I am one of 104 Instructables contributors that was selected to be a card in a deck of a game. You use statistics like the number of contributions, views, comments, etc. to compete against other cards. They are available for purchase to help support a booth at the UK Maker’s Faire. Read about the game creation here. I already bought two!

The sheets had to be folded along the perforations and then stacked together and bound.

The book premiered at Crunchtime 2010 in the UK.

I took the scraps home instead of throwing them out and all winter a strip of it sat at the foot of my computer desk for me to put my stocking feet on to insulate from the floor.  I traced the pattern of a pair of my flip-flops onto them and then cut out soles quite a while ago.

It took an Instructables contest to get me going on finishing up the project though.  I used seat belt webbing salvaged from cars at the dump and a curved needle with thick thread to sew together these comfortable and very cushony indoor sandals.

It just so happened that Instructables was holding a contest that this project would work nicely in also!

So i documented the project of course. It is available on Instructables.

This table on Instructables served as the inspiration. ]]> http://www.zieak.com/2009/12/14/table-made-from-scrap-lumber/feed/ 7 http://www.zieak.com/2009/12/11/cabinet-lighting/ http://www.zieak.com/2009/12/11/cabinet-lighting/#comments Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:23:51 +0000 Ryan McFarland http://www.zieak.com/?p=3792 A few years ago i picked up a set of 6 multifunction LED light bars. They can be set to hold a single color or to rotate through colors at variable speeds or even to activate to music. I had mounted them under the kitchen counter temporarily but didn’t like how the cord to plug them in showed. A few weeks ago i mounted them in the cabinets of the dining room. Five are mounted above the shelves and one is mounted in the bottom of the center cabinet under-lighting the liquor bottles.

I am thinking of ordering tempered glass shelves to allow the light to filter to the bottom of all of the cabinets. I found a place to order them online but will wait for some feedback on how it looks. 10 shelves would come to about $200.

I drilled holes between the cabinets and ran all the wires to the bottom of the center one. I drilled a hole in the back wall of the center cabinet and cut the end off the power cord which i then ran down to the outlet in the wall just below. I wired the power directly to the outlet terminals. The only drawback is that there is a power inverter that is constantly drawing power right now. I will next wire a switch to interrupt the power feed to the inverter and use it for the power button. The control unit has a power button but it is between the inverter and the lights. While I’m at it i might re wire buttons from the controls so i can change the mode and pause the color and then have identical buttons mounted below the center cabinet or in the bottom below the bottles. Naturally i’m thinking that some nice vintage 60′s or 70′s metal buttons would be best.

Star with LED rope light

Last year after Christmas i bought some LED rope lights on sale. I went to put them up but found that the only way to really put them “up” is to wrap them around something or to screw a zip tie to something. I have been thinking of attaching lights to a bike frame and then lights that are chasing each other to bike wheels and putting that in the bike shop window. Which had me thinking about zip ties and using them to just attach the lights to a shape.

But what shape?

I decided on a star because it would be easy and i had the following materials handy.

• aluminum tent pole sections
• long line wire
• zip ties
• electrical tape

It is pretty easy to do… cut a length of wire long enough to go through 10 identical tent pole sections with perhaps 18 inches of extra wire. String the pole sections on the wire like beads. Insert the male end on first.  Then connect two sections and then bend the wire back on itself.  Repeat until you have the five sections.  Now just arrange your star and attempt to have it symmetrical.  Tuck the ends of the cable into the opposite tent pole.  Use the electrical tape to secure the intersections.  THen just use the zip ties to secure the rope light to the frame you just built.

But the access to under the threshold was kind of blocked by the front steps. And Yeti threw up some bile right where i needed to be. Thanks Yeti.

So i lifted up on the top step and it wasn’t even nailed down! The bottom step was nailed the the wall in four places so wasn’t too difficult to remove.

I measured the distance that i needed to span – 15 inches. So i was aiming for about 7.5 inches from deck to first step tread and also 7.5 inches to the top step tread.

First i used a layer of 6×6 treated beams to build the foundation. I cut some treated fence boards leftover from the backyard fence. and used them to raise the height of the 6x6s. You can see that i decided to do a curve for part of the step. Originally i planned on doing two curved steps but then decided to square up the ends of the bottom step and make the top step rectangular.

After i had the five bases constructed and spaced at 16 inches on center i used 2×10 treated lumber to construct the first step. I used a long flexible piece of Azek trim to trace the curve that i would cut. I used nails tacked into the deck boards (that were not yet nailed down) to guide the piece.

I started to use my jigsaw to fut the curves but it wasn’t sharp or powerful enough. So i switched to my sawzall which i had to use to complete the cuts through the 6x6s.

You can see a bit of wiring between two of the 6x6s. That went to one of the light switches next to the front door and controlled the lights in the carport. But there also is a light switch in the carport. The lights i have in there are motion activated so the switch isn’t very necessary – certainly not the one by the front door. So i trimmed the wires (the breaker was off throughout) and shortened everything up and put the wire nuts in a (mostly) weatherproof box.

I knew i wanted the full width of the board to start the bottom step. I also could have just ensured that the step ends landed on the 6x6s. Only 5 inches or so sticks beyond the 6×6 on either end of the bottom step.

The rest was pretty straightforward. I cut boards to length and ripped them as needed on my table saw.

I ran a plastic board through my table saw to trim out underneath both steps and fastened it with galvanized nails.

At about 6:15 i wrapped up the project. i spent under $35 on materials. my stash of treated wood is severely depleted and i’m running dangerously low on the white plastic material too.