The drill press arrived this evening!
I’ve never assembled a machine tool before, so I was put off by the rust-preventive coating that needs to be cleaned off, through mysterious and inadequately-explained means.
Continue reading My First Real Machinery ArrivesPreviously I finished the labels for the glockenspiel. In this post I literally Finish the case.
Last weekend and this weekend are nicely warm enough, so I’ve put a few coats of Minwax gloss polyurethane finish on the Robotic Glockenspiel case. In a few days the finish will be dry, and I can do the final fine-sanding (to remove dust captured in the Finish) and assemble the thing.
Continue reading Adding a Finish to the Glockenspiel CaseSince trying out woodburned labels, I made another attempt at scrollsawing the button labels for the Robotic Glockenspiel, and am happy enough with the results that I’ve glued the labels to the glockenspiel box. I’m so happy to have finally made up my mind – whew!
So this blog is a sort of “How to Scrollsaw” in a nutshell.
Continue reading Final Labels for the Glockenspiel ButtonsSince putting a lid on the glockenspiel case, I’ve been wrestling with exactly how to label the robotic glockenspiel buttons: If I had a laser engraver I probably would have engraved (woodburned) the labels on; sticking paper labels on could look pretty sloppy; decals sounded like a production of their own, with the risk of gumming up my printer; painting the labels would require a steady hand; woodburning by hand is another option; so is gluing on scroll-sawn raised labels.
Continue reading Scrollsawed Button Labels for the GlockenspielNow that the glockenspiel plays a number of Christmas carols, it’s time to put it in a box.
After a pile of routing I’m now nailing and gluing the Robotic Glockenspiel box together. Since this is a first prototype (the flat chime harp is too large to be practical), I’ve made the box sides from 3/4″ x 6″ “white wood” (fir or pine) instead of hardwoods, and made no attempt to conceal the nails.
Continue reading Gluing the Glockenspiel BoxIn my previous post I pointed to my Open Source code for the project. In this post, I describe the mounting of the solenoids to the frame.
Continue reading A Router is a Most Wonderful Power Tool
