Shop made inventions

[Clarence Miller]

Hi All,

I was watching Nova:Science Now on PBS (in place of Norm). The episode was about the "planethood" of Pluto. They also went into detail about the person who discovered Pluto. He was a farm kid who made his own telescopes from farm machinery, car parts, lawnmowers, ect. I am also a farm kid who was taught to "tinker". The project that I made that is the apple of my eye is the self made CNC machine that is the "crown jewel" of my shop. I would like to invite everybody to share their story about their engineering feats in the shop. If nobody objects I will post a link to video of my machine at work in a future post.
I understand that some of these ideas may be potentially patented so if you have to be vague, please do so.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Not shop made, but I have a (roll-off-the-wall-simple, didn't-anyone-think-of-this-before-stupid-me?) software process that was 'requisitioned' my our Uncle for military use. After watching a segment on a TV news show and with a basic understanding of Fortran (now long forgotten) and I had it banged out in 2 days. Modest compensation still comes in on that one and considering the time spent on it and the time that's passed.... Well..., I continue to thank you all for your generosity.

That's all I can say about this, don't ask.

Regarding shop made stuff... I had to come up with a user-simple process for blocking stain from inlays in order to have a marketable veneer product. See veneering instructions on my site for details. Other than that just a few shop jigs and fixtures, I'm afraid.
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