Tag: wood work

Thorn experiment

On By CarynIn Craft, Flora

I found this wicked looking thorn laying in a parking lot. Most likely it stuck to a tire and fell off in route, and I’d like to say I picked it up so no one impaled their foot, but the was a secondary benefit. Really I wanted to see what I could make with it.

Photo description: approximately 4” thorn cluster with opposing spikes 1-2” long held lightly in my hand

I used my pocket knife to cut the side thorns off. The tips are wickedly sharp and hard, so I wanted to try to make a needle. I approached it as I would for carving solid wood. The center of the spikes are soft though, so the needle hole didn’t have enough support when I whittled both sides down.

Photo description: single thorn with the end carved into a needle eye, which broke, pocket knife on the side of the picture

If I were to make the attempt again, I would put the needle hole in the outer bark, and not reduce the integrity of the thorn by cutting the bark away.

Giving it a whorl

On By CarynIn Craft

I made this spindle whorl awhile back using a laser cutter. The dragonfly design is my own.

Photo description: plywood whorl with dragonfly design and six extended circle shaped spokes

I had an empty shaft and decided to give the whorl a whirl while I was spinning my Black Welsh Mountain fiber.

Photo description: single spun yarn wrapped on a spindle shaft

I should have sanded down the shaft some, the top hook did not stick up far enough which made it difficult to wind yarn on and off. The single layer whorl also didn’t feel substantial, and although the size was large enough to keep momentum, I struggled with it bumping into me. It is slightly better than using a CD as a whorl, but only because it has dragonflies. Back to the design board.

Masking tape

On By CarynIn Craft

Some people who use laser cutters advocate for using masking tape to reduce the smoke stains on the surface of the wood. I tried it as I redesign my dishwasher magnet. I don’t like it.

Photo description: after the laser cut project using blue masking tape, small areas of tape are left behind, and the image didn’t fully burn

With the addition of the tape, the laser settings have to be increased because of the thickness of the tape. After burning a design there are also small bits of tape left behind that need to be picked off, and in the fill areas the obliterated tape leaves a sticky residue. Yuck.

So how to deal with those smoke marks? A little bit of sanding with 400 grit sandpaper works wonders and takes less time than removing sticky tape.

Back to the beginning: Why am I redesigning? I didn’t like how the bit map engrave of the previous design was a little messy and took a long time to engrave, so I redrew the art and made an SVG file, which cut the processing time almost in half. Depending on settings, the previous bit map design took 11 minutes, where the new SVG takes 6.

Desert ornament

On By CarynIn Craft

I had a request for a camel laser cut ornament, so took a slice of flame maple and line engraved an SVG camel image. I like a line engrave of SVG files better than a bitmap engrave for JPG type images.

Photo description: camel laser engraved on a circle of flame maple, finished with Howard’s Feed-N-Wax
Photo description: other side of the same ornament with the camel image reversed and done with a faster speed resulting in a lighter burn

I like the way the flame maple looks like shifting desert sands, especially when it catches the light on the move.

Laser cut clips

On By CarynIn Craft

I saw a hint about making clips to hold down material in the laser cutter. The tip was for a different brand than I have, with a different grid, but I thought I could design my own clip.

Photo description: clip design evolution: top left was too narrow to fit my tray, top middle needed a tab to make placing easier, top right got a face because the tab looked like a head, bottom left the tines were delicate, bottom right is a functional and personified clip
Photo description: laser cut plywood clip person in use

I find the little straining strongman amusing, but it does stick up above the material, so has to be placed away from the path of the laser. I may design something more streamlined later, but the current version is functional so it might be awhile before need demands a redesign.