What's the last thing you Crafted?

[Vanz_007]

Originally Posted by Munkus

Last thing I made was in the fall of 2019. Still pretty proud of it. It lets our tenant in the walk-out basement apartment go from her door to her car without trudging through the mud or snow.

Is that the hot one where the guys here creeped out on her and the thread got deleted? That walk way looks a little too nice...

[JZL]

Originally Posted by Vanz_007

Is that the hot one where the guys here creeped out on her and the thread got deleted? That walk way looks a little too nice...

It's called "Curio Boulevard."

[Munkus]

Originally Posted by Vanz_007

Is that the hot one where the guys here creeped out on her and the thread got deleted? That walk way looks a little too nice...

yeah

[DaJMasta]

Originally Posted by Munkus

Last thing I made was in the fall of 2019. Still pretty proud of it. It lets our tenant in the walk-out basement apartment go from her door to her car without trudging through the mud or snow.

Looks really good, nice!

[OverclockN']

Yeah, that walk way looks amazing. Nice work, Munkus.

[bill dennison]

Originally Posted by OverclockN'

Yeah, that walk way looks amazing. Nice work, Munkus.

it does look amazing

but isn't that a bad place to park the mini submarine

[koralis]

My Coronavirus project... we had one of those nylon fabric ring swings. My daughter decided she'd rather take a running leap onto it and swing standing up. By the end of the season last year, the thing was ruined... most of the threads had snapped and it was falling apart. I decided to replace it with something more suitable out of some acrylic sheet I had on hand. Cut it to size, rounded the corners so she wouldn't kill anyone, and sanded the top to give it some grip for her shoes. Reused the hanging hardware.

I dub it the SwingBoard.





The picture doesn't really do justice to how high and crazy she gets with it.

Being a bit uncomfortable with the amount of flex in it, I then went back and added a second layer, screwing them together at a dozen points.

[koralis]

And while I'm uploading pictures... 3 projects that I've done over the years in my living room.

The entertainment console that the TV is sitting on is about 10-11 years old now. Made it myself out of maple ply because I couldn't find anything I liked. Also had to be REALLY durable to support my first big TV... a 56" DLP behemoth. Heavy as hell!

The shelf over the TV was about a year ago. Made out of a pair or maple planks glued together, with a trim piece and extra bits on the edges to make it fit properly in our Ikea shelf brackets that we painted brown rather than leaving them chrome.

And the most recent... the item housing the subwoofer is actually an electronics charging station. Hidden behind a panel on top of the subwoofer is a USB charging dock and the cabled run up the back to the various shelves. The top cube contains Qi wireless charging docks for our phones, and the lower levels just USB-C wired for various tablets, etc. On the bottom are the switch and remote chargers. (there's also a stack of hard drives there, from back when I was DVRing… need to relocate those.

[Lazy8s]

Originally Posted by koralis

My Coronavirus project... we had one of those nylon fabric ring swings. My daughter decided she'd rather take a running leap onto it and swing standing up. By the end of the season last year, the thing was ruined... most of the threads had snapped and it was falling apart. I decided to replace it with something more suitable out of some acrylic sheet I had on hand. Cut it to size, rounded the corners so she wouldn't kill anyone, and sanded the top to give it some grip for her shoes. Reused the hanging hardware.

I dub it the SwingBoard.



The picture doesn't really do justice to how high and crazy she gets with it.

Being a bit uncomfortable with the amount of flex in it, I then went back and added a second layer, screwing them together at a dozen points.

Oh man that's a Daddy heart attack waiting to happen I don't know how many times I felt a thump in my chest when my girls would start doing crazy things like that lol.

The living room projects look great too, nice job, and thanks for some ideas for me

[bill dennison]

put together a erector set today



still have to test it and cure it

after i remove it from my mess of a work shop

[koralis]

Originally Posted by Lazy8s

Oh man that's a Daddy heart attack waiting to happen I don't know how many times I felt a thump in my chest when my girls would start doing crazy things like that lol.

Nothing solid for her to crack her head open on anymore.. if she twists an ankle or something, she'll learn.

The living room projects look great too, nice job, and thanks for some ideas for me

Thanks. Part of the reason I started this thread was just to inspire people to do things. Seems more relevant than ever what with the pandemic.. develop a hobby.

[koralis]

Finished my new project... a bar cabinet. Ironically, I don't actually drink all that much. But having the occasional cocktail pleases me. In-process pictures for the full effect. Note that this was all built from SCRAPS that had from previous projects (except the lights.)


First ripped apart the old cabinet/curio shelves... kinda worthless. (those shelves were repurposed... that's another post)





Put new ply on the back and evened things out, sanded, primed, painted, then started building the stadium shelving to make it easier to see what I have and to get at it. The bars know their stuff... it does really help. Made of solid maple 1/4" trim on a structure.





Then I started building another shelf for the "top shelf" liquor.. mostly the scotch. Maple ply with solid maple edging.





Then a rack to hang stemware from (picture in-progress, not complete)





Wife wanted a caddy to hold the bar tools. Solid maple.





And completed, with programmable colored rope lights. Love the chandellier effect.








Next up, cabinet doors.

[bill dennison]

Originally Posted by koralis

Finished my new project... a bar cabinet. Ironically, I don't actually drink all that much. But having the occasional cocktail pleases me. In-process pictures for the full effect. Note that this was all built from SCRAPS that had from previous projects (except the lights.)


First ripped apart the old cabinet/curio shelves... kinda worthless. (those shelves were repurposed... that's another post)





Put new ply on the back and evened things out, sanded, primed, painted, then started building the stadium shelving to make it easier to see what I have and to get at it. The bars know their stuff... it does really help. Made of solid maple 1/4" trim on a structure.





Then I started building another shelf for the "top shelf" liquor.. mostly the scotch. Maple ply with solid maple edging.





Then a rack to hang stemware from (picture in-progress, not complete)





Wife wanted a caddy to hold the bar tools. Solid maple.





And completed, with programmable colored rope lights. Love the chandellier effect.








Next up, cabinet doors.

and a lock to keep kids out .....
..... like i was once


looks good

[Munkus]

The Taj Mahal of chicken coops for 18 chickens.





And yes, they will all share the 4 nesting boxes. I guarantee if I built 18 nesting boxes, they would only ever use 4. Chickens are odd that way. When I lived in the city, I had 6 hens. I built a nesting box for each one. They ignored all but 2 and shared those exclusively.

[Lazy8s]

You gents do some great work

[koralis]

Originally Posted by Munkus

The Taj Mahal of chicken coops for 18 chickens.

And yes, they will all share the 4 nesting boxes. I guarantee if I built 18 nesting boxes, they would only ever use 4. Chickens are odd that way. When I lived in the city, I had 6 hens. I built a nesting box for each one. They ignored all but 2 and shared those exclusively.

Birds of a feather flock together, eh? Very impressive structure. So, that angled bace the chickens are standing on... that's that? They just want to grab hold of a plank? An imitation tree limb?

You gents do some great work

Thank you. Came out pretty much exactly as I was planning. That doesn't always happen. Haha.

and a lock to keep kids out .....
..... like i was once

She shows disdain for our drinking, so not toooo concerned just yet. But yes, doors and a lock before any friends get invited over. Her I (mostly) trust. Would not be surprised at some peer pressure levied if it was too easy though.

[Munkus]

Originally Posted by koralis

Birds of a feather flock together, eh? Very impressive structure. So, that angled bace the chickens are standing on... that's that? They just want to grab hold of a plank? An imitation tree limb?

Yeah that's the roost. They'll most likely fight to sleep on the highest rung, and the rest will sleep on the lower ones. In the chicken world, those at the top of the pecking order get the best roosting spots.

[KAC]

I don’t craft. I hire an Indian dude to build stuff for me.

[Evileh]

Originally Posted by KAC

I don’t craft. I hire an Indian maid to take stuff from me.

.

[Munkus]

Well that didn't go over well. They still wanted to sleep in the rafters, even though I had tried to block it off with wire mesh. A couple got over the mesh and got stuck by the ceiling. Stupid birds. Had to take the mesh down and let them have the rafters for one more night til I figure out a better way to block it off.

[KAC]

Originally Posted by Munkus

Well that didn't go over well. They still wanted to sleep in the rafters, even though I had tried to block it off with wire mesh. A couple got over the mesh and got stuck by the ceiling. Stupid birds. Had to take the mesh down and let them have the rafters for one more night til I figure out a better way to block it off.

Best way to keep a bird in is to lock her in chains. If you know what I am saying.

[koralis]

Originally Posted by Munkus

Well that didn't go over well. They still wanted to sleep in the rafters, even though I had tried to block it off with wire mesh. A couple got over the mesh and got stuck by the ceiling. Stupid birds. Had to take the mesh down and let them have the rafters for one more night til I figure out a better way to block it off.

They'll be damned if some other chicken gets the highest perch. Maybe solid luan or something from the rafters to the roofline? Make it a "wall"

[Munkus]

Originally Posted by koralis

They'll be damned if some other chicken gets the highest perch. Maybe solid luan or something from the rafters to the roofline? Make it a "wall"

Yeah thought about that as well, but you know what...screw it, I'm just gonna let them roost in the rafters. Not going to have a battle of wills with a chicken. I'll lose!

[DaJMasta]

Sort of a craft, but I stumbled into getting a harpsichord from a friend recently...




I didn't make it, but it was in pretty rough shape (missing some parts, clearly mice lived inside for a while), and I've started cleaning and overhauling it.




Couple dozen hours in now, or so, and I think it's basically cleaned (working on the smell....) I'll be refelting everything, probably cutting down the keyboard tray so I can make it a transposing keyboard, designing and 3d printing a full set of jacks (the bit that makes the key pluck the string), building a jackrail, adding a lid stick, and restringing, voicing, and tuning the whole thing. Oh and it needs legs.



Quite a beast of a project, especially given my relative lack of knowledge of harpsichords, but the mechanism is pretty straight forward and the materials aren't too expensive, so it will be a good project, I think.

I'm a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, a cup of vinegar, and two boxes of baking soda deep in the cleaning and de-stinking. The first replacement felts arrived today, but I've got to get some more sizes and order the strings in the next few days. Since there's some mouse related debris under the soundboard and no way to get at it, I'll be taking a large holesaw to the bottom, cleaning inside and checking it out, then closing it back up with a cover. Hopefully that will tell me about the soundboard construction so I know if my stringing schedule (which strings of what material/size go where) will be ok for the tension loading on the soundboard.

[koralis]

Originally Posted by DaJMasta

Quite a beast of a project, especially given my relative lack of knowledge of harpsichords, but the mechanism is pretty straight forward and the materials aren't too expensive, so it will be a good project, I think.

That's really cool. Restoration is definitely craft-worthy.

Btw, what are the keys made out of? I've never seen the black/white reversed on a keyboard. the sharp keys look like wood. The main keys are painted wood? natural ebony or something? (apparently black rosewood is likely?)

If it's natural, I'd encourage you to just polishing it up and keeping it. Needs some tlc, but it's neat.

Answered my own question...
https://www.thepiano.sg/piano/read/p...ere-black-past

[DaJMasta]

There is a lot of variation in older keyboards, you can often find darker/lighter grain natural wood looks for keytops, and even the occasional instrument laid out in reverse (high notes on the left, low on the right, backwards of every modern instrument). This one in particular has veneers for the naturals (black keys) and light wood for the sharps, but both are glued to a different wood that makes up the actual key mechanism.


They were nasty when I got the keyboard out....



But cleaned, felts and tacks removed, and smothered in baking soda to remove the mouse stink, they're in better shape now. Haven't been able to clean the whole soundboard on account of the strings still being in there, but you can see around the edges that it will lighten up considerably!


Waiting on some parts now, but next step is to cut the hole for cleaning under the soundboard, then refelting the keys and keyboard tray to get that action to feel smooth in preparation for designing the new jacks.

[logical]

Finished the mini backyard deck earlier this month. Our backyard was kind of sloped(you can see in the first before picture). So we had to have a retaining wall put in to maximize the space because HOA says we cant touch anything having to do with the fence. City life backyard...






Not pictured here is where I am standing we have built a pergola. Ill get a picture and out it on here later today.

[koralis]

Originally Posted by logical

Finished the mini backyard deck earlier this month. Our backyard was kind of sloped(you can see in the first before picture). So we had to have a retaining wall put in to maximize the space because HOA says we cant touch anything having to do with the fence. City life backyard...


Not pictured here is where I am standing we have built a pergola. Ill get a picture and out it on here later today.

Looks pretty sweet for such a small space. I'd like to see the pergola. I bought one for our back patio. Can't make everything...

[Munkus]

Very nice!

[logical]

Pergola with shade and without shade. The shade is made from some sewn together curtains from ikea with metal curtain strings to hold it up. There are more elegant and expensive solutions but this works nicely for what we want and what it cost.