She Said Yes!

I proposed to my girlfriend yesterday, and despite her better judgement, she said yes. I kidnapped her in the morning and told her we were going for a drive to look at the fall trees. The place I wanted to propose was in Galena IL. So I had a couple hours drive to get out there. She eventually knew where we were going. couldn't really keep that a secret for long. When we finally walked over to the place I would do it, she was pleasantly surprised. I however, felt like I might vomit.

 Anyway, I built a small ring box to present it to her. Hit the jump to see some more pictures of the build.

Map Of Middle Earth

I was recently commissioned to make a map of Middle Earth. The maps I have listed from my shop are smaller 10" x 7.5". The customer wanted a version that was more around 20 x 14. I believe this one turned out to be around 21 x 15. The map is mounted to a 3/4" stained sheet of plywood with rounded edges. Instead of adhering the map permanently to the board, the customer wanted the map to be pinned. So I made some wooden pins look rustic and attached the map with those.

Hit the jump for more pics.

Fallout Props

I made some Fallout stuff. It's amazing how many props I was able to recreate after playing a little more fallout and looking at google images. And so many more could potentially be made from this series as well. I used some various new techniques on this and learned quite a bit. Hit the jump to see some more pictures I took in the process of replicating these.

Dark Brotherhood Note

 

 Made a few props with cotton cloth paper, aka, Resume paper. I remember when I was a kid I had a fascination with trying to make paper look old. I would usually cut pieces of brown paper bag from Aldi and just rub it in ash from the fire pit. But I think this new method is much better.

Mint Tin First-Aid

Made a little mint tin First-Aid Kit. Not really much to say about this one. Put a sticker I made onto a mint tin and sprayed it with polyurethane. Now it shall hold my band-aids in my glove box. I suppose I could also keep some Excedrin and Ibuprofen in there too. Not much room in there. But pretty cool for band-aids.

Bioshock Little Sister Syringe

 Ever since starting to work on the Farnsworth from Warehouse 13, I have been very interested in making replica props. If you've played Bioshock you should recognize this scary thing. It's the adam syringe carried around by the frightening little girl in the game. Well, I tracked down some parts and put it together in a weekend. Now the paint job isn't perfect, and the needle may be slightly curved, but I think it turned out pretty nice. The bottle looks a lot better irl. For some reason I couldn't get a decent picture of it turned on. There are some other pictures after the jump.

My Redworm Compost Farm

 Feeding my turtle is quite easy. She knows what she likes and doesn't like. But the one thing she goes nuts for, is worms. Worms, however, can get expensive if I'm buying them by the dozen. So I built a worm farm to turn my unused veggie and coffee ground leftovers into worm food.

Fishing Pole Mount For My Bike

 

 Sometimes, when I go fishing, I need to walk a couple of miles to the fishing hole. I don't want to carry my pole, tackle and chair for that distance. So instead, I can just load it all quickly onto my mountain bike and ride to my favorite spots. Hit the jump to see the build log.

My New Bicycle

 For a while now I have been wanting a touring bicycle. And after looking at several, I decided on the Novara Safari. Because this is the 2014 version instead of 2015, it was on sale for nearly half off! I had no idea retailers even did this with bicycles so if anyone is in the market for a new bike go with the year old one. I mean, if you can handle the shame of riding a year old bike. I wanted a touring bike because I'm planning to, at some point, go on a cross country bicycle tour. So I will need a comfortable bike that can handle full loads of gear...

Polymer Clay Trinkets

Did I ever mention I am one of those people that can never seem to take a decent picture or video with a phone? Vertical pics and videos everywhere. Anyway, here's an interesting project. as I was sitting at lunch one day I heard someone talking about mold making and I got to thinking. I don't know anything about that. And this got me thinking. There are so many methods of making out there in which I know very little about and have no experience trying. So through some research I came across polymer clay. Polymer clay is a material that takes a long time to dry out, becomes easier to shape the more you play with it, and can be safely fired and cured in the oven at 230 degrees Fahrenheit in about 30 minutes. I purchased the polymer clay and several colors of acrylic paint from hobby lobby on a Friday, and by Sunday I had all of these little trinkets. I had a ton of fun making these and painting them that it exploded an interest in several other upcoming projects in my future.

Hit the jump for more of my trinkets from the weekend.

WorkBench Evolution 2014

 Just like our Pokemon, our workbenches grow and evolve over time. Since the last time I updated with pics of my bench I had no shelves and much fewer tools. I have a new Weller soldering iron. I bought two used analogue Oscilloscopes, a function generator and parts bins full of components. Along with my new tools and parts, I added two shelves, a trash can, work light and an AC power strip. I'm sure I have missed some other additions so hit the Jump for more shots of my bench.

Spiral Bound Forrest Mims Books

For so long I have enjoyed the notebooks released by Forrest M. Mims III. The wealth of knowledge the books have offered for so long have been an invaluable asset to so many. Including me. These books are filled with tables, charts, and small circuits that can be tested, learned, and implemented into larger designs. Often, when I am building a project or watching TV, I have a reference book open. However there is a problem with most printed reference material. They are soft bound and will not stay open by them selves. Which is why I jumped with joy upon finding out that for less then $10 each I could have them spiral bound at Fedex or Office Max. (My girlfriend says not to trust Staples)
Hit the jump for some before and after pics.

Simon Frankenstein, or "The Project From Past Failures"

So awhile ago I started a Simon project. You know the one. Repeat the sequence of colors/sounds until you inevitably screw it up. I had a working version of this game on my bread board at one point but took it all apart and saved the code for later. I never got back to finishing this project until today. Like many of my projects this one also went to the top shelf of projects "I'll get to later." Well, unfortunately most of these projects never get finished after moving up there to collect dust. So I decided to take it down and build it with whatever I had laying about.  left over parts and parts from the other shelved projects were sacrificed to complete this abomination of a toy. I gave myself a 3 hour time limit on this project. Video after the jump of me showing off my incredible inability to remember the simplest of sequences.