This may not be Kosher with the Lego purists out there, but I milled up a Lego brick with studs on both surfaces. Basically, it has two male ends instead of the traditional one male, one female.
Side note, I used old floorboards as the stock material (maple I think). This may be the perfect material for small desktop CNCs. Flat, milled hard wood that is essentially free. Just watch out for nails.
I was so happy with the way the Jar Lamps I made this Christmas turned out, I made myself one. I was all out of walnut so I made the wooden base out of some scrap oak. But this was no ordinary scrap. The oak came from an old bourbon fermentation tank (where the yeast breaks down the sugar in the mash converting it to alcohol and carbon dioxide over a period of three days). Basically, this wood has soaked up a lot of bourbon over the years.
While shaping the wood, the smell of bourbon was intense, it made the entire shop smell like a distillery (not a bad thing). A smart studio-mate of mine convinced me to leave the base unfinished (thanks Josh). When the bulb heats up a bit and then the jar is removed, the smell of bourbon fills the air.
By far, the best smelling lamp I ever made.
Recently, I got my hands on some logs that have been at the bottom of a lake for about 100 years. I turned a simple bowl, just to see what the wood would give me. I’m very happy with how it turned out. The imperfections give it so much character.
The wood was pretty stinky, I had to put the microwave outside while I dried it out. Thankfully the smell went away once it dried.
I’m not sure what species of wood it is, it might be maple. I believe the gray color is due to the fact that it has been absorbing dirt and silt for a couple decades.
After truing up the bottom of the bowl, I found it wasn’t exactly flat. The bottom comes to a point that allows the bowl to spin. It’s a bowl and a top. This was totally on purpose by the way.
The lake my parents live on has recently been drained. Some sort of algae issue. The lake is man-made and was originally used for ice harvesting. It was amazing to see all of the stumps and logs that have been submerged for the past 100 years.
So I grabbed a couple of lake logs. I’ve read about reclaimed logs, and it’s definitely something I wanted to work with.
I took a first pass at turning a lamp and a bowl. The wood acted like freshly cut green logs. It was very easy to work with.
I’m having trouble identifying the wood species of the logs. The wood (I assume) has been discolored from the lake water, and they smell pretty funky. But what do you expect from wood that’s over a hundred years old?
