Archive of posts with category 'Making'

Jun 1, 2024 Welding Practice

I have wanted to learn to weld for a crazy long time. It just seems to be both a cool and useful skill. I bought a cheap welder years ago and have been playing around with it off and on. I finally decided that in order to really learn to weld, I need a project. And my project is going to be rebuilding my back stairs. I am on vacation from work and have finally gotten started working on them. I spent days digging holes for footings, buying bags of concrete, mixing the concrete and trying to make the forms, etc. Today was a very rainy day. I couldn’t really mix and pour concrete to make my second footing. Instead, I decided to take some time to practice welding so that when the time comes, I’m a bit more comfortable with it. I have some metal tube cutoffs that I could play with, so I did.

Mar 12, 2022 Table Repair

One of the very first pieces of furniture I bought after I bought around 24 years ago was a table with a butcher block top. I’ve been using this table for a few years as my electronics workbench. Yesterday, I was going to do some electronics, when I noticed that the table had cracked.

Dec 13, 2021 Back to Making

I finally got around to using my workshop again after the solar panels went in. I had a fun little project that I started around Thanksgiving and just finished last week. My friend wanted a table that would sit right outside her window to make it easy for her to put food out for her cats when the weather got cold. I’m not much of an animal person, but this project sounded like fun. I think I mainly liked it because it sounded like the perfect thing to make out of some of the junk wood in my basement. And it was a fun project. I had all the materials for the project in my basement, except for an outdoor finish and some bolts for adjustable feet. So I spent around $20 in total. And now I have some finish that I can use on other outdoor wood projects.

Feb 20, 2021 Version 2

For practice and to get better, I made another voltage controlled oscillator. This time, I also ordered a custom front panel that I designed. The front panel ended up costing me around $55, so it’s by far the most expensive part of this project. It’s also something that I doubt I do again, but it was way fun to figure out how to do it.

Jan 31, 2021 Can't Believe It Worked

I’ve been very slowly trying to learn more electronics for a few years. Recently, one of my brothers let me know that he’s getting into electronic synth music and showed me a bunch of youtube videos of different projects. One of them looked to be something that I thought I could do. So I ordered a bunch of parts, some bench equipment and decided to give it a go. I’m writing this post because today I finished the oscillator and it actually works. I’m quite amazed that it works, but it’s giving me a huge amount of confidence to try to do more things with electronics.

Jan 10, 2021 New Tools/New Project

My brother is getting into electronic sythensizer music (which is what I think it’s called). I mentioned that I was trying to get back to learning electronics (yet again) and he suggested I look at some of the music stuff that he’s been reading/watching. He wasn’t sure what to buy to get started. I wasn’t sure either, but this seemed like a relatively simple way for me to get back to learning electronics. He gave me a bunch of youtube videos to watch. One guy who seems really good has a bunch of videos for making different boards. So I decided to start with his Synth Voltage Controlled Oscillator.

Oct 11, 2020 Sewing Desk

I’ve been trying to use a bunch of old scraps to make a new table for my sewing machine. I had a lot of great plans for how I was going to do this. And I can also tell you that I failed at most of my plans. But I do have an acceptable table that seems to work. Most of the things that failed were part of my plan to make it easily disassembleable for moving. So that’s ok. I did learn a lot from these failures, so it’s not a big deal. Pictures below. I like it though I haven’t yet done any sewing on it. But it’s a definitely improvement over what I had been using.

Aug 22, 2020 Still Not Square Part II

I made another box and it’s still not square. Again out of boards I found in my basement. I tried to be a little more artistic with this one. Not perfect, but I’m happy with how it came out. My intent was to have a box to put my off-season clothing in. I’m not planning on going into the box very often. But I found an old hinge in my basement, so I used that for the top.

Jul 4, 2020 Still Not Square

In addition to not being able to make a square quilt, I also can’t really make a square box in woodworking. However, that doesn’t stop my from trying. I had some cedar boards and some old oak floor boards, so I decided to make a box. I wanted to have a box to store out-of-season clothes in, since I’m currently using a garbage bag in my room. I thought it would be good practice to try to make a nice box. Sadly, I didn’t succeed in making it square. Nor is it level. I’ve ordered some casters for it, so I should be able to use them to make it level. As for the lack of squareness, it’s not a big deal, except for the fact that it bugs me that I can’t make a square box.

Jun 28, 2020 Newest Quilt

Just finished my last quilt. I made a very short video of me making it. I would have made it longer, but my laptop is out of disk space and it was too much trouble to go through and delete a bunch of stuff. I also wanted to keep it under five minutes because I don’t know that quilting is all that interesting to watch. The quilt wasn’t done in time for my niece’s shower, but it was finished before the baby arrived.

Jan 19, 2020 2020 Projects #1 & #2

I’ve written more about these in my journals, but I thought I’d post a picture of my first two projects for the year. I made a new house number for my Mom and I made a calendar for my sister. I actually added a calendar hanger to this, but forgot to take a picture of it before I gave it to my sister.

Dec 1, 2019 First Mitered Corner Attempt

Since my corners are not so good, I’ve decided that I need to make around 50 napkins with mitered corners for practice. I found a YouTube Video on Sewing Mitered Corners to try to follow. The pictures below are from my first attempt. It’s lousy. Though I thought I was very careful to iron and measure things. I also took my time and sewed as instructed, but when I tried to lay the seam flat, the mitered corners just didn’t line up properly. So perhaps I need to find a book or something with more detailed instructions. Or I just need to practice and come up with my own system. Anyway, this is why I’m practicing. The other problem I had was that I must have mismeasured something. My intent was to make a 16″ square napkin. I wanted the edge to be 1/2″. And according to the video, I also need an extra 1/2″ folded under first. So I think that means I need an extra 1″ all around. I cut the square at 18″. But when I measured the final napkin, it’s more like 15″ square. So I guess I didn’t measure as perfectly as I thought. Oh well.

Dec 1, 2019 Latest Quilt

I just finished a baby quilt for my brother and brother-in-law. John’s friend Richard picked out the great material. I’m fairly certain I would have gone with more plain, solid colors. So it was great that he picked such great colorful ones.

Sep 7, 2019 A Toy for My Nephew

My nephew really likes light switches, so I made him this toy out of junk that I found in my house. He does know the word “hot”, so I think he’ll understand not to touch the bulbs. If he doesn’t, I may have to cover them with something or use a different bulb. He’s a smart kid, so I’m not too worried about it.

Aug 3, 2019 Quick Baby Quilt

After the success of my Dr. Seuss quilt, I was in the mood to make another quilt. So I used only leftovers from my previous quilts to make a baby quilt for a cousin who is having a baby. My original idea was to make it in 30 days, but I think I took longer than that. I’d have to check my journal to find out exactly when I started it, but I finished it on July 31st. And the baby is due the first week of August, so I’m happy with that. I’m not happy that I haven’t yet mailed it to them, but I’ll try to do that soon.

Jun 15, 2019 My Latest Big Project

My cousin retired and she really likes Dr. Seuss. I came up with an idea for a gift and then I came up with the idea of me making a movie of me making the gift. And then it sort of evolved. This is the final gift.

Jan 3, 2019 Ideas

It’s weird. I’ve just spent the past two hours making myself a calendar. I was wondering how to design it and it just popped into my head that I have pictures from the early 2000s to now. Why don’t I use some of my own pictures on my calendar? And then find some quotes I like and put them over the picture. It’s a really simple idea, but I love it. I’m going to get a calendar that has motivational or inspirational quotes and I can look at pictures of things I’ve done which brings back those memories. Totally going to make me happy.

Jan 1, 2019 Successful Gifts

Using my fancy new sewing machine, I made these bags for my cousins for Xmas.

Nov 18, 2018 Project Time

I’m getting back into doing DIY projects at home, which makes me very happy. In general for the past few months, I’ve been thinking way too much about work and not doing things that make me happy. I’m shifting things back into proportion that will make me happier. The other day I finally bought myself a new sewing machine. It will get delivered soon, which makes me happy. And I’m going to use it for a big new project, which should be fun. I’ve also made a few stools for my brother’s pub, which was fun. I still wouldn’t call myself a good woodworker, but I’m improving which is all I can ask for. Still haven’t done much welding though and I would like to get into that. But today I spent a good chunk of money on supplies for my new hush-hush project that’s going to be a gift for someone. I’m looking forward to working on that for the next few months.

Nov 4, 2017 New Speaker

I bought this speaker yesterday to give to my Mom.

Feb 17, 2017 Early Year Projects

For the start of the year, I’ve been working on some little projects that I’ve enjoyed. I guess one of the projects was big. I finished three bookshelves for my cousins for xmas.