B.Light Design

I had some scrap brass and walnut (?) lying around and figured I’d try making a brass headed hammer. I did all of the work on a wood lathe. Brass can be worked with wood turning chisels, kind of amazing.

This part started out as a quick demo on how to drill into a pipe (found on the ITP Fab site), but has morphed into something more. I’m thinking robot head (of course) or some sort of space/diving helmet.

I started with an off-cut piece of aluminum speed rail tubing (this stuff is everywhere around ITP), drilled a 1.5″ diam hole with a hole saw and jig, turned it on a metal lathe, and then made a retaining ring. I’m particularly proud of the ring: 4 evenly spaced holes, tapped for 6-32 threads, and secured by set screws.

These parts has no purpose other than getting my chops back and the pure joy of milling parts.

I love this project, Dentsu London is a creative agency that created a pair of wallpaper scissors. One half was hand crafted in the traditional way by scissor makers Ernest Wright & Son, the other was 3-D printed (with help from Jamie McClellan). The coming together of the old and the new is fantastic.

I received some great lathe chisels for Christmas. I’ve practically worn my first set to the nub (an incredible set of hand-me-downs by the way, thanks Mr. Burke), the new guys are great replacements.

I’ve only used them for a short time, but I’m already in love.

I know almost no one in the city with a working fireplace (but quite a few with non-working fireplaces, weird), but I see firewood for sale at bodegas and super markets all over.

Instead of lugging wood back from the burbs, I figured I’d shell out the $8.99 and see if the deli wood is an good. I think it’s ash. Figure I can make something interesting out of the fire wood.

The Laser Party was fantastic. The ladies of Design Glut and the fine folks at Length Width Height (a fabrication lab in the “incubation” center at NY Designs) hosted a great event. Met some great people and saw some very interesting designs.

They have a 51″ x 51″ laser cutter, the biggest I’ve ever seen. The thing opens up like a DeLorean and when the roof deck door is open, you can see the Empire State Building (my streak of using tools with some killer views continues). She’s a real beauty.

After a little trouble with my CAD file (I was the only one to give them a bum file, awesome), we cut a Monster Mirror. It turned out great. I still need to glue it up, sand it, and finish it, but this beats cutting them out by hand.

The other designs were incredible, check them out here. If you are in the NYC area and in need of a 51″ laser cutter, I know a guy.

And FYI, laser cut food does not taste good.

I tweaked the wooden mallet design a bit. Still using naturally fallen oak from the Poconos (P-oak-conos if you will, wakka wakka, sigh) finished with walnut oil, but now I’m using some scrap poplar to pin the handle to the mallet head. And because I’m an incredible egomaniac, I branded my logo on the handles.

The one on the left reminds me of the hammer from Donkey Kong, I’ve named it “The Mario”.

I recently got to use a lathe that quite possibly has the best view ever. The MAD Museum has working studio space up on the 6th floor, overlooking Columbus Circle. It is incredible, the image above does not do it justice. It was very easy to be distracted by the Columbus statue, Central Park, the fountains, the traffic, the people. Amazing.

I can’t wait to use it again.

You can never have enough hammers. I’ve got a hammer thing going on these days.

I’ve been making wooden mallets lately. Mostly out of oak, mostly for food preparation (meat tenderizing, etc). I just like making them. Maybe designer mallets will be the new designer axes (I have no idea why, but I just want one of those axes real bad).