Neopixel Mood Lamp

I built one of these Neopixel-based mood lamps for my desk at work, and another for my sister for her birthday. The three dials use the HSV (hue, saturation, value) model of light - each dial controls one aspect. It's a much more natural light model for humans to grasp than a standard RGB (red, green, blue) model. The wood is cherry, and the diffuser is just sanded plexiglass.

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Leather Wallet

I made myself yet one more leather wallet, and I think my skills have finally progressed to the point that I am satisfied with this one. I finally got the hang of stitching, and got the leather dyed consistently, my stamp (Cthulhu) came out clearly, etc., etc. I've been using it for a couple of months now, and it's been holding up well - in fact, it still looks just as nice as the day I finished it.

Kitchen Floor

The kitchen floor in our house has always been sort of a mess. It was 20-plus year old linoleum, and has seen a lot of abuse. Even when we first moved in, we wanted to replace it immediately. Every year I talk about replacing it over my Christmas break, but never do. Well this year I finally tackled it. I put down a floating laminate floor that looks like time - actually, it's the same flooring I put in our bathroom last Christmas break. It makes a world of difference in how the kitchen looks.

Christmas Ornaments

A few years ago I made a bunch of little bird house xmas ornaments on the lathe, and gave them out at our family Christmas party. Every year since, I've wanted to do something similar again but couldn't find the time to make all of those ornaments. This year I tried something different - all of these were made on either the 3D printer or the CNC machine. Some of the wooden ones still need a little sanding and some lacquer, but overall they came out pretty cool, I think.

Leather Notebook Covers

To play around with leatherworking a bit more, I made myself a couple of leather covers for Moleskine notebooks. I haven't done the edge treatment on them yet, but they came out ok. I like the character and texture in the leather in the right-hand one, but fastening strap is a little wimpy and I'm afraid the snap might pull right out of it someday. The one on the left has a better closure, and the color is nice and even.

Laser Engraver – Take 2

This is take two of the laser engraver, rebuilt from the ground up. The old one used to bind up a lot on the x axis, and had a limited work area. With this one, I've used what I learned on the CNC machine to rebuild it. This one is far more reliable, and doesn't seem to have any binding issues at all. I've also hidden away all of the wiring this time, and included a control panel with an emergency stop button, control for each of the (two) fans, and a laser override button, so I can force the laser off when necessary.

Carter’s Baking

Carter has been becoming a really good little baker over the last six months or so. Here are just a few examples of things she's made recently. In the photo below are some pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies, some cream cheese frosting pumpkin cupcakes, some coconut macaroons, and a loaf of wheat bread. Everything was made from scratch, by Carter, with no help from us. She's amazing!

Fidget Spinners

I saw things like these on youtube recently - they are called "fidget spinners", and are for people who need to fidget with something - think the compulsive pen clicker types. You pinch them by the center bearing, and spin the outer body. They are actually pretty fun to mess around with - everyone I've showed them to so far has enjoyed fiddling around with them. I made the one on the left on the CNC machine from bubinga and brass, and the one on the right was made on the 3D printer.

NTU countdown clock

We've got a joke with a buddy of mine at work - he once claimed that some task would only take 15 minutes (an unrealistically short time for pretty much any software development task), that we started joking that all of his tasks would take some multiple of an NTU - Nick Time Unit. A month or two later, I was looking for something fun to make that would let me mess around with neopixels again. So I built this NTU countdown clock. The button on the left adds NTUs, and the button on the right clears the counter. As the time counts down the color will progressively move towards red, and when the timer expires all of the neopixels will blink red to alert the user. I love those illuminated arcade buttons on the top - they make a nice solid click when you push them.

Carter’s Big C

Carter recently asked me to make a big letter 'C' to go above her bed. I cut it out of MDF on the CNC machine, and she painted it. She used to have a canopy hanging there, but she kept accidentally pulling it down (although I suspect that was less "accidental", and more because she was always playing with it). I like that the kids are really starting to get into the mindset of what the CNC machine, 3D printer, and laser engraver can do - they often come up with ideas for projects on their own these days. It's great that those machines are becoming part of their "mental toolbox" when brainstorming ideas.