I’m doing a Halloween skull fire pit…like this. Video
I’m going more for a “pit to hell” with a skeleton coming out of a hole in the ground.
The videos do not convey how much spray foam you actually need. The one I am working on is about half the size of the ones in all the videos and it took a whole can just to do the rim of the hole.
Well, the display stand/dome is very cool, too (laser cutters don’t get enough attention, compared to 3D printers), but was the Portal scene an actual Lego kit, or your own design?
Not my design, but it’s a MOC kit. Knockoff Lego. I got it from a friend so I don’t know where he picked it up from, but this one appears to be the same:
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803641050246.html?src=google&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa
And yeah, laser cutters are great. I use mine a ton for all kinds of things. This project was my own design:
Oh, sure, they warn you about the phthalates, but not about the ground-up moon dust, kinetic gels, or naked singularities.
Aside: Why does (almost) everyone all use that same d20 layout? You don’t see that same level of uniformity on d8s or d12s, and it’s not the optimally-balanced layout, either (that would be the layout used by Dice Lab).
And I’m slightly jealous that you have your own laser cutter, but only slightly, because I have free access to the ones in the school’s makerspace, as well as a bunch of 3d printers, a CNC router, and a plasma cutter that we’re going to get repaired someday.
I used that layout because the only D20s I had around used that layout 
. Woulda used a different one had I a physical specimen to copy.
A CNC plasma cutter would be super nice… or even better, a water jet.
Thrifting at the Salvation Army with hubby, I saw a end table/nightstand that I was immediately drawn to because I need a nightstand and have been thinking of making a faux apothecary type dealie. Hubby got jealous and said he wanted a nightstand too and picked one of the cheapest he could find. When I saw what he picked, I changed my mind about the apothecary and decided on a mismatched set but both black with bamboo. We took both of these home for 40 bucks.
When I got them home I found a maker’s mark on my hubby’s pick. Found out it is part of a teak bedroom set by Arne Wahl Iversen for Vinde Mobelfabrik. A popular mid-century Danish furniture designer who worked for a few Danish furniture makers. Not Antique Roadshow but also not worthy of the paint and glue I had planned for it. It got stripped, I tried my best to remove the water stain on top, filled in a few holes and refinished with oil. Here’s the drawer after all of that. It is now in a corner curing. I’ll but some Howard’s Feed and Wax on it for some more moisture protection and make sure hubby always uses a coaster. I make those too.
My nightstand went the paint and bamboo route. No, they do not match all and whatsoever. And I still plan for Future Me to strip it down to bare wood and apothecary it. And, believe it or not, those knobs are not wood. They are solid brass. The knobs on it now ARE wood, however.
I hope ya’ll forgive me for flipping the last two pictures. You know what I mean, right?
You are forgiven, and you do really lovely work with old wooden things.
Thanks!
Looks great.
All I’ve done lately is paint up some cheap wooden ghost as Halloween decorations and replace a garage door opener. The new opener works great and replaces one that was about 30 years old and problematic.
I had a plan to make easy Halloween decorations. One was to put thin, white tapered candles in warm water until they are pliable then bend them all ghost-y. Paint black oval mouths and eyes and stick 'em in a candle holder to be a spooky centerpiece on the table. The other was glue impregnated Dollar Tree white material floating ghosts.
But that’s probably not going to happen. I’ve been on a de-hoarding kick in preparation for our move. . . sometime next year. I’ve been de-hoarding for 2 years now. I’ve barely made a dent. The nightstands are because I removed a giant, rickety, no-back, mostly empty bookcase and needed something to put my glasses I see with and glasses I drink out of and book I’m currently reading on.
We have just had our backyard landscaped, and part of the design was to have a structure for hanging two hammock chairs that we bought several years ago. I designed it, the landscapers sourced and installed the 6 x 6 inch cedar posts, then I did the rest.
Here are the top ends of the three posts after I cut pointy crowns on them.
Here they are after installation, the landscapers rented a 10 inch gas powered auger to drill 4 foot post holes, put cardboard tubes in the holes, mounted the posts and filled the gaps with cement. The back wall of the house is a work in progress, we’re having the sliding glass door that used to lead out to a deck replaced by a big window and having a regular door added on the right side.
I used a jigsaw to shape the ends of the 2 x 6 cedar rafters that are going to be attached to the posts, the small bits of 2 x 6 on top are a test for biscuit joining the inside ends of the rafters at 120 degrees, the angle that the three posts are installed at. The small can in the background is a UV protection oil that will be applied to the finished structure.
I’m using 3/8 inch steel bolts to hang the chairs, but wanted something to protect the relatively soft cedar from getting worn by us swinging around in the hammock chairs, so I used 1/4 x 2 inch brass bar stock to make 4 strain relief plates to mount top and bottom on the center cross blocks, here is it pre and post hole drilling.
Here’s the top and the bottom of the center cross blocks ready to install.
Up next, assembling the structure.
Part two, putting it together.
I tacked scrap pieces of 2 x 4 on the posts to rest the cedar rafters on while assembling. Here are the two back rafters attached. The seating area is finished with fine gravel so I used small bits of plywood to stop the feet of the step ladder from messing up the surface.
Here are the two front rafters in place. The ends of the rafters don’t line up, which was by design. All 4 of them are the same length, but the back two meet outside the back of the center post while the front two meet in the center of the front of the middle post,
I added a 3/4 inch brass bar between each end of the rafters for hanging stuff like wind chimes or plants, or for doing one-armed pull-ups if I ever get ambitious.
Here’s a detail view of the right side center cross block with a hammock attached. I used a swivel snap so we can spin around in the chairs. If I find something more attractive than the chain link to connect the swivel snap to the hanging loop of the chair, I’ll replace them. This is after applying the first coat of the UV protection oil.
And finally, there are our hammock chairs waiting for us to collapse into.
I plan to add a shelf to the center post in the spring so we have a place to put drinks and snacks.
That’s fantastic. It looks incredibly sturdy and professional. Is it your own design?
Great job all the way around, but particularly nice execution on the bras wear plates
Yes, the landscape architect had proposed a simpler design with two separate frames using 4 x 4 inch pressure treated posts that were in line, so we’d have to crane our necks to see one another. Given the space limitations, I figured that I could do better with three posts and a shallow angle.
Thank you, it was a fun project. Cold-rolled steel bar stock would have been less expensive, but I prefer the warmer look of brass. I may have to apply brass polish occasionally to keep the look, time will tell.
I wondered whether you had considered staining from the brass. You might want to lacquer it if that’s not desirable.
Good point, I’ll have to see how it develops. I do have cast brass numbers showing my street address on a pillar of the front porch. I remove them about every 2 years and polish them up with Brasso to restore the shiny surface. So far, the only marks on the underlying paint are from where fine dust accumulates in the seams between the back of the numbers and the paint, which washes off pretty well with water and a cloth.
Somewhat off-topic, but here’s a link to recommendations for brass and copper care from the Canadian Conservation Institute:
https://www.canada.ca/en/conservation-institute/services/conservation-preservation-publications/canadian-conservation-institute-notes/care--brass-copper.html
Odd - directly copying the link produced an error message from the canada.ca website, so anyone who wants to check out the article is going to have to cut and paste.
You did a very nice job.
If I had to critique it (and, I guess I do), I would point out that hanging the swings by lag screws in tension isn’t ideal. I would have drilled a hole from the top of the post, and put in a piece of threaded rod, held in by a washer and nut. I think that would be safer.