Cheapy, cheep, cheep

[skyline1]

Like many of us on this forum, I find that (inevitably) the prices of everything are on the upward spiral

Raw materials, energy, labour (not that that matters to us much except when SWMBO demands our time for domestic matters like eating)

So I thought I'd post about money saving ideas in the workshop.

This being the break room, any ideas, Ladies and Gents

Practical ones, Impractical ones, just plain impossible ones, The Good, The Bad and the "gotta be worth a try don't cost me owt" ones

A first one to start you off

You know how printers can put a pattern on paper, what about if we cut them out and stack them on top of one another could we make 3D shapes ?

Laughed at 20 years ago !

 

[GreenTwin]

They are 3D printing sand molds in foundries now.
No patterns required.
Great for rapid prototyping.

Edit:
As far as saving money in the shop, I pick up discards in the neighborhood, before the garbage trucks run.
I got a perfect $700.00 dust collector the other day.

And I picked up a bicycle carrier that plugs into the trailer hitch on a car.
I was in the hardware store later that day with the wife, and showed here a 48" piece of angle iron for $48.00.
I told her there was four times as much steel in the bike carrier that I picked up that morning.

People toss some really good stuff out on the curb sometimes.
Many people don't know exactly what they are looking at, and so they don't bother to grab the stuff.
.

 

[ChazzC]

Like many of us on this forum, I find that (inevitably) the prices of everything are on the upward spiral

Raw materials, energy, labour (not that that matters to us much except when SWMBO demands our time for domestic matters like eating)

So I thought I'd post about money saving ideas in the workshop.

This being the break room, any ideas, Ladies and Gents

Practical ones, Impractical ones, just plain impossible ones, The Good, The Bad and the "gotta be worth a try don't cost me owt" ones

A first one to start you off

You know how printers can put a pattern on paper, what about if we cut them out and stack them on top of one another could we make 3D shapes ?

Laughed at 20 years ago !

You mean like this (Grandson's Egypt Project):

This was one of the few times my wife thought having tools was a good thing (Craftsman bench top bandsaw with a 3/16" blade made quick work of the corrugated cardboard cut-outs).

 

[skyline1]

Green Twin

A man after my own heart ! A fellow "skip vulture"

It is always a good idea to knock on the door and ask, though,

I've had the reply "I've got a half a dozen of 'em if you want 'em" before now !

More like this recycles, repurposes, scrounges, valuable scrap !

Regards, Mark

 

[ChazzC]

Save Time & Scraped Stock:

When making a part to mount on one of my machines, I will frequently make a paper template just as a sanity check (easy to do since I create 2-D drawings for just about all of my projects):

 

[skyline1]

You mean like this (Grandson's Egypt Project):

Cool !

3D printing, we were doing it decades ago, son !

Regards, Mark

 

[skyline1]

When making a part to mount on one of my machines, I will frequently make a paper template just as a sanity check (easy to do since I create 2-D drawings for just about all of my projects):

Me too! An old-fashioned paper template can save a lot of embarrassment

 

[timo_gross]

You mean like this (Grandson's Egypt Project):

View attachment 162843


View attachment 162842

This was one of the few times my wife thought having tools was a good thing (Craftsman bench top bandsaw with a 3/16" blade made quick work of the corrugated cardboard cut-outs).

As far as I remember I saw an automated machine for this somewhere in the video space. Piling papers on top of each other, spreading glue at the right positions and cut the paper.
Yes, found an "advert" obviously the order of operations may vary.

I am not sure how that relates to saving money. Yet another machine to buy?!

Just printed paper templates before cutting "real material" I do occasionally.

My pro tip to save money in the workshop: "Get rid of the entire workshop!"
I saw a youtube once where the guy said something like: "we live in the age of DIY, everything is cheaper DIY". I agree with the first part that a lot of things are possible, but nothing seems to be really cheaper (when time and pre-invested tools are considered) it is also hard to find anything that we cannot just buy.

My workshop is a financial desaster, I think they call it hobby!

I think I buy far too many things that turn out to be the wrong thing for the job or I never use them at the end.
Too many projects at the same time.

Doing more research before an impulse tool purchase is also a good thing.

Greetings Timo