Thursday, November 13, 2014

"Smoke and fire" -markers using Led candles and cotton wool

I've seen some nice smoke & fire -markers made using led candles in the net and thought I'd give it a try. What do you think?



MVI 6405 from Mikko Asikainen on Vimeo.

- Take a small Led candle and remove the top if possible
- Take a bunch of cotton wool and knead it long enough that it becomes stiff and looks appropriate
- Attach the wool to the candle base using hot glue. You can add small bits of wool to any areas that need more.
-Give the marker a few puffs of black spray
-All done!

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Fresh from the workshop: a crosscut sled and my first dice tower

I've had some good sessions in my workshop over the past weeks. My table saw is a 100 euro piece of trash that I have big difficulties cutting stuff straight with. To help the problem I built a crosscut sled for the saw:


It's basically a plywood platform attached to the table saw and you can use it to make your cuts more accurate. So far I'm happy with the results. To test it out I needed a project where I need to do some accurate cuts and a dice tower sprang to mind. I've never had one and there are some instances where a dice tower might come in handy like when playing on a crowded table and you don't want to knock down pieces.

I made it from just your average, humble plywood which I stained to give it a pleasant colour. To make things more challenging, I used the saw to cut joints into the plywood. This makes the construction sturdy and you don't need glue or nails. It looks good, too.



The tower comes in two parts. The benefit is that you can store the tower more easily this way when not using it. Here's a video of it in action:



MVI 6326 from Mikko Asikainen on Vimeo.

How did I do?