DIY projects

[KayBur]

Guys, besides games, are you fond of any other things? What about making different cool things with your own hands? I like working with wood and restoring old things. For this hobby, I bought enough devices, but I think the most important is the
[admin]
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[/admin]
... on which you can also place tools so that they are quickly accessible.

[Uberdude]

I just fixed a leaky tap, which is quite an achievement for me.

[Kirby]

This summer, I made a treehouse (more like a tree platform) for my kids. It's a little more finished now, but here's a picture from when I ran out of the first set of wood:

I also put electrical wiring through the ceiling to make a new light fixture in one of the rooms we have, which didn't have a ceiling light. I used a toy light saber for visibility.

I'm wasn't previously knowledgeable about this stuff, but you can learn a lot from youtube.

[bogiesan]

Stained glass artist.

[fireproof]

This last year I started trying to improve my handwriting, which lead to fountain pens, which lead me to a lathe at a garage sale... anyway, started making fountain pens from ebonite, from scratch, which has been quite fun. Lots to learn about materials, and threading, and how to use a lathe, and tool sharpening, and... also, what makes a good pen? Why do they leak, how do you temper or heat-set a nib?

Why do pens look the way they do, and actually, do they have to?

bespoke ebonite pen and box

mcclintock-inkswell-pen.jpg (93.93 KiB) Viewed 17012 times

[KayBur]

This last year I started trying to improve my handwriting, which lead to fountain pens, which lead me to a lathe at a garage sale... anyway, started making fountain pens from ebonite, from scratch, which has been quite fun. Lots to learn about materials, and threading, and how to use a lathe, and tool sharpening, and... also, what makes a good pen? Why do they leak, how do you temper or heat-set a nib?

Why do pens look the way they do, and actually, do they have to?

mcclintock-inkswell-pen.jpg

Interesting questions. We are used to things in their traditional form, but what if this form is not ideal and there may be other options? A very interesting topic for thought.

[Ferran]

Why do pens look the way they do, and actually, do they have to?

Have you tried dip pens? Using them explains many things, old calligraphy included.

Take care.
--
Ferran

[fireproof]

Have you tried dip pens? Using them explains many things, old calligraphy included.

Take care.
--
Ferran

I have used them for drawing, but not for writing -- they were really difficult to control! Certainly, being able to avoid the constant dipping into ink was worth the constraints imposed by fountain pens, for starters.

[KayBur]

Cool. Each of you has such interesting and, I would say, somewhat unusual hobbies.

[Mike Novack]

Don't dip "dip pens"!

I've done calligraphy. If you refill them by dipping there will be ink on top of the nib (instead of just on the bottom and in the slit. Will make an awful mess.

You refill these by dipping a fine stick (like the projection coming down the inside of the cap of calligraphy ink) to the undersise of your nib expecting a quantity to adhere there because of surface tension. Your nib may also have a flap of copper* on the underside extending part way to the tip, and between that and the bottom surface of the nib a lot more ink will be held.

Big tips like a "wire brush" you refill from the side. Surface tension will pull a lot of ink in between the layers of the wire brush.

Large, or even small tips may also have a depression on top you can add ink to with a dropper. Some of the ink bottles that projection is a very fine "dropper" tube.

* These have "wings' wrapping around the nib just below were it goes into the handle to keep this flap in place, but u[p to you to adjust so the far end neither presses too hard against the bottom of the nib nor leaving too large a gap for too much ink coming down.

[drmwc]

I am rubbish at DIY. I just drilled some holes in a helmet to mount a caving torch. It wasn't trivial, as I had to remove the inner lining before making the holes, and obviously to re-attach it to make it safe.

Amazingly, it all went well. The battery is at a very slightly jaunty angle, but that doesn't seem to matter. (A nice feature of the modern world is that there was a decent video on how to do it. https://youtu.be/N5NYTijqZho, if anyone is interested.)

[marvin]

Interesting, I guess I am not the only spelunker and go player . I managed to attach my torch to the helmet without removing the inner lining on a Dechatlon helmet, it worked well.

Congratulations on your DIY project, and I wish that the torch works well.

[drmwc]

I will use my handiwork for the first time this weekend, probably in OFD (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogof_Ffynnon_Ddu). My club has a hut in South Wales, which gives a nice, cheap way of getting to the caves.