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Make It Your Own

The Sonic Titan

Years ago when I was really active at the Milwaukee Makerspace a member there would ask me about the projects I made, and how I came up with ideas for them. Well, I’ve always been a weirdo who thinks about weird things, so I’d usually get some idea and try things and occasionally it would become a project. Sometimes they were neat, sometimes they were dumb, sometimes other people thought they were interesting, and sometimes I was the only one who cared about it!

So this Maker said to me “I had an idea for building something but I looked online and someone has already made one.” and they seemed genuinely defeated.

I think this Maker’s goal was to get recognition, maybe via Hackaday (which is a double-edged sword) or… I don’t know. But they seemed upset that someone else did something they wanted to do.

I had some advice, which I’ll share here:

“Just make the thing you want to make. Who cares if someone else has made their own version. Make your own. It will be yours, it might be different. You might made different choices, in fact, you can make different choices. I typically don’t bother looking to see if someone else already built the thing I am going to build, as mine will be unique because it was made by me.”

Look, people have been on this planet a long time, and have created a lot of things… some would say nothing truly “new” has been created in decades, or centuries, and everything at this point is just rehashing or reimagining what has come before.

So just make your own damn thing, and make it yours.

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Paper Making (Again)

I made some paper… again. The first attempt used a small 3D printed mould and deckle, and this time around I made a new (slightly larger) mould and deckle.

I also experimented a bit more with the paper, this time using paper from our paper shredder and mixing in a few “raw” pieces to some sheets. The results are definitely interesting.

I tried a new technique with the hydraulic press after they were all dry as well. Last time I stacked them all and flattened them in the press, and you can see the screen texture in those. This time I did that, and then followed up with pressing them with a piece of wood between each individual sheet. Some of them came out incredibly flat and smooth! I’m curious to see how they take ink when printing on them.

Some of them are a lot more ragged around the edges. (That’s the “deckle edge” you know.)

Here’s a few I added shredded paper to that was not blended or soaked, just tossed onto the pulp before drying. It seems embedded really well and certainly gives a look.

A bit more closeup view… you can see and read some of the type, which I think could be really interesting since I used shredded (and potentially sensitive) documents. There’s probably a whole project there all on its own.

Because I printed this larger mould and deckle on my (small) Prusa MINI+ I split it in half in OpenSCAD, printed the parts, then glued them together. When assembled this one is about 165mm x 224mm and the paper comes out around 145mm x 204mm.

Printing in halves and gluing together mostly worked. I had to print small shims on the side to make it more rigid, but now I really want to make an even larger one! (Though I will need a larger pulp bucket then.)

Magnets embedded into the corners of the mould and deckle work to hold the whole thing together with the screen between the two parts. I’m happy with how this turned out. I just made holes and stuck 1/4″ cylindrical magnets into the holes (making note of polarity) and then shot some hot glue in the holes to hold them in place. (Yeah, sometimes hot glue is quicker and easier than perfectly modeling a hole with friction bumps.)

Despite a few issues combining the halves to make a whole, I’m quite pleased with how the mould and deckle turned out, and I’m sure I’ll experiment with others in the future, especially since it’s trivial to make any shape… round, hexagonal, triangular? No need to be confined to a rectangle. (And yes, I’m very happy with the paper as well!)

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Making Paper

Hey, I made some paper! To be more precise, I made recycled paper using scrap paper from my own home. I remember facilitating an event years ago at the museum where we had people make paper, but it was one of those things where I was so busy running things I didn’t actually get to make anything. So a few years later (and with my renewed printmaking efforts) I figured it was time to make my own paper.

And if you’re interested in the whole process, there’s a ton of information online, and plenty of videos on YouTube. I watched a bunch, and while I didn’t follow any one of them exactly, I got close enough to get some good results for the first try. I bought a tub, strainer, and sponges from a dollar store, found a piece of scrap screen from a window, and then I made my own mould and deckle.

This is one of those things where if you’ve got a wood shop and scrap wood and that sort of stuff, cranking out the mould and deckle would be quick and easy… Since I don’t really have access to those thing I figured I would 3D print them. I designed the two parts so I could embed magnets into the corners to help hold them together while in use. It mostly worked. I may tweak a few things in the next revision.

I printed the parts on the Prusa MINI and they’re about 160mm square, so the paper I made is just slightly smaller than that, probably closer to 145mm x 145mm, which is about 5.5″ square which should work well for my prints that are on 3″ x 5″ paper.

I made two pieces, one of them turned out good. It’s thick enough that no light passes through it…

The other piece, not quite as good. It’s a little thin, and you can see the lighter spots in the photo where it’s a little translucent due to the thinness. Still figuring out the technique. I used an old t-shirt for my couching sheet, but I may need to experiment with other material or break down and actually buy some real sheets.

Overall for a first attempt without really knowing what I’m doing, I think this is a success! If you remember my experiments with home recycling of HDPE this is pretty similar, except it’s with paper, and less heat, and probably more useful for the art I’m creating now.

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Making Food

Since March and the “Stay at Home” orders due to the global pandemic we’ve rarely gone out for food, and for a while we were trying to order food for pickup at least once a week, partly to support local businesses we love, and partly for variety.

(Astute followers will also be aware of my #BurritoEverything campaign, but that’s another post.)

Due to changes in work and life and finances I’ve been trying more and more to create good/new meals at home. I’ve tried a lot of new recipes, some of them turned out great, by the way… I also started making bread again, which I tend to mainly use for French toast (AKA “eggy bread”) and I’ve realized… this is my MAKING now.

Don’t get me wrong, I still do some making activities, but not as much as I used to, so filling in the gaps with making meals, treats, snacks, food, whatever… has been nice. There have been some clunkers, but overall I’ve make some delicious creations!

My only regret is that I don’t have any events to bring tasty stuff to. Maybe by 2021 that will change. Until then, keep on bAKING!

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A History of Making

roman-prodoehl-snowshoes

The following is an article about my grandfather that appeared in the Milwaukee Journal (or Sentinel, I’m not sure which) on February 26, 1981.

If you know me, this article will probably seem familiar to you… and if you don’t know me, reading this article may give you some insight into why I am the way I am, and tell you a bit about my family.

When the Boy Scouts of Troop 501 in Greenfield needed snowshoes for their winter hikes in deep snow, they turned to an American Indian design—and Roman Prodoehl.

Although it was his first venture into snowshoes, Roman Prodoehl of 4429 S. 66th St., Greenfield, has spent the 10 years since his retirement from Falk Corp. concentrating on his woodworking hobby.

One of the boys in Troop 501 knew all about Prodoehl’s work.

Peter Prodoehl grew up knowing how grandpa could turn pieces of wood into something magical.

The scoutmaster did the research and found a snowshoe design developed by the American Indians of the northeast-tribes that lived in the area that is now the state of Maine.

Roman Prodoehl took the design and started working on the snowshoes in mid-September.

Now Troop 501 has 11 pairs of snowshoes, and an easier time of it when they hike (with full backpacks) through the deep Wisconsin snow.

“I do it for the love of the work,” says Prodoehl. “My son Ron (Peter’s father) says it keeps me out of mischief!”

Prodoehl didn’t have much time for mischief when he started on the snowshoes.

The troop supplied the two 4 by 8 sheets of plywood and Roman supplied the know-how and the help of his wife, Lucille.

Each snowshoe was soaked in hot water for half an hour. Then Prodoehl curved the tips in a woodpress for four hours.

The three-foot long snowshoes, stained brown, are not only authentic but also “custom made”—coming in different sizes depending on the boy.

On a recent hike through Whitnall Park, Troop 501 reported that the snowshoes worked beautifully.

Prodoehl didn’t know it at the time, but 50 years ago, while attending Boys’ Tech woodworking classes, he was learning the techniques needed for the snowshoes. Later he used the same principles in his job in steel fabrication at Falk Corp.

On and off while working at Falk Corp., Prodoehl made use of his woodworking skills—fixing the family wood toboggan after a run-in with a tree, for example—but it is in the last 10 years that he says he begun “to tackle anything.”

That includes a dollhouse for daughter Fleurette and later, over 300 pieces of doll furniture for Fleurette’s children. He patterned all the pieces after furniture in his house.

“I’ve made refrigerators, stoves, davenports, beds, rocking chairs…everything,” he says.

Even a grand piano made out of black walnut.

One Christmas Roman Prodoehl presented family members with handcarved horsedrawn sleighs. Used as centerpieces they are perfect for holding Christmas cards and candy.

Now he is working on a series of shadow boxes for son Ron. One is a miniature old-time saloon.

When summer comes Prodoehl puts away his miniatures and concentrates “on the big stuff”—picnic tables and benches, for example.

“I could be very busy every day of the week,” he says. “People call up and ask if I can make something…”

But although he prefers to take his time “and do what I want to” he can be quickly caught up in a challenge.

That happened recently when Prodoehl was walking through a store and noticed some shoe-boxes-the kind that hold polish and buffing material-selling for $25.

“I looked at them and thought, ‘Oh boy, I can put that together for five bucks,” he says.

So he did. Several of them. And gave them to his grandchildren.

Even after making 22 snowshoes and an entire Boy Scout troop happy, Roman Prodoehl remains stubbornly modest.

“A little whittling. A little carving. It turns out real nice.”

Leave it to grandson Peter to tell the whole story:

“Grandpa can make anything.”

Reading this 37 years later brings back a lot of memories, and brings with it a new perspective on where I came from, and who I am. I don’t think this article would have resonated with me so strongly 10 or even 15 years ago, but right now, it sure means a lot.