Finished objects are only part of the collection. These notes stay with the decisions that made the work possible: what had to fit, what changed between versions, why a material was chosen, and what I learned after the thing left the bench.
Original component and printed replacement, photographed together.
MANUFACTURING / CHANGE THE PART, NOT JUST THE SUPPLIER
The replacement did not have to be more of the same.
A brittle ABS tool fork on the Multicam CNC kept turning into the same maintenance problem. The replacement sold for roughly $45 to $65, but ordering another identical part would have brought the same material back into the same job. I wanted to see whether I could keep the required interface and change the way the part behaved when it was hit.
I measured the original and rebuilt it in Fusion. The shape was more involved than it first appeared because there were very few convenient square edges to work from. The curved opening, mounting holes, relieved areas, and changing outside profile all had to agree well enough for the fork to meet the existing rack and hold the tool where the machine expected it.
The meaningful change was the move from ABS to TPU. I printed the replacement on my Voron V0.2 at the documented 15% infill and 0.2 mm layer height, installed it, and returned to the result after 90 days. In that update I reported that it still gripped the tool firmly and had survived several direct spindle impacts. Those are observations from this machine and this trial, not a universal material claim.
The case matters to me because the record stays connected from beginning to end: the failed part, the Fusion geometry, three saved file variants, the print footage, the installed component, the machine footage, and the later dimensioned drawing. It is one part, but it shows the whole habit of noticing a failure, making a practical change, and checking what happened after use.
Original Jerky_FPV post, September 15, 2023; drawing issued October 4, 2023.
Swirl pattern worked into the thickening resin between two natural wood edges.
01 / MATERIAL & TIMING
The pattern came after the pour.
The pour was only the first step. In my June 2020 update, I described coming back roughly 12 hours later, after the epoxy had started to gel. At that point it was thick enough to hold movement instead of immediately leveling itself back into a flat field of color.
I used a tongue depressor to draw through the river and work the visible swirl into it. That timing was the real tool. Doing the same thing while the resin was still loose would have produced a different result, and waiting until it had gone too far would have made the material difficult to move at all.
The photograph records a second operation that can disappear when only the finished tabletop is shown. The pattern was deliberate, but it depended on watching the state of the material and returning when it was ready. That kind of pause-and-read decision is hard to capture in a final beauty shot.
The linked pieces are separate projects, each with its own material choices. The cottonwood table keeps the irregular wood edge as the river boundary, the coaster set compresses grain and resin into a functional object, and the birch table began with short reused slats. I have not claimed that the same swirl process was used on all three.
From Mike's Functional Artistry project archive, June 29, 2020.
The patterned end-grain RV sink insert, including its circular opening.
02 / FIT & REQUIREMENTS
A specific object can carry a very specific brief.
The RV sink insert had to be 23 11/16 by 15 11/16 by 15/16 inches. Those dimensions made it a fitted part before it was a cutting board. The patterned end grain supplied the visible surface, while stainless threaded rod and hardware addressed reinforcement and adjustment within a relatively thin custom object.
The hanging shelves began with a different boundary: create another place for plants while keeping them away from the cats. Aromatic cedar and rope kept the construction simple. The original offer included 18-by-10-inch and 21-by-8-inch versions, plus room for custom dimensions and wood species, so the project became a set of options rather than one fixed shelf.
The plant enclosures had to negotiate several conditions at once. The office was intentionally dry for printing, Michigan seasons made the indoor climate inconsistent, and the cats liked the plants. Printed PETG parts and glass covers created a contained local enclosure. It was my first complete Fusion-model-to-print project, and the original account records several iterations before I was satisfied with the geometry.
These projects look unrelated until I think about what actually drove them. In each one, the surrounding conditions established the design: a sink opening, available wall space and curious cats, or a glass cover meeting a printed base. The useful answer came from respecting that interface instead of forcing a generic object into it.
From Mike's Functional Artistry project archive, September 2020 through April 2021.
The printed replacement installed at the existing wardrobe rail joint.
03 / REPAIR & ADAPTATION
Replace the failed part, not the whole thing.
One cracked plastic fitting made an otherwise usable rolling wardrobe difficult to use. I reverse-engineered that fitting in Fusion and printed a replacement in PETG. The job was deliberately narrow: restore the connection between the existing rails instead of replacing or redesigning the whole wardrobe.
That makes the interface the real design problem. The replacement is not a free-standing shape that only has to look right; it has to meet parts that already exist. The damaged original and the installed purple part are both shown because the comparison explains my contribution without confusing the original commercial wardrobe with the piece I made.
The threaded jar lid approached the same kind of problem from another direction. The existing jar supplied the mating geometry, and the April 2021 record identifies a reverse-engineered 1/4-inch thread pitch. I liked the edge-glow blue filament because it made the prototype look like a three-dimensional blueprint. The page does not turn that fitted prototype into an unsupported claim about sealing, canning, or food-contact use.
The director-chair commission used restoration rather than replacement. I worked on the existing wooden frames and the customer supplied the canvas afterward. I also kept the original note that I needed help getting started and could still see flaws in the result. Repair work is more useful when the record includes what was reused, what I changed, and what I did not claim to have made.
From Jerky_FPV and Mike's Functional Artistry project archives, 2020–2021.
Router, adjustable circle jig, and a circular wood cutout.
04 / WORKSHOP METHODS
The next project sometimes needs its own tool.
I had improvised a circle-cutting solution more than once and kept telling myself I would build the proper jig later. In July 2020 I finally made an adjustable router jig. The original post described an intended range from one-half inch to four feet; that is my stated range, not a calibrated accuracy specification.
Three days later the jig was already doing another job: a kitchen modification intended to stop hanging measuring cups from clanging when the door moved. That follow-up is the part I like. The jig stopped being a workshop idea and became a way to solve the next ordinary problem.
The cutting-board clamping fixture came from the same habit. Instead of buying another group of clamps, I built a roughly $30 wood frame with horizontal bolts to press across the glue-up and vertical bolts intended to resist the shearing movement created by that pressure. The first panel used teak, canarywood, and purpleheart. I compared the visible glue squeeze-out with my commercial clamps, but I did not measure clamp force or call it a controlled test.
The integrated workbench scaled that thinking up. I mounted the table saw into the bench, laminated, screwed and glued the top, and added a woodworking vise. Wheels, dog holes, and more accessories were still plans at that stage. The notebook keeps the useful stage and the unfinished ideas together because a shop usually grows by becoming ready for the next job.
From Mike's Functional Artistry project archive, July–August 2020.
The two-sided commissioned board, assembled and finished.
05 / COMMISSION & COMPOSITION
A loose brief still needs a buildable answer.
The double-sided board began with a budget and a supplied image rather than a complete fabrication plan. That left room for interpretation, but it also meant I had to turn the visual direction into an actual object with two useful faces and a material arrangement I could build.
One face places walnut end grain in the center with long-grain maple, cherry, and zebrawood around it. The other uses teak, cherry, and black walnut as a serving face. A cherry frame and homemade walnut plugs carry the contrast through the edges instead of leaving the two surfaces unrelated.
The warping board was a different kind of custom object. I made it from Michigan cherry with a 4.5-yard path for yarn, then gave it a Star Trek theme with an Enterprise motif and lettering inspired by Deep Space Nine. At the time, I described it as the weaving equivalent of a woodworking jig: unfamiliar work, but a familiar problem of organizing material through a repeatable path.
A commission can arrive as an exact dimension, a photograph, a theme, or a sentence. I like the point where those inputs stop being loose ideas and start making decisions about geometry, wood, assembly, and process. That translation is part of the work even when it is less visible than the finish.
From Mike's Functional Artistry project archive, December 2020.
The EffZero build as a complete machine, with the supporting modifications documented separately.
06 / BUILD & MODIFICATION
Put the files back beside the machine.
The EffZero is its own machine, separate from my Voron V0.2 and the two 250 mm Voron 2.4s in the Tool Crib. The April 2025 record shows its homing sequence, including the probe attaching and detaching. The original caption reports 20,000 mm/s² acceleration, but the clip is a record of that routine rather than a print-quality benchmark.
The less visible work sits underneath the finished build. The related FZero collection includes two M8P mounting-deck versions, a 45 mm mezzanine spacer, an extended foot riser, skirts and trim, and a TFT-to-skirt bracket. Those parts support the controller, base, and display without claiming authorship of the entire printer ecosystem.
My Voron V0.2, Nostalgia, has a separate history. The June 2023 record shows the primary-color build, and a November update documents the Galileo 2 extruder with the standalone Mini Stealthburner adaptation. The underlying Voron platform, Galileo 2 design, and hartk1213 adaptation remain credited to their original designers.
A machine build is more than one finished photograph, but it is also important to separate assembly and integration from original design work. Keeping the video, modification files, later upgrades, and credits together makes the actual contribution easier to understand.
From Jerky_FPV project archive, June 2023 through April 2025.
The completed figured-cherry stand, with the carved bagpipe motif built into its identity.
07 / LEARN FOR THE JOB
Sometimes the project is the reason to learn the machine.
The music-stand commission started with a rough request: make a functional stand and work a bagpipe into it. The customer gave me room to interpret the idea, which meant the motif had to become part of the object without getting in the way of its job holding music.
I developed the concept and acquired a BobsCNC because the carved design required a capability I did not yet have in the shop. Learning the software and connecting digital artwork to a physical toolpath became part of delivering the commission, not a disconnected exercise I completed beforehand.
I brought in @svyart.3d_artist to refine the digital artwork. I handled the concept development and fabrication, while that collaboration helped turn the bagpipe idea into geometry I could use. Keeping those roles separate makes the story more accurate and makes the finished result more interesting.
The final stand combines figured cherry, a carved music rest, a wooden pedestal and foot assembly, a rope-like border, and an oil-and-wax finish. The process photographs show the parts and clamping alongside the finished object. For me, it remains a good example of adding a new tool and workflow because a real project needed them.
From the music-stand project account, December 24, 2020.
The housing and pusher shown separately from the source geometry; this is not an assembled-product photograph.
08 / PUBLISH & LISTEN
A shared file needs more than a download button.
The Qidi spring belt tensioner keeps the stock spring and adds screw adjustment to its load. The concept and request came from stew675 and spooknik. My part was turning that direction into printable housing and pusher parts, installing the modification, and publishing the files with enough guidance for another person to try it.
The release specifies ASA, upright print orientation, 0.2 mm layers, and the related hardware. I described it as testable work in progress and asked for measured feedback. Once a part leaves my own machine, fit and adjustment become a communication problem as much as a geometry problem.
The feedback included both a favorable result and a useful limitation. One maker reported a symmetry change from 68.5% to 96.6%. Another found interference near the left-side chute. Neither report is a controlled benchmark, and neither guarantees what will happen on every printer, but both are valuable because they make the next decision better informed.
Publishing the file did not finish the design conversation. The model, print settings, hardware notes, credits, completed makes, and clearance report all belong together. That is the kind of open-source record I find useful: enough context to understand the idea, reproduce it carefully, and know where someone else ran into trouble.
From the Qidi spring-tensioner listing and user feedback, updated November 9, 2024.
The CNC folder in Jerky3DP contains belt clips, corner and axis limit guides, a wheel-chip blocker, a bit holder, a vacuum elbow, source-format files, and photographs.