Whenever a friend of mine tells me they're getting a Pebble or one of those smart watches I think they overestimate their importance. Then again, I hate everyone, especially my friends.
Text, shmext
Whenever a friend of mine tells me they're getting a Pebble or one of those smart watches I think they overestimate their importance. Then again, I hate everyone, especially my friends.
Blender Snowman
Hey guys,
So since I play TF2 pretty often and see all this community made stuff, I decided why not hop on the gravy train and start making and submitting hats and stuff. Unfortunately it turned out to be harder than I thought, and it turns out you cant just magic yourself a hat out of thin air. So I looked up some tutorials, and stumbled on this 3d creation tool called blender. I watched a few video tutorials and decided to make something dumb that I could show everyone.
Here is a Front view of this snowman I made
And the side view
So its hard to say exactly how I made it, pretty much I just followed this tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wklRKGC7ai8&feature=channelBasically I just used basic shapes, re-sized them and put them where i wanted, making sure that the picture looked fine from all planes, and smoothed out all of the spheres so they didn't look like that dome at Epcot.Its pretty cool so far, and I hope to have more simple projects posted up soon.
Soda bottle light
Alright so i'm sure everyone has heard of these, how people in poor countries use 2 liter bottles with water and bleach in them to make free skylights. I decided that this would be a fun and easy thing to do.
First I bought a pizza, bread sticks, and a two liter from pizza hut.
I ate all of it while watching 3 episodes of the league, and once I pulled myself out of the resulting shame spiral, I was ready to go.
After filling the 2 liter with water
I then used a piece of cardboard and a box cutter to make a hole in the cardboard to stick the bottle through. I figured I would make about 1/4th or a 1/3rd of it stick through the top so I cut a hole that was slightly too small for it and jammed it through.
I decided the best thing was to make a fake "house" out of a box, and use the piece of cardboard as a roof, so I could still use the flaps to completely close the box for comparison purposes.
I made a dumb door in the side of the box so I could look in without really letting any light in:
Now the last step was to put about 2 caps full of bleach in the water, my guess would be that its to keep the water clear and kill bacteria in the water.
It actually worked better than I expected:
With soda light:
Tilted toward the sun
Tilted without the soda light
Overall it's a pretty cool idea, and more effective than I thought it would have been. It really would be pretty great for people who cant afford much electricity in poorer countries or hobos I guess.
7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Time Management
Look I made a shitty comic! I hope it was worth the wait!
Skate Lamp
Remember that skateboard I painted a couple weeks back? I decided to go a little further and get a little craftier.
I had been toying around with an idea for a lampshade based off a skateboard deck. I purchased a $9 accent lighting fluorescent lamp that is designed to be installed under a cabinet from Home Depot. It measured out to about 18.5" wide, a few inches shorter than the length of the deck's body.
The basic construction of this wall-mounted lamp resembles a small shelf with a skateboard mounted across the lip. I made mine out of all repurposed wood scraps I found in my basement. The main shelf consisted of a 20" x 3 5/8" x 3/4" plank pictured here, placed on top of the deck for scaling purposes.
Note: the size does not have to be exact, but it must be long enough to cover the upper row of drill holes designated for the trucks.
Do not drill the plank to the deck yet! It's how I did it, but I do not recommend it. The lamp becomes very difficult to mount level. So in the next few images imagine that the wood is not attached to the deck and is left there to grant perspective.
To stabilize the shelf I added struts to the plank, two small pieces cut from wood the same size of the plank itself. They were most likely brother wood cuts, warriors who served mightily in a pool table that is no more- and just as MacArthur once said, "old soldiers never die".
These charming little guys measure out to 2 1/4" (other measurements the same as the plank) and here they are clamped in place. Clamps are awesome for keeping things stable while fastening them together. Variety.
I decided to use a carpentry nail at first and then opted to use a wood screw as well. See look: whaaaaaaaa?
With the shelf now complete the next step is mounting the lamp to the wall. With another trip to Home Depot I picked up some L-shaped brackets and wood screws to do the job. The 4 pack of brackets measure 3" by 3/4" with #8 x 5/8" wood screws (12 pack). Screw the brackets into the shelf close to the supporting arms.
Install the lamp to the wall now. I used two nails with the brackets that are part of the back of the actual hardware. Place the one nail first and then add the second while leveling out the lamp.
Place your shelf just above the lamp so it surrounds the lamp and fits snugly, providing enough room for the power cord. Make sure to use a level as you drill the screws into the drywall. You will be drilling 4 screws and it would be lame to ruin all that drywall only to have to readjust them because it's crooked.
This is what your mount should look like, all leveled out and looking dapper. Make sure it's level but also sturdy. I didn't install into the studs just drywall and it felt very secure. Secure enough that it's hanging over the head of my bed.
Attach the deck of your choice with 4 screws into the drill holes and into the shelf. What's important and difficult is to level out the deck as well. Granted, the deck's edges are rounded so it requires a bit of a balancing act while working your drill, but I did it, and so can you! Flip that light on and ILLUMINATION!
Check back in the following weeks. I'm going to attempt to make another one of these that won't have the board screwed into place. Allowing as a temporary board shrine and storage option. Probably going to utilize some utility hooks or some latch mechanism that I have no idea how to make.
