Recycled Find

As the old saying goes - The shoemaker's children never have any shoes... Evidently this proverb holds true for woodworkers too. I am always so busy doing work for customers that I don't have time to do projects for my own family. One such project that is on my to do list is a pair of bookcases that my mom has been asking for for quite a while. I hadn't thought much about the project until I was out for a quick bike ride one evening and saw a set of four pockets doors sitting by the road. I looked at them and my imagination started cranking. By the time I had ridden home I knew they would make a great pair of bookcases. A trip back in my trusty Jeep and I had two bookcases (a set of pocket doors) on the Jeep's roof.
I'm going to use the doors as the sides. I'll add a top, bottom and middle shelf (let into a dado). Movable shelves will be added in between and I'll finish it off on the top and bottom with some crown and base molding.
Maybe those bookshelves will get done after all (at least maybe a little sooner). To be continued....

Cot Design - a lesson from the depressing side of design



First about the cot - about 2 months ago I decided to go up the EAA airshow in Oshkosh WI and camp for several days with my older brother. Being that I love to build things, I was going to be sleeping in a tent and that the EAA is the mecca of home builders I thought "I should build  a cot to sleep on." Not just any cot of course - it would have to be well designed in style and function.

Now for the lesson mentioned in the title - the lesson being that designs fail - in fact it can be truthfully said that a good design is basically the result of many previous failed designs.

As the day for departure came closer (tomorrow morning to be exact) I spent the afternoon today putting the final touches on the cot and finished the sewing. Late in the afternoon I finally got it all assembled. Now to test it out - I gingerly spread out on the cot - nothing happened and it was actually very comfortable. Then I rolled over - "SNAP." One of the long rails cracked. I was dejected my design (even though aesthetically good) had failed in function. I was crushed - immediately I knew what I would try next (and I'm fairly certain it will work this time) however, there wasn't enough time to get it ready for the trip.

But wait - about an hour later after nursing my crushed spirit I thought "I can't give in this easily."
In the eleventh hour what came to the rescue? A role of twine. I gave the cracked stretcher a tight twine rap and tested the cot again - so far so good. I hope I won't be reporting that I spent the next three nights sleeping on the ground - we shall see.

The point, I guess, of this story is that design never works on the first try (rarely). But then again if it always worked right the first time where would the challenge be? I know I'll be working on the cot again soon and of course the idea I now have on how to improve the cot will work perfectly (sure!).

Current Cot

Ideation Sketches

Project In Progress

One of the longer term projects that I am working on (along with the help of others) is a sports car design/build. It is being done as my senior design project to be completed spring 2012.

I plan to follow along with the project in a continuing series of posts on this site.

It is a project that I have been working on in my head for several years but physical work on the project has only begun this summer.

Progress up to this point:
-Basic body design chosen
-Wheel base, track width, layout chosen
-major components procured
-Clay model roughed out / refinement beginning
-Early stages of chassis design

Included below is an early sketch of the final concept.
Much more to come on this project - however, this is just an introduction.