Decided to buy 9 Ikea Ivar cupboards and fill a wall with them. Thought it was a good opportunity to do something creative with my CNC.

Trimmed the height of the top row, trimmed the depth of the middle column to get depths of 50/40/30 so it didn’t block the window but maximised storage capacity.

Engraving was done on a 3D printed, diy Root3 CNC. 2mm depth of cut mostly with a 1/8th downcut bit.

Total machine hours: 45

Tree rings drawing by Madeline Miller on Etsy:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MMillerArtwork

I’ll fill in the right-hand section with some shelves at some point.

Cat for scale

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That looks very good Alex, like it a lot. I’ll bet you could charge a fortune for something like that.

Thanks benv. I would suit a cafe or mill-type place wouldn’t it? I bet it wouldn’t take that long on a proper industrial CNC. If I were to do it like this one, it would have cost £2800 – not sure people would pay that. Although you could get a similar effect with a much simpler design and cut the machining time to a third (In which case it would be about £1200 (plus cupboards). Which sounds like a bargain 🙂

Love the kitty cave!

That’s awesome Alex! 👌👍😊

What cnc you got?

@kayak23 it’s a home made 3D printed one (someone else’s design):
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1750276

It’s roughly equal to a Shapeoko, X-carve or Workbee.
Mine has a work area of 720x500mm
Love it to bits!

If I were to do it like this one, it would have cost £2800 – not sure people would pay that.

People have paid more for a lot less!

I would suit a cafe or mill-type place wouldn’t it?

Two things that immediately came to mind were 1. lockers in a fancy gym changing room and 2. with some OS style map contours and features in place of growth rings in a trail centre or hill walking type cafe.

I made this a while back. Whenever we have a birthady bash (pretty much everyone in the family comes round to us for big family parties) the birthday boy/girl sits in this. It’s unversally known as the horny chair.
Hope the link works

Looks like link isn’t working. What’s a decent / free photo hosting site?

Imgur

Thanks.
Try posting the image again.

I’ve just up-cycled the legs of an old stool, some ply offcuts & left over roofing lead into a set of spring-loaded cricket stumps, but no way I’m of the standards on this thread.

Update on my bike handlebar bluetooth remote control project-

I built a prototype with a mini joystick but decided it wouldn’t work well with gloves (an important design goal) so I went back to buttons. That one was basically a breadboard with a clone of the Nordic dev board, which I actually zip-tied to my handlebars for testing! After that I went back to proper buttons, which I can 3D print big pressy knobs for.

I did the autumn prototype board by hand-

It’s still bulky and uses 2*AAA batteries but I was happy with the format for a working prototype.

The current board was basically the same but I hired a freelancer for an hour to lay it out nicely in KiCAD (which I’m not too familiar with) so I could get it made by one of the PCB prototyping factories

This was quick and disturbingly cheap (made me regret spending £2 on the Sharpie permanent marker I used for etching the previous prototype!!)

I’ll test this for a couple of rides zip-tied to my hardtail flat handlebars in a zip-lock bag for waterproofing. If it’s all good I’ll 3D print an I-spec mount.

I already identified a couple of flaws though. Also, the goal eventually is to build one small enough to integrate with STI shifter- that means using a smaller LiPo battery (and I want USB charging, i.e. more complicated power control) and a much smaller surface mounted bluetooth module. So I am already working on the next iteration!

@Alex Simon

If you were doing repeat jobs I would use you router to create a jig for the pattern. Although you would be routeing by hand once you have the jig it may well be quicker to clamp the cupboards together lay the jig over the top and hand route rather than line up each door on your CNC machine.

If you were doing repeat jobs I would use you router to create a jig for the pattern. Although you would be routeing by hand once you have the jig it may well be quicker to clamp the cupboards together lay the jig over the top and hand route rather than line up each door on your CNC machine.

Alignment on a CNC router is pretty easy. You can put some blocks on the bed for repeat work to define a zero point. Hand routing may be slightly faster but not by much and the big benefit of CNC is you can go and do something else while it is cutting. I recently had a rush job on, set the CNC router up cutting one part, a bodged Arduino/Stepper running the lathe cutting another, while I did some hand drilling. Three for time of one!

I struggle with leaving the CNC. I know some people have cameras set up to monitor it, but I’m still learning and still prone to making mistakes. I like to hear it at all times.

I know what you mean about hand machining being quicker @TheBrick, but I got it down to a fine art in the end. Not sure it would be possible to make a jig for all the shapes it cut.

Anyway – I have absolutely no plans to repeat it 🙂

Most of the time, I’m much better off putting more hours into my day job than trying to turn my hobby into a profit-making enterprise.

I might change my mind if I get a good idea for something more easily sellable. I think I see a laser cutter in my future 🙂

Groovy chair HughStew. I imagine the birthdayer feels pretty special sat in it. 👍

Thanks fantastic, Alex

Hacked a rival lever (minus broken doubletap mechanism) together with a suntour friction shifter. Lots of epoxy and micro balloons.

I will be reinforcing the cable stop with some carbon but it’s working as is so far.

Wow, AlexSimon, that’s incredible! I’m currently building some custom built-in wardrobes using some IKEA parts, and was feeling fairly smug about it, but that’s a whole other level!

Cheers @stevied amd @thenorthwind – I appreciate the kind words.
I’m trying to have a ‘quick win’ today with some shelf brackets, but I’ve already turned into an over-ambitious epic! Why do I do it to myself!?

I’m trying to have a ‘quick win’ today with some shelf brackets, but I’ve already turned into an over-ambitious epic! Why do I do it to myself!?

Funny you should say that @AlexSimon, I’ve just finished fabricating some steel shelf brackets for my kitchen. I’ll put some pictures up when I get round to it. Let’s just say it’s a good job industrial chic is a thing though 😉

They added it to Ikea Hackers – shame about the dull thumbnail 🙂

A beautiful design idea for the IVAR cabinet with doors

Well, i’m certainly not in the same league as some other on this thread but here is my effort.

Prior to doing our extension we had to take down an oak tree down which I felt very guilty about. Thankfully the tree guy knew someone with a mill and we got the main trunk planked for not much $. They’ve been drying out in the garden for a couple of years now and I finally got round to making something out of one of them.

So now the tree lives on inside a few feet from where it once stood. I’ll be honest i didn’t really do much with my limited skill…trimmed it to size with a track saw, got a local wood work guy to stick it through his giant planer for £10…..lots of sanding…three coats of Osmo and a set of legs off etsy and here we have it….

Simple but i’m pleased as punch with it!

Lovely bit of plankage that @djambo. Nice to have that association.

It works really well with the metal legs and suits its location. 👌

thanks kayak23. Yes legs were a bargain (<£20) and really set it of 🙂

Christmas present for friends. Sa Colobra, Mallorca.

My wife wanted a teddy bear made out of the kids old babygrows. I looked them up on t’interweb and they were around £100 for a decent one. **** that thinks I, how hard can it be to make one. So £4.29 later here is a practice one made from the not precious old babygrows.

@jonm81 – I love that! Any info on how you did it and/or pics of the precious ones gratefully recieved.

@timidwheeler, Thanks, I followed these youtube videos

The pattern came from the same people (link in the youtube video) and includes really good instructions.

@Flaperon – that’s superb! Absolutely love that.

@alexsimon Thank you!

Made another bear. This one (on the left) is for my wife and made from the babygrows our daughters wore that my wife wanted to use for the bear.

Turns out this sewing lark is quite good fun.

From the Anna Del Conte bible of  Italian Cooking. Biscotti type biscuits.

Fancy editor not playing nice this morning and I have a batch of Zaleti to get in the oven. (Biscuits for eating with wine).

The afore-mentioned Zaleti, just out of the oven.

The sultanas spend the night in Stroh Inlander rum to get ready.

Behold the shelf that doth not interfere with the floating bike.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KLJp2ne5ZDXdyV8w9

Lessons for future biscuit jointer use…

Think about what side to reference…

Also what’s the current photosharer of choice again I forgot

Wow. First time on this thread. You’re a sickeningly talented bunch.

@flaperon – how did you do that? I’ve been meaning to do some 2D versions of old trails for years but 3D looks ace.

@househusband – I came here for workbench ideas. How much for welding lessons?!

Yummy haggis pasties to remind me of home.

to remind me of home

Cornwall? 🙂

@househusband – I came here for workbench ideas. How much for welding lessons?!

Play your cards right @jimmy and you might get a nice stool sample…

Finished this evening; laminated and woodturned iroko (old science lab bench) seat and TIG welded box section frame. Was thinking about painting it but I like the purty colours that the welding process leaves so may just spray in a clear lacquer to stop any rust.