Ooo, there is a lathe on my kitchen counter.  I have been looking forward to this day for a long time.

A Craftsman 109 with a handful of accessories.  I’m tentatively looking forward to making things round with it.

When I bought my house, I realized I was moving somewhere that had a basement that was only accessible  from outside.  Bleh, that was going to blow come the winter time.  So I figured I’d get some kind of small workbench for my office, mainly for electronics work and synth repair.

To make a long story short, nobody made anything remotely close to what I wanted.  And really, what the hell is the market for “pretty, rolling and low shelves”?  Can’t be a large market at all.  So after some deliberation I started poking around the Ikea catalog and ran across some cheap counter tops.

So the first iteration was a simple table on wheels.  Just a big ole inch thick counter top on some Ikea legs with wheels.  Boring.  So boring in fact my dumb ass forgot to take a picture.  But as a bonus, here’s the “taking break, time for a picture” picture.

Remember kids, there's always time for lube. Screw lube that is.

Dawn is my default lubricant for screws.  And it helped  a lot in this case.  The Ikea counter tops are beech, which is gummy as hell.

After a while I realized that a bottom shelf would be great.  But I didn’t want to ditch my neato looking metal legs for casters and spacers.  So a little thinking and dropping a Jackson at MSC, I had a solution.

My plan was to use the old counter top as a shelf.  So I started by cutting the corners off of the existing table.  This left me with a nice bottom shelf that had clearance to clear the legs.  The added benefit was that the overall height of the table got a boost.

When it came to mounting the bottom shelf I wanted something adjustable, sturdy and good looking.  Threaded rod and countersunk holes was an easy choice here.  I love building stuff out of threaded rod just because of the modularity.  I have an open frame computer case I built that holds 3 computers in the space of one, built entirely out of plexi and threaded rod.  But that one is for another time.

Here’s a close up of the the countersunk hole on the top piece.  I bought a small drill stand when I bought my new drill ( a rather lovely new Milwaukee.  My entire life I have been using my dad’s Milwaukee, so even though I don’t believe in brand loyalty, I know this bastard is gonna last).  With a spade bit mounted in the drill it makes really easy work of  making a 1.25″ diameter countersink.  It even came out level.

Here you can see the threaded rod supporting the shelf.  Also, the area cut away in order to clear the caster regardless of it’s orientation.  I’m really proud of the fact that I changed the design in the middle of building and didn’t waste a single piece of wood.

Final product.  I am super happy with the results, and now I have somewhere to put all my stuff.   It’s great being able to roll it around the office and to be able to make everything move with it.

The whole product set me back a little more than I wanted to spend, but it was worth it.  The bottom counter was $40, the top $90, the legs and casters $40 and the threaded rod, nuts, bolts, and washers were about $50.  Still, $220 and it fits perfectly.  Ikea King Shit, right here.

By this point, most DIY synth enthusiasts have built one of Ray Wilson’s Weird Sound Generators.  Just in case you have been living under a rock:

www.musicfromouterspace.com

(I built my first WSG 6 years ago now.  On perfboard.  Does that make me a nerd bad ass?)

Anyway, my friend Pat approached me to build him one, from the kit.  And I obliged.So building a kit isn’t very interesting.  Or very post worthy to be honest.  So here’s the first outcome:

Yup, in a cardboard box.  With a plexi front.  Ick.  It was totally functional and Pat was happy, so it was a win.  But in the end, he wanted something pretty.  So I obliged.

He provided me with a 1950′s “world of the future” themed lunchbox that was about 1/2 scale of regular lunch box.  Or 1/4 scale of a lunchbox capable of feeding me.  Anyway….

So there’s the lunchbox, and the first iteration of the front panel.  Cold, hard steel.  Lovingly hand drilled and filed.  Countersunk, deburred and ready to roll.

I hit a stumbling block though with how to make the front panel look good.  I could have painted it and hand lettered it.  Except my hands shake like a strippers ass.  I could have made a paper label and lacquered it, like Beavis does.  But I didn’t want to deal with cooking it.  Or dealing with holes that don’t quite line up.  So whats the natural path of action?

LASERS!

I had run across Ponoko a few times before, but I finally had a good reason to use them.  I think the results came out quite good:

Here it is wearing its protective brown wrap.  Basically, peel off whats left of the paper where the text is etched, spraypaint, peel the rest and call it a day.  The added benefit is all the holes are guaranteed to line up.

Finished product:

In the end I’m happy with the results.  I’ve learned a few tricks that should make the next parts I do better, and hopefully will look great.  And now I’m addicted to lasers.

http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/PB-142/MOMENTARY-PUSHBUTTON-SPST-N.O.-4-AMP/-/1.html

$2.75 each, and they fit just fine.

Here it is, on the desk o’ effects. Note the craptacular paint job.

I figured it was the switch itself that was buggered. Line 6 doesn’t use an actual momentary stomp switch. The switch on the modeler pedals is just a metal poker that activates a tactile switch. Super chincy.

So I ordered some switches that I prayed would fit:

They fit, but I had to desolder the existing tactile switches. What a pain in the ass. Normally, my extra strong solder pump makes quick business of such mundane tasks. But in an effort to scrimp every god-damn penny out of the product, Line6 wave soldered all the components. Which uses very little solder. And makes it an epic pain to desolder.

Anyway, here’s what I ended up with. The case took a vacation to the bead blaster at work:

And vaguely put back together:

everything works again, and so far it looks pretty good. Still need to get everything back together. Just need to see about getting it painted, or if I want to leave it bare aluminum. Also considering finding some obnoxious colored 3mm LED’s to replace the stock red. Anything but blue.

For $10 in switches and a sweaty couple minutes in front of the bead blaster, I’m happy.