Archive for the ‘projects’ Category

I’ve been playing in my shop.

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

I’ve not had a lot of shop time this year. Part of that is from spending most of the year so far in Ghana, Saudi and Ivory Coast.

Finally, I got home and coerced Margo into helping to make the shop workable. The garage was a storage area for the moving process. So we boxed and sorted and moved to the attic stuff for long term storage. We consolidated chemicals, got clear storage bins from Ikea to put in existing shelving units. And that led to the shop being workable.

It still has latticework were I want there to be walls, no climate control, lights or electricity… but it is moving slowly.

Part of the process of getting there is getting stands and carts for my tools so I’m not lifting them on and off of the Workmate as I need them.

So the first thing I built was a stand for my Jointer/Planer.
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When you make furniture, you want the wood to be square, flat and to the proper thickness. That is what the Jointer and planer are for. In a small shop like mine, it is easier and cheaper to buy a multifunction tool that does both. The top part joints the board and makes one side flat. After that, I send it through the bottom of the machine that makes the opposite side coplanar.

I want to put shelves in the unit. I just haven’t gotten that far yet.

After that, I found some plans on the internet and made a stand for my scroll saw.

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The scroll saw is for cutting intricate curves. It is sturdy and the carpet should cut down on the vibrations. It is made from 2×4 and 4×4 material.

Which brings me to my first project in the completed shop.

We used to use a cardboard box to hold kitchen supplies like Ziplocs:
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Which looked bad, never worked right and mostly was a pain. So Margo got out a lengthometer and drew up a quick plan for me.

I got some 1/4″ and 1/2″ birch plywood from Lowes and some edge veneer to hide the plywood edges. And finished my day with this:
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4TB Hard drive

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

Absolutely huge. I’ve been thinking about taking my HTPC, loading it down with terrabytes of space and load all of my movies into it.

I’m not sure if I can justify the 650 dollars at this point. I need a new reciever first.

Computer repair

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

I’ve got a Toshiba Tablet PC that has had a noisy fan for a few years. It is annoying, but since we don’t use it that often and it is the heatsink fan on a latop, which makes it hard to replace.

But Margo needs a computer to take to school and it is too noisey for he to use in class. So I decided to treat it like any other noisy machine. I put a little 3 in 1 oil on the fan bearings. So far, it smells like 3 in 1, but the squeak has stopped.  So, Mission Accomplished.

I want to get a netbook, butI can justify the expenditure at this point. So I will just see how this one works out before I get something new.

My latest woodworking project

Saturday, October 18th, 2008

So for the china cabinet, I decided that instead of spending 10 dollars to buy plate stands, I’d spend 30 dollars a make them.

A decent idea. I cut the pieces to the size I wanted, drilled holes for the rods that would hold the plates and glued the bits together. Then I used my router to round the edges. It looked great. Until I put the rods in and it looked like I built it out of retarded tinkertoys.

I wasn’t too angry. It is failing of not having the proper tools. A drill press would have worked  better then my limp-wristed attempt to drill straight holes.

Little Bits

Friday, September 12th, 2008

These are pretty cool. They remove the hard part of electronic design. It would be neat if this could be used and pushed by teachers into school science programs and try to get more kids interested in electronics in time to be of use in the coming war between Man and the Brotherhood of Machines.

I’ve gotten some weird phone calls and had some weird conversations lately. The rumors are leaning towards them eliminating my globe trotting job. The really disturbing part is Margo and I were discussing it just last night.

I’m not too worried because there is plenty of work, and I could find a job within the company pretty quick. I just like being a gypsy. I’m not sure I could buckle down to being at just one camp. On the plus side, the manager here in Bakersfield is a friend of mine and has said he would rather me working here or rotating here then some of the other guys that do nothing but whine about being gone. Sure, I don’t want to be gone either, but incessantly whinging about being gone doesn’t help. It could be worse. I could be in Africa. Or the Middle East. Or most of Asia.

I made a birdhouse

Monday, September 8th, 2008

Margo wanted to watch the neighborhood birds. So I figured since I am starting out and a Birdhouse is a My First Shop Project sort of thing, I got to work. And made like 20 horrible and deformed birdhouse before I decided this one isn’t quite so dreadful.

I wanted it to be half feeder and half house. So the part with the screwy hole is the house and the open part should let us put bird feed for them to eat. Or they can park their bird cars. Either one is good.

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GPS

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

I had a TomTom Go for about 3 years. I’d tried several laughable attempts at making my own, but finally I decided it is easier and cheaper to go with an off the shelf unit. About a month ago, it finally died. And it managed to happen when I was in an unfamiliar area with little idea where to go. Yay Technology!

After researching, I got a Garmin Nuvi 360. It isn’t the most advanced, but it is does everything I want and it surpasses Tomtom in several ares. The text to speech engine is great and it even reads text messages to me. I think the mapping engine and maps are more advanced then what Tomtom has.

I think I’m going to see if I can fix Tomtom by changing his battery out. I’m sort of thinking it is a battery issue.

Stop Motion Music Video

Friday, August 1st, 2008

A tribute to The Thing. The song is repetitive, the the animation is smooth considering they are using G.I. Joe men.

I like stop motion animation. Something about it appeals to me. I’d rather stop motion over the CG messes we have now. I have done a few silly little things when I had piles of Legos, but I felt silly the whole time. I think that has stopped me from doing a lot of my movie based things. I can’t shake the sillyness of the whole affair. Which is odd because I am pretty sure most of what I do falls under that same silly heading.

I don’t think it would be that hard to do. I know you can get buckets of G.I. Joe men off of Ebay and the tools needed are amazingly much more available then when I was a kid.

Eh…. I don’t have the patience for something like that.

New Hobby

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

I’ve got a lathe. A little Sherline one. So, I’ve really liked it. Sherline makes a great tool. The problem for me is I really haven’t used it. I made a few little puzzles and I’m working on parts for a paintball cannon for the tank. Other then that, I’ve not really used it.

So I think I’m going to start making pens.  They also sell other kits but I’m looking towards making pens and possible flash drives with exotic wood housings. Partially because I want something unique, Partially because they all look a like and I have to plug them all in before I find the one I want.

And it looks like I going back to Equatorial Guinea next week. I’ll be working with the same crew I worked with in Cameroun. Nice guys.

Bag of Holding

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

I’ve got a Targus XL that has been all over the world. I use it to carry my laptop and all my carry on gadgets.  I really like it but it has a two issues that I want to fix. One is a design issue, the other is usage.

The main design issue is this: This pocket isn’t really connected. It has two little mesh pockets for an extra two water bottles, but I am always afraid things not water bottles will fall out. The annoying thing is non of the other Targus bags have this. All of them have a pocket or some straps. When I got it, it was the only backpack out there. Now there are more options, but I don’t want to buy another one. I think I’m going to take a grommet tool and run some para cord through them to bind it closed and make it a little more useable.

The other issue is usage. I through all my gadgets and portable drives in the bag and since there is no internal organization… it all falls to the bottom and makes the bag way thicker then it should be. At the bottom. I need to come up with or buy something that will hold everything up and in place. Thinkgeek has this bag, but I’m not sure it will solve my problem. I want something internal because the last thing I really need is another bag to lug around.

I think I’m going to try to find some nice ripstop nylon or light duty canvas and make a little gadget holding bag that is will fit in the middle pockets. My ideal bag would have an easily removable laptop section for airport security and maybe another pocket or two in front of it that is compartmentalized for travel gadgets and extra clothes. I don’t know of any.