Odds and Ends of 2017

This is a small gallery of 2017 projects that, while fun, didn't merit their own blog posts. The first is a pinewood derby car. My son did his own car this year (I only helped with his wheels), but I thought it would be fun to make my own.





I also helped a kid from church whose father wasn't around. He wanted a particular style of car, so we did a 3d cut on the CNC and he painted it up.


Occasionally, I'll do a decoration piece like this sign. It was made from some scrap wood given me by a family that moved out a couple years back. Turned out very nicely.


Lastly, I did another piece of halftone art. I already have a post for this style, so no point in making another. I thought it would be fun to make a black and white zebra motif, framed in black. It's fun how you can't see the image in the first picture until after you've seen the result.



I gave away all of these projects as gifts. They were fun to make and turned out nicely. Maybe in the future I'll do a post of projects that didn't turn out well. A "mistakes edition" or something.

Ravioli Rolling Pin

For Christmas, I made my wife a ravioli rolling pin. Amazon sells a few different types of these, but most don't work well because the space between individual ravioli is too narrow and doesn't adhere well. I spotted a Kickstarter project for a deluxe version some time ago that looked much better. The project description even included dimensions, making it easier to adapt the design for my 4th axis.

I started by gluing a couple pieces of maple together and roughly rounding them out so they'd fit on my CNC.


I used the CNC to cut it perfectly round, then added measured grooves with a large, round bit.



A flat-bottomed bit was used to create divets on four sides, then I hand-cut some strips to fit in. Each strip is 3/4" wide, which provides plenty of separation for the ravioli. I had originally planned to use a dark walnut here for contrast, but ended up going with cherry because I already had scrap pieces on hand.


A final pass on the CNC was used to level the strips and round everything out again.



After applying some food-safe seasoning oil, the wood really pops. It looks great.


Our first round of paste was a little messy (too much filling!), but turned out well. Lots of fun and easy to use!