random stuff

photo by Jeffrey Czum

book stairs

With some major renovation happening in the basement, the stairs leading up had to be revamped. (To make more head room when going to the basement) When researching different ways of dressing up the risers I stumbled upon this idea of making them look like books. I picked two, as did my wife. We picked the 5th one together.

soap dishes

drawer knobs/pulls

little animal pull knobs. these one are yet to be finished but the idea is there. a cow, bear, and cat.

wooden wedding ring

well, my wedding ring decided one day to split itself in half. not sure if this is a bad omen or not, but that's neither here nor there. it's in my pocket.

instead of buying another one, i thought i would attempt to make one myself first. i opted to follow Matthias Wandel's tutorial on how he made his wooden rings. you can find his website here: woodgears.ca

in a nutshell, it involved cutting out a rough ring on the mill. a couple different jigs were then needed to shape and sand the ring smooth. one jig to shape the inside, and a second jig to shape the outside.

i finished the ring by soaking it in Danish oil for a half hour before pulling it out and letting it dry.

coffee roaster

I was reading a recent edition of Mother Earth's News when I stumbled upon an article with plans to make a simple motor driven coffee roaster. The link to said article is here:

I really liked the idea, but wanted to be able to use it on top of my woodstove or even a nice hot fire. To do this, I would have to protect any combustibles from inevitable doom.

I just so happened to have a little 12V gear motor that was not being used, and by cutting two gears I was able to get the recommended RPM down to 45. I removed the existing wooden handle and replaced it my own motor mounting block and heat shield.

I also didn't want to have to rely on the motor, and still wanted to easily maintain the option of turning it manually. To accomplish this, I incorporated a T-bolt and nut for an easy removal of the motor.

I've only done on test brew thus far, and it went relatively smoothly. Had keep it a little on the lighter side as I was having some binding issues on the factory gear(s) where the horizontal met the vertical. Turns out, removing a washer resolved the issue. Looking forward to setting it on the wood stove now.

pipe stands

smoke 'em if you got 'em. i do not endorse smoking... although chicken is nice.