monophoto
Member
I'm frugal.
OK, I'm cheap. And I don't like throwing away stuff that can be repurposed for some other use
For example,did you know that electric toothbrush heads contain small magnets that can be recovered before used heads are disposed of and that can be used for many shop applications?
Here's another idea - pill bottles. I know that some people make boxes for use as pill bottles, but ordinary slip-fit lids are not practical for travel, and I've never mastered the art of thread chasing. So instead, I redress disposable plastic containers in wood to make attractive lidded pill bottles.
The larger bottle (myrtle with a walnut lid) was made by redressing a bog-standard pharmacy pill bottle (the kind with the 'adult-proof' cap). The two smaller bottles (ash with mesquite top on the left, goncalo alves with a birch top on the right) were made by recycling plastic contact lens cleaning containers (threaded caps with a nice gasketed seal).
One lesson that I learned is that while these plastic containers appear to have parallel sides, in fact they are very slightly tapered. That does make sense - they are injection molded and for efficient manufacturing, they have to easily pop out of the mold, so the diameter of the bottom is very slightly (about 1 mm) smaller than the diameter of the top. My approach is to use an appropriate forstner bit to drill a hole the diameter of the bottom, and then use a box scraper to create a slight taper to the top.
I prefer thick CA to glue the wooden components to the plastic, but polyurethane or epoxy would also work.
OK, I'm cheap. And I don't like throwing away stuff that can be repurposed for some other use
For example,did you know that electric toothbrush heads contain small magnets that can be recovered before used heads are disposed of and that can be used for many shop applications?
Here's another idea - pill bottles. I know that some people make boxes for use as pill bottles, but ordinary slip-fit lids are not practical for travel, and I've never mastered the art of thread chasing. So instead, I redress disposable plastic containers in wood to make attractive lidded pill bottles.
The larger bottle (myrtle with a walnut lid) was made by redressing a bog-standard pharmacy pill bottle (the kind with the 'adult-proof' cap). The two smaller bottles (ash with mesquite top on the left, goncalo alves with a birch top on the right) were made by recycling plastic contact lens cleaning containers (threaded caps with a nice gasketed seal).
One lesson that I learned is that while these plastic containers appear to have parallel sides, in fact they are very slightly tapered. That does make sense - they are injection molded and for efficient manufacturing, they have to easily pop out of the mold, so the diameter of the bottom is very slightly (about 1 mm) smaller than the diameter of the top. My approach is to use an appropriate forstner bit to drill a hole the diameter of the bottom, and then use a box scraper to create a slight taper to the top.
I prefer thick CA to glue the wooden components to the plastic, but polyurethane or epoxy would also work.