I.Maker.365.

(041) missing tooth

An architectural detail of our house is a board walk (think dock) that runs trhroughout the first floor.. It runs from the front door to the back while circling around the bathroom, through the kitchen and under the stairs as it meets back up on itself in the dining room.

 The main reason for doing this was to create distinct spaces for the dining room, bathroom and kitchen, while dealing with some unfortunate variations in floor height at the same time.

 It’s always worked well. And I love the how it makes our space uniquely functional.

 The bit of dock that runs under the stairs serves a second function. It was constructed as a large hatch that can be lifted (long piano hinge) revealing the stairs to the shop in the basement.

The floor was installed in the winter a few years ago when wood is at it most contracted. Several summers ago as it began to expand with moisture (remember wood always grows wider with humidity not longer), so much so that the last plank on the hatch was literally pried-off once when closing.

 It sat there toothless at LEAST last winter and all last summer. Yesterday I trimmed about an 1/8^th of an inch off one side of the plank with the table saw and nailed it back in place with the finish gun. The longest part of the entire job was waiting for the battery on the nail gun to charge.

 I could take more satisfaction in this completed task if somehow it felt more substantive. Now I’m pretty much left with, “geese what took so long?”

(016) testify on making

Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend we hosted a pie party. The idea was bring your favorite pie, or bring whatever left-over pie you want gone. My friend Alex showed up with a tasty homemade chess pie. I hadn't seen him in a while and he asked what I'd been doing lately.

I told him, amongst other things, I had recently started writing a blog about making. He asked why he hadn't heard about it. The answer was quite simple. Having developed user generated and social strategies for getting the word out for the better part of 10 years now, I keep reminding myself, there has to be a there there first.

Eight posts does not make a blog on making, fifteen simply states that I have been able to stick with it for two whole weeks! Needless to say my aim was to get some variety and girth behind this project before tooting my horn too loudly.

One of the things I've wanted to do since the start is share not only what I've been doing, but what others have done too. To that end I am looking for a few folks that want to testify on making. I've approached a couple of ringers to get started on a various topics. But I wanted to offer you, the hand-full of casual readers, an opportunity too.

What's your passion? Cooking, knitting, auto restoration, beer making, Rasberry Pi, wood-working, welding; what gets you going, and what is it that keeps you there?

Testify on the art and love of making. Help me breathe more community into these posts.

Drop me an email, let me know what you're making, we would love to hear from you.

(011) unfinished projects

In preparation for Thanksgiving week family/pie festivities the white board in the kitchen is teaming with lists of things that need to be procured, prepared, cleaned, and my favorite category, finished. And when I say finished I mean waaay over due to be finished

The counter-tops in our kitchens are made of Paperstone. We had them installed for about five years now and I love it. Hard, durable, looks like stone, think lab tables. There are two small counters on either side of the stove, a long counter with a sink, and a matching length counter as an island.

We attached the paperstone tops directly to the 3/4" ply carcasses we built. We had large shop-like drawers made, two drawers in each unit, 12 in all. The drawers we designed to have sliding trays inside, but this brings me to the point of today's post. Unfinished projects.

When we were working on the house we refereed to it as being "functionally done". Meaning, it does everything you want it to, there are simply some finishing details that never quite made it off the list.

One of the counters in our kitchen was a perfect example. The piece of paperstone that made the island counter-top was never attached. If you live here you get used to knowing not to lean on it as it will slide. Guests always got a litle surprise.

This week in the flurry of Thanksgiving prep we fianlly did something about it. By drilling and placing four pegs on the underside of counter top that aligned to the four corners of the cabinet carcass we were able to "pin" it in place. Worked like a charm. I used a little duct tape to beef up the pegs and snug the fit, a little shout out to my burner friends perhaps.

 

 

(003) on IKEA hacking

For years I've had a love/hate relationship with IKEA. In the 90's when the stuff first started to appear I always thought of it as cheap dorm furniture that was not made to last. To some extent I still feel that way about many of their furniture products, but over the years I have found a place for their hardware and cabinetry.

In some ways I feel like IKEA has become the new hardware store. When I was a kid we went to Scotty's Lumber and bought pre-fab paneling pieces that snapped together to make 70's style rooms. Kitchen cabinetry has always been sort of modular too, it's the counter top that always brings it all together. IKEA now works in the same way. You go to the hardware store and buy the units that you customize for your need.

One of the things I find interesting about IKEA cabinetry is the intersection of the prefab with the existing infrastructure. You know, that big whole you have to cut into the back of the cabinet to fit the pipes that hopefully will never be seen. Michel has a small IKEA kitchen reno job I helped him with this week, the intersection of existing and new was the hack. The intersection of the old with the new is what took the time.

 

Along the way a friend introduced me to the site IKEAhackers.net. In perusing the posts I realized that the IKEA maker potential is infinite.

Here's the thing to consider though, the digital manufacturing (flat pack cnc cutting with very little waste), means with very little effort the design can be modified without having to retool any of the machinery that manufactures it. It just as easy for them to make 100,000's as it is to make 10.

Grabbing at a lot of ideas from Chris Anderson's "Makers: The New Industrial Revolution" go with me on this, rather than going to IKEA to buy the modules and then customizing them, there may come a day soon where you can upload the modification you want made and have it shipped pre-cut and ready to assemble to your specification, for no extra cost.