What did you do in your shop today?

Being no esteemed wood engineer, just a maker of dust & splinters so look it up and don't take my word for it, but I believe that Mesquite is slightly harder than the Rosewoods on the Janka hardness scale.

I have found it easy to work with for turnings & flat work. One of my favorites to use.
 
Siberian Elm rough out. I've got about 15 of these small blanks from yesterday. A neighbor had his tree trimmed. Notice I didn't get all the bark off.

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SBR1b.webp

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Somewhat finished this yesterday evening - still have to paint.

Lil Mikey's first Stellated Rhombicuboctahedron - geez - that's a mouthful. Outta home depot wood found in a dumpster down the street. This is a model to see if I could and to set up ideas for jigs. Probably do one in walnut. Mrs. Lil Mikey requested this and I'll obey! As well as some other "shapes". Haven't really measured it yet, but probably about 12" - the underlying rhombicuboctahedron is about 3 1/2" and each of the tetrahedrons are about 4.5" Next may be a stellated dodecahedron.

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Ok, here's my big word..... ..cool. :cool:
 
Somewhat finished this yesterday evening - still have to paint.

Lil Mikey's first Stellated Rhombicuboctahedron - geez - that's a mouthful. Outta home depot wood found in a dumpster down the street. This is a model to see if I could and to set up ideas for jigs. Probably do one in walnut. Mrs. Lil Mikey requested this and I'll obey! As well as some other "shapes". Haven't really measured it yet, but probably about 12" - the underlying rhombicuboctahedron is about 3 1/2" and each of the tetrahedrons are about 4.5" Next may be a stellated dodecahedron.

View attachment 260536
Don’t let Mrs. Li’l Mikey see this post and if she is anything like you, she’ll spark a “variation on a theme” somewhere like a nested box or those Russian nested dolls……..well, how about a 1:12 or 1:24 version of this for a topper on a holiday tree out of clear quartz/crystal? The disco lights follows when the ball drops at midnight. There’s nothing li’l Mikey cannot do right? :ponder::headscratch2:

PS- a hurtin’ version requires wood chains with a proper handle- carry that in the subway, in your back pocket……ohhhh @Mike Hill is O.G. so he needs gold chains with Li’l Mickey logo for good measure, some Tennessean swagger (okay maybe a lot of it) and perhaps a clover leaf added for some luck (lots of it)….
 
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Somewhat finished this yesterday evening - still have to paint.

Lil Mikey's first Stellated Rhombicuboctahedron - geez - that's a mouthful. Outta home depot wood found in a dumpster down the street. This is a model to see if I could and to set up ideas for jigs. Probably do one in walnut. Mrs. Lil Mikey requested this and I'll obey! As well as some other "shapes". Haven't really measured it yet, but probably about 12" - the underlying rhombicuboctahedron is about 3 1/2" and each of the tetrahedrons are about 4.5" Next may be a stellated dodecahedron.

View attachment 260536

This is way cool and all that, and it sure is nice to see some of your work,.......

But, the expectation for Lil' Mikey's works of art is that they be made with some of the burls & other fine examples of Purdy wood in that excessive stash from your office.

Using pine from the dumpster is a good way to maintain a beautiful hoard of fine wood, but is surely a disappointment to your fellow wood hoarders who are aware of the afore mentioned fine wood stash and look forward to seeing some of it put to use. Pine, I love, especially in living trees.

:sofa::scare3:


All in jest! Nice work, Mike!
 
Somewhat finished this yesterday evening - still have to paint.

Lil Mikey's first Stellated Rhombicuboctahedron - geez - that's a mouthful. Outta home depot wood found in a dumpster down the street. This is a model to see if I could and to set up ideas for jigs. Probably do one in walnut. Mrs. Lil Mikey requested this and I'll obey! As well as some other "shapes". Haven't really measured it yet, but probably about 12" - the underlying rhombicuboctahedron is about 3 1/2" and each of the tetrahedrons are about 4.5" Next may be a stellated dodecahedron.

View attachment 260536
Really nice! What type of joinery did you use? Chuck
 
Troglodyte Joinery. Did a 3D model on sketchup. The underlying rhombicuboctahedron base is a glue up of 2x's sized to the size of the tetrahedron "points" and cut to size and configuration on a miter saw. Did not want a glue up for the "points" - so they were limited to about 1 3/8" - a little less than the thickness of a 2X to allow for sanding and such. Which defined the size of the underlying base. Just iso'ed the tetrahedrons onto the base - almost no way to clamp many of them and with 26 of them to glue on, did not want to wait 2 weeks to glue them all on. Thought about doing a dowel joint, but it won't get abuse - it'll just sit there. Had to sand the points of the tetrahedrons off some - they were poking through Lil Mikey's thin skin!

The base looks like this - each of the sides is 1 3/8".
1722970353318.webp

Then there are 18 4-sided pyramids and 8 3-sided pyramids that attach to all the faces on the base.
 
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Troglodyte Joinery. Did a 3D model on sketchup. The underlying rhombicuboctahedron base is a glue up of 2x's sized to the size of the tetrahedron "points" and cut to size and configuration on a miter saw. Did not want a glue up for the "points" - so they were limited to about 1 3/8" - a little less than the thickness of a 2X to allow for sanding and such. Which defined the size of the underlying base. Just iso'ed the tetrahedrons onto the base - almost no way to clamp many of them and with 26 of them to glue on, did not want to wait 2 weeks to glue them all on. Thought about doing a dowel joint, but it won't get abuse - it'll just sit there. Had to sand the points of the tetrahedrons off some - they were poking through Lil Mikey's thin skin!

The base looks like this - each of the sides is 1 3/8".
View attachment 260542

Then there are 18 4-sided pyramids and 8 3-sided pyramids that attach to all the faces on the base.
Now, now, see when I said, there is “nothing li’l Mikey cannot do”- what would we all do if we didn’t have “Li’l Mikey Universe (& verse)” in our forum? Basically, you cannot go on a little vacation or go on a sabbatical and if you do will find ways to pull you back into the “matrix” @Mike Hill and no you cannot take that spikey thing you just made so it goes with your fetish latex black (okay green) suit into the matrix…..not giving Mrs. li’l Mikey any bold ideas……no you can’t undo and unsee the imagery….
 
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Somewhat finished this yesterday evening - still have to paint.

Lil Mikey's first Stellated Rhombicuboctahedron - geez - that's a mouthful. Outta home depot wood found in a dumpster down the street. This is a model to see if I could and to set up ideas for jigs. Probably do one in walnut. Mrs. Lil Mikey requested this and I'll obey! As well as some other "shapes". Haven't really measured it yet, but probably about 12" - the underlying rhombicuboctahedron is about 3 1/2" and each of the tetrahedrons are about 4.5" Next may be a stellated dodecahedron.

View attachment 260536
Nice Moravian Star. You should make a few out of Acacia and Black locust so they will glow under black light.
 
I had a short day at work so I got some shop time yesterday.
I started with emptying the dust collector drum again. The new planer makes long fluffy chips that fill the drum quickly. But the bags a re light when I empty it. :sarcastic:
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Next I got some blo on the refridgerator magnets.
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Then I drilled an entrance hole in a bunch of blanks for the scroll saw.
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Mixed species, here's a box elder.
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Then I cut out about a dozen crosses, 2 had defects and I filled them with ca and sawdust. They all need to be sanded.
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I filled this defect with ca.
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When I layed it out I didn't notice the defect on the back side.
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So it was a nice productive few hours in the shop.
 
I had a short day at work so I got some shop time yesterday.
I started with emptying the dust collector drum again. The new planer makes long fluffy chips that fill the drum quickly. But the bags a re light when I empty it. :sarcastic:
View attachment 260571
Next I got some blo on the refridgerator magnets.
View attachment 260572
Then I drilled an entrance hole in a bunch of blanks for the scroll saw.
View attachment 260573
Mixed species, here's a box elder.
View attachment 260574
Then I cut out about a dozen crosses, 2 had defects and I filled them with ca and sawdust. They all need to be sanded.
View attachment 260575
I filled this defect with ca.
View attachment 260576
When I layed it out I didn't notice the defect on the back side.
View attachment 260577
So it was a nice productive few hours in the shop.
Great production runs for a worthy effort! Chuck
 
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