Hi Im Joe

I really wanted a maul but man I just don't have the coin to buy one right now. So instead I bought one 10 dollar cutting board and some hardware from Ace for another 10 bucks and made myself a 20 dollar maul. I basically used a hole saw to cut disks out of the cutting board and then stacked them together. I used a wooden dowel for my handle. My very friendly neighbor let me use his drill press to make a hole right through the handle. I drill the handle hole a bit small and then hammered it on. I countersunk the top so nut on the bottom of the black disks is sunk into the handle. I have no clue how much it weighs but overall it feels way way better than the hardware store mallet I've been using. Thanks for checking it out! Joe

That's genius. I was trying to figure out how you turned that edge over so cleanly. Now I realize its not turned. But man it looks great.

LOL!

That's awesome...you still got eyebrows?

I strongly recommend Nigel's messenger bag pattern. Great pattern and tutorial video to go along with it!

Dobro is such a great instrument (Jerry Douglas baby!). But seriously, nice straps.

The Weller iron I have has a pretty big opening with a set screw to secure the tip so I think the tips you linked would fit in the iron I have.

I thought people called these "candy skulls." Whatever they are called they are freakin awesome!

I got another one.... When you try pyrography for the first time....DO IT OUTSIDE!

Was going to say clamps too...lol.

That's really nice. God I want to get my hands on some buffalo. That stuff looks awesome!

^This

Measure twice and cut once. This has saved me so much time and frustration.

Hey no problem! I'm glad you like it. It was recommended to me by the manager at my local Tandy. He definitely did not steer me wrong!

You should try inkscape. It's a free vector drawing program (think adobe illustrator). Its pretty intuitive and very flexible. You should be able to look up some tutorials if you are having problems figuring it out. I'm not an expert but I can get around in inkscape. If you do decide to try it out and have some questions message me and I'll try to help you out. Good luck!

This just goes to show you don't need fancy and expensive tools to make a beautiful and well crafted item. Great job!

What you really want is a macro lens or the point and shoot may have a macro function. I think on some cameras it looks like a little flower. It should let you focus closer than the standard settings.

You can use CFL bulbs as long as you adjust the white balance either in camera or in post. I recommend shooting everything in a RAW format and then editing and finally saving the file as a JPG. I personally use Lightroom because I don't need pixel by pixel editing and lightroom is pretty intuitive and easy to learn. It gives you a ton of flexibility to edit a RAW file instead of a JPG. For example you can change the white balance to w/e you want if you shoot in RAW. BTW...your lightbox looks great. I need to do this.

I hold mine like an ice pick. Think murder movie.

I use a cheap tandy screw creaser and have found that you have to get it pretty hot first. Then press pretty hard.

^This. A ton of time went into designing a pattern for that backpack. I would be surprised if someone just willingly gave away a pattern that took them hours upon hours to figure out and then fine tune.

Ouch!

I hear you there. Then you are sitting there wondering how you could possibly be so stupid. At least I was.

I use a log just like that as a base for punching holes. It works really well. It's ugly though because I can't put lacquer on.

^ This OMG. I cook a lot. I mean a lot. I have cut myself non-seriously many times. I have only cut myself really bad once. On a ing onion. I have chopped prob thousands of freaking onions. Was holding it the wrong way cause I was in a hurry and took a giant chunk out of my thumb. I can still feel where the flesh is missing. I wrapped in a giant wad of paper tows and duct taped it very tightly. My wife got home 45 minutes later. It was still bleeding profusely. Had to go to urgent care. Stitches suck. Especially when they put the anesthetic right in the damn wound. I have not made that mistake again. I now chop much slower.