[Joe Aimetti]

Well I finally retired this past year and started getting organized setting up my hobby table. I found some nice wood shelving (actually stair tred 12" X 4 ' X 1") yesterday at Lowe's and made a "proof of Concept shelving unit. I plan on building another unit on top of the same style and attach them together. Right now the wood is bare, but Ill see if I want to stain or paint it up later. Who knows I might carve patterns in them on a whim
Glorious storage space To avoid messing up the photo portion of the list I have my photos of the desk as it is right now on this link:

http://picasaweb.goo...jca245/WorkArea

It shows the hobby table, and the "Shipyard" on the other side of the room I use for my "Space". (A converted bedroom) The pile of nuts on the desk is not because I am starting a savings bank for the local squirrel’s, they are Hickory nuts from my trees. I am thinking of a couple of carving projects with them.

On another note, I just ordered a Lomo 50 Stereo Microscope on a swing arm. It ranges from 3 to 50 power and should be good for my micro carvings. I am tired of squinting through glasses that do not give me room to work. The Lomo has a 6" depth of field which should do fine. I will post pictures when I get it mounted.

Well that’s all for now. Once I get set up better I can dig my past work ( if I havent given all of it away..) out of storage and post on line.

Take care

Joe 'ExFed" Aimetti
Kingsport, TN

[Janel]

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the photos! The shelves are a quick and useful solution. One question about the dust collector... can you tell us about it?

Janel

[Joe Aimetti]

Hello again Janel-

The air filter system is an unusual one. It is a Plexiglas box with a small Squirrel fan mounted in inside on top. There is ¼ inch hardware cloth (metal screening) covering the outlet on top to prevent items falling in and jamming or breaking the fan assembly, even though the fins are metal. The open end of the box has pieces of Plexiglas mounted inside to form a lip to keep the filters from being inserted too far. There are 2 filters of woven plastic threads with cardboard frames. I usually cut out additional finer filter material, or use either T-shirt material or fine nylon mesh in front of that to catch additional dust. The fan, while small is surprisingly powerful. It will suck in a dangling sewing thread in front of the filters from 4 inches out.

I owned this unit for over 15 years. It was put together as an experiment to check the feasibility of a larger design. With the box being clear, you can see air flow patterns if dust gets by the filters. (which it did in some cases before I modified the filters)

Go back to this link:

http://picasaweb.goo...jca245/WorkArea

I added some better pictures of the dust filter system. Once I am set up and find places for my tools I will post pictures of them also, and hopefully some new work. I give away everything I carve to friends and relatives but I am going to start keeping some of them for me now…

Take care

Joe

[Janel]

Thanks Joe!

[Joe Aimetti]

Well my Christmas / Birthday present came in this week. It is a LOMO SF-50 Stereo Microscope with the swing arm mount. I am truly amazed as to the amount of fine detail I was missing before this. I have other hand held magnifiers but this takes the cake. I looked at a couple of my older carvings when I was experimenting and it really jumps out. I have it temporality mounted on a base board that I cam move but I am coming up with another mount location which will be more flexible.

The only thing I did not like was the light projector unit. It lit the area up well enough but the assembly became very hot after a few minutes. It comes in 2 pieces, the housing with a concentrator lens, and the bulb holding assembly that inserts inside. It uses a filament bulb, which is the cause of the heat. I decided to modify it. I picked up an LED up grade unit for a mini Mag light (3 LED’s mounted on a round base) and a variable wall transformer. I set the transformer to 3VDC and secured the LED unit to it and inserted it into the LOMO light housing. It worked great! It is very bright light with no heat at all. I plan on getting another LED unit and making my own double goose neck illuminators for under $30 instead of paying over $ 300 for a commercial one I have seen on the internet. For now my “proof of concept” rig will do until I gather all the parts.

I also made the second shelving unit, placed it on top of the first one, and already almost filled up the entire unit. Now I need to make more.

On another note, my order of Tagua nuts came in so I will be getting some projects going soon, and today I am picking up some Apple tree wood from a friend of mine. He is doing a house expansion and the contractor knocked the whole 18 foot tree down. My friend said I can have it all! I will take as much as I can fit in my Tahoe, which will probably be the whole tree if I can help it. If there is not enough room I am sure my wife will be a good sport and understand having to walk home. ( Just Kidding!)

You all take care, more work to be done. Ill try to post more pictures to my photo site when I can for those interested.

[Janel]

I hope that the friend lives nearby!

Yes, photos are always good for looking at and learning from. Congrats on the lighting concept.

Janel

[boggiecarving]

I agree as to seeing photos Janel. Joe I'm interested in your comments, especially with the where to find lights and mag glass. The magnifying glass I have is large enough but has limited depth of field range. Six inch depth of field sounds great.

[Joe Aimetti]

Hello there.

This link show's a photo of the adaptor kit for the mini mag light:

http://www.all-magli...mag_ledmod.html

I bought mine at Wal-Mart for much less, about $4. I also bought a generic, output adjustable transformer for around $12. It criteria was a 3VDC output since the mag light uses 2 AA batteries that put out the same voltage. All I did was match up the 2 pins behind the mag light LED package with the 2 holed socket in the power output cord of the transformer and for now, scotch taped it together.

If you are looking for a commercially made unit I have seen them from $125 to over $350. For examples of them, look at this link:

http://www.capitalmi...luminators.html

They are very nice but I can get useable results for much less. You can use almost any light source for illumination depending on your needs. A small desk lamp will do as long as you don’t block the light with your hands or tools. I even used a small flashlight taped to the body of the microscope to illuminate and it worked surprisingly well. The only drawback is having to buy batteries all the time, unless you get rechargeable’s. When you figure the cost, the transformer was better suited and costs way less in the long run.

As far as the LOMO scope I ordered mine from this site:

http://www.opticspla...icroscopes.html

This link should take you to the page that shows the outfit I ordered. The unit is Russian made, not really refined or has fancy bells and whistles, but for me, the price was right and it surpasses anything I had. I even got the photo adaptor with it for that price so I can hook up my web cam and take pictures. Over all I think it was a good deal for me. I would have liked to have picked up the name brand ones, but again, the price was right and the quality of the view excellent. There are others out there and I do not claim to be an expert on this subject. My advice is to research and pick one that suits your needs.

If I can assist you more let me know. This is an ongoing project so I will most likely be making modifications as I go. As soon as I take pictures I will let you know.

Take care