New Year, New Project...

Having a new born a lot of work. Your time and energy gets used up quite quickly, but there are moments (albeit brief ones) where you just sit (rocking) and contemplate your entire existence both past and future. The familiar questions of who am I? what am I doing here? and what the hell was I thinking! come up, as well as, maybe its time to really figure out what path I am really on. Always a restless wanderer, I have stumbled through life following the whims of my imagination where every they may lead. I have taught myself to paint, to play music, to yearn for the higher ideals of the spirit. I have learned cooking, carpentry, silver smithing, electronics, the joys and labors of working with your hands. In all the years that have past I have come to know two things.
1. I love to learn
2. I hate that I absolutely hate working 9 to 5.
Really, I can't do it. My hours have never corresponded with that of societies, I have tried for 35 years and it just doesn't work out. I love to work on things/projects from when I have my first coffee till my eyes can no longer focus.... so punching a clock is dangerous to my sanity.
So this is my year to finally restore the balance, the solution?  I must work for myself.
Armed with 35 years of useless knowledge and creative passion I set out now to find that path.

New year, New project...... a melody of all my hobbies.

Today I finished the design of my CNC router that I intend to complete in the next 6 months.
This machine of metal, motors and mayhem is hopefully the beginning of this path.  A machine that can fabricate things... needful things... useless things... beautiful things,,,  a machine that represents the  culmination of my talents and dreams.
Dream, Design, Determination, Destiny. She will be called D4.  

   

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!!

the ultimate maker project...

Barring any violent acts of nature or karmic retribution we will have a new addition arriving in November. I dub this one the "ultimate maker project"..... since it is DIY at it's simplest and finest. It is absolutely futile for me to try and wrap your mind around the creation of this little thing... I mean, actually making a human life!?! This has all the making for a great Instructable.... one that goes on for at least 18 years. I wonder if there is plans for a DIY ultrasound machine out there...... an ultrasonic range finder, a couple of Arduinos... hmmmmm

(it all ready has picked up some of my habits.... naughty naughty)

The trek across Texas.....

My wife and I flew out to Louisiana to help move the first load of my parents worldly possession to Albuquerque, where they plan on moving to within the year. I don't know what possessed me to say yes to this adventure since it has just about drained every ounce of energy and happiness I had left. Driving a 26' Diesel truck 1,300 miles in two days is just plain rediculous.... having to unload the 1,400 cubic foot payload into a storage unit is plain painful.
Had the weather been more forgiving it might not look so bad... but our first night back in LA it rained 8 inches in a matter of hours..... seriously? That's like the average rainfall of New Mexico for the year. Then there were the 4 thousand lightening strikes across the state and 1" hail... wild I say!
We had planned a short northerly route through Texas but that has been thwarted due to a freakin' blizzard in March! So now we slowly plod through the barren wasteland of southern Texas... halfway between Mexico and hell.... or Junction,TX....
12 hours today... another 12 hours tomorrow.... tonight I sleep and dream of flying.

That 's "Master Jedi Geek" to you....

This was another project that was in flux for years that I finally got around to finishing.
Completely useless but oh-so high in the geekness factor.... ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Lightsaber! Not as clumsy or as random as a blaster. An elegant weapon for a more civilized time. It has full sound effects and a LED on the side that lights up and changes color depending on the sound effects chosen.
Everyone asks why there is no illuminated blade, simple.... that is too damn cheesy!! What is the point of a plastic blade anyways? Beside the fact that it isn't real.... you digitally edit the blade in anyways! Duh!
I've wanted to build one of these for years.... but it wasn't until I found a vintage Heiland flash unit at a thrift store for 3 bucks that I was re-energized into completing it. For years I have been collecting the spindles from dead hard drives thinking that they would make great emitters for a lightsaber. The top portion of the LS is constructed from to HDD spindles and the tape head of an old VCR which have been mounted together. I was hoping to get the HDD spindles to spin up when it was turned on but they are stepper motors and would require a controller to activate and run them... too much trouble.
The guts are a hacked up "StarWars Clone Wars Ultimate LS" kit that had the ability to display either a blue, green, or red blade with different sound effects for each. I kept the orginal sound board and wired a three position switch with a tri-colored LED that allows me to select between the 3 sound banks with the LED lighting up to the corresponding color.
I kept the original flash trigger and internal switch mechanism which required some crafty modifications to run all the wires through and have it still operate. All in all it turned out pretty cool although the crash sensor still needs some more work, will probably custom build a new one that is a bit more sensitive.
I'll post a video soon of it turning on and off and the different sound effect modes to give you an idea of how rad it truely it!
May the Schwartz be with you......

..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.