My wife and I travel a lot and her canister of hairpins was crushed, allowing approximately 4,000 hairpins to “freely move about the cabin” so to speak. We decided on some more user-friendly dimensions than her original can and I took the opportunity to explore threading operations in wood. The lid acts as a small tray when flipped over, and so this new container has seen daily use and traveled many times without coming loose.
I used some cheap T Slot end mills I found on Ebay, and so far they’re working great.
I didn’t have any end mills long enough to cut the internal pocket in one go, and I was also worried about scrapping the whole thing if I botched the tool change, so I split the design into three pieces and then glued them all together when I was finished. I used a 3D printed piece to keep all of the layers centered and aligned as the glue dried.
Pretty neat, huh? More people should put threads into wood!
My next project was a custom ring box for my wife’s and my rings. When we’re in a hotel somewhere, I always feel weird leaving my ring on the bathroom counter, as if it will spontaneously jump toward the sink drain. We’ll also take them off if we’re going to the beach or skiing or whatever - things that may put excess wear or provide increased risk of loss.
Now we can toss them into the glove box with reckless abandon.
The lid fits in both orientations, and it looks “complete” either way. I tried to map the curves from one onto the other when I designed it.
I made a second one for a family member, but instead of pegs for a particular ring, I made one larger, deeper pocket in the center for more versatility.
Anyways, happy machining everybody. I made many mistakes along the way, but it’s more impressive if I only post the successful pictures.