|
While you're in NorCal, I'll take one of those bars! #lifegoals Seriously, I've wanted a bar like that my whole life. We'll just ignore the fact that I can't afford a house in the bay area on my six-figure salary.
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2015 00:37
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 15:37 |
|
|
Keyser S0ze posted:Did you use blocks for the BBQ surrounds as well or 2x4's and wonderboard? I used 2x4s and cement board, way easier to frame. During the house build I had them run natural gas so I sold my propane tanks. It's so nice not having to deal with propane tanks. Back patio also has an overhead heater and a tv so I can watch football out there until November (live in North Dakota). Then to the basement.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2015 05:04
|
|
|
ReelBigLizard posted:You could try stripping all the parts off it so it's just the aluminium casting and use something like aircraft stripper to get the existing coating off. Alternatively take the casting to the local powder coaters who for probably not much money will grit blast it back to bare and powder coat it any colour of the rainbow for you. I checked online and I've got like 7 powder coating places within 10 miles of my place (one is literally walking distance). Looks like they could get the job done for me perfectly! Well, guess that means it's no longer a DIY project, but thanks so much for the advice!
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2015 07:25
|
|
|
wandler20 posted:(live in North Dakota). I was admiring your water feature, but got worried when I saw this. In that kind of a climate and it's freeze-thaw cycles, I'm afraid by spring those blocks will have shifted all over the place.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2015 13:01
|
|
|
Rockis Dukakis posted:I was admiring your water feature, but got worried when I saw this. In that kind of a climate and it's freeze-thaw cycles, I'm afraid by spring those blocks will have shifted all over the place. Yeah, it's a legit concern I had when building it so I'm hoping for the best. I used modified mortar to keep the blocks together and that stuff does not give easy so the whole foundation is solid. Freeze/thaw does crazy things though. I guess I'll find out in the spring.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2015 15:54
|
|
|
Likely what would betray you there would be frost heave of the ground. If that started moving from below, it would be its own weight unevenly supported that would cause the cracks. Just make sure the area is well-drained and watch out for any standing water come fall and winter.
|
|
#
?
Jul 17, 2015 16:54
|
|
|
Any recommendations on how to get started with that masonry stuff for someone with no experience?
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2015 21:24
|
|
|
Time life books.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2015 21:53
|
|
|
Youtube? Youtube.
|
|
#
?
Jul 28, 2015 22:01
|
|
|
I found a small ship's wheel in a charity shop in the run-up to our wedding. It was on our altar with our initials and the date on it, and than on our top table. I made it into a frame for a nice set of visible clockworks: 
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2015 13:31
|
|
|
I'm having a kid and our appartment is quite small. We wanted a changing table but anything that would fit the "small appartment" part was several hundreds of $. Decided to make this thing to go over the crib. Made out of pine. Quite proud of the result (there's still some work to do, but it mostly will be invisible so I decided to photograph it now) 
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2015 22:44
|
|
|
Looks nice; how secure is it?
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2015 22:46
|
|
|
TooMuchAbstraction posted:Looks nice; how secure is it? Right now not enough. I mean it wouldn't fall over, but it can tip slightly if you put weight on the corner that is floating which isn't safe enough for me. I need to add some wood underneath so it "clamps" the sides of the crib and make it secure (hopefully). If this is not enough (I'm pretty much 100% certain it will be enough since it's already quite secure and there's barely anything holding it) I'll either add two strap to clip it to the side of the crib or add a retracting leg for the floating corner. If I had a "normal" crib with rails of the same height on every side it would have been much easier to make since I could just go over both rails. Unfortunately I had to find some solution to deal with the shape of that crib.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2015 23:00
|
|
|
KingColliwog posted:Right now not enough. I mean it wouldn't fall over, but it can tip slightly if you put weight on the corner that is floating which isn't safe enough for me. I need to add some wood underneath so it "clamps" the sides of the crib and make it secure (hopefully). If this is not enough (I'm pretty much 100% certain it will be enough since it's already quite secure and there's barely anything holding it) I'll either add two strap to clip it to the side of the crib or add a retracting leg for the floating corner. Screw and glue it to the side of the crib
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 00:35
|
|
|
Ropes4u posted:Screw and glue it to the side of the crib We really want to keep the crib intact and untouched. Once we don't need to use the changing table we'll want to remove it and turn this in a toddler bed (basically just removing the front gate thing) and then back in a crib once we have a 2nd child. The thing will be movable too (so we can use it on other furniture in the future may be)
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 00:46
|
|
|
Here's my silly project from a week or so ago. Got the kids a kiddie pool for the patio, but it isn't staying warm enough at night to keep the water very nice. Solution: I had a bunch of 3/4" pvc doing nothing in my shed, and an old pond pump I wasn't using for anything. Solar heating loop! Also, I had a temperature controller in my bar that was actually not in use, so the whole thing is automated to maintain a specific temp, too. Final cost would have been precisely $0 except I had to buy some elbows. Had all the pipe and hose and such, only had to buy a few fittings:  Drill a bunch of holes in a 2x4, then cut in half:  And again:  Makes a nice rack for the heating loop:  Even had a can of black spray paint on hand!  All ready to go!  End result was good: while pvc isn't a great heat conductor, I was still getting about +5 degrees out of the loop on a 70° input. By mid-afternoon, the ambient temp outside was about 80, but the pool (which is in the shade most of the day, to boot) was up to 90° and the controller was able to shut off the pump for the rest of the day. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 04:22
|
|
|
That's pretty awesome, I'll have to build something like that next year I think. You could build that into a box with a window and paint the inside black as well. I don't know how much more effective that would be, but it seems like it'd stop heat loss to the surroundings.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 06:51
|
|
|
His Divine Shadow posted:That's pretty awesome, I'll have to build something like that next year I think. You could build that into a box with a window and paint the inside black as well. I don't know how much more effective that would be, but it seems like it'd stop heat loss to the surroundings. The other option is that in the background of that last pic, I have a couple large mirrors I grabbed from my neighbor's garage, so I could effectively triple up on the amount of sun hitting the pipes. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 15:05
|
|
|
TooMuchAbstraction posted:Looks nice; how secure is it? update : my first idea didn't work (secured it ok, but it was really hard to get the changing table on and off the crib) so I just put one strap that straps to the side of the crib and it's now 100% secure and really easy to put on/take off. also doesn't really show so it's not ugly.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 20:35
|
|
|
Bad Munki posted:Here's my silly project from a week or so ago. Got the kids a kiddie pool for the patio, but it isn't staying warm enough at night to keep the water very nice. Solution: I had a bunch of 3/4" pvc doing nothing in my shed, and an old pond pump I wasn't using for anything. Solar heating loop! Also, I had a temperature controller in my bar that was actually not in use, so the whole thing is automated to maintain a specific temp, too. Final cost would have been precisely $0 except I had to buy some elbows. PVC is not rated for hot water because it expands & contracts, which can crack fittings or just blow apart for no reason. At the low pressure you're running it, it might not be an issue. If you want to increase the efficacy of your solar collector, build an insulated glass-top box painted white around it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 20:56
|
|
|
froward posted:PVC is not rated for hot water because it expands & contracts, which can crack fittings or just blow apart for no reason. At the low pressure you're running it, it might not be an issue. Yeah, it's basically no pressure, since it's an open hose at the far end and the pond pump is only 500gph best case scenario. There are far FAR easier paths for pressure to escape here than blowing a fitting. And there are a lot of much better ways to do this, but one of my primary goals was to stay as close to $0 as possible.  (Also, this water is barely "hot", more like "somewhat warm," topping out at just 90° the way I have it set) Bad Munki fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Aug 5, 2015 |
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 21:03
|
|
|
also.. looks cool.. nice work im trying to learn to be positive instead of super critical
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 21:08
|
|
|
Come to think of it, though, I do have a bunch of that low-r-value pink foam board out in my garage that I could build a box from. You suggested white paint, which I have, but would one of my aforementioned mirrors as the large flat inside bottom wall work better? The goal is just to reflect everything, right? White does that well, but a mirror would be better? I mean, if I'm going to go crazy, I might as well go crazy, and that still fits my $0 theme... e: heck, I even have some one-way reflective film that I could put on the inside of the top clear layer to make the inside of the box fully reflective while still letting all the light in.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 21:14
|
|
|
froward posted:PVC is not rated for hot water because it expands & contracts, which can crack fittings or just blow apart for no reason. At the low pressure you're running it, it might not be an issue. Why white? That'll reflect a bunch of light right back out the glass. Paint it black, and more will get converted to thermal and trapped by the glass.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2015 21:59
|
|
|
Bugger that. Salvage some parabolic reflectors from fluorescent light fittings. Literally designed to fit around long tubes.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2015 08:02
|
|
|
I've been making some good progress on the haunted dollhouse; a few more weekends of work and it should be acceptable for Halloween (the cool part is I can keep adding details to it even after it's "done", or make upgrades or changes). I will eventually be updating these items and "perfecting" them, but being that I'm an amateur, a lot of my stuff doesn't look as good as my Pinterest board, which is why it's a good thing this is for Halloween, so it's okay if it's pretty tattered. Exterior:  This has since been updated with cleaner trim, and the underside of the tower roof has been painted gray too. The rest of the porch has been painted white. This is the second "bedroom," which was going to have a baby crib in it, but honestly I think I'll put that in the attic, because it's creepier. I need to shorten the chair legs and find or make a fortune teller to go in the chair.  I did manage to make some updates to the chair:  I made a bed out of scrap and wine corks. Whether or not someone will be in this bed remains to be seen:  I was going to wire the house, but chickened out and bought LED lights instead:  I also made drapes and finished most of the interior wallpaper and painting, but I'll post updates when I get the floors in. I also need to figure out how to make some of the figurines; my clay sculpting prowess is very lacking. Also I may need to buy some of the furniture, like a bathtub and sink, but I'll try my hand at sculpting them first. Also, Michael's has their Halloween stuff out so I bought some decor (tombstones, coffins, a creepy clown) and will probably be going back for more. 
Maggie Fletcher fucked around with this message at 17:15 on Aug 10, 2015 |
|
#
?
Aug 10, 2015 17:12
|
|
|
I'm tiling my downstairs dining and living room, ~450sqft. It was a hard decision to make as it is going over the original 100 year old oak flooring, which unfortunately was so neglected and abused by the previous owners that to restore it would require significant cost and effort. It would have needed a not-insignificant number of planks replaced and even more filler , the rest would still need a lot of work to smooth, level, and sanding to get the myriad of stains and splotches out. So, glazed porcelain wood pattern tile it is. My first adventures with hardie board left me with a slightly sore hand from driving hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of screws. Slightly tedious, but that's what friends are for. I used my 12v Milwaukee M12 impact, it did a decent job. Transmission got super hot though, I had to take breaks to let it cool off. Nowhere near as fast/effortless as my friends 20v dewalt of course, and that never even got hot to the touch, but the milwaukee got the job done. Started laying tile last night, it looks really good. Matches the oak moulding very well. With color matching grout you'll be hard pressed to know it is tile until you step on it.  Now I need to find where my cats are stashing the spacers...
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2015 15:32
|
|
|
I've made a shoulder/strap light thing for my bag The button switches through high low and flashing modes  There's a lot of room for progress on the circuit size, the firmware is incomplete too but I like how it looks on the outside.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2015 15:26
|
|
|
So I've been on this kick about making my own sprinklers. I'm one of those terrible people watering their lawn during this drought. Well, it's more as a fire barrier as everything else around us is incredibly dry and highly flammable. A hillside down the road burnt just a few weeks back. Anyways, this is the third one I've made recently. All with generic home depot plumbing fittings and thick wall copper 3/4" tubing. The only "nice" part is a Rain Bird impact head. These are by no means cheap to make, but I'm tired of crappy sprinklers that break after a season or two. These should last decades. I reused a "extension" for one of the large tripod sprinklers I made last year. Everything was cleaned and silver soldered.       Here's the last one I made. There's a few things I would change, but it works just fine.  On a side note, don't waste your money on the brass Rain Bird impacts available at Lowes/HD. Three have failed me in the last year, while these plastic ones work great. I ordered mine from Sprinkler Warehouse.
|
|
#
?
Aug 17, 2015 04:55
|
|
|
Xposting from the knife making thread since no one reads it. Blade cut from an old 10" saw blade. I couldn't drill the hardened steel so the handles are only epoxied. Not quite done yet, the handle and blade need a little polishing.    
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2015 05:07
|
|
|
This is a post on behalf of my Dad, who built me a battery powered car back in ~1982. Powered by a stack of C cell nicads stacked in bamboo originally, it has been upgraded to run off a drill battery. My dad cleaned it up for my son, now two and very happy to drive in reverse only. http://i.imgur.com/iSFsld5.jpg http://i.imgur.com/65uWS8H.jpg http://i.imgur.com/wWLuRvA.jpg If there is interest I can show the view of the string steering and the underhood.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2015 20:47
|
|
|
Finished knife 
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2015 21:28
|
|
|
wormil posted:Xposting from the knife making thread since no one reads it. Holy poo poo, we have a knifemaking thread? Also, that looks very nice!
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2015 21:32
|
|
|
wormil posted:Finished knife Yeah, this is nice. What did you use to cut the rough shape?
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2015 21:39
|
|
|
Yeah, I don't know why no one posts there. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3570191 I used a 10" cut off blade in a chop saw to cut the steel.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2015 21:40
|
|
|
wormil posted:I used a 10" cut off blade in a chop saw to cut the steel. The saw equivalent of Thompson's Teeth from Futurama, I like it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 7, 2015 00:13
|
|
|
wormil posted:I couldn't drill the hardened steel so the handles are only epoxied. Doesn't help you now, but John Heizs just posted a video where he shows how a masonry bit can drill hardened steel. Might be useful for a future project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=205cQSUnimE Though I don't think I'd use his method to sharpen that bit... Scary stuff!
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2015 17:31
|
|
|
BUGS OF SPRING posted:Doesn't help you now, but John Heizs just posted a video where he shows how a masonry bit can drill hardened steel. Yeah it was the discussion on his forum about my knife that prompted that video. Others have made videos about too, it seems you get a minute or two from a bit but I've never tried it myself. I have some saw blade left so I'll probably do one more then after that I might buy some knife steel.
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2015 18:16
|
|
|
wormil posted:Yeah it was the discussion on his forum about my knife that prompted that video. Others have made videos about too, it seems you get a minute or two from a bit but I've never tried it myself. I have some saw blade left so I'll probably do one more then after that I might buy some knife steel. Ah neat. I've never checked out his forums. I have a ton of old saw blades as well, you're making me want to try and make a knife. Ive wanted to for a while but the heat treating is not something I could easily do and just need to research more in general.
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2015 18:26
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 15:37 |
|
|
You can also get solid tungsten carbide drill bits which should work better than bits with just brazed carbide inserts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d5agAl973w As mentioned in the video they can be pretty expensive but if you look around eBay you can often get new bits for a fraction of retail price. Also tungsten carbide is somewhat brittle and needs a very rigid machine setup; in the video he is actually using a Bridgeport milling machine.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 02:12
|
|