Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Vague Promises

I'm sort of a Maker, though I tend towards the "breaker" side of the skill set.  I'm going to try to record interesting parts of various stupid projects I find myself tangled into here.  Maybe you can avoid hurting yourself or others!

(It's a rare project that doesn't involve blood at some point.)

A few things I'd like to cover,

  • Mounting a flat screen TV in a a cathedral ceiling.
  • Running light strings on cables over a patio and around a pool.  Fun with poles, guy wires, and cable swaging.   (tl;dw $20 home depot swager,  riggingwarehouse.com cable and fittings.)
  • Unfun with sump pumps in exterior locations.  (tl;dw, don't live on the downslope or in a swale; have a gravity-fed path to the street)
  • Scanning a lifetime of slides, negatives and print ephemera.  Nikon Coolscan 5000ED, Vuescan, Digikam, Picasa, Umax 1200XL/scsi on Windows 8.1 64. (tl;dw Someday, the kids will thank your memory.  Maybe.)
  • Digitizing vinyl records (tl;dw you will never get these hours back)
  • Recycling VHS tape storage units into a bike rack.  (tl;dw, a decade late for this)
  • Hanging bikes under an open garage door with some conduit and an old mattress  (tl;dw hang two pieces of conduit under open garage door with wire cable or rope anchored into ceiling.   Place wood frame from scavenged mattress on top of conduit.   Screw bike hooks into wood frame.  Profit.)
  • Some notes about ethernet, wifi, and audio/video wiring in the home. (tl;dw: Keystone jacks for everything, run more than you think you need).
  • Sprinkler maintenance and remotable controllers.  (tl;dw:  use one system, e.g.; Toro, always use 3/4 sch 40, never 1/2"; use 5/8 drip lines, never 1/4", don't get Irritrol PC-Control).  Highly recommend Jess Stryker's Irrigation Tutorials.
  • Why you should live in a condo or apartment instead of owning property you live in.  (tl;dr, watch  "Mr. Blandings Builds his Dreamhouse").