Make Stuff Log

Fixing and making things, what tools to get and what skills to learn, ...
theanimal
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Re: Make Stuff Log

Post by theanimal »

@Krumpn-Thanks! Seems to me that often constraints can result in more creativity. I like that alternative option you mentioned. IIRC, David Holmgren talks about doing something similar in his book Retrosuburbia.

@Scott- Yes, more or less what Slevin said. Everything that is part of the system is rated for at least double the weight of what’s actually being used and hooks and bolts are anchored into the trusses. If one of the pulleys or ropes fails, the bed will still stay up. I accidently tested this while experimenting with the rigging setup. The rope from the block and tackle system is engaged with a manual brake and also tied off to a dock cleat that I put on the wall. The point of most concern for me is the hardware where the block and tackle connects to the ceiling. It is very solid material and rated to 1,200 lbs but it is the only thing not doubled up and as such if that goes, everything goes. I’m thinking of adding some hooks on to the walls that I can attach small rope loops from the bed frame for further redundancy when it is raised .

theanimal
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Re: Make Stuff Log

Post by theanimal »

I was able to make the aforementioned coffee table today. No new material was harmed in the making of this project. I used some of the boards from our old bed frame as well as some 1 x 3s I scavenged from my friend’s burn pile. The slab was a gift to DW from a former coworker many years ago.

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jacob
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Re: Make Stuff Log

Post by jacob »

@theanimal Very nice. That thing must weigh a ton. The location of some of the screws suggests you don't use pocket holes?

How did you plane the top flat?

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Slevin
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Re: Make Stuff Log

Post by Slevin »

@theanimal and just to be super clear (and you might already know this) that 1200lb rating is for a static load. If you get the winch working I think you will remove the ability to have a dynamic load (extra slack introduced to the system), and with the brake it might be removed already, but that is probably the scenario where things would be most likely to break, as the 1200lb rating may mean much less, and I’m guessing same with the rope if it isn’t elastic either.

The hooks sound like cheap insurance in the place where it could be dangerous, as nobody should be under the bed when it’s being raised / lowered anyways (most likely fail scenario).

A similar setup in this tiny home by a tiny home builder has less redundancy built in, so I’m guessing they just aren’t that worried about it. https://youtu.be/TYgbcUbFSk0.

Gorgeous table as well. I also have a couple 2x4 slabs like that on some tables I have and they are great (if a touch heavy).

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Sclass
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Re: Make Stuff Log

Post by Sclass »

theanimal wrote:
Thu Jun 09, 2022 12:20 am
If one of the pulleys or ropes fails, the bed will still stay up. I accidently tested this while experimenting with the rigging setup.
Great you have some fail safes built in. You have a little one now and you don’t want heavy stuff in the living area that can fall down. I used to sleep under my bike racks in grad school and I recall coming home one night and finding one of my bikes in my bed. The rack had fallen down while I was out. I added some hooks and dog leash to keep the chainrings out of my head while I slept.

ETA - nice table. That will be priceless for learning how to take first steps.

theanimal
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Re: Make Stuff Log

Post by theanimal »

@Jacob- Thanks, the slab is a bit on the heavier side and the bed frame definitely so. I can't comment on how the top was planed flat as I didn't make it. From what I know about how it was built, it is comprised of leftover lumber boards that were glued together as 2 halves then the 2 halves were joined with pegs. And no, I didn't use any pocket holes, though I understand that I should. I'm definitely still closer to the noob end of the scale when it comes to this stuff.

@Slevin- I wasn't entirely sure if it was for static load since the hardware came from a swing assembly. But good to know and better to figure it's less anyways for safety purposes. The ropes are dynamic and much lower capacity, iirc 600 lbs which is also the same as the block and tackle system. My guess is that the bed frame and bed are somewhere around 150 lbs though I have low certainty in the precision of my guess.

@Sclass- Thanks, fail safes are definitely a priority. I would absolutely hate to be responsible for any serious injuries that resulted from either trying to take shortcuts or not taking any precautionary/backup measures within the system.

AxelHeyst
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Re: Make Stuff Log

Post by AxelHeyst »

DIY Recumbent Desk
I made this in 2016. This was v2.0, the first version was functionally identical but assembled from random stuff I found in the actual office I worked in, plus a seat. I don't have it anymore: I dissassembled the wood and made a deck for Serenity, and a wheel chock for my motorcycle. :D

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I went to a pick n pull and got a front passenger seat from a Subaru Outback. I bolted the chair to a bit of thick plywood and put casters on it so it easily slides into the desk.
In the picture my feet are flat on the floor, but it's best to have a footrest so your legs are mostly straight.
A big part of the point is to open up the chest and get the shoulders back. Hence the true split keyboard.

I made this because I found that a standing desk was just as easy to have bad posture at as a chair, and the energy required to stand was too distracting from what I was working on. It made it easier for me to distract myself from the work. I needed something that allowed me to maintain good posture but also maintain focus for long periods of time. It was fussy to set up and get tuned for my body, but I loved this desk. I never fell asleep in it, and typically got up from it feeling like I'd just taken a nap.

Commercial recumbent desks cost thousands of dollars. This one starts at 13k, lol.

Friends of mine made a recumbent desk out of a zero gravity chair, a monitor arm, and used a laptop in their lap. Lower effort and functional, but doesn't work to force the chest open / shoulders back. Worth a thought if you already have a ZGchair lying around.

version3.0: If I were to make another one, I'd make a custom lounge/chair thing with foam from diynaturalbedding.com. Car seats are doused in flame retardants, which is great for not dying in a fire, but not great for not dying of cancer or something.

candide
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Re: Make Stuff Log

Post by candide »

Shelf for baby stuff. The request was for something to keep items that would be used with the changing station but didn't fit in the drawers of the station itself.

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Just to get a feel for how many things were scavenged to make this (I count six sources of material) here it is before I painted.

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Another view

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Good of my cat to photo bomb this second view.

sky
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Re: Make Stuff Log

Post by sky »

theanimal wrote:
Mon Jun 06, 2022 11:50 am
Prompted by a incoming addition to the family, DW and I decided to upgrade our bed from a twin to something larger that would better be able to fit all 3 of us. The catch is that we did not want to give up any additional floor space due to space being already at a premium in our small abode (320 sq ft). So we decided to put it on the ceiling, lowering it at night, where it rests on our couch and coffee table. During the day, the idea is we raise it back up and tie it off until needed once more.
The man in this video made a hinged bed which might work for you.

https://youtu.be/WTuCXFF3sJE

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mountainFrugal
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Re: Make Stuff Log

Post by mountainFrugal »

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I will write more about the idea behind this in my August update, but we wanted to extend the workspace surface in our garage/workshop for electronics projects with some less dusty storage. For this project I used some scrap wood from our van build, a left over garage cabinet from the previous owners (was at head height on a wall), and repurposed screws from taking down a dilapidated chicken coop in the backyard. Note - weathered screws are super variable in quality. I stripped a few screws, broke off heads, etc. Pilot holes are a must for old screws when using an impact driver. haha. Cost $0 (minus tool depreciation).

AxelHeyst
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Re: Make Stuff Log

Post by AxelHeyst »

I made a haybox today. I feel stupid for not making one when I was, I don't know, ten years old or something.
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My first meal was, of course, brown rice and lentils. I brought it up to boiling and then stuck it in the box. Thirty minutes later it was at 180F and not quite done. I brought it back up to temp (which is around 204F/95C here) and put it in the box for another fifteen minutes and it was perfect.

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AxelHeyst
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Re: Make Stuff Log

Post by AxelHeyst »

A 14w micro radiant floor.

My tiny studio has no heat source at the moment, and the nighttime lows are in the 20’s F (-5C or so). The first thing I like to do in the morning is make a coffee and write, and I typically wake up between 0500 and 0700. I can bundle up and keep my core warm, but I find it devilishly difficult to keep my toes warm.

I ordered some 7w electrical heating elements and some temperature controllers. My original plan was to stuff these things in a pair of socks, but it seemed like it’d be awkward with all the wires. I spotted a pair of 10”x10” steel plates from an old project, and decided to make a very small patch of radiant floor under my writing desk. I suppose it’s more accurate to call it a footwarmer, but I like the way ‘portable micro radiant floor’ sounds better, so that’s what it is.

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The heating elements are 1”x2”, 7watts each. The thing foil-taped to the metal is the temperature probe. The temperature controller switches off the heating elements if it gets above a setpoint temperature. I had an extra red LED marker light from the Serenity build, and so stuck it in there for a visual indication as to whether the elements are receiving current.

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It needs insulation underneath to prevent all the heat from dumping into the cold floor. Right now I’ve just got an old towel folder underneath it. I think I'll put in a scrap piece of reflectix in the cavity and keep the undertowel. Tucking a lap blanket underneath the top edge seems to work nicely to trap the heat in.

You can see in that last picture that it’s at 26C, which is 78F. The hottest it’s gotten during a typical cold morning is 30C. 20C is ‘warm enough’ to keep my toes from getting cold, so I’ll probably adjust the setpoint down.

The temp controller was $4.5. The heating elements were $9. Everything else I had laying around from other projects (the steel plates were $10 each), so the total cost of the project to me was $13.5.

Heating Elements (I chose the 25mmx50mm).

Temp controller.

vexed87
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Re: Make Stuff Log

Post by vexed87 »

Brilliant, spotted that on your blog and I've decided to replicate it! :geek:

jacob
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Re: Make Stuff Log

Post by jacob »

AxelHeyst wrote:
Tue Nov 22, 2022 2:09 pm
[...] but I find it devilishly difficult to keep my toes warm.
Biofeedback might help. I was a hobby of mine during my 20s. I started focusing on one finger. When I put all my concentration on that finger, it would start tingling after a while. Next step was to do this with different fingers. Next step was to move the tingling from one finger to the next and back again. It gave me something to do when being bored [whether waiting for the bus or being in the company of random people].

Same principle is useful for restoring blood circulating to "frozen feet". I usually visualize my feet being stuck in boiling water. It takes a couple of minutes. I can feel the colder blood running up my calves once it works. It gives me something to when trying to fall asleep in a cold bed.

vexed87
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Re: Make Stuff Log

Post by vexed87 »

@AH, what kind of power supply are you using? Any plans to tidy up the probe switch? I have one exactly the same on another project and know they are a vulnerable to having the wires yanked out (annoyance/fire risk?), which seems like something that might happen often with stray feet. Seems like a great excuse to 3d print some sort of enclosure. I plan to cobble one of your heaters with a old baking tray and a 5V router power supply. Did you decide on a insulation solution? I think some reflective insulation for radiant heat would be best for this application, so long as it doesn't contact and conduct the heat away.

@Jacob, impressive! I have heard of people being able to stop their heart, but had no idea it was possible to manipulate individual fingers in that way. I did a bit of reading around the subject and it looks like biofeedback is one of the treatments for Raynauds syndrome. :geek:

M
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Re: Make Stuff Log

Post by M »

jacob wrote:
Fri Nov 25, 2022 2:14 pm
Biofeedback might help. I was a hobby of mine during my 20s. I started focusing on one finger. When I put all my concentration on that finger, it would start tingling after a while. Next step was to do this with different fingers. Next step was to move the tingling from one finger to the next and back again. It gave me something to do when being bored [whether waiting for the bus or being in the company of random people].

Same principle is useful for restoring blood circulating to "frozen feet". I usually visualize my feet being stuck in boiling water. It takes a couple of minutes. I can feel the colder blood running up my calves once it works. It gives me something to when trying to fall asleep in a cold bed.
I can do something similar with my hands. Some people I have shown this to get freaked out that I can warm up my hands just by focusing on them.

I have never tried individual fingers and toes - I guess I will try those next...It would be nice to be able to do this with my whole body as well.

AxelHeyst
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Re: Make Stuff Log

Post by AxelHeyst »

vexed87 wrote:
Thu Dec 15, 2022 7:52 pm
@AH, what kind of power supply are you using? Any plans to tidy up the probe switch? I have one exactly the same on another project and know they are a vulnerable to having the wires yanked out (annoyance/fire risk?), which seems like something that might happen often with stray feet. Seems like a great excuse to 3d print some sort of enclosure. I plan to cobble one of your heaters with a old baking tray and a 5V router power supply. Did you decide on a insulation solution? I think some reflective insulation for radiant heat would be best for this application, so long as it doesn't contact and conduct the heat away.
I got just some random power supply brick, like for a small laptop or speakers, for pennies at a thrift shop. It's 2.5amp I think.

I secured the cables under a tiedown thing, so yanking on the wires won't transmit force to the connections to the switch itself.

I had some neoprene tape kinda stuff laying around, and I covered the whole underside of it with that, which also got the wires away from potentially hot metal. I then layed in a piece of Reflectix. The non-contact radiant insulation idea is a good one - it might be hard to keep it spaced off the metal? And I'd think the ends would want to be enclosed so you wouldn't have convective effects (hot air rising) stealing a lot of the heat. There's a big delta T between the metal and ambient air.

@jacob - oh I missed your post, that biofeedback sounds cool! I tried it out while cutting metal outside today standing on frozen ground, definitely a positive effect. Unfortunately at my writing desk, my choice is to write, or to generate heat in my toes with my mind, not both at the same time. That's some next level Neo stuff.

vexed87
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Re: Make Stuff Log

Post by vexed87 »

Thanks for the additional details @AH, yeah I have some sort of enclosure system in mind, but I'm not exactly sure what that will look like yet. I'll report back when it's finished. So I tried this morning with an aluminium tray, and noticed that it quickly heated up directly above the heating element, but it didn't dissipate through the rest of the sheet sufficiently before the sheet was capabable of scalding, perhaps not the best metal for this application, lower thermal conductivity may be required, but I will try again with the probe mounted much closer :lol:

sky
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Re: Make Stuff Log

Post by sky »

Mitten-socks

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These are booties made of quilt material, for keeping feet warm in bed, or as mittens that cover the forearm. Weight is 4 ounces. They fit loosely, so they do not reduce circulation, and the insulation is not compressed. A thin elastic cord holds the mitten-sock above the ankle or elbow. The shape is a simple tube, but it could be shaped to add a thumb. Cut out length is from outstretched fingertips to middle of bicep, finished length fits just above elbow.

ebast
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Re: Make Stuff Log

Post by ebast »

A wee stool (salvaged softwoods, hand tools only, no glues no screws, 31 hours).

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So that the very short among us may urgently access fixtures around the house. Splayed the legs (angled tenons) to see how it'd go.

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