Shit you built with your own two hands (picture thread)

[the Cock]

Shit still don't work!!! Bogus, get your shit together TGR!!!

[jamesp]

Your pic's are visible.

with some help & advice, the g/f & I turned this:




into this:

[gretch6364]

Suzuki Samurai chopped in half, then added a fiberglass/foam core pop top camper on the back.

More pics please.

[Some Call Him ... Tim]

I made these 11 years ago. They still look great today.

Those are great! Did you build them from plans -- and if so, what plans? What wood did you use? I'm wanting to build some similar, but trying to figure out what wood / finish will survive the sun beating here in the Denver metro...

[Hugh Conway]

More pics please.

He posted others in the ski RV thread, I think, in S/S. definitely a cool project

there's tons of free ADK chair plans online tim

[skiing-in-jackson]

I've been playing around building some stilts for the kids to play on.

This is Liberty and Mrs. SIJ. Liberty can walk from our house to the town square- about three blocks- on this set. I made a second pair where the foot is nearly 40 inches off the ground- but walking around on them is a bit more serious and not as stable as these.

[crashtestdummy]

Those are great! Did you build them from plans -- and if so, what plans? What wood did you use? I'm wanting to build some similar, but trying to figure out what wood / finish will survive the sun beating here in the Denver metro...

I got some plans from Lee Valley, but they were a little narrow, and only held together with screws. I modified the plans and went to work. They had plans for foot stools, but the top of them slopped, like the chairs. I wanted something that could be used as a foot stool, end table and regular chair, so I made these from my own design.

Everywhere the chair touches the ground, there is a polyethylene pad screwed to the bottom. With this feature the chairs can be drug and no splintering occurs. It also keeps the legs out of the water.

The wood is Trestle Wood. It is redwood that was originally used for the decking on the train trestle that used to go across the Great Salt Lake. It was cut around 100 years ago. The holes on the chair backs are from spikes that held everything together. The 2 single chairs are very comfortable, and once you are in one, you don't want to get out. The rocker is comfy also, but easier to get in and out of.

For a finish I used to use a Behr Tung Oil finish. It worked very well. Then Home Depot bought Behr and cut back on the items they sold. Any sort of exterior penetrating oil should work OK. I live at 6000' in SW Utah, so these chairs take a solar beating. I have covers for them in the off seasons.

Normally I wouldn't use redwood for something like this, but this wood has done all the moving it's going to do. It's also fairly tight grained for redwood.

The benches in these photos were built from a wood sold as African Mahogany, which means it's not really a mahogany. These live under a covered porch (and it's been years since I've seen them), so I don't know how well this wood handles the weather.

[philth]

Some bike fun.

[TomCrac]

Finally finished the fireplace ....



Picked out the sitting stone, cut and chipped to size


Applying the Airstone


Pull off the old trim, start to build the custom mantle...




Add crown molding, trim, stain, varnish....




Thanks Dad for all your help, couldn't have done it with out you.

ps... No, the art work up on the wall is not mine. No it is not for sale

[BigDaddy]

Love the variety of handi-work in here...

My fun "farm project":



In action:

[GiBo]

Come on Daddy, put something in there that will explode!

[~mikey b]

yeah, really

[BigDaddy]

You guys are sick...


This is a volunteer farm where all organic produce is given to the elderly and homeless. To cheapen the experience with trite explosions would do little to end the serious plight of the poor and deprived.

Added to the difficulties, is the fact we are at the edge of a runway, where many of the Boston corporate jets fly from, so the FAA and Homeland Security might frown upon a regular series of nearby aerial explosions.

Of course, it would be a hell of a lot more fun and even though we'd probably lose a few volunteers from errant bombs (and a plane or two), we'd probably gain hundreds of new recruits, so expect to see some "fireworks" in the coming weeks..

[~mikey b]

maybe we missed something in the video

[EarlyWood]

Love the variety of handi-work in here...

My fun "farm project":



In action:

I could be wrong but is that thing pointed at the campgrounds?

oops..thought that was in Vt....

[BigDaddy]

I could be wrong but is that thing pointed at the campgorunds?

No... this is the southern installation. I have enough left over for a northern version, though...



telemike, you missed several young children sharing the sheer joy of launching their entire plates of vegetables to oblivion.

[EarlyWood]

ya know I missed yur explanation above...now i think I'm going to regret that :-))
I'm moving my spot into the woods

[~mikey b]

No... this is the southern installation. I have enough left over for a northern version, though...



telemike, you missed several young children sharing the sheer joy of launching their entire plates of vegetables to oblivion.

well then - I should stand in front of it while they fling boiled Brussels sprouts at me

[BigDaddy]

ya know I missed yur explanation above...now i think I'm going to regret that :-))
I'm moving my spot into the woods

I'm pretty good with this thing, so Outer Limits is not out of range...

Maybe telemike can have your spot?

[strawjack]

Some bike fun.

awesome! that is alot work...more than it appears. i enjoy building stuff like that now instead of the straight lines, tight joints purdy shit.

[BigDaddy]

Come on Daddy, put something in there that will explode!

Target acquired...

[Cross]

I have spent the last six summers as a trail builder. Everything from dirt jumps to elevated bridges.

Some of the dirt jumps.


The long boardwalk through a wetland.


The latest was a wooden banked turn.




Here is a short video of one of the sections of trail. It has a bit of everything.


I have had help along the way from several others, otherwise I would have accomplished only about half of what has been done.

[EarlyWood]

I can't just be in this thread bantering and it's been a while...

One of my more unusal gigs this summer was designing and building a plaque for an annual tennis tournament.

I glued up some mahogany



The owners asked for an "old world" appeal, then later threw a curve ball suggesting the use of a modified Underwood Devil Logo, something they'd used previously on t-shirts for the 50th anniversary of the tournament










Well, having a caricature like that didn't quite mesh depending on ones personal opinion, so after family meeting in the man-cave, he was nixed...I could have gone either way but in the end felt good about one-upping the devil.

[bendtheski]

This is a repost, but a year later it's still hanging tough!

I have to admit, I was way over my head with this project. Ask me to adjust the gears on your mountain bike, face a head tube, chase the threads on your bottom bracket, or bleed your hydraulic brakes and I'd be fine, but when it comes to real-world hammers, saws, and wooden structures, I'm clueless. Fortunately I wasn't in a big hurry, and had plenty of people with a clue to ask.

What really brought it together was asking the architect who designed the home. I wanted to make sure the rafters could support a 150lb chair and 2 adults up to 200lbs each. I told him I wanted to divide the weight between 3 rafters, in two places, and then to somehow connect the span with something that I could hang the chair from. The first thing that came to my mind was two sections of steel plate with holes drilled to line up with the rafters. Then I thought I'd have a rod welded between the two to hang the chair from.

While this approach would probably have worked, it seemed like it would be really labor intensive and probably very heavy. My architect suggested Super-Strut. I was like "Super-what"??!! He then showed me how he had used a couple of pieces of Super-Strut to run some conduit along a wall and then proceeded to reef on it a few times to demonstrate how strong it was. It didn't budge; I was convinced.

The next day I headed to home depot in search of Super-Strut and some other odds and ends to complete the project.

On July 2nd all the players were assembled.

July 3rd. I hoped to have the chair solidly mounted by the afternoon and to have applied the first coat of paint. Ambitious but possible I thought.

The rafters, the architect informed me were 2"x6", 24" apart and 5ft in length. My only real challenge was not blocking an existing light fixture and of course locating the rafters. Locating the rafters and drilling pilot holes was easy enough, but wrenching the lag bolts into place proved to be quite a challenge. I improvised a section of Super-Strut as a ratchet extension handle and things got easier.

I kept repeating the mounting mantra to myself over and over again; measure twice, drill once, measure twice... and whaddya know, it worked!




The chair only came with a partial cable clamp which was OK since I have no idea how I would have rigged a span of cable from the ceiling, or where I would have found a section of lift cable in the first place! The partial clamp had cut out 1-3/4" wide that would have fit nicely over a section of pipe, if only I could find a section of 1-3/4" pipe.
As it turned out, the Super-Strut comes in a U-shape and the bottom (or top) of the U was narrow enough to fit nicely into the partial clamp without allowing a lot of side to side motion. The only challenge was finding a way to secure the clamp from sliding fore and aft or rocking too much side to side. The solution was metal strapping and a little black-smithing with hammer and crescent wrench. Voila, custom metal brackets!





The brackets are actually the least impressive part of this whole project. It would have been nice to use some pre-fab pipe brackets, but the holes in the machined clamp were too small in diameter and the distance between them is different than standard pipe dimensions so... hammer time!

After that it was all downhill. Washdown, paint and then let the wife accessorize! Really wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be and seems plenty sturdy for two adults! It's a few inches lower than I'd like althogh it's a pretty nice recline position as is. I might talk to a welder about removing a 3 or 4" section of the swing-arm, but am going to test-drive for a few weeks first. I'm going to attach a detatchable anchor to the porch so it doesn't slam into the house when the typical Georgetown wind tunnel kicks up, but other than that I think it's a keeper!

[camroc]

i love this thread, need to get me some chisels and a hammer and get to work!