hinging story stick

Yesterday, for practice, I used the MakerBot at Clear Spring School to make a "hinging story stick". This device is a form of story stick that I use to set up stops on the router table for installing hinges in small to medium sized boxes. The story stick technique will work for all kinds of hinges and all sizes of box.

After evaluating this first one, I have a second prototype designed in sketchup and ready to print.

Since it's my invention, I got to name it after myself. It's not likely to be broadly marketed any time soon, because you have to know the technique in order for it to be of any use to you. For those who have never made anything before in their lives, 3-D printers are amazing. You can sit back and watch it do its work. The results will be dependent on your understanding of the process. For example, to build the long slot for screws, I had to build a system of bridge supports to hold it up during forming.

Yesterday, in another technological realm entirely, I visited with a blacksmith friend about making a block knife. I was surprised to learn that he knew what block knife was, how it worked, and had even made one himself. In about an hour and a half and with some skill, (he suggests) a block knife can be made from an old truck spring. While my students are excited about 3D printing, which is very much like 2D printing through an ink jet, and where the only important thing you do with your hands is keep them out of the way, there is a vast universe of creative methods available that are being ignored and forgotten. So I find myself moving in two directions at once.

The photo above is one I took of Bill Coperthwaite demonstrating the use of one of his block knives.

Make, fix and create...