Work over New Year's Eve/Day

[kproche]

Didn't get a lot done due to cold weather and intervening parties:-)

I've also hit a point where I need to use a drill press to finish a couple of things; I can do that in the "hack shop" at work on Tuesday.

Jig saw bolted to plywood for inverted cutting By mounting the saw and flipping it over, I could get more control over cutting small pieces, since I have neither a table saw nor a band saw in my tool collection

Modified jigsaw set up for table cutting This shows the jigsaw blade extending up through the work surface

Another view of the mounted jigsaw

updated eyestalk assembly I eliminated one of the big parasols, switched to a new piece of bamboo with a knuckle in it and shortened the works to match the classic plans. The pivot disk is cut out of 3 layers of 11/32 plywood laminated with Gorilla Glue. It's not yet actually mounted, the real mounting holes in it need to be done on a drill press.

Closeup of new eyestalk assembly

Parasol mounted as Iris In this final version, the inner parasol has been cemented to a lamp pipe union so it actually screws firmly into place

Arm/plunger assembly I found two pieces of bamboo that could be slid together to form a telescoping arm assembly. This is in the retracted position. (I'm going to shorten it a couple of inches for sanity's sake)

Arm/plunger in extended position I also need to use the drill press to bore out a socket for the base of the outer tube in the arm assembly.

Closeup -- the bamboo knuckle forms a natural stop