PVC Heat Shrink Baren Cover

From time to time it’s been difficult to obtain quality takenokawa (bamboo husk) for recovering my barens.  For some time I’ve wondered about alternative materials for baren covers, especially about using heat shrink tubing.  I bought some six inch wide clear layflat PVC heat shrink tubing (12 inch circumference), cut a length about 2 1/2 [...]

A Second CNC machine

Last March, I began installation of a second CNC machine capable of work up to 60 x 144 inches in my 3rd floor studio. My first machine is now dedicated to wood carving while the second machine is for drawing and painting so I can now work several projects at once. This turned out to [...]

Painting with Paasche Flow Pencil

I’m working on a short series of painted self-portraits at the moment. I’ve mounted a Paasche Flow Pencil (very much like an airbrush, only without the air — the ‘nozzle’ is conical and a needle valve seats in the nozzle in order to control the flow of paint. The Paasche is not a very high-precision [...]

computer controlled airbrush gizmo complete

Jan 22, 2007: Computer controlled paintbrush gizmo up and running as of 30 minutes ago!!! Parts for airbrush assembly – the airbrush itself is just above the angle iron with the solenoid already installed. Solenoid plunger above it, little bent aluminum airbrush retaining clips above airbrush – the angle iron gets bolted into the aluminum [...]

Computer Carving Machine operational!

The Large Press installation is almost done now! This week I’m cutting the final parts — the vacuum plenum for the press itself… This is a somewhat complicated task it turns out, but I believe I’ve got it figured out. I’ve successfully moved my ShopBot CNC machine from the 3rd to the 1st floor… After [...]

Garage Drawer Humidor in ACTION!

So… I’d been giving a LOT of thought to one difficult question — HOW, exactly, to make the sliding drawer humidor MOVE? I looked into available liner actuators — there are a TON of them available, but they’re all so darned expensive, and all require some kind of ‘programming’ to make them work… Prices seem [...]

Sliding Humidor nears completion…

Thought I’d post while waiting for the local hardware store to open this morning and show off my much-simplified paper-delivery scheme for the large press. I designed a previous sliding drawer humidor for my portable printing table — it works very well and handles papers up to about 22 x 31 inches, but would be [...]

Press almost complete!

Several people have asked how the press is going… It’s really complete, now — just waiting for some materials for the paper-handling gizmo to arrive in order to start working! — Here’s a photo:

Drive section assembly complete…

HEY! Last night and this morning I fitted the drive assembly and bearing guides for the top roller — and amazingly, everything fit like a charm — even the keys fit the keyways in the shafts and sprockets! It was especially gratifying when I installed the chain around the two sprockets (what a MESS of [...]

Press bed in place and frame leveled

Here’s a photo from last night after installing the bed and leveling the press in place — closer and closer!

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