Thanks. I'm thinking about it, but right now I'm just enjoying making them for my friends and family. This one is a wedding present for my cousin.

@ abge

Selling them doesn't have to be anything too elaborate. Maybe you could arrange to sell them at a local farmer's market or something. That is what many craftsmen do for a little extra money where I live.

But I can see why you would reserve your talents for friends and family. It makes it that much more special for them.
_____________

I used to do some woodworking in high school (I took a woodworking class, loved it, and bought a few pieces of machinery that I used at home to make some things for my family) , but shooting is my primary hobby these days.

Someday I hope to own a gun shop and possibly design/build my own firearms, but that's a bit of a pipe dream.

Great lamp, by the way. How long did it take you to make it?

Thanks.

It takes about an hour to drill and then an hour to do the rest.

Yeah, I think my biggest regret from HS was not taking advantage of the wood or metal shops.

Do you do any competitive shooting?

I haven't been on the laptop yet today, but I am backbat home now and.just have some new shop toys to open before I get on the laptop.

@ abge

No. With ammunition prices as high as they are, especially for larger calibers that I like to shoot (.45 ACP, .45 Colt, .45/70 Govt., 7.62x51mm NATO, .30/06, and 12 ga) it's hard to practice as much as I would need to in order to seriously compete. Competitive shooting isn't very easy to find where I live in any case.

@Abge do you only use beer bottle sized bottles or do you use bigger ones as well?

Damn Amazon... They sent me a "new" Bladerunner and Scrollsaw that were obviosuly not "new". The scrollsaw was already partially assembled with the blade in place and everything (not even a refurb, but a return, fucking bastards) and the Bladerunner was missing parts and more parts. All the blades were gone as were the screws to secure the arm to the table... I can only hope that Rockwell will send me replacement parts.

I love lamp . . .

but seriously thats a nice piece of handywork there!

OK, here is my projects album. Not many comments as I just threw it together, but you can see my two biggest projects (a mini deck and my workbench) plus an over the sink light I made and just how much lumber will fit in a Jeep Liberty if you try.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3801759274765.2144371.1000818823&type=3

Oh, and the bedroom conversion to a walk-in closet for my suits, slacks, and shirts plus some over head storage.

@CF

I've made several 750mL wine bottles (including the one in the OP). I've also made one out of a handle of gin.

Bigger bottles are usually a lot easier to drill (assuming you have a large enough vice), but they're much more expensive and harder to drink : )

@Draug

That's a pretty sweet set of steps you made.

I remember when my friends and I in HS made a poker table; it was a lot of fun and surprisingly not hard at all.

I like your work bench, too. I'll clean mine up and post a picture of it. We can have a workbench showing off.

I added a Rockwell Blade Runner and scrollsaw to it this weekend. Amazon sent refurbs, not new, but it's too much of a pain to do more than bitch at them. I found some bolts amongst my miscellaneous machine bolts to replace the missing ones in the Blade Runner.

The minideck/step combo is 100% me. I designed it. I cut all the wood. I drilled every started hole and drove every screw. Now the wife wants some railing around it so I'm trying to design something that isn't too overpowering but meets building codes which say any outdoor deck rail must be 36 inches off the deck and withstand a leaning weight of 200 lbs regardless of hieght off the ground. The deck height doesn't require one, but all rails must meet that requirement if they are installed.

The key to a poker table is making it heavy so it can withstand the leaning and occassional fist bang and getting the felt tight and wrinkle free. Also, use a high quality casino-grade felt so the cards will slide across it nicely.

@Abge -- Cheap and easy way top sell: CRAIGSLIST. Take some photos, put it up, see if you can get some action on it. If you start getting interest, then you can move on to eBay or something. Alternately, there are "artisan" type websites out there...cafepress.com, for example, let's you create art and sell on a variety of formats. There may be something similar out there for artists. Anyway...you have something there that costs next to nothing to make and for which you could make a few bucks....you should give it a shot.

I'm surprised that happened. Amazon is usually very good about that and I've heard a lot if good things about Rockwell. You should definitely let them know.

Here's my setup:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Lz6kdCaF190/UAMMpDKOXGI/AAAAAAAAAPg/ZPJKtJe6Tmg/w519-h519/IMG_20120715_141053.jpg

I'm with krellin. Make a few, but one caveat: don't turn it into a fulltime business or it will stop being fun. As soon as you feel you "have to" go out and build lamps, then you are no longer doing it because you want to.

@krellin

Yeah, as I said, I am thinking about it. From what I've heard, etsy seems to be one of the best sites for selling small crafts.

@Draug

Yeah that's exactly what I'm afraid of.

Nice little desk setup for a workbench. I like having the old saw and screwdriver and such on the wall. Is that a Husky 3-drawer toolbox? I have the two piece 9-drawer for my automotive and lawn tools. They are great toolboxes and toolchests.

The easy way to do it is not take orders. Make what you want to make for fun. Then sell the ones you don't want to keep or give to family and friends.

Yes it is. I used it more in my old apt where I didn't have room for a proper work space. It is nice though.

This is my tool chest (bought on Black Friday from Home Depot - a present from my wife).

http://www.blackfriday.fm/ad/homedepot/husky-26-9-drawer-steel-tool-chest/47317

I added my two new saws to the facebook album. Look at the bottom for the picture.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3801759274765.2144371.1000818823&type=3&l=74a88005b1

Those both look nice.

I really want to invest in a nice drill press, but I'm holding off until I get a job.

Yeah, the drill press is probably my next purchase. I basically have that, a plunge router, a table router, a table saw, and a band saw left. But I need to get an actual workshop built. The 20x32 I want requires a building permit and costs several grand. But I can get away with building an out building for the lawntractor, dump trailer, lawn sweeper, and my 2-stroike trimmer plus all it's attachments. That would free up another 75 sq.ft. of space doubling my shop area. As long as the buildings are under 150 sq.ft. and don't have posts buried in the ground/cement or electric running to them, I can build them all over my yard without a formal building permit, just a yard layout plan submitted to and approved by the city. Considering my backyard is almost a half acre completely surrounded by trees, they won't care what I put in it. Most of my neigbors have at least two freestanding outbuildings on 4x4 skids.

Yeah, one of the nice things about the lamp is that they can be made in a very small space. Also, my roommate is gone for a month, so I have the whole garage to myself to try out some larger projects.

I know you enjoy the bottles, but you should consider gettign a lathe (antoher toy I'd love to have) and turn lamps from wood stock.

http://www.amazon.com/SHOP-W1704-3-Horsepower-Benchtop-Lathe/dp/B001R23SWW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342450793&sr=8-1&keywords=mini+lathe

That's a nice little one that, with the chisels and a getting started book runs about $250. Wait until you have a good job obviously, but it is something to consider. Woodcraft (if you have one near you) always has turning stock for reasonable prices.

Check out these two sites for materials and quality tools when your funds permit. Quality clamps and hand tools like chisels and such all come from either of these two places.


I get *all* my high-end wood here:
http://www.woodcraft.com

I get a lot of jigs and wood glues and such from here.
http:/www.rockeler.com

Much of the stuff I get from Rockeler can be gotten at Amazon as they have a store there as well, but they also have sales and such att heir official site that don't happen on Amazon and they have in store deals that don't happen anywhere online. so it's worth checking in-store, their website, and amazon if you are looking for something to get the best deal.

Oh, and once you are in the position to drop hundreds upon hundreds (I've spent $750 or so in the last month on power and hand tools plus a protable workbench and a lot of clamps and jogs), get an amazon Prime membership. The savigns in shipping (free 2nd day shipping on almost everything Amazon fulfills) is worth the $8- a year and you get access to a huge library of streaming video and occassional offerign sof free music and stuff.

Oh a lathe would be fun. Doesn't seem to take up much space either. I already have a Prime membership and love it. It pays for itself in about 3 orders; it would be silly not to get one if you do any shopping on Amazon.

Lathes are just messy is all. Kind of hard to put a dust collector on your chisel. :-)

I remember growing up and spending one day each month with the shop-vac cleaning up my workbench in my dad's woodshop. I had a little joig/scroll saw (not as high end as my current scroll saw and not as think wood capable as the Blade Runner, but it was all mine) and a set of carving knives and files and chisels plus a wood mallet and a light duty vise. I mostly made saw dust :-) but it was fun and I learned a lot that is coming back to me now as I embark on making things, not sawdust.

As I got older, I helped my dad with lots of things including a pair fo chairs we refinished and recaned, one of which I used through college and sits at a writing desk in our guest bedroom today.

Hey all, I put a couple new pictures up of a project being done with the Blade Runner and the scrollsaw. Take a look!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3801759274765.2144371.1000818823&type=3&l=74a88005b1

Yeah, its a pretty cool mini chair

Thanks SG. By the way, it's cool your initials stand for GhostRating.