Monthly Archives: January 2011

Work Table from a Shipping Pallet

Posted by on January 30, 2011 5 comments
palette stand with nothing on it

pallet stand with nothing on it (and missing a support)

I recently bought a miter saw made by Rigid.  Although it wasn’t the cheapest one (or the most expensive), I think the quality of the build was worth it.  I’ve been very happy with it, as in addition to being well built, it includes a laser to help you align where the blade will cut.  The only problem is that with this tool and a mill on my workbench, I had no room to actually work on any projects.  Fortunately, I had saved the pallet than my mill came on – a Grizzly model # G0619, as it just seemed too useful to throw away.  After $4 worth of 2 x 4s and some nails, I had some extra space for my saw. Read more »

Stop Motion Animation with Post-it notes

Posted by on January 26, 2011 5 comments

[ad#Google Adsense-text leaderboard wide not home]The process that I used to make this video is explained pretty well in this post (with other videos) .  Here’s another video that I made using stop motion animation:

Using post it notes came from seeing something like this on youtube – a quick search reveals that as of today there are over 5,120 videos having something to do with “post it stop motion” on that site.  Apparently Read more »

ENV2 Camera Phone TRIPOD mount

Posted by on January 24, 2011 11 comments
The ENV2 tripod in all it's glory

The ENV2 tripod in all it’s glory. The “holder” is a 2×4 with a 1/2 inch slot milled in it.

As discussed in this post, I recently made some custom mounting hardware for my phone.  Although a wooden block seemed sufficient at the time, I’ve been trying out some stop-motion techniques and purchased a tripod.  Making my ENV2 mount compatible was a simple matter of drilling and tapping the bottom of the wood for a 1/4 – 20 screw.  Most tripods accept this screw and mine was no exception. Read more »

Drawing a Circle with GIMP using "border select"

Posted by on January 22, 2011 1 comment

I use GIMP to illustrate many of my projects, but one thing that’s seemingly difficult to do is draw a circle.  I don’t have to point out the benefits to using this “feature”, so here is the video tutorial that I made:

This “border selection” technique illustrated here can also Read more »

Finishing your MAME project

Posted by on January 19, 2011 3 comments
MAME setup with tools and other junk on it

Functional, but not presentable

In a previous post, I went over making your MAME controller functional using an encoder from Groovy Game Gear.  This setup wasn’t quite finished though, as it had no back cover, the USB cord wasn’t properly secured, and the outside was simply bare wood.  Hopefully this post can show you how to turn your project into something that will not only function, but also look presentable.

back plate being installed on "MAME box"

A fourth side was installed

The first thing needed was to put a back cover on the box.  I had built a cornhole set using 1/2 inch plywood, so while at Home Depot, I had a strip cut to the height of the box (around 3 1/2 inches).  Cutting the long side to length of the box (around 23 3/4 inches), I had a piece that could be simply screwed on and taken off if maintenance was needed.  For these #8 wood screws, I used a 1/8 inch pilot bit to drill through the cover and the plywood it would screw into.  I then used Read more »