Well I finally got around to fixing my son’s desk. I’m sorry it took me so long Mijo. But, I must say, all those times tolling around in the garage building stuff, helped me in fixing your desk hutch.

See, we bought my son a desk a long time ago, one of my 1st posts to this blog even. But when I got my new iMac, I passed down my trusted 24″ iMac. Only problem was…it was too high for that desk. About 3″ too high. To get the iMac onto his desk, I had to remove the hutch and he lived with his desk that way all through summer. I kept thinking, “How the heck am I gonna be able to raise that hutch so his iMac will fit and have it stable?” For now, we just took it off and he just put the hutch items in a box but this Saturday, my wife Liz was in a cleaning frenzy and since the kids had already started school, I figured it was time for me to fix his hutch.

I remembered I had bought some channel aluminum a while back when I built one of my first camera stabilizers. I had bought extra and thoughts, “Hmmm…maybe that will fit?”

Sure did.

So this afternoon I took out the hack saw, cut some of that aluminum, and after a quick trip to Home Depot – I got it set up.

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I guess all those days tolling around in the garage paid off.

His desk is fine now. And I’m glad.

Beto

Popularity: 3% [?]

If you live anywhere near San Antonio, you know its Fiesta Week! Everyone is celebrating including my daughter’s school — as I’m sure every school in San Antonio is doing as well. Her project is to build a float in a Fiesta week theme. Liz and Emmy have been hard at work all weekend long.

On Sunday as I’m working in my study (on some video editing), Emmy keeps coming in and borrowing some of my stuff to create her float. So I finally go over and see what they’ve done.

Very impressive — you can click on the pictures for a larger view.

It’s a great float of the city with the Tower of Americas, the Alamo and the San Antonio River.

They haven’t finished it but they sure did a lot over the weekend. The project is due on Wed Apr21st so they will continue to work on it. It sure does look great.

So as I’m praising my 10yr old daughter, I say, “Emmy, you know what’s missing from the River? A River Barge.”

“No Dad, we’re not going to make one, it’s too hard.”

Insert Audio FX here (trumpets blaring) as I snap into the characteristic SuperHero pose...

“I can do it!” I bellow – as I stare up at the heavens, my cape flapping in the wind…

I ask Emmy if she has any red and yellow construction paper. She gets me two sheets and I start working. Below is what I came up with and the steps. You can click on the photos for a larger view.

Started out by just cutting up some red paper for the bottom portion. I was in my “origami zone” as I cut and used some scotch tape. Then I cut a smaller strip for the yellow rails. I then cut and shape paper for where guide/driver would stand. I finish it off with red benches down the middle.

I need a steering wheel so went and raided one of my son’s LEGO pieces from a dusty bin he had in his closet. He was as surprised as me that I found it so quickly. FINALLY – those darn LEGOs came to good use.

I put it on my iPhone so you see the scale.

After looking at the completed River Barge, I decided it needed the holes on the yellow construction paper so they looked like the rails on the barge. I was going to cut them out in little squares using an Xacto knife but then I asked Emmy if she had a hole punch. That worked great. I reassembled the barge and placed it on her float.

We are pleased with the small accent to her float and I told Emmy she will need to glue it all together. I just cut out and “dry fit” the pieces. Can’t do everything for her grade right? My daughter has volunteered me for other projects before but this time, I just wanted to help.

She still has to put all these flowers she’s making on the float so when she finishes it, I’ll post the pictures here.

Thanks for letting me share.

Beto

Popularity: 55% [?]

This past week I tried to fix my wife’s iPod. I thought, “I can do this.”

In the past week my wife’s iPod was acting funny. Since this was a “hand me down” from me I felt obligated to see if I could fix the problem.

Turns out there were some black streaks running through the LCD display of the 5th Generation iPod Video. I had replaced the battery myself about 2 months ago with a battery I ordered online but now these black streaks were bothering her…and me.

Upon inspection, I noticed the faceplate was coming off. So I looked online and ordered a replacement faceplate. Cost me about $12 with $2 shipping.

It arrived and went to work on replacing it. Click on the pictures for a larger view – they had some VERY VERY small screws! I had to get my daughter to help me put those on the tip of my screwdriver!

I carefully took it apart and replaced the new faceplate, held my breath and turned it on – but it didn’t do anything to fix those black streaks on the LCD. They seemed to be getting worse.

Some more investigation online and it seemed that the LCD was going bad. It’s a 5yr old iPod so I figured maybe it was time to see if I could replace the LCD myself. Looking and getting prices plus quotes to send it in and get it fixed, I decided I could buy the LCD online for $30 with shipping. I would be saving about $70. But it would mean I would have to totally disassemble the iPod and I was worried.

But then my mantra kicked in…

If it’s already broken, then take it apart and try to fix it – if you don’t then you haven’t lost anything but you have all to gain.

So I did a trial disassemble to see if I could get to the LCD before I ordered the part. I took it apart, then put it back together and it started up! So I ordered the LCD.

It arrived and I went to work…then I broke the battery connector that was soldered to the logic board…

DOH!

I can’t fix that. So I threw in the towel. I must’ve pushed my luck on the battery connector one too many times in my trial disassembly and it snapped off.

I showed my wife and I could see she was bummed (but not as much as me) so I purchased her a refurbished 120gb iPod online. She was happy to get something electronic from that was not a “hand me down.” I’m going to return the unused LCD part minus a $5 shipping fee.

You win some, you lose some.

Beto

Popularity: 41% [?]

I’m always trying to build stuff to help compliment the photography and video I tinker in. So, two weeks ago I built a “light box” to place items inside and have the product evenly lit.

There are plenty of DIY plans on the web so after some searching, I selected this one and modified it to my liking.

I wanted to make it bigger and “cooler” – from a light/heat perspective.

Most of the plans have you using bright incandescent bulbs but I used fluorescent bulbs that do not generate heat AND they are GREEN (save the planet) which my wife really loves to push on me.

So over the course of two days, I completed my build with stuff I bought at Home Depot – sans the white sheet Liz purchased for me at Walmart. And this time…I didn’t use PVC. Can you believe it?

I’m pretty happy with the results. Plus, it folds up nicely.

As soon I as built it I couldn’t wait to test it so I just started grabbing things and photographing them using Liz’s Nikon DSLR. See one shot below – you can click on it for a larger picture.

I didn’t really color correct any of the images in Photoshop (other than to get rid of some spots), so some might be a little dark but overall, I’m pleased with the results.

I should have used a light on top (other than just the two on the side) but that would meant tearing the light box down and moving it into my study and well, I was just too excited and just started shooting on my workbench.

I also posted more images of the build below plus other (macro) stuff I photographed inside it. Just click on an image to blow it up or view as a slideshow.

Beto

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Popularity: 48% [?]

Most of you know that I’m a “tinker-er” with stuff. I like to build things from stuff/plans I see on the web.

Well, I know you’ve seen me build stuff from PVC – I love that stuff. And I even created a logo to use on my posts when I’ve built stuff from that wonderful material.

So this past weekend I built something. I’m still working on the post but I got stuck on what logo I would use since I didn’t use PVC this time.

So I came up with the logo above. What do you think? You can click on the logos for a larger view.

I’ll be using it when I “build” stuff without using PVC.

Stay tuned.

Beto

Popularity: 47% [?]