Ramblings of a geek with a few hobbies…
This morning we were at Lowes and ran into the bi-monthly kids’ workshop in progress. They were putting together a smal tic-tac-toe toy and David was instantly hooked. Since they were wrapping up, we bought the smallest hammer we could find for him and took one of the kits home with us.
Later in the day after his nap, we got to work in the basement.
Here’s to David’s first building project! More photos in the gallery.
Today I made a step stool for David, it give him just enough height so he can reach the faucet and wash his hands. All that’s left is to sand and paint it.
Ana has already put in another order for one for upstairs.
The hippo is back, this time as a picture frame for Ana’s desk (to hold a picture of David… on a hippo)
Last weekend I purchased a few cheap boards of wood to get some practice on my scroll saw. What better way to test it out than to cut out the hippo again? It takes alot of patience and concentration for me at this point – if you go too fast or turn too quickly, the blade will snap and scare the hell out of you. It’s not perfect, but by the time I got to the oval I was able to make it in almost one continuous cut around.
I started this project on the weekend of January 25th, and here on March 6th my camera cabinet sits completed and filled with my gear. It turned out WAY better than I hoped and expected and I don’t have to hide it in a corner. I normally wouldn’t have gone for the gold hardware, but we wanted it to match the piano that’s in the same room.
It’s made of Red Oak, stained with 2 coats of Minwax Red Oak oil-based stain, and finished with 2 coats of polyurethane.
This photo reminds me that I need to get the magnetic door closers.
Here’s the inside – storage for my camera bags on the bottom and lenses on the shelf (all but one lens, which I used to take this).
And the drawer is full of the numerous accessories, plus the camera.
Feels good to finally have it done and to be happy with the results. Photos from the build here. A big thanks to dad for coming over tonight to help me move it upstairs, it’s a little too big for one person.
I did lots of sanding on Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday morning. And tonight I was able to apply the first coat of stain.
So far I’m fairly pleased with the results. I can see a few spots where I screwed up and must not have sanded all of the wood glue remnants, the jury is out on whether or not I’m going to do anything about the blatant ones. So I guess I should say it looks pretty good, and looks fantastic if I squint 😉
I’ll let this dry over night, hopefully it’ll be ready for another application in the morning.
Update: Here’s what it looks like Sunday night, after 2 coats of stain.
This evening I finished the remaining work on the cabinet construction.
Here’s a photo of how my camera bags fit – not too shabby. The lenses will go on the shelf and the camera in the drawer with all of other accessories.
While I’m glad to have it all completely built finally, I’m pretty nervous about staining it. I’ve never stained anything before, and I’d really hate to ruin this thing.
8 Hours. That’s how long the project book said it would take to make the book case I designed my camera cabinet off of. Ha! I can’t even count how many hours I’ve put in on this thing now – probably another 6 or so this weekend. I’m slow.
I made quite a bit of progress in the past couple days: top trim; adjustable shelf; researched, bought hinges; made and hanged(?) the doors; and got almost halfway done making the trim for the doors. I also picked out a couple sample stains and tried them out on some of the scrap wood. I think I’ll be going with a couple coats of Minwax Red Oak over the Red Mahogany, but we’ll see.
Here’s where it stands tonight (more photos here)..
Bits left: finish making and installing door trim; make the back; sand; stain; poly.
It has been a very productive weekend, and as I sit here on Sunday night I’m beat.
First, we emptied David’s toy box and took it out to the garage so it could get it’s first couple coats of paint. It looks great already, and Ana still has lots of details planned for it remaining. Here it is, back in our family room and in use.
I also spent a few hours here and there getting some more work done on the camera cabinet I’m building. I’ve gotta admit, this is the best project I’ve done so far and I’m really excited to get it done, stained, and filled with my camera equipment.
Here’s the basic case, the top is going to be a long drawer (36 inches) and the bottom is going to be a pair of doors hiding an adjustable shelf. The plan is to put my camera bags on the bottom, lenses on the adjustable shelf, and camera and accessories in the drawer.
Here’s some detail of the routed and mitered trim base.
And here’s the drawer (minus the face) bottom.
So all that’s remaining is: route and attach trim for the top; mount the drawer and attach the drawer face; make and attach the front doors; attach the back; sand and stain a dark cherry color to match our piano. So far so good!
In the nearly two years since I purchased my DSLR, I have accumulated quite a bit of stuff – lenses, flash, bag, cleaning supplies, etc. My current organization “technique” has been to keep some of this stuff in my LowePro Slingshot 200, others in another bag, and the remainder on my desk or in a drawer.
Well, I’m tired of it. I want good, proper storage to keep my equipment safe and in one spot.
This weekend I started construction on what will soon by my camera cabinet. Here’s the quick design, without the 2 doors and draw (at the top) since I’m not good enough with SketchUp get them drawn out.
The middle shelf is going to be adjustable in height and will be where my lenses are stored. I’m going to try making EF/EF-S mount “cupholders” for the lenses on that shelf – we’ll see how that goes.
It’s going to be made out of Red Oak and once it’s done I’m hoping to stain it to match our piano. So far I have the inner box built and the top shelf thing for the drawer made and installed. So far it it’s been a fun project, and one I hope turns out how I imagine.
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