This week on Maker Update: a handmade canoe, folding doors, a sci-fi lamp, DIY CNC, and a Star Wars diorama. 

This week’s guest host is Sophy Wong!

++Show Notes [Maker Update #187]++

-=Project of the Week=-

Building a Cedar Strip Canoe in 30 Days by Xyla Foxlin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWvIqGlFhIo

-=News=-

New Desktop CNC Mill from Bantam Tools
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHYM_QhZq5Y

-=More Projects=-

DIY Machines CNC drawing machine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYqx5wg4oLU

3D Printed Hive Lamp by tlevis on Instructables
https://www.instructables.com/id/Hive-Lamp/

Impossible Origami Folding Door by Jonny Builds on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnNk647Ko0E

Warwick Turvey’s Folding Door w/NFC Lock
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3WJtK7Hn4v/

Making a Simple Potting Bench from iliketomakestuff
https://iliketomakestuff.com/making-a-simple-potting-bench/

Star Wars Death Star Corridor Figure Diorama
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7LGexbvOKE

Cricut Maker Joy Storage by ijessup
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHcOKa8_P-k

How to Build an Outdoor Folding Chair by Get Hands Dirty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpksTpYD_QU

-=Tools/Tips=-

Simple Branding Iron by Laura Kampf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l9l4PN18n4

DIY Custom Rubber Stamps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15lOKAq0SF0

Maker Channel Spotlight: Jeremy Fielding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-puYg4p-AkM

Transcript

This week on Maker Update: a handmade canoe, folding doors, a sci-fi lamp, DIY CNC, and a Star Wars diorama.

Hello everyone! And welcome to Maker Update! I’m Sophy Wong, and I’ve got a bunch of inspiring projects to show you, but first, I want to show you something my dad made:

My dad is a welder, and he made me this backscratcher out of welding rods. Even this loop at the end was made out of a coiled rod. He only welded one side, so the other side has nice, clean lines all the way down. And he polished it so it’s super shiny, like chrome, but it’s just 4 stainless steel welding rods. It’s beautiful, Dad, and it works great!

And now for the Project of the Week: Xyla Foxlin made a beautiful cedar-strip canoe over the course of 30 days, and the finished project is absolutely stunning. The build is fascinating and I really enjoyed following along as Xyla and her uncle turned raw cedar strips and fiber glass into that classic canoe shape. Xyla does a great job of explaining the steps and processes involved in canoe making, and building the canoe from scratch meant she could really customize it to her liking. I loved seeing the design choices she made throughout the build. She has an even more detailed video about this project over on her Patreon page, so definitely head over there and check it out.

Bantam Tools has launched a new desktop CNC milling machine that is optimized for milling aluminum. You might already be familiar with the Bantam Tools PCB milling machine (as a remote resident for Bantam Tools, I have one in my shop) but the new machine features more robust construction and more power, with a spindle that rotates at 28,000 RPM. The new machine also has built-in material probing, and will come with new software aimed at reducing the barrier to entry for those of us who are new to CAM.

Speaking of CNC, Lewis at DIY Machines made a CNC drawing machine, or plotter, using mostly 3D printed parts and an Arduino. It is a beefy project, but Lewis makes it easy to understand how everything goes together, and it would be great build for learning about how gantry systems work.

Tovi Levis built a beautiful hive lamp inspired by a prop from the TV series, “DC Legends of Tomorrow”. The hexagonal outer structure was 3D printed in pieces and glued together to create a 3 1/2 foot tall tower. The lamp is lit with a 5 meter strip of individually addressable RGB LEDs, controlled by an ESP32 bluetooth micro controller. Tovi has a full writeup of the project over on Instructables, with links to his code on GitHub.

Jonny Builds made a mind-blowing folding door for his shop, inspired by a door he’d seen on Instagram, built by Warwick Turvey. It’s awesome to see how one person’s project can inspire someone else, and how each maker personalized their build. I love the geometric line pattern that Jonny created on his version, and Warwick added a high-tech NFC lock to his door. They’re both so cool.

Bob Claggett at I Like to Make Stuff made a simple potting bench to go along with his new garden. He kept the design nice and simple using mostly 1 by 4s, some hardware cloth, and a plastic tub for a sink. There’s a nice writeup and plans for this project on iliketomakestuff.com.

Over at Tested, Norm Chan built a cool diorama of the classic Death Star Corridor, it’s a perfect backdrop for Star Wars figures that he collects. He designed the pieces in Adobe Illustrator, and used a laser cutter to cut the walls out of acrylic. The finished project photographs beautifully, and he even designed it to fit perfectly into common Ikea furniture. If you want to make your own, like I definitely do, he’s made all the files available on Thingiverse.

Jessie Uyeda built a great storage shelf for her Cricut Joy and all the tools and materials that go along with it. She used copper pipe and black ink-stained plywood, which look great together, and I love how she used copper pipe straps as drawer pulls. Clever!

From Get Hands Dirty, Cristiana built an outdoor folding chair that can be made with simple tools. Of course bigger tools like a bandsaw and a sander would help, but the design of her chair is simple and elegant, and could definitely be built with hand tools and elbow grease. Her video is full of tips and tricks, and I always learn a lot from watching her work.

In Cristiana’s folding chair project, she used a handy doweling jig kit from Rockler. This let her drill precise holes for her dowels to keep her pieces aligned properly. She also shows how to make your own doweling jig, with or without a drill press.

And here’s another great example of building your own tool: Laura Kampf repurposed a vintage iron by turning it into a branding iron. She carved some designs into sheets of brass, both by hand and by using the Shaper Origin Handheld CNC, and attached them to the iron. Now that iron is HOT.

If you want to do some stamping without the heat, the latest video from Steady Craftin’ shows a few different ways to make custom rubber stamps. The Craftsman also includes a recipe for making your own rubber out of household ingredients.

I want to tell you about a maker channel I recently discovered on YouTube that is full of tips, projects, and tools: Jeremy Fielding has been making videos about engineering and tinkering for several years, and he covers everything from project builds to shop maintenance to teaching about how mechanical things work. I first found Jeremy’s work through his Automatic Dust Collection System video (which is great), and I also recommend checking out his Engineering Principles for Makers series.

And that’s it for the show, thanks for watching. As many of you know, we lost an amazing maker this week. Thank you Grant Imahara, for being such an inspiration to all of us.