Tag: diy

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Boot Repair with Plasti Dip

Boots repaired

Boots worn out

Remember back in 2007 when I got new boots? Well, they broke. 17 years ago I said “they should last at least 10 years” and they did!

But in the last few years I noticed they were cracking and sort of falling apart. For a minute considered getting a new pair because I am an adult with more than a few hundred dollars in my savings account…

But then I thought, maybe I should try to fix them? So I did. First, the damage… see the photo above and the two below.

Boots worn out

The right boot wasn’t too bad, but the left was terrible. It came apart right below the seam where it is sewn together and in other places the boot had cracked and split open. You can see the white filling on the inside of the boot.

Boots worn out

I’ve had this Plasti Dip since at least 2017 (I know this because I used it for a project) and honestly I think I dipped all the tools I needed to dip. I started the repair by grabbing a cheap bristle brush and “painting” on a coating of Plasti Dip. I let it dry and did a few more coats and called it a day.

I then wore the boots outside, did some walking around, and they split open again. Obviously the solutions was… more Plasti Dip!

Boots repaired

This time I grabbed a popsicle stick and just slathered it on, filling in the cracks and gaps and I did this a bunch of times to build up a good layer of rubber to stick everything back together. (You might notice I also fixed the aglets with some heat shrink tubing.)

Boots repaired

I’ve flexed them a bit and they feel like they’ll hold together, but if not I can always just pour the rest of the can onto them. Seriously though, I hope this does it because I’d really hate to buy a new pair, mainly because I want to cut down on buying new things if I can repair old things I already own. I probably wear these boots less than 30 days a year since we don’t really get that much snow and I don’t spend a ton of time outside if it’s extremely cold outside.

So fingers are firmly crossed that this fix works!

Update: 10 days later the boots are holding up but I lost an aglet.

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Pressing Handmade Paper

In a previous post titled Handmade Paper I mentioned my process of pressing the paper I make:

Once the sheets are fully dry that’s when I press them. I put each piece between a sheet of 3mm thick Baltic Birch plywood and then put the stack between two steel plates in a hydraulic press. (Here’s a press similar to the one I have.)

At least one person has asked about this so I figured providing a bit more information might be helpful. I’ll try to outline the things I use and the process below.

The mould and deckle I use makes sheets of paper that are just shy of 7″ x 7″. I make the paper, let it dry, and then peel all the pieces off the couching sheets. I then place each sheet between a piece of 3mm thick Baltic Birch plywood. (The pieces of wood are 8″ x 12″ so the paper fits with some room to spare.) I then place the stack of wood (with the paper between each sheet) between two 12″ x 12″ steel plates.

Here’s all the stuff:

This whole “sandwich” goes into the hydraulic press, and I crank it down hard. I let it sit for at least half a day, though it’s usually a full day, and if I remember I’ll go crank the press tighter if possible. After time has passed I remove all the paper and marvel at how flat and smooth it is.

The things you need (besides a hydraulic press) are the paper, which should be just dried, sheets of wood, and two pieces of steel.

The steel goes on the bottom, then a piece of wood, then the paper…

Repeat the process of stacking wood with paper in between each piece…

End with one piece of wood on top of the last piece of paper, and then put the other piece of steel on top of all that.

Stick the whole thing into the hydraulic press and crank it down! Wait a while (a few hours) and then come back and try to crank it down even further. I tend to make thick paper because it does get compressed down a bit thinner in this pressing process.

This is DIY handmade paper made with junk I have in my workshop, there’s no professional equipment or methods at work here. Still, I get some good, flat, smooth pieces. Not all of them, but most of them for sure. If I can find new ways to refine and improve the process I’ll let you know.

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Handmade Paper

If you read the previous post you saw the mould and deckle I made, and the start of the process of making paper using the mould and deckle. Well, once the paper dries it looks quite different!

Here’s a stack after the pieces have dried. They are not exactly flat, as they curl up while drying. I couch them onto cut up pieces of an old bed sheet. I don’t press them when they are wet, I just let them air dry while laying flat, which takes about a day or so.

(Most people will tell you to press the paper when wet to remove the water and to flatten it, but I just sort of do it the way I’m doing it and so far it seems to be working fine.)

Once the sheets are fully dry that’s when I press them. I put each piece between a sheet of 3mm thick Baltic Birch plywood and then put the stack between two steel plates in a hydraulic press. (Here’s a press similar to the one I have.)

I’m still experimenting with the right amount of pressure. If I totally crank the press down hard I can get some very flat (and sometimes very thin) paper. One batch was actually a bit too thin! This batch is a bit thicker (since it was made better) but I also didn’t apply quite as much pressure, so it would retain some of the texture. Either way, one side is going to be much smoother (the side that dried face up) and the side that was against the bed sheet will have some texture to it.

Wait, bed sheets? Yeah, this is all pretty DIY, and I’m mostly using materials I have available and not purchasing a bunch of stuff. As I mentioned in the mould and deckle post I am using old window screen material because I have a bunch of it.

To make the pulp I am using paper shreds create by our home paper shredder. I’m making sure I don’t shred any envelopes with plastic windows or other strange matter (though my first batch did contain plastic!) The paper is never white because the ink/toner/whatever from the paper mixes with the water and pulp and turns it gray, which is fine. I do plan to experiment with some colorants. If you notice the brown speckles in this batch that comes from a bunch of dried up leaves I harvested from the garden. I crunched them up and added them to the pulp when blending it. I think it adds some nice character to the final product.

I was able to make a total of 16 sheets on the attempt, which isn’t bad, as I am somewhat limited in space. I’m starting to get to the point where I know how much pulp and water to use and how much it will make, so that’s good. I should probably measure things and write it down but at this point I’m still just screwing around to see what works and what the outcome is… Stay Tuned!

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3D Printed Mould and Deckle

NOTE: STL files are now available. Scroll to the bottom of this post.

Back in May 2023 I 3D printed a mould and deckle in an attempt to make my own paper. It worked, but was not optimal. I tried again, and wanted a slightly larger mould and deckle to make larger paper. It worked, but I didn’t love it since I had to print it in two parts and glue it together. Design is about iteration, right? I think I’ve got a good one now…

For this version I got the model just right. I did a number of test prints to make sure the wall thickness for the inside grid was correct, and I spent some time getting the magnet holes right. Yes, the magnets. Lots of mould and deckles are just two wooden frames you hold together in your hands, but I figured since I was designing my own I would add in magnets that would tightly hold the mould and the deckle together with a piece of metal screen between them.

So I added magnet holes in the four corners of each part and press-fit magnets into place. This time I made the pockets deeper so the magnets press in further down, which means they have really good holding strength when put together. You’ll notice the holes aren’t just holes, but have some little ridges, or “crush ribs” as well. The idea being that with 3D printed parts it can be difficult to get a perfect hole, so instead you just make the hole a little wider than needed, and add in some ribs so the magnet (or other round thing) just needs to slide against those, and if needed, can crush them a bit.

Hey, I guess I’m not the only one who likes the magic of magnets! Check out this video of Stephanie Hare and the mould and deckles she made with… magnets! (Or see them on her site.)

Of course you can always just glue the magnets in place. Since I’m now on my third fourth mould and deckle I wanted a way to remove them easily if I ever retire one and want those 8 magnets back.

I’ve mentioned before that you can do much much more than a simple square or rectangle, and you can 3D print a mould and deckle in any shape. I still want to experiment with that, as well as some other neat stuff. I like a plastic mould and deckle because (besides being easy) you don’t have to worry about warping like you do with wood, or having to use spar varnish or polyurethane to waterproof the wood. (I’ve talked about 3D printing versus using wood before.)

Oh, I should note one more thing. The reason I use window screen material is because I have a bunch of it from our old windows that we’ll never use for anything else. But, using a flexible screen material also makes it easy to remove the paper from the mould and deckle during the couching process by just pulling the screen off (after removing excess water with a sponge). (BTW, it’s pronounced ‘coo-ching’ not ‘cow-ching’.) I’ve found this a simple method of couching, though there are other methods and some special tools to assist with it if you want to explore other routes.

3D printing is a good fit for papermaking because it’s one of those things where you may need to build your own tools, and being able to rapidly iterate through ideas is handy. Okay, time to go make more paper!

Update! Files are now available.
Grab the STL files to print your own at Printables.com – Mould and Deckle.

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Provisional Press

Last year I bought a printing press kit from Provisional Press. I used to have access to a press when I worked at the museum, and I’ve also borrowed a press from a friend of mine in the past, but most of my “home made” prints have been done with a baren. (I even 3D printed one.) Can you do prints with a baren? Totally, but using a press does make things much easier and more consistent.

I got the base kit with no extras (more on that later) so that’s what you see in these photos. Once you do the assembly, which consists of gluing and screwing things together, you can add in the metal plate as the base. If you use letterpress the metal base comes in handy, and you can grab some galley magnets but honestly I’ll probably just make my own plates like I normally do.

It comes with two “galley high” blocks, which you use to square things up properly so the roller height is consistent across the press. There is a process involving adding tape under the inside rails before you screw them in place.

Here’s what the bottom looks like. You’ll see that some things are not jammed tightly together. Maybe because wood can expand and contract over time and based on temperature and humidity? I’m not sure…

Here you can see some (blue) tape sticking out a bit. You basically add strips of tape to get things level with the roller. It didn’t take long, but it’s one of those things you should take your time with and get right, since once you screw things together you probably don’t want to unscrew them.

The roller is a large piece of PVC or “Charlotte” pipe. I used a bit of acetone to remove the red “Charlotte” lettering on it. It’s still slightly visible though, which is fine.

My plates are typically made from 3mm (1/8″) Baltic Birch plywood. I have a pretty good supply of scrap due to the fact we use a ton of it at work and often get strips left over that are around 4″ tall by 24″ long. I tend to cut them into smaller pieces to fit in my laser cutter. Making 3″ x 5″ plates is quick and easy and I can probably make 50 more with the scrap I have on hand right now.

To get the plate to the right height I dropped in a piece of 3/4″ plywood I had lying around, with some old cereal box board and sheets of paper underneath to get just the right height. It works well and if I consistently use the same wood I shouldn’t have to adjust things too much.

Hey, I made a print! You can see I added two pieces of soft felt as my “press blankets” which seemed to work well. The one upgrade I’ve already added is the 9″x17″ Grid Base which I should have grabbed when I ordered but for some reason did not. It makes it much easier to line things up and to clean things up.

About the assembly… It went well, but it did take some time. I think part of it was that since there was gluing involved I really wanted to get things right. The other issue (for me) is that the last few things I’ve built have been CNC machines, where getting things exact and precise is extremely important. This press is… a bit less so in that regard. It’s all wood, but you end up shimming things to get stuff aligned, and it just feels like there’s some wiggle room. Having built one I’m pretty sure I could build another in half the time.

I will recommend this: Watch all the videos and read everything completely before you start the assembly. Some of the parts do not match up exactly, which was confusing for a bit. The videos are not professionally produced, but hey, it’s a DIY kit, so that’s fine. Watch them all before starting. (And, read the FAQ!)

For the pins that keep the top roller from coming off, I did not glue them in place, as I wanted them to be removable in case I take the top roller part off for some reason. (Maybe for transport.) I just wrapped some tape around them to press fit into place. I did stain the side parts of the top roller section, and thought about staining more of the press, but you should do all that before assembly, and I didn’t want to spend the time doing that. I think it looks pretty good as it is. I mainly stained the side parts because they are 1/4″ laser cut pieces and I just wanted them to look a little nicer.

Oh, if you want to see a bunch of fun stuff from the Provisional Press crew, check out their Instagram account. Also, you can totally build your own! The plans for this press are open source.

I’ll probably do a follow-up post once I’ve got a bit more time into using it. So Stay Tuned!