The Do-it-Yourself Thread: A Home for Handymen and Artisans - General

[QUOTE=fox '09;40210352]Do those auto darkening helmets work well? I was thinking of getting a pair, I keep giving myself arc-eyes because I forget to put my goggles on.[/QUOTE] Yes they do. [editline]9th April 2013[/editline] Ok, so I just bought myself a dremel and this is literally the best shit ever. Two rings I made - bottom one is my first attempt and the top one is my second attempt. [IMG]http://i.minus.com/ib1RiuEitwObz2.jpg[/IMG] A dice-cap for my bike! [t]http://i.minus.com/iB4xA4YANuNIR.JPG[/t]

[QUOTE=fox '09;40210352]Do those auto darkening helmets work well? I was thinking of getting a pair, I keep giving myself arc-eyes because I forget to put my goggles on.[/QUOTE] Yeah dude. My teacher, Mr. Coan has both the updated kind and the old version. With the newer ones you can actually adjust the shade/speed, etc. on this little dial, it's pretty cool! [editline]9th April 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=BassB;40204197]i want welding class[/QUOTE] It's so fun! I didn't even know what welding was when i took it, but now i LOVE it! We're not even really allowed to use the MIG welders until the more advanced class, just stick. But i actually tried MIG welding out and it's really fun and easy. Iv'e gotten really good, at it too, i'm actually thinking of pursuing a career in welding.

Stick welding is a royal pain in the dick. One of my eyes are permanently damaged because I struck too early while practicing on a car.

Auto-darkening helmets are the best fucking thing ever. I've worked with both and there is just no comparison whatsoever. For $20 at Harbor Freight you can get an auto helmet with adjustable speed and shade levels. With a standard helmet I couldn't do any low-intensity MIG welding; the arc wasn't bright enough to actually see what I was doing. Stick welding, on the other hand, LIGHTS SHIT UP. No trouble seeing there. Pain in the ass, though, the welds are ugly as shit, it's hard to strike properly, and it's always live if the machine is on so you gotta watch your ass around grounded surfaces. If you want to take a welding class, it's easy enough to find one. Look for those adult continuing education classes that are non-credit and a one-time fee of like $250 or something. Best money I've ever spent, I'm getting a little exposure to pretty much every kind of welding, with flexibility to focus and practice on what I really want to learn how to do. No grades, no credits, just showing up because you want to learn. MIG is, honestly, easy as shit. You pull the trigger and lay it down like a line of calk, and just slowly oscillate back and forth. Not much smoke or fire or heat, and all you have to worry about is getting the machine set right for the type and thickness of metal you're working on. ANYBODY can do it.

Though I cant weld, I still got quite a lot of welding wire, (Somewhere about 20kg in Stainless steel of various alloys and dimensions). Mainly because I make chainmaille jewelery with it, though I also use titanium wire. It's a nice hobby, with great looking results, and if you get good at it you can invest in some more advanced tools and machines and in the end get quite a nice payoff for your work. I've been doing it for almost five years now and I enjoy it very much. Though most people I've met, that have wanted to learn, simply do not have the patience or the fine-motor skills to be able to handle the art, since you often work with rings with a wire diameter of about 1mm and inner-diameters of anything from 10mm down to 2-2.5mm, and a simple bracelet can take up to 40minutes for someone with my experience (not including the time to wind the rings and cut them, can add as much as a few hours), and my most advanced piece took me more than twelve hours to complete, with several thousand rings in different sizes. [IMG]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5342745/Maille/bracelet-gsg.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5342745/Maille/bracelet-gsg-gold.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5342745/Maille/dragonscale.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=Armandur;40216252]Though I cant weld, I still got quite a lot of welding wire, (Somewhere about 20kg in Stainless steel of various alloys and dimensions). Mainly because I make chainmaille jewelery with it, though I also use titanium wire. It's a nice hobby, with great looking results, and if you get good at it you can invest in some more advanced tools and machines and in the end get quite a nice payoff for your work. I've been doing it for almost five years now and I enjoy it very much. Though most people I've met, that have wanted to learn, simply do not have the patience or the fine-motor skills to be able to handle the art, since you often work with rings with a wire diameter of about 1mm and inner-diameters of anything from 10mm down to 2-2.5mm, and a simple bracelet can take up to 40minutes for someone with my experience (not including the time to wind the rings and cut them, can add as much as a few hours), and my most advanced piece took me more than twelve hours to complete, with several thousand rings in different sizes. [IMG]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5342745/Maille/bracelet-gsg.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5342745/Maille/bracelet-gsg-gold.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5342745/Maille/dragonscale.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE] Very nice. Now make a hat.

[QUOTE=Armandur;40216252]Though I cant weld, I still got quite a lot of welding wire, (Somewhere about 20kg in Stainless steel of various alloys and dimensions). Mainly because I make chainmaille jewelery with it, though I also use titanium wire. It's a nice hobby, with great looking results, and if you get good at it you can invest in some more advanced tools and machines and in the end get quite a nice payoff for your work. I've been doing it for almost five years now and I enjoy it very much. Though most people I've met, that have wanted to learn, simply do not have the patience or the fine-motor skills to be able to handle the art, since you often work with rings with a wire diameter of about 1mm and inner-diameters of anything from 10mm down to 2-2.5mm, and a simple bracelet can take up to 40minutes for someone with my experience (not including the time to wind the rings and cut them, can add as much as a few hours), and my most advanced piece took me more than twelve hours to complete, with several thousand rings in different sizes. [/QUOTE] The first rings I ever got had an inner diameter of 3-4 mm and had a wire thickness of not that much thicker than a few human hairs, oh boy did i regret that, although they were easy to open and close. My standard ring now for stuff is 8.4mm ID and 1.64mm wire thickness, I buy them premade because while being slightly more expensive, it cuts down on the time messing around winding and cutting them (plus suitable wire is stupidly hard for me to find round here) I was mightyly thankful for using premade rings when I ended up making a shirt out of them, as it took 14,000 rings and cutting all those out by hand would have been a nightmare.

[QUOTE=MIPS;40215693]Stick welding is a royal pain in the dick. One of my eyes are permanently damaged because I struck too early while practicing on a car.[/QUOTE] Ah, that sucks man... Iv'e had a few small encounters with striking too early, but it's only been like a millisecond. Some of the people in my class are so ignorant, they just sit there and WATCH people stick weld, with no type of protection. [editline]9th April 2013[/editline] I'm so glad i found this part of facepunch, I'm gonna start coming here more often.

Made a park bench today between my classes, I made it to trade with a local indian motel owner. In exchange I get a set of Herman miller fiberglass side chairs I spotted there when I drove by. Super nice guy, didn't want cash for the chairs since they were needed and they would have to replace them if they sold them to me, so I made them a nice bench. Cost me $36 in materials. [img]http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a345/ajackss/bench_zpsf1e4cd18.jpg?t=1365652810[/img]

Looks like a bench you could buy, as in well made, very clean work there! I made a wooden knife, this is my first wood working project so it's fairly rough. (mostly the blade) It was made with hand tools, a coping saw, rasps and sand paper, lots of sand paper. Here's the blade before sanding. [thumb]http://www.emanuelemonaco.com//images/diy/wooded_knife/TDS_7505.jpg[/thumb] I made it out of an old wooden floor tile, I had to halve it's thickness by hand since I don't have any sort of planer or whatever they're called so it's a bit irregular. I should've stopped using the rasp sooner, some of the marks were too deep to remove without actually removing too much material. I used linseed oil to finish it. [thumb]http://www.emanuelemonaco.com//images/diy/wooded_knife/TDS_7532.jpg[/thumb] Here you can also see a clamping mark on the blade, I used paper and masking tape to protect it but in hindsight it wasn't enough. [thumb]http://www.emanuelemonaco.com//images/diy/wooded_knife/TDS_7538.jpg[/thumb] I smoothed a portion of the handle here to make it more comfortable to hold otherwise you would feel the hard edge with your index finger, the "notch" is on both sides to make the knife both left and right handed. It also add a bit of movement to the handle. [thumb]http://www.emanuelemonaco.com//images/diy/wooded_knife/TDS_7539.jpg[/thumb] [thumb]http://www.emanuelemonaco.com//images/diy/wooded_knife/TDS_7542.jpg[/thumb] [thumb]http://www.emanuelemonaco.com//images/diy/wooded_knife/TDS_7545.jpg[/thumb] You can see it pretty well here how irregular it is, although it's not glued together yet so gluing it while it's tightly clamped should help a bit. This was sort of a test, I would like to make an actual steel knife in the end.

Painted one of our spare rooms the brightest orange ever.. so I'm putting white wall stickers on to tone it down. [img]http://i.imm.io/12JRj.jpeg[/img]

[QUOTE=garry;40264219]Painted one of our spare rooms the brightest orange ever.. so I'm putting white wall stickers on to tone it down. [img]http://i.imm.io/12JRj.jpeg[/img][/QUOTE] Wall stickers are great. Where did you get yours?

This is my second post ever in this section of the forum so forgive me for any mistakes I might make. I figured this is sort of the generic chat thread for this section even though it's for showing small DIY projects by looking through the thread so I'm gonna ask this here for you who have actual experience with it. Firstly info: I have an old Beetle from 1971 which I drive every day during summer as my regular car. My dad bought me a roof rack for it two years ago which I love and have had on the car ever since. It does have a couple of small rust spots and the wood is faded and bad looking so I've planned to restore it. Looking through this section I actually got motivation to do it so this summer I will take it apart, sand it down, give it new paint and restore the wood. I got some painting experience so I'm not worried about that, it's the wood I've got no experience with. So here comes my actual question: [B]To restore wood, do I just sand it and apply some special oil to it, or is there much more than that to it?[/B] I don't have any pics of the roof rack itself but you can see it in these pictures: [t]http://puu.sh/2gpW9[/t][t]http://puu.sh/xJDh[/t] I will probably take better pics of the roof rack itself tomorrow and post those. [editline]13th April 2013[/editline] I almost forgot... I want the wood to look pretty much like the middle of this picture [t]http://static.tumblr.com/icthdmc/Ol4m77qcx/dark-wood-background.jpeg[/t] ...if that is possible.

[QUOTE=Ldesu;40268055]Words.[/QUOTE] Restoring wood is pretty easy. Just grab yourself an orbital sander, sand that stuff down, stain it, and seal it (I'd recommend a varnish or shellac... Unless you think you can resin-dip it to get a clear, glassy finish. That'd be the best, in my opinion. Avoid poly, it gets sticky and smells horrible when hot.) Nice car, by the way. Could you post some more pics?

[QUOTE=woolio1;40268519]Restoring wood is pretty easy. Just grab yourself an orbital sander, sand that stuff down, stain it, and seal it (I'd recommend a varnish or shellac... Unless you think you can resin-dip it to get a clear, glassy finish. That'd be the best, in my opinion. Avoid poly, it gets sticky and smells horrible when hot.) Nice car, by the way. Could you post some more pics?[/QUOTE] Thanks! Here's something actually related to the thread though: [t]http://puu.sh/1iE9U[/t][t]http://puu.sh/1iEad[/t] Mini Me! I did that during a night when I just couldn't sleep so I should redo it because it's pretty terrible and rushed. [t]http://puu.sh/DNUD[/t][t]http://puu.sh/E7Ht[/t] Dent repairs and fixed rust done last year. Not nearly perfect but all done by hand (hammers) and much better than it was. And for woolio1: [URL]http://puu.sh/sneJ[/URL] [URL]http://puu.sh/snfd[/URL] [URL]http://puu.sh/F5aN[/URL] My camera broke so any picture I take after these will not be as "great" quality

[QUOTE=Ldesu;40268586]Words.[/QUOTE] Everybody with any car worth driving needs a miniature version... I've got a MINI Cooper model I need to repaint to match mine. Anyway, that really is a beautiful car. You're very lucky to own one in that condition. I'm a bit envious.

I'm not positive on how they constructed the roof rack on that beetle, but I'm assuming it's teak? Or perhaps oak? It was most likely an American market add-on I'd assume, or anywhere but Germany as wood is a bit more expensive to build into cars. ANYWAY - I'd say you seperate the roof rack out, then use a piece of 200gritt in your hand and rub the rack like you're jerking it. If the rack has rounded over edges, that would be the way to go. Now, if it's not rounded, and-in fact square or rectangular in nature, throw the wood away, get yourself some teak, plane it down to the correct dimensions and then put a nice clear or stain on it, then re-assemble. If you're looking for originality, then take the boards, run over them breifly with a hand planer, sand with 220 or so, then clear coat it, or stain it yellow oak, or gunstock to get to the color you need.

[QUOTE=woolio1;40267766]Wall stickers are great. Where did you get yours?[/QUOTE] notonthehighstreet have tons! [url]http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/home-garden/living-decorating/art-painting-sculpture?filter[/url][delivery_zone]=1&filter[subcategories][]=wall-stickers&page=1

I've searched a bit and found [I]almost[/I] what I have and what I hope to turn it into Basically I've got this: [t]http://i351.photobucket.com/albums/q459/deanramsay/photo-1.jpg[/t] It's not exactly the same but close enough. That roof rack looks like it's in the same condition as mine and again, mine got some rust spots around it so it needs a respray even though it might not seem like it. And want to make it look more like this: [t]http://www.grahambird.co.uk/images/roofrack.jpg[/t] That color on the wood and just a resprayed frame. Dark wood just looks so fresh and modern yet it fits the car I think.

[QUOTE=Ldesu;40271857]I've searched a bit and found [I]almost[/I] what I have and what I hope to turn it into Basically I've got this: [t]http://i351.photobucket.com/albums/q459/deanramsay/photo-1.jpg[/t] It's not exactly the same but close enough. That roof rack looks like it's in the same condition as mine and again, mine got some rust spots around it so it needs a respray even though it might not seem like it. And want to make it look more like this: [t]http://www.grahambird.co.uk/images/roofrack.jpg[/t] That color on the wood and just a resprayed frame. Dark wood just looks so fresh and modern yet it fits the car I think.[/QUOTE] IF it looks dark when finished but white, when it's not, I can almost guarantee it's teak. Unless it's oak with a stain. When you pull the rack apart, you'll be able to chrome dip the metal, or get a satin silver on it - whichever you're going for. You'll have to sand the snot out of those boards to get them to come back, then just clear coat them. Or send em to my shop and I'll do it. (If ya got the cash). Otherwise, this is not very difficult at all.

[QUOTE=Serj22;40272127]IF it looks dark when finished but white, when it's not, I can almost guarantee it's teak. Unless it's oak with a stain. When you pull the rack apart, you'll be able to chrome dip the metal, or get a satin silver on it - whichever you're going for. You'll have to sand the snot out of those boards to get them to come back, then just clear coat them. Or send em to my shop and I'll do it. (If ya got the cash). Otherwise, this is not very difficult at all.[/QUOTE] I really don't have cash for anything professional so I have to make due with what I can do myself But as I said before, I'm not worried about the outcome of the frame. I think I got the skills to make it look at least better than what it does right now. Also, I'm in Norway so the weather and temperature outside is way too bad to start with this roof rack yet, but in the coming weeks or so I shall start this project.

[QUOTE=Ldesu;40274766]I really don't have cash for anything professional so I have to make due with what I can do myself But as I said before, I'm not worried about the outcome of the frame. I think I got the skills to make it look at least better than what it does right now. Also, I'm in Norway so the weather and temperature outside is way too bad to start with this roof rack yet, but in the coming weeks or so I shall start this project.[/QUOTE] Well, I'm not sure what's available in Norway, but as far as USD goes, to do this yourself, you're looking at spending about $30 - $40 range. It's not terribly difficult, but i recommend doing the final coatings inside. When it's done, brush it with #0000 Steel Wool, then polish.

And for any nicks, scrapes, and scratches that appear after you refinish it... Old English is great for dealing with that kind of stuff.

Replaced shitty single light bulb with awesome LED spotlights [img]http://i.imm.io/12WOA.jpeg[/img]

You did that yourself? Then I hope you remembered to put in downlight boxes, or else you're going to have yourself a big problem.

They're LED, they don't generate any heat :D

Our living room has bright halogen spot bulbs (I think it used to be a kitchen), is it easy to change them for LED or would they require new fixtures?

[QUOTE=garry;40287239]They're LED, they don't generate any heat :D[/QUOTE] This is unfortunately not true!

[QUOTE=Doozle;40287306]Our living room has bright halogen spot bulbs (I think it used to be a kitchen), is it easy to change them for LED or would they require new fixtures?[/QUOTE] It depends.. the ones I added are these [img]http://i.imm.io/12X7p.png[/img] They run off the mains. I got six of them for £100 with the bulbs and everything. You probably won't be able to change the bulbs in your current ones, but you might be able to change the unit if they're mains run - because the wiring will all be there.. and you should be able to access it easily from underneath.

[QUOTE=Doozle;40287306]Our living room has bright halogen spot bulbs (I think it used to be a kitchen), is it easy to change them for LED or would they require new fixtures?[/QUOTE] It depends entirely on if the spots are 12V or mains. An easy way to check is if it's 12V there should be an inspection hatch in the ceiling where you can access the transformer. If there is a transformer, buy a modern switching power supply to replace it and then simply replace the bulbs for 12V led bulbs of the same fixture. If the halogen spots are mains powered, do what Garry said.