I've observed that there are many crafty people around here, whether with food, gardening, motorized things, or whatever. I'd be interested in seeing some of your creations if you'd like to share.

To start things off, here's a simple motor my nine year old daughter and I made just for fun. We found the recipe on "the online" and improved it. It consists of some hand-wound coils, a few batteries for current needed to induce a field and some very strong magnets. We used some embossing copper for the bushings, some copper sticks for the connections, a few ball bearings for extra smoothness and then a bunch of wood to bring it all together.

I hope you will enjoy the brief video of the motor in action! We've got a few more projects lined up, including a hand-crank generator and a "useless machine", where there is a box with one switch on the outside of it - when the switch is flicked by a human, a mechanical hand emerges from the box, flicks the switch the other way, then re-enters the box.

Thanks for listening and apologies in advance for the very poor video quality!.

 

Check that out! The quality of the video makes the still shots appear like an impressionist painting. Must be low light.

Anyway, the only thing I made today was room in my cellar. Sold off 4+ cases of wine that we weren't drinking anymore because our tastes changed. Gonna use some of the money to buy wines we do like now, then the rest goes to responsible things. Adulting isn't as fun as spending on a hobby.

 

I made a light box for shooting my watches. It wasn't particularly difficult but I'm happy with the result :-P

 

I made a hole (ripped seam) in my work uniform jacket go away today...it ain't pretty but at least the hole is closed and won't get any larger. I wasn't able to access the ripped seam from the under side due to the jacket being lined. Undoing liner seams to access other seams is beyond my pay grade...and I only had 15 minutes to get the job done.

LATE ENTRY: For the record...the hole (ripped seam) that doesn't exist anymore was located in the arm pit area of my work uniform jacket. Why is a hole in this inconspicuous area important to fix immediately? Because when I grease on a landing and the super hottie flight attendants want to do frying pan high-fives in the jetway (because of my greaser landing), my raised arm(s) while doing frying pan high-fives would expose any sort of armpit hole(s) that exist at the time...and that would RUIN EVERYTHING.

 

There, fixed that for you!

 

Is that a storage bin with some paper taped to it? If so, very resourceful and crafty indeed!

 

Well played - for me, fourteen of those minutes would have been spent threading the needle. The pen is a nice colour matching touch.

 

Vegetable broth, as I'm fasting for a few days.

 

LATE ENTRY: For the record...the hole (ripped seam) that doesn't exist anymore was located in the arm pit area of my work uniform jacket. Why is a hole in this inconspicuous area important to fix immediately? Because when I grease on a landing and the super hottie flight attendants want to do frying pan high-fives in the jetway (because of my greaser landing), my raised arm(s) while doing frying pan high-fives would expose any sort of armpit hole(s) that exist at the time...and that would RUIN EVERYTHING.

I bet Mrs Mad dog would be Mrs MAD dog if she found out you were trying to impress super hottie flight attendants with your greaser landing instead of trying to impress Mrs mad "hottie
" dog at home

 

Probably true...so we'll just try to keep it on the down-low, please...BUT...I will say that Mrs. Mad Dog (MacGyverette) does have an appreciation for greaser landings since she is a former airline pilot.

 

Lots of tools for clock repair, but nothing recently. 1/ a tool to support a replaced bushing in the lower clock plate while fitting a gathering pallet on the top plate. 2/ an indexing tool used to index a mainspring barrel when cutting new teeth in a patch. 3 & 4/ a silversmith's draw tongs converted to use of forming the loop on the end of a clock mainspring. 5/ a steady rest for cutting, polishing, and burnishing etc. on a long project such as a Russian marine chronometer balance staff.

 

Thanks! That's exactly it. I used canvas paper to have some texture in the foreground. Next step is to light the sides with two desk lamps and compensate for their color using custom white balance.

Don't really need 'em during daytime, because then I can make do with ambient light (that's further diffused by the semi-translucent bin). But at night, with only an overhead fluorescent lamp, the pics come out looking somewhat harsh (the light isn't diffuse enough). See below:

 

Wow! That's a great pic. I just might copy your idea for some of my own watch pics.

I am a big fan of simple design/engineering with a touch of cheek. This has led me to admire the art of "Chindogu". Some examples are below: my favourite is the sand-filled goggle, which is intended to ease height-induced vertigo by tricking the eyes to perceive that they're close to the ground. A great book on the subject is called "101 Unuseless Japanese Inventions".

 

The hand for cutting is a crack up..

Chain link gloves have been around for years. Laughed as was a Butcher when I first left school..

 

Finally finished my family room tables. My father-in-law milled this black walnut and gave free run of the lot. I degreased some black iron pipe and sprayed with a matte clear coat and simply put a satin poly on the wood, no stain.

Here are a couple of shots of the end tables (took way more effort than the coffee or sofa tables, Had the hardest time getting them to close up).









The sofa table and coffee table have been done for a couple of months now and I couldn't be happier with how they're holding up. Comforting to know if worse comes to worse, I can just sand the wood and re-poly.







The sofa table started as a 7' long x 3 1/2" thick piece that I butterflied open and matched the grain to biscuit back together. Ended up being 6' 6" long x (unfortunately) 1 1/4" thick in the end.

 

Almost forgot to add my speedy pro holding the coffee table down

 

i made a deal today! selling a foiled out mtg deck for some extra dough. . .or a watch

 

So I have this friend who acquired an Indy Car under carriage. Carbon fiber only weighs a few pounds. His wife wouldn't let him keep it. Asked me if I would like it free. I said F-Yeah. My loving wife let me keep it............in the garage. Makes a great light.

 

Wow, outstanding work @LemansBoiler !!! Love how they came out.

 

I'm making a decent butt shaped dent in an easy chair.