Persistent Inappeasable Mind - DIY

DIY car laptop stand #2

nospam@example.com (Matjaž Kljun) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 17:19:00 +0100

I wrote about a stand that I made in one hour here. It took a bit more to do this one in my friends workshop (needed some joiner's tools to drill holes in a proper angle). The frame is made of oak wood, I used 6mmx16cm long screws and a really good glue to put it together. The aluminium trim is screwed with 6mmx6cm long screws. The laptop just slides in so it doesn't move around. I used the white platform from the old stand (hence so many holes).

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Laptop hanging from the ceiling to watch movies - my solutions

nospam@example.com (Matjaž Kljun) — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 13:21:00 +0200

This "stand" or "hang" was made in a few minutes. I put two strings around the handle of the roof window when I needed to look at several hours of video. This way in bed proved very comfortable and we started watching films like this as well. The strings might be in a way but it's not bothering us. It can be achieved with two hooks in the ceiling as well if no roof window is available.

Ukulele DIY hard case

nospam@example.com (Matjaž Kljun) — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 16:21:07 +0200

There are three reasons why I wanted to do a home made hard case for my uke:

I'm clumsy enough to be scared of breaking my uke in a gig bag
Hard cases are expensive and I did not want to spend that money on it
I like to build this kind of things

The material cost was 13€/£10/$16 (in July 2012). So very very cheap but I had some things already in the house/garage. I got the idea from the box my ukulele came in. Then I looked at similar projects online, but all were converted ukulele cardboard boxes (e.g. Ukulele box case - cheap easy way to recycle your uke box into a case). Unfortunately cardboard is not very sturdy, so I made a wooden one.

Material

(waterproof) plywood 6mm (the thicker the heavier) - 9€
wood glue
wooden strip (to harden the joints) - had some left overs from window frames
wood screws (the smallest I could find were 9.5mm x 3mm and I filed them afterwards) - 1.5€
2 hinges - 1€
2 metal latches to close the case - 1.5€
cloth - in my case old pants
insulation foam 1cm thick (for laminate floor) - the pieces that I had at home
double sided tape to stick the cloth to the insulation foam and then to the case
a handle and its hardware - I used a leather one from an old suitcase

Tools (other tools can be used as replacement for any of the below):

belt sander (to sand the plywood and excess of side boards as they were a few mm longer for this purpose - sand belt 120)
craft saw (to cut out the grooves for hinges and clips)
screwdriver
angle grinder (for filing the screws)
varnish/paint/laquer and brush (or nothing if raw wood is preferred or if it will be covered in tweed or some similar material)
clips (to hold pieces together when gluing)
scissors (cutting the cloth, tape and insulation foam)

I cut the wood at the local workshop as I don't have the appropriate tools at home. The below measures suit my soprano ukulele (friction tuners). Bear in mind that the top and bottom need to be wide as or more than the width of uke + 2 x insulation + 2 x plywood width. Just trace the uke on a paper and add extra width to get the right dimensions. The sides were cut a bit longer for purpose and I needed to sand them to the right sizes and angles after the box was glued.

The case is just a bit under 2kg (4.4lbs) in weight.

The whole process can be seen from below photos.

EDIT: I just found a similar but more sophisticated DIY case. The brass hardware looks nicer (I couldn't find it in my local hw store). And this guy used rubber foam and velvet material. Very nice case indeed!

Make your own Jumping Jack - a good birthday party activity for kids

nospam@example.com (Matjaž Kljun) — Wed, 30 May 2012 14:38:00 +0200

I had to keep busy 14 kids (a birthday party) recently and there's nothing better than to challenge them and give them something to work. I designed my own Jumping Jack (Možiček Kopitljaček in Sovene).

There are three different ones that you can print on an A4 cardboard:

I also made some different hair styles and accessories so children could put on and decorate them however they liked.

Some photos:

DIY simple cheap bedside garment rack fixed on the wall

nospam@example.com (Matjaž Kljun) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 06:27:00 +0200

I made this two simple garment rack to hang cloths in our room. They're located on both sides of the bed. The idea was not to have anything on cycles on the floor and in a way.

Material:

round iron bars 6mm radius (used for fencing and found at the fencing workshop as leftover)
2 zinc plate brackets (found at ScrewFix)
Metalic silver paint in spray container
Welding machine with all needed equipment (if you don't own one and don't know how to weld, the solution is to ask at the local workshop as this job took less than 5 minutes).

DIY vivarium / terrarium (for my tortoises)

nospam@example.com (Matjaž Kljun) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 06:21:00 +0100

A while ago I made this terrarium which is sturdy, lightweight, nice looking (personal opinion) and still cheap to build (I spent cca. 100€). It wasn't hard to build either, for someone with some experience.

Dimensions of this terrarium are 100x40x40cm. Rear and lower plates are made of 12mm waterproof plywood. While the top and sides are made of 6mm waterproof plywood. The cover is made of 4mm plexiglass. The dimensions of the terrarium and used materials can and should be changed to suit needs of future inhabitants.

The aims were: the final product should be reasonable lightweight, materials should be of good quality and animals (and people) friendly, while still be reasonable cheap.

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Bike repair cheap man stand

nospam@example.com (Matjaž Kljun) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 06:05:00 +0200

I just wanted to share my cheap man stand I use to adjust derailleur on the bike. It needs 2 chars and a post. I takes 15 seconds to set up. I keeps my bike 10cm from the ground and works fine for me. No need for hooks on a ceiling and ropes (which seams to be popular solution too).

For something more permanent, sturdy and nice DIY projects visit these links

http://www.instructables.com/id/hyper-strong-wall-mounted-bicycle-repair-stand/
http://www.instructables.com/id/PVC-Bench-top-Bike-Repair-Stand/
http://www.bicyclebikes.com/bicycle-repair-stand-plans.html
http://bikes.javazoid.com/images/bikes/diyWorkstand/tn_IMG_0544.JPG

DIY car laptop stand

nospam@example.com (Matjaž Kljun) — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 15:08:10 +0100

We just finished a long trip across the Europe with kids. As I wanted to make the trip a pleasure for all as much as I could, I thought ob buying a video player, so kids could enjoy their cartoons during the long hours of the voyage. I almost bought an Aluratek APMP100F (which is a nice device), but a friend of mine said that he would rather have a computer in a car (in his opinion video players have limited features and a laptop can be used for games, internet and other things). I decided to give it a try as others did. I bought an universal laptop car charger for £4 and was good to go.

But one hour before starting our trip I also decided to make a stand for it. I wanted the laptop screen be visible to everyone sitting on the back seat and I also wanted the screen to be as far away as possible. Keep in mind that this is one hour project and there is a (LOT OF) room for improvements (due to the time limit I also used only materials I had in the house). Nonetheless it was a big success (kids had over 30 hour of cartoons which could be simply navigated with P and N keys or paused with a space key) and it took a lot of attention of passing cars and people we meet on the way :). The sand is not in the way (shoulders and head can be freely moved), I could talk to other passengers and I had a view on the back seat as well (between the laptop screen and head support). But bear in mind that the view in the windshield mirror is obscured (not all of it but still ...).

Things to consider from the safety point of view:

The handle on which the stand is screwed has to firmly stand between head supporters! Be ensured that moving car seats won't affect this!!
The laptop has to be tightened to the stand (I used a tiniest climbing rope which is not shown on the photos)

This way the laptop won't fly around the car in case of fast and hard breaking!!!!

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