DIY

Making things and general household maintenance.

Cocking a snoot — Actually, I was making a snoot to test out a hair light for Ginger’s video setup in her office.

Table saw cart — completed (for now). That’s another job finished. As I hoped, the dust collection seems to work well. I also made a zero clearance saw blade insert for the saw. +1

Building my table saw cart. One-minute read, +4

New workbench storage — I have finally updated the storage area above my workbench. There used to be five plastic cat litter boxes on the shelf. I made these five wood boxes in an afternoon, so the finish isn’t furniture level, but they fit the space well and look much better. +2

Set up for a quick test — I used a small hand-held fill in light for the test pictures. It has finely adjustable color temperature and brightness.

Sparkle Zone Storage Center, Stage Two, almost complete — Some final adjustments to the bottom doors to be made. There is still some minor work and finishing touches to be completed. Apart from that, all done. +5

A costly mistake… At $70 per door, and I ruined two doors before I realized my error. I forgot to allow for the Inset panel (at 3/16-inch) when selecting screws to mount the doors on cross braces. That brings my ‘Cock-up Account’ up to $200 in a couple of months (don’t ask).

Sparkle Zone Storage Center, Stage One, almost complete. Now for the fiddly bit of the end panel and the ‘fill-in’ panels. That big gap — that’s a special space, and will be Stage Two!

It fits — Carcasses fitted to the wall, this, and fitting the doors is the easy bit.

Will it work? Dry fit. Just eyeballing it to make sure we like the use of space, and checking I hadn’t messed up my size calculations.

Boxes — I was going to custom build the Sparkle Zone Storage Center, but we realized we could save a lot of time (but not $$$ — the doors alone were nearly $700) by bringing in ready-made units. I volunteered my friend Tom and his pickup to help me collect the boxes and the large 8ft by 3ft end panel. The truck’s bed was full to overflowing.

An empty wall equals storage potential. Recently we’ve been on the lookout for more storage space. We have also been looking for somewhere with space, that we can use for small product photography. The south facing windows of the ‘Sparkle Zone’ offer good light and, we realized, space for storage of our photography gear — and more.

I finally found a use for one of the few small rock samples I have collected over the years.
I also tried out some new (to me) technologies in creating this post.

Morning sunlight in the workshop. +1

Workshop Bling — I finally got around to adding some drawer pulls onto the drawers in the workshop/garage.

Cleaning & Reorganizing — My biggest recent upgrade has been to plumb in compressed air lines so I don’t trip over the airline snaking its way across the floor. I should have done it years ago. +1

Hall Closet #2 finished — well, except the wall still needs patching and repainting.

Stained, ready for varnishing.

Workshop — mid-project. +1

Hall Closet #2 door trim added & doors fitted.

Checking — will everything fit as planned?

Measurements — It was a key requirement that this cart fitted and would pass easily through the doorway.

Hall Closet #2 — making a start. We’ve been planning to convert this space into a closet for some time now.

Photograph of drilling air holes in a titanium backpacking wood burning stove.

Titanium backpacking wood stove modifications – My titanium wood stove needs a bit more air. This afternoon I added some more air holes.

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