Some of the detail has been applied at this point, especially the streams, which look really good with so much contrast

The printed castle. Some bits of detail didn't show up, but mostly it printed very well

The finished Catan castle in Blender -- this model was then sliced up for 3D printing

Some design inspiration for my Catan castle -- looking particularly at location, elevation, and layering of the separate elements

Post-install pic of the Trooper shift knob. If you look closely, you may notice that it glows in the dark

Finished pic of the shifter knob in daylight. I think the milkiness of the resin gives it a pretty cool look

Mounting hole in the finished piece is drilled out and ready for install

Another mid-sanding shot of the shift knob

Getting the facets of the finished piece roughed-in on the belt sander. Here, I'm trying to work with the wood edge to find interesting angles

The rough workpiece, after pouring the resin, hardening, and removing the packaging-tape cast. Bonus mini piece in view

The final, finished knob mounted and ready for use. Just kidding, this was just for fun after splitting the wood workpiece

Bonus shot of an additional pendant I made, in the same style as the Trooper shift knob

The full setup for the Diplomacy robot single-axis proof-of-concept. Includes rails, stepper motor, linear bearings, and tensioner end

Another shot of the signle-axis testing setup in the workshop

Testing the stepper motor with a breadboard, a couple ICs, and an Arduino

The finished 3D printed Catan set, with tokens in place and ready to play!

Another angle of the completed Catan set

One of the early "forest" tiles. They only got better from here...

A finished hills tile. I like the coloring on this one. Sheep for scale

A completed farms tile. I don't think I ever nailed the design of these, but it came out alright

A finished forest tile. Showing off some nice water texture in the waterfall and pool

Mid-painting on another forest tile. For this one, I tried to incorporate some small bluffs and a more convincing stream

Another early tile, the desert. I like the mesas, but I would redo the desert color if I could

The first Catan tile complete! This mostly served as an intro to painting techniques, and I didn't end up using this piece in the final set

The first mountain tile, printed up. In this photo you can clearly see a remnant of the technology that I don't actually hate: elevation lines and layers

Some of the first Catan tiles, modelled up in Blender. Here you can see some of the mountain, farm, hill, and desert tiles

A small snapshot of some of my design inspiration for the Catan tile design