In the design thread I mentioned pen making - I've done a bit in the past (on a 7x10 metal working minilathe). Here are a couple of examples of pens along with a key chain. I have ended up with a lot of scraps of very decorative hardwoods from making laminated longbows and hate to throw them out. The top one is made from ebony as I recall, the bottom is from gray actionwood (fancy name for expensive plywood) and the key fob is kingwood. The pen components have been sourced from Lee Valley Tools.
Most of what I have made has been given away so these are all I could find for now:
These items are more metal related - promise I won't "litter" the forum with wood
The two lights are made from some scrap aluminum conduit about 1 in. OD. They have one led (a very powerful cree xre - R2) inside along with a lens, an aluminum heat sink, a circuit board with surround that can be seen in the partially complete light, a switch and wiring receptacle. These are meant as bicycle lights and are prototypes as I am not yet decided on a final design. Each light is powered by 4 aa NiMH rechargeable batteries in series. I have been using the precharged ones (eneloop and duracell) as regular NiMH heat up a lot due to the high current draw.
The lights draw about 0.9 amp and are good for about 1.5 hours. They really light up the night - so far I've used two on the bike but I would like to have at least two on the bike and one on the helmet. One of these lights will "blow the doors off" a 3 D cell mag light (not the led version).
Heat sinking is always a problem but when they are in motion on the bike, even in hot weather, they never get very warm.
The lathe carriage stop was made recently for my "new to me" lathe. I decided to go for a fairly substantial block of aluminum rather than steel as it is not as likely to mark up the lathe bed. The plate underneath is steel so as to hold threads better. It will take a 3/8 stopper rod or my DI. This was mainly a bandsaw and mill job. In the last couple of weeks since finishing it I have used it a lot.
If there is any interest in the light I can eventually put up a few photos of building it. It is pretty simple but may help someone out. I've been able to source all the parts from one supplier - that is the usual problem for those of us not living in the US - shipping is a killer particularly when dealing with more than one supplier.
John.
