matt@customsawdust

this is a thing of beauty and oh my god i'm going to have to fire up Elite again and lose another hundred hours

I’m of an age now where 1) I will drop serious notes down the garden centre and 2) yes, you can interest me in the reward card.

A red Femi 782XL metal band saw munching through some 25mm box section steel

fancy pants new #metalwork saw!

oh I know that feeling :)

talking of forums, missing you at the EG/RPS exiles place (apologies if I missed some drama)

grumpily browsing etsy watching stores charge a fortune for clumsily nailing three bits of framing lumber / scaffold boards together, smearing some coloured wax over it, calling it "rustic", charging a fortune *and getting hundreds of sales*

A track saw on a workbench setup to rip a short length of oak to a desired width.

making a very quick custom sized #handmade spice shelf this morning. I'm not really geared up for much custom work, but this is for a repeat customer. Do ask if you need something unique, might not always be able to accommodate, but will if I can

spent this evening re-organising screw storage from the previous "by gauge" method to a radical new "by frequency of use" method. 3x12mm screws now share an organiser tray with 4x30s, 5x40s, and 4.5x85s, madness

form an orderly queue, ladies

ooh! Double cat lap is advanced catting!

A tabby cat fast asleep on a lap.

trapped. legs numb

"elite human capital", us plebs wouldn't understand

A black steel shelf bracket on a work bench. Rectangular in shape, mounting holes at the back allow it to be fixed to a wall, and on the bottom to secure a shelf. The top and front of the rectangle are in box section steel and in use will be over and around the shelf, acting as a bookend.

made a prototype shelf bracket, this one sized to fit scaffold board shelves. Aiming to provide something different to the usual "rustic" affair and land somewhere more stylish, a bit industrial maybe?

Imagine different colour options (black, grey, RED, white, maybe a sage green?) & sizes

Screenshot of an Etsy store dashboard, showing the Star Seller award for March, on account of earning the sub-awards for "Speedy Replies", "Smooth Dispatch", and "Rave Reviews".

keep forgetting to toot my own trumpet

had some lovely reviews recently, translated to another month being a "star seller" on #etsy

customsawdustco.etsy.com

sleepy ballerina pose

*the secret product is shelf brackets. Not actually secret, don't know why I said that

Four welding jigs on a workbench. Layered plywood describes a rectangle shape which is lined with steel. The steel lining is connected together, providing electrical connectivity for easier welding.

made up some #welding jigs today for a secret* new product and it turns out plywood is not entirely impervious to molten steel but I'm sure it'll be fine and won't set fire to anything important this time

as a fellow resident, came to the same conclusion! Blast wave from the doughnut to us must be less than a second

A small #handmade spice rack on a wooden worktop. Made from solid oak with a stainless steel back and guard rail, it has deep roundovers and fluting suggesting an #ArtDeco style. It is empty. Just like my bank account while spice rack sales are slow.

A small #handmade spice rack on a wooden worktop. Made from solid oak with a stainless steel back and guard rail, it has deep roundovers and fluting suggesting an #ArtDeco style. It is filled with six herb & spice bottles, including a jar of ground ginger which is way past its best before date.

what haven't i plugged for a while?

these #handmade mini spice racks were made as an experiment in an #ArtDeco style in solid oak and stainless steel

they only hold six, but maybe you're a really unimaginative cook? they're just £29 inc UK delivery

customsawdustco.etsy.com/uk/listing/1...

because i'm extremely immature, i just checked - if alphabetical i think it's Bristol Central

I remember being warned not to meddle in the mystical affairs of the cobol programmers in a similar manner to Gandalf admonishing hobbits for questioning The Old Majiks :)

"look, nobody understands it but it's Very Important - STOP BOTHERING THE WIZARDS"

A small Bosch battery drill on a workbench. It has a right angle attachment, and attached to that is an offset attachment holding a bit adaptor with a torx bit.

is #ToolTuesday a thing?

I'm procrastinating, I really need to get on with stuff today, but I'd rather show you - not unlike a toddler with their five legged horse drawing - my favourite drill

Bosch 12v-35FC - there's no fiddly spot it can't reach

Good god, cobol programmers were the mystical greybeards when I started at the end of the last century

*adored* the lympics, in hindsight I can see why the selectors didn't pick me for the skellington team but I remain hopeful for 2030

as another insomniac awake & reading this at 03:30, god i'm sorry for you

after *many* years i'm lucky they now have no pause prescribing me zopiclone on PRN, *but* tolerance (and addiction concern) such that it only works 1 day a week

but that 1 day of guaranteed sleep? glorious

(insomnia scrolling the mutuals feed six hours later) i bet this is the half pipe final? i'm amazed & thankful he walked away from that (and amazed the medical crew allowed him to before getting properly checked)

something olympiccy? curling out another newsletter?

i have heard that eating prolongs life

i've been doing something similar (albeit as I say minimum wage is the initial goal), estimating time taken is definitely the bit i vastly underestimate

can easily see how people end up working for £2.70/h

my fudge factor for consumables also didn't withstand close scrutiny

figuring pricing is another thing i'm terrible at! they're currently priced such that if i up batch sizes slightly i might hit minimum wage, and if i invest in bigger tooling can do a little better still

i recognise i'm fortunate to be in a position where that's viable

A #handmade black steel towel rail with a solid oak shelf attached to a wall. A blue towel hangs from the rail and a house plant is on the shelf. #craftsky

Closeup of a #handmade black steel towel rail with solid oak shelf attached to a wall. #craftsky

i'm terrible at predicting demand (good or bad), finished a handful more of these #handmade towel rails this morning as the 30cm model briefly sold out

that's the good news, the bad is that I need to get more steel in & any further batches are ~2 weeks out

customsawdustco.etsy.com/uk/listing/4...