Can we have a 'Small projects' thread?

Is that against the rules?

I know I do a lot of small projects, and I assume others do too. Things that may not be worthy of an entire thread on their own, but are still note worthy or something you are proud of...

I can start:

Here are some wooden pumpkins I carved out of some old logs, for my mother's fall decorations

Have never tried anything like that before, and I was pretty pleased with how the came out.

And I made this guy yesterday for some video stuff...

I have built acouple puppets before, So Unfortunately I didn't really think about documenting the process. But, we did shoot a real quick video to test him out. https://www.youtube.com/embed/a152Aek5cq4

So, what does the group say? Is this thread a Good idea... bad idea?

Good idea for a thread. Conrad is ridiculous!

I like it.

Margie

Conrad rocks, I'd buy one!

I'm fine with each project getting its own thread. Let's see more projects.

And here's my little project.

More talking cone videos, too, please.

Conrad the Insult Conic Solid.

I dig it! I recently did a small afternoon project for my 4Runner, involving cardboard, reflectix and duct tape. Leftover reflectix scraps makes for excellent beer coozies.

David S. Wallens wrote: More talking cone videos, too, please.

Yeah, Conrad might have to go harass... , err I mean 'Interview' some of the competitors at the next rallycross event

To follow the cone theme, I also made these for the wife, out of polymer clay

That talking cone with JG as its voice, announcing the next Challenge needs to happen.

Conrad is awesome.

So are the pumpkins. I might steal that idea for October.

In reply to Toyman01:

Go ahead!... to be honest, we saw them somewhere and "I can do that" we got these really cool grinder discs with little steel pins that just turns the wood to dust!

Small project: I built a box for a Ford T5 to ride in while I drive across the country. I wasn't too interested in it leaking everywhere or rolling around, so I built a plywood box.

First half of the box.

Here's how I keep it from coming loose: The 4x4 is screwed in to the base piece of plywood, then there are two lag screws into it through the crossmember bolt holes in the transmission.

Then put the rest of the sides on, tape a bag over the leaky end, and toss the rest of your car parts in around it. There's a water pump, timing belt kit, full engine gasket set, head bolts, the input shaft from the transmission, the shifter from the transmission, and a few other things in there.

There's then a lid that fits in the hole so I can stack more stuff on top of it in the car.

Hey! That is really nice...

But shouldn't his name be Conerad?

In reply to mck1117:

Nice!

Any one got anything else? Refinish a chair? Fix a gate? Affix laser beams to sharks heads?

Made some swaybar endlinks longer...

I made this sign last year. It points to all the places we have lived. Made it out of some pallet wood and a $3 landscaping timber.

I made this starfish for our bathroom a few months ago. More free pallet wood.

Glass table tops are the suck.

A buddy moved back to Medford to save money so he can move to Australia and gifted us this Pier 1 table. But the top got exceedingly gross in just a day or two. Let's blame the cat.

I robbed the top off of the table it replaced and got after it with some 60 grit. After a quick discussion and some "I saw this on pinterest"...

A quick run to the Homely Despot netted me some thinset and a trowel for about $25.

Two coats in and we're getting somewhere.

The whole of my concrete experience is setting posts; I've never done anything that needed to resemble anything flat. I assumed it was like body filler and proceeded with thin, calculated coats.

Another coat and a hour or so later we had the top flatted back with 60 grit. Learned a lesson with steel wool: DON'T!

220 on the left, 100 on the right. Working up a reasonable sheen and getting flatter.

After some elbow grease and some Johnson's Paste Wax it's damn near mirror finish and hard to get a picture of.

Is it perfect? No. Does it look like the moon? Uhhhh, yeah, it does. Is it a berkeley of a lot better than it was for two afternoons and a couple beers? Absolutely.

In reply to Burrito:

That looks awesome!

Here is another quick one. Old file into a knife.

Old files are generally high carbon steel, you can test by putting it in a vice with just a little of the handle end sticking out and hitting it with a hammer. If it breaks off cleanly its what you want.

Step 1, remove the heat treatment. Get it really freaking hot, till its orange, and let it cool. My set up was a fire pit, concrete paver and some blocks for sides, BBQ briquettes, cedar kindling, and a heat gun for air movement.

Draw shape, go to town with cutting and grinding implements.

Once you get it close we need to re-temper it. You don't want to finish the edge on soft material. You want to leave your blade edge about 1/16" thick at this point. Re heat it as before, but this time we will drop it into a bucket of used motor oil (note, this will catch fire!)

After oil quench

Now you can finish grind your edge, and polish as you want. I went to 3k grit wet sand paper IIRC..

Cutting limes leaves black spots on it...

Nice projects everyone! I /was/ going to work on the Vette today, maybe experiment with some fiberglass work. But, there are just more things to get in the way

https://www.youtube.com/embed/EUs3fre37KI

Conrad is about mas much help as I expected him to be

My contribution to small projects, with a budget I can handle right now:

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Surprisingly given that the F-150 is the best selling vehicle in the universe, there really aren't many models out there apart from Lightnings. I was hoping to find a 1:43 one to fit in with the small collection I have. This 1:25 AMT snap together seems to be the only extended cab fleetside model out there.

I found this one on ebay for $5. I hadn't built a model since the mid-80s, but it was kind of fun, apart from the badge decals, half of which I dropped on the floor. It's definitely not a great job, but the full size truck is a beater anyway. I didn't even try to replicate the rust and dents .

I left it on the dash of the 1:1 scale truck for my son to find when he goes out this morning.

XLR99 wrote: I left it on the dash of the 1:1 scale truck for my son to find when he goes out this morning.

This is really gonna screw up sex ed for him later, just so you know.

The non-automotive version of GRM magazine is called "Make". People make things like DIY Segways, quadcopter drones, and the like. Some of these small projects are pretty cool, some are artsy-fartsy and not my thing.

Their version of the Challenge are the various Maker Faires around the country. The one in Atlanta is Oct 1-2. Damn, same weekend as the Challenge.

Cool small projects.

http://atlanta.makerfaire.com/