Operation "Woody" Part 3: Chisels

While I was raiding the tools to be scrapped at work, I came across a box of left hand metric taps.  I thought wow, this must be the most useless type of tap out there.  (Ironically I later ended up needing to buy a left hand metric tap for another project).  Since taps are made of hard steel, I took them to make some wood turning chisels from.

I originally planned to make an interchangeable handle to grip on the shank and grind the threaded ends for the cutting edges.  I ended up doing the opposite by grinding the shank end and using the threads to screw into the handle.

Free Beer*; Why the open source recipe movement is a joke

Now that I have your attention, let's discuss a movement. They say the best beer you can get is the one you get for free. Today while browsing the internet, I found out that I could get FREE BEER* (and you can get some too!) (*Free as in free speech). Free Beer is the "first brand of beer with a 'free' recipe", to which I call shenanigans. Let me tell you why this movement is rubbish.

Operation "Woody" Part 2: Tool Rest

In order to enable efficient wood turning on my lathe, it required a tool rest for using chisels.  Most tool rests on wood lathes are cast iron, but I made one of machined and welded parts.  My initial design looked too much like a bench and didn't seem ergonomically friendly, so I went for a more typical tool rest shape.

Initial design

The new design only used two, rather than three, pieces: a 3/4" milled piece of round stock, and a piece of plate.  It did, however, require a 45° angle to be milled on one end to accept the milled rod.

Company Analysis: Freight Farms

I usually don't endorse or review companies (I could start doing this if people want me to), but this is a company that stood out. I have been keeping my eye on Freight Farms over the past year. It is basically an embodiment and harmony of both Greens and Machines. This new startup retrofits old shipping containers, turning them into self contained hydroponic growing units for greens, vining plants, and mushrooms. They currently only offer the "Leafy Green Machine" model which claims to produce 400 heads of lettuce per week. Recently, they ran a Kickstarter to raise some cash to build a unit and get their footing and product to the market. Additionally, they have recently sold a unit to a hotel in Concord, NH and have sold a unit to a customer in San Antonio, TX. Personally, I think their idea and product concept is pretty good. Let's do some analysis.

Hey I made Wine again -- Apple Cherry Wine

It's ready to go

What do winemakers do while they wait for their wine to ferment? They have a beer of course. I decided it was time to use those concentrated juice mixes I had in the freezer. The brew closet was looking a bit empty and needed something in it for the winter break.