Who left the garage open?

My kids love my keys and all the gadgets attached to them... including the remote garage door opener attached to them. This leads to the garage doors always being in a mysterious "Schrödinger's cat" like state of either open or closed.. but which one is it?
Well.. we live in what the Realtor called a "transitioning" neighborhood...  transitioning for the better or worst has yet to be determined. So leaving the garage open for any period of time is like having a free sale on tools, all you can carry!

So, it was either buy an indicator for $35 (which was the wife's choice.. ) or make one with left over stuffs from the bottomless parts box (my choice). The criteria for the project was it had to be as reliable as an off-the-shelf unit and cost $0 in parts. I thought it would take an hour... but like most everything else.. that always turns into a weekend instead.

finished unit.. (just imagine the lights blinking spasmodically)

Digging around the shop I found .. a salvaged roller snap switch, a roll of 24g solid phone wire, a 9v 300mA powersupply from an old answering machine, some perfboard,  some connectors, some scrap wood, recycle aluminum from an old sign, and a Velleman MK102 Flashing LED kit I bought on closeout at the Radio Shack for $2 years ago. One could just use a couple of regular LEDs,  but I wanted something that blinked and wouldn't be overlooked when it was on.

The Velleman kit worked out great since it has potentiometers that allow you to adjust the rate the LEDs flash.. and only consumes 17 mA of power when on. The only modification I did was to solder the LEDs to the backside of the board so they would be able to stick through the holes in the wood box I made for it. The box was made from some leftover pine that I chip-carved in a southwestern motif to match the house... and used a couple of magnets to attach it to the wall.

The contact switch is mounted to a wood block just above the garage door

 a scrap piece of aluminum is screwed to the garage door to make contact with switch when door is closed

Everything connects to a simple perf-board circuit located on the wall just on the other side of the LED module in the house

All in all it works quite well and was worth the extra time I spent doing the woodworking for the LED housing. A bonus is that my youngest one goes crazy when the garage door is open now, running around telling everyone about the "linking light! linking light!".
So I'll consider this a success since it now gives us an added layer of security and I didn't have to make a single trip to the hardware store to finish it.

Silverwhere?

Just a quick weekend project that I've been meaning to get to for the last ... oh.. I don't know... 4 years? I collect scrap wood from demolition sites, road sides, donations... you name it, and had recently acquired a bit of Poplar that I was wondering what to do with. Ever since we moved into our home 4 years ago we have just been dumping our silverware into a drawer all helter skelter like, a mosh pit of spoons, forks, and knives. Due to the irregularly sized drawers we have, I've never be able to find a divider that fit, so I went and broke out the table saw and surface planer and got to work.

I re-sawed the "reclaimed" 3/4" poplar in half and planed them down to 1/4" planks, made a couple of dado and rabbet's, a bit of wood glue, some clamps, and finished it up with a few coats of Shellac..... voila!

It is definitely strange to finally reach for a fork and actually find one on the first try.... it's like we are real adults now.... scary!

Nighty Night..... finally

It's been hectic to say the least in preparing for a small child.... all those umpteen projects that seemed like you had years to finish all need to be done yesterday.

Well, here is one more off the list. Click over to see the full spread over on Lumberjocks.



The headboard is still in the works..... I just need more time!!

..And the cradle will rock!

I have recently discovered that there might be a use for one of these in my life as of late. If everything continues on plan then I have roughly 7 months to start and complete this project.
I put this together in Sketchup one evening to flush out ideas and design styles. My main concern in the design was the ability to disassemble the unit for easy storage since it isn't an object that is used but for just a brief time in life.
The style is a mixture of southwestern (Spanish colonial), Arts and Craft, with a hint of Japanese, and will be built from Red Oak. The main body will be of panel construction with through mortise and tenon's that will be pegged with walnut keys through the end pieces. This will allow the piece to be broken down into 8 piece for storage or shipping.
I am holding off for another month to finish some other in progress works and to be sure that this news is definite.

Japanese bed, the sketchup years...

This is my original mockup/design for the bed I am constructing using Google Sketchup.
I am finally getting comfortable using the application and it is great for laying out objects in actual size, which helps with visualizing the true proportions without having to build a real prototype first. For a free program it is absolutely a great tool in a Maker's arsenal but it does have a few quirks that can be quite frustrating from time to time.
The bed can be taken apart and assembled without any tools, held together with locking joints for both stability and beauty.
I love the dichotomy between the simplicity of style and the complexity of joinery exhibited by the master carpenters, it's hard to believe that there are still temples standing made of wood, without nails or fasteners, that are over a thousand years old.