MSRaynsford

If I'm testing boxes then I might as well try a few designs out, this one is a lot curvier than the last, it would be harder to build but looks better, decisions decisions (although given the timescale the simpler box is better really)

I have a project soon that requires a fairly large box, the best way to make sure the box is correct is to make some prototypes. The box is fairly standard, poplar box with a living hinge curves. The lid was made from clear acrylic and the curve put in using a hot air gun. The bend radius is way too tight but it's proof of concept and I learn how not to bend curves into acrylic.

After a dozen or so maker faires last year my demo useless machines were looking a little bit worse for wear. The hammers had a tendency to slip on the axle, meaning they didn't have enough oomph to flip the switch. After a bit of thought I replaced the wooden hammers with perspex ones. I still engrave the keyed shaft shape into the hammer but because it's made of plastic it is a lot more resistant to the torsional forces going through it. I've yet to have one of these fail yet. If you have a useless machine with a yellow motor and a wooden hammer and you would like a replacement, just drop me a line. msraynsford@gmail.com.

Caverna is often called Agricola 2.0 , it's Uwe Rosenburgs second farming game and it makes some great improvements over Agricola. Consider this a positive review, if you're into games it's a great game and with up to 7 players it comes with an awful lot of parts, ideal for a storage tray solution. This one was a bit tricky, getting everything into the box and closing the lid while still making all the trays large enough to hold the parts. All the tiles are separated into their own sections and I had to put in 0.8mm ply dividers to squeeze it all in there.  

Another blast from the past, I previously made a tray for the resource cards in S ettlers of Catan , the main problem was that it was too big to fit inside the box. In this iteration I split the card trays into two sections and used some of my standard tubs for all the tokens, a little bit of storage for the numbers, dice and ports and I have a new storage solution that fits inside the box and can hold the 5-6 player expansion as well as all my magnetic tiles . 

Another months old project, my friends bought me Keyflower for Christmas and given the 2 year delay between making storage for Agricola and making myself storage for Agricola  I felt I should make the bins for this game quickly. The game is played in 4 seasons and new Hex tiles are drawn for the season so it made sense to separate them into 4 stacks. The other 3 stacks are for starting tiles (upto 6 players), restocking boats and player order. Finally some bins hold all the resources for the game, Iron, Wood, Stone, Gold and Green Meeples. Bins like these really make setting up a game so much faster.

I'm going to start by saying this is a bad product review, which is very different to a review of a bad product. I was sent some of these angled brackets by Arachnid Labs , it's an L-Shaped bracket with 2 pre-tapped M3 holes and it's intended to hold 2 panels together at right angles to each other. This review will probably come across as overly negative, I had some brackets and no immediate use for them so I had to figure out how to use them and where they will be useful. Update: These brackets are absolutely perfect for much larger designs and cases, particularly in perspex. I have since gone on to make such a box while prototyping designs for our new laser cutter . The first thing I made was a simple test brace. This allowed me to check that the holes and slots were all in the right places. One side of the bracket has an extra tab, cutting a slot into the material allows the tab to key into the material and it prevents it rotating. I decided to make finger joint...