Spice rack from pallet wood

At the Ashburton MenzShed this week, I made a spice rack, up-cycled from free pallet wood. The pallet had a few pieces of perhaps an Australian hardwood with some beautiful colors in it. 

After de-nailing and milling the boards and drilling shallow holes with a Forstner bit in the drill press for the spice jars, I cut the pieces to size and joined them with simple joinery and wood glue. Black elastic prevents the jars from falling out. The rack is finished with Danish Oil.  

The spice rack is secured on our pantry door with 4 screws.

Our current selection of spices in alphabetical order. There is room for more.

 

Handmade knitting tools

I have been experimenting with different materials for an art project and decided that I needed some knitting tools to help make some of the art.

Crochet tools

Using a drill as a lathe and then filing and sanding, I fashioned a crochet hook from some soft scrap wood but it broke. So I then remade it using a dried twig with a natural hook shape but it also broke. At the Ashburton MenzShed, I tried again using a harder wood, but again had the same problem with the wooden hook breaking, so shaped a nail into a hook and glued it into a hole I drilled in the handle I had left over. 

The MenzShed has a drill with electronic speed control, depth setting and laser alignment. To get the hole in the right place, I first drilled a hole in scrap the same diameter as the base of the handle so I had something to hold it with while drilling into the small point at the top of the handle.

To knit a tube, I inserted push pins into a thick cardboard tube and wrapped the yarn around each pin. I use the crochet hooks to make stitches as I pull the yarn off the pins. 

A tube knitted using the pins around the cardboard tube.

A long crocheted chain using just the crochet hook

From the same harder wood I also created a pair of knitting needles on the lathe. It took a while to get them both to the same size and shape and then smooth with sandpaper. For the knitting needles to work well, they needed to be sanded to 1000 grit. I finished them with Danish Oil.

Knitting needles and practice knitting

DIY selfie-stick-tripod adaptor for phones

I had a pocket tripod and a selfie-stick and so I created an adaptor to join the selfie-stick's phone mount to the tripod.


Using recycled ice cream sticks that I cut, glued, drilled, shaped and painted, the adaptor gives me a stable semi-adjustable phone tripod for shooting video.

Selfie-stick-tripod

Selfie-stick-tripod selfie.

Golden Ratio Calipers

The Golden Ratio [phi (ɸ) ~1.61803399] is often found in the relationship between lines and shapes in nature. Some examples include the nautilus shell, sunflowers, and proportions of the human body. A tool with three caliper legs that divide the space by the golden ratio is useful for art and design and so I created a golden ratio caliper.

Handcrafted from laminated ice cream sticks and rivets, the construction used limited tools (pocket knife, sandpaper, rasp, and hammer).

Handcrafted upcycled golden ratio calipers 

The middle leg points to 13cm, dividing the outer legs (measuring 21cm) into 13cm and 8cm sections 

Another golden ratio related item I have created is the Approximately Φ coffee table

Upcycled overbed table

To support our Netflix in bed habit and avoid the problem of the laptop warming the knees or bed we were on the lookout for an overbed table.

The dumpster near our apartment often has treasures from the shops nearby. One day I spotted some fairly solid MDF lattice that had probably been a shop fitting. It was broken in parts, but there were large enough pieces to salvage and build an overbed table.

Cutting the MDF, screwing and gluing the parts, adding four small wheels for mobility and some trim for additional strength and giving the whole thing a paint job has given us a decorative and functional overbed table for a fraction of the cost.

Several upcycling/reclaimed material projects

Here are some projects I have recently completed where I have used recycled/upcycled/reclaimed materials.

Improved Laptop Stand

When I bought the stand I had a Dell Inspiron laptop which is much thicker than the Macbook Pro, so I needed to upgrade the stand when I upgraded the computer. Using double-sided foam tape, I stuck the cardboard buffers to stand. I recently completed the project with a paint job and tape to give an under construction look and to remind me that the stand should be kept clear for the laptop.    

Components:

IKEA BRADA laptop stand
Cardboard
Double sided tape
Electrical tape
Paint
Varnish

Piano Table

A set of drawers recycled into a table for a small piano keyboard. I removed all of the drawers and the kickboard and I repositioned the sliders for top drawer so it would be as close to the top of the table as possible and have a lower profile. I removed the handles and faceplate of the top drawer, cut faceplate to shape and carved the clef symbols into the surface. Sanding and several coats of paint and varnish give the bottom edge of the draw a smooth finish.

Components:

Set of drawers (waist height)

Paint

Varnish

Floppy disc cube

A quick and easy way to repurpose floppy discs. I taped the six discs into a cube with a hinged lid. Currently storing old business cards.

Components:

6 Floppy discs 

Electrical tape

Umbrella cushion

I had two umbrellas with some broken ribs, but otherwise intact. I also had a pile of mostly dead pillows. I removed the handles and ribs from the umbrellas and sewed the two umbrella fabrics together around the edge with a zip for access and filled it with pillow stuffing. To patch a hole, I used a scrap of fabric cut to an umbrella shape. A functional rib from the umbrellas was used to replace a broken rib in another umbrella.

Components:

Two umbrellas of the same size

Six pillows
Fabric scrap
Zipper

  

Laptop screen repaired

My ancient Dell Inspiron developed problems with the screen about 18 months ago.  The LCD panel was OK, but the backlight was not working. In the meantime, I have used an external monitor with it.

Inspired by a recent episode of the Ben Heck Show where Ben replaced the inefficient CFL tube with LEDs, I had another look at repairing the screen. Opening it up, I discovered that one of the tube's connections was broken and so after soldering it back together, the screen is working again.
 

The CFL tube removed from the screen

The end of the tube where the bad connection had shorted out

Starting to put it back together

You can see the various layers of magnifiers and diffusers for the backlight 

It works again!

Only glitch is some dust in between the diffuser and magnifier layers

Super Simple Raspberry Pi Case

My Raspberry Pi arrived from RS in a pink plastic box. After some simple measuring and cutting with a craft knife, it provides a great semi permanent case for the Raspberry Pi. I initially cut a trapezoid for the HDMI port, but the connection was a little loose so I enlarged this to snugly fit the rectangular part of the HDMI plug. If I need to plug in GPIO, video, sound or ethernet I can cut more holes. With the Pi running at 100% CPU the case is not noticeably warm but if overheating becomes a problem I can add some more holes for airflow.

Box with holes cut for power, USB and HDMI

The Pi fits snugly in the plastic molding

Closed case with HDMI connected

Custom one man band

An amazing one man custom built orchestra. In this video, Diego Stocco not only builds his own instruments, but composes and plays the full orchestral piece.

Diego Stocco - Custom Built Orchestra from Diego Stocco on Vimeo.

As seen on ada fruit industries blog.

Caine's Arcade Global Cardboard Challenge

Last year Nirvan Mullick discovered Caine's Arcade - a cardboard game arcade built by Caine Monroy during the summer holidays in his dad's auto parts shop in East LA. Nirvan was Caine's first customer and he invited heaps of people to a flash mob to play and Caine's Arcade went viral.


This year to follow up, Nirvan and the Imagination Foundation are following up with the Caine's Arcade Global Cardboard Challenge on October 6.


Go play!

Open source hardware

Marcin Jakubowski talks about creating the Global Village Construction Set, a wiki of 3D designs for 50 different industrial machines for a self sufficient economy.


More at http://opensourceecology.org.nyud.net/index.php

Pen shaking

Ever had a pen run out of ink - it usually means it is time to buy a new pen. This is a rather drastic solution.

World's largest Kiwi built piano

Number 8 wire, blokes in sheds - classic kiwi ingenuity!

Cool Tools: 5-in-1 Painter's Tool

Here's a gadget that could come in useful, especially if you are in the process of building a big house like one of the MuzGadget brothers is doing.



See the uses at Cool Tools: 5-in-1 Painter's Tool