Multi Purpose Stands for Photos, Paintings Etcetera, in Fact Anything That Fits on Them (Old Dog New Tricks!)

MY FIRST EVER INSTRUCTABLE

You will have to excuse me if I ramble a little but this Instructable came about by a slightly circuitous path. It started when I joined my local Men's Shed. Here in Australia we are still a bit chauvinistic and actually have groups that are just for men or women. Well to cut a long story short I joined up, found they were dipping their toes into the 3D laser engraving and 3D printing waters. My kind of toys. I was given a little 3018 CNC router for Christmas the year before last. I was instantly entranced once I managed to assemble it and made my first cut.

Anyway short story even shorter, the guys at the shed make and repair stuff for the community. A local art group wanted to stage an art show for their Art 4 Wellness Group. There was talk of 3D printing the stands or spending a lot of time cutting them out by hand etc. Decided t put my 2 bobs worth in( you will have to excuse my vocabulary, I was born and raised in England. lived there for 30 odd years, moved to Australia, so I tend to mix my colloquialisms willy nilly.). Anyhoo, I suggested making some stands that could be used for multiple things. I suggested I use my CNC router, which was eventually agreed on.

We decided that the most economical material to use would be 3mm ply wood. Not only inexpensive but when the stands are taken down and stored for the next show they could be stored in a shoe box as space is at a premium for groups using the community center.

Several designs were put forward but our final design was also the simplest of them all. Individual stands of various height to deal with all paintings from A5 size up to A3

Using Inkscape, as I knew I could sale up or down easily, I drew up some designs which were accepted. I transferred them to Openbuilds Cam to prepare my gcode files sent them off to Openbuilds control to my CNC router. No not the 3018. I said I was smitten by the CNC router bug. I saved up and bought a Workbee. Took them in to the shed and everyone was happy.

If you are wondering about the weird ending to my title. I should point out I was 73 when I got my first CNC machine, so it does show that you can teach an old dog new tricks. I have since gone on to 3D printing and Laser engraving. Oh and to feed my CNC habit managed to persuade the Shed to buy one for the Shed. I will be teaching another group of old dogs a few new tricks.