I’ve been making a couple different types of Halloween lanterns recently to sell for the holiday. I have some templates I currently use that I cut out using my laser. I trace around where the cutouts go and then use my scroll saw to cut them. This is time consuming and if I were only making one or two it wouldn’t be a big deal but I need to be able to batch them out.

I saw a youtube where a guy made a template that fits over the semi completed lantern and then used his router to cut them out. I decided to do the same thing but instead of making out of wood I would 3D print it. This is what I came up with

It fits over a “box” that’s 5.5″ high and wide and then I can use my router with a bushing to cut out the holes. Plan on using it today to get this done and then I will post pictures of the lantern as well as any issues I might run into. If you are using a bushing rather than a bit with a bearing on it the actual holes will be slightly smaller than the ones on the template. I took this into account when I printed the template.

If this is something that interests you, the template can be found on Makerworld.

These are available for sale at https://www.etsy.com/listing/4562690283/magnetic-portable-dice-tower-dice-tray

As a licensed printer and reseller of the Wyrmwood Magnetic Dice Tower system I can print whatever color, design and filament that you want. If you don’t see one listed that you like let me know and I will make one that matches your tastes.

The dice towers can be found at https://www.etsy.com/listing/4562690283/magnetic-portable-dice-tower-dice-tray

All of the bird houses are local purchase and pickup only at the Villa Rica market at the Mill on Thursdays. I may put some of them online soon and start shipping.

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You can find it at richieswoodworking.com (now forwarding to my Etsy store). At some point I will use Squarespace to create a site.

Today I made another one, this time a whale shape. This is on my etsy page as well as FB marketplace. The first three are also on FB here.

Here’s the video itself:

If you are interested in purchasing you can find it at my etsy store.

I’ve been trying to teach myself woodworking over the last few months. So far have made a desk, a turntable “cabinet” for my record player and albums, a couple of dice towers and these baby rattles.

It was useful in conjunction with the two home automation software packages I use, HomeSeer and HomeAssistant. I had quite a few automations set up based on location. Arrive home, at night? The front porch light turns on and the front door unlocks. Stuff like that.

Unfortunately, Life360 has chosen to block third parties from accessing its data and will not be providing its paid users with any sort of api to use either (I am gold level and pay $10 a month for the service).

Going forward I am going to be cancelling my subscription once I find an easy, viable alternative. May cancel it right away. With the free account you can have two “places” and it gives crash detection (something built into our phones now anyway).

I am limited in what I will be using but a few of the alternatives are listed below.

Home Assistant App– Does the same thing. I would miss being able to track in real time but it’s available for iPhone (my mom) and Android (the rest of us). The problem with HA is that it means I either must get it installed on everyone’s phones and get the setup right or expect them to do it. Probably not happening.

Bark. More of a parental control app which is not what I want. It is available for both ios and android. Don’t know if they have an accessible API.

Tasker. Android only. Difficult for new end users to set up, I would have to do the work and hope that nobody disabled it by accident. I already use it and, in the past, have used it for location based stuff for my personal phone, probably will continue.

Monitoring ip addresses on my network. I have done this in the past as well. It works well for automations when they are already here and connected so can’t have automations run quite as early as with Life360, but I will use this as well.

If anyone has any decent suggestions, please let me know. Open to alternatives.

If you’re in the metro Atlanta area and need electrical work done, go let them know and they will give you a call.

FYI, this is not a paid review.