For the past several months when Jay wasn’t working he could be found in his workshop. He really didn’t do a whole lot of flying this year. Why? Well, part of it is because he is spoiled. The other part of it is because his attention has been held by some rather fascinating toys.

First there was the 3D printer that he received for his birthday. I have shown you in previous posts just how busy he has been with this particular machine.

Well, one day as he was looking online at various projects for his printer he stumbled across something else. It was a kit for an open-source CNC router. I believe that I started hearing about this in April.

As a reward for being cigarette-free for one year I told him to go ahead and order his router. That was the middle of July. In this picture you can see his original machine (yes, I said original)… it is sitting on top of his bigger new machine. He went from about a square foot of cutting area up to a full square meter of cutting area.

This machine is quite large. He put it together out in the basement proper area, but it has since moved into his workshop. And it has not been idle. At all.

In fact, here’s a pile of the scraps from his various projects.

Poor guy! Don’t you feel so bad for him? He’s such an abused and neglected husband!

If you’re not familiar with a CNC Router let me see if I can explain it to you. You draw something up on the computer using special software. Then you send the electronic code that your drawing produces to the router, which has a smaller computer attached to it and tells it what moves to make. The router essentially follows the instructions that the computer is feeding it to make the cuts.

Here you can see that Jay cut out a long strip of wood after having the router drill perfectly spaced holes. This is for a project that he is making for a coworker.

This was one of Jay’s first projects that he made with the router. My dad is a diabetic, but he has a sweet tooth. This is Jay’s version of sugar-free chocolate. It looks real, doesn’t it?

Especially when you buy a candy bar at the store and use the outer package to wrap the wooden candy bar.

Or you can make a personalized coaster.

Not into coasters? How about a jewelry box? Or perhaps a recipe box?

You could make a tray that holds all of your clamps for the CNC router.

You can even make a house for the cats!

Yes, he cut the pieces for the house out using his router.

I told you, he has spent a lot of time playing with his new toys!

Jay even hinged the roof so that if the cats carried out their favorite hobby in their house (throwing up) that I would easily be able to clean it up.

Chester decided that she needed to be in the picture so that you could get a better idea of the size of the house. She hasn’t quite yet decided that she actually wants to spend time IN it. She prefers her paper next to it.

Bob, however, finds that it’s a nice place to curl up for a nap. Especially when momma is cross stitching and won’t let him on her lap.

There are other projects lined up for the router, but Jay just has to have time to actually get to them. He’s been busy building a router for one of his friends, plus he’s got a new position at work that tosses him around on the various shifts.

After a long day of playing with your toys, though, it’s always nice to lay down for a little shut-eye. My poor boys! What a rough life they lead!