If this is in the garage, looks like a great spot for tools, DIY supplies, outdoor gear, etc., as applicable to you.
That’s the way to make big changes: Make a small change here, and a small change there, and with time, eventually you find you’ve improved the whole place.
That is way better than nice!
Yes, and it’s absolutely lovely to watch things slowly coming together—yesterday, we broke down an old aerated concrete grill, removed a flagpole (so far, the most securely fastened thing I’ve found around the house), cemented in a rotary clothes dryer instead, and scrapped an old wooden deck that used to partially encircle a pool (the pool we’d already removed shortly after moving in). All pretty small changes, but the yard looks twice as big now!
Thank you!
Four things in a single day, and you call that small? Wow. That would take me a week, at least. Or two, with the right excuses. Congratulations!
Eh, I’ve sometimes gotten that much done around the house… when there was something really important for work or school that I was supposed to be doing instead, and which I was procrastinating.
Well, it was me and my wife, and really, the main goal was just to get the clothes dryer set up, everything else was just in the way… And we’d been procrastinating on that for a while. Also…
…this was definitely a factor, too. 
20th century humorist Robert Benchley said, “Any one can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment.”
I’m a teacher. I try to make it to at least one event of each sport, each year. But some of the events, like track and gymnastics, are big meets, with a dozen or more schools competing, and I wanted something to wave around to show who I was supporting. The school swag shop, amazingly, didn’t have anything… but we do have a makerspace with a laser cutter.
Another (mostly) laser-cutter project: The first of a class set of slide rules I’m making.
Production of the other 23 will have to wait a bit, since the makerspace is a little low on materials right now, but should be done by the end of summer. And I could still improve the hairline a tad: Right now, it’s a clear sheet protector cut into rectangles, with the line Sharpied on, but I’d like a line that’s thinner, and it’s tough to line it up perfectly vertically.
Neat!
You should be able to clean up the slide rule itself with a bit of light sanding. If you’ve engraved to a reasonable depth, just a few strokes with some medium-grit sandpaper should do the trick.
For the hairline, you can engrave a line on it, crudely darken it with paint, then wipe off the excess (with some alcohol if necessary). Should be relatively clean.
Do you have a tensioning spring printed within the slider? That would help as well.
Problem with any sort of engraving (either using the laser or a physical stylus) is that it tends to crease the material. But then again, the design holds it flat against the surface anyway, so maybe?
And no spring, just close tolerances. It seems to work well enough.
I have been on a long journey to find the perfect darkroom timer, for printing photos.
In the darkroom you really need multiple timers, each with different features.
- For developing film negatives, you want a timer that can help with the varied development times of different film stocks–this is done in normal light, so the Massive Dev Chart phone app is perfect for this.
- For exposing photo paper under the enlarger, you need a timer that switches and electrical outlet, to control the enlarger. This one should be easy to set to arbitrary values, and possibly with fancy features like F-stop intervals.
- For developing the print, you want a very simple but robust stopwatch timer that will time an interval around one minute. It needs to be very easy to see under safelight.
It is this third category of timer that I have been trying to find. The only commercial version available (the Paterson Triple Timer) is not fit for the purpose. My favorite, the Smiths timer, is rare and expensive and no longer made.
So I designed my own electronic timer, with LED digits, and big fat buttons that mimic the Smiths timer exactly. (There may have been quite a bit of back-and-forth chatter with my favorite Generative AI assistant throughout the process.)
I made a YouTube Short showing the thing in all of its glory:
This was 20+ years ago, but I stumbled on free* web hosting, so have uploaded my journal about the kayak I built from a kit. Click on any small pic to see a bigger one.
Brian
* supported by donations. I am a volunteer admin, so my donation is time
Sorry, I have not been following this thread because until very recently most of my worldly possessions were still in boxes and bins. I still have not found the old pill botte with my good sewing needles in it. I fear it is gone forever. They were really good needles. I have not found my thimble. It was thick. It was one of the very few that was big enough to fit my finger. It was made in the shape of a humanoid head with pointed ears and an expression that can onlly be explained by extreme drunkeness.
The moving men seem to have thrown out my big bag of clown stuff. Besides other mass produced items, it contained- a two piece jester outfit I made from an old sheet. For some reason, Rit dye did not dye the fabric green. I ended up having to color it by hand with fabric markers. I sewed a pair of baggy clown pants from a blue fitted sheet. They had a built in elastic waist band. As an unexpected bonus, the way the seams lined up gave the appearance of a comedically oversize drooping butt.
On the upside, I was sure the moving men threw out my Cthulhu helmet. They did not.
The tiny Cthulhu idol I made, had fired, and spray painted bronze survived the trip without harm.
The staff toppe Cthulhu idol I made from an old action figure, a hollow plastic lemon and various other bits came through mostly unharmed. I need to re attach one of the webbed feet. I keep forgetting to buy green, sugarless gum for this purpose. It also needs a paint touch up.
But, none of these projects are what brought me to this thread. I mentioned my old habit of cutting the back pockets out of jeans before I throw them away. I then mount them on the wall with thumb tacks and store things in them. burpo_the_wonder_mutt said I needed to post a photo of that.
The top pocket contains two game cartridges for my Nintendo Virtual Boy. A third cartridge is in the Virtual Boy. The headset, power cord, controller and the metal stand are all stored on a shelf under my desk.
The bottom pocket contains a variety of games for the Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, and the DS.
At the top of the photo is a display set from the wonderful Monster In My Pocket toy line.
I am a poor model painter. None of my many models were packed properly. All of them need repair. As I get around to gluing them back together, I will post photos of them too.
I am finally close to having all my stuff unpacked. If you do not want me to post photos of all the surviving projects, please be kind and polite but you should let me know now.
Doc Cathode’s Wall of Pockets — sounds like the title for an SCTV B-movie spoof.
Thanx for the pic; beyond cool!
Umm, your welcome.
I remain very confused.
My mom cuts pockets off of old jeans, too, but she makes purses out of them.
I finally installed the mini-split I bought last fall.
It’s a 1Ton “Hyper-heat” unit. Capable of providing 80% of its rated heat at -20°F.
I had to buy a bunch of tools to do this.
- A used Robinair vacuum pump
- Micron gauge
- Tubing bender
- Nitrogen tank and regulator
- Crow’s foot flare wrenches
- 2x Core removal tools
- High pressure gauge
I had an eccentric flaring tool, tubing cutter, torque wrench, and lots of miscellaneous stuff.
The provided lineset had a big nick in one of the flares, so I cut it off and re-flared it. I also shortened the linseed by about 4 feet, re-flaring then cut ends.
I did a triple evacuation, and leak tested at 200psi over lunch. The pressure actually went up (due to the ambient temperature increasing), and I didn’t see any bubbles at the flare connections, so I did the final evacuation, and got down to 80 microns (150 after 10 minutes with the pump valved off).
I’m not quite done - I need to finish the drain hose, and use some plastic pipe shields to hide the indoor bundle, and protect the outdoor pipes. but it’s working, and the room is cooling down.
Looks like you did a great job, and now have a bunch of new tools. Maybe you can start a side-gig as an AC repair tech.
Coincidentally, I just had a heat pump installed, the ductless mini-split AC unit I had died just as the weather started getting hot and muggy here, which I took as a sign that it was time to upgrade.