Posted: August 18th, 2009 | Author: ccollins | Filed under: General, Projects | Tags: Metal, Robot, Shop, Video | No Comments »
Last year I got this neat little robot kit for my birthday. The Boy and I had already built a number of small simple kits; Ones that The Boy received as gifts. This was a grown up project, no doubt about it.
It took us the better part of a Saturday to get the whole thing put together, and we only had to back out of it once. We spent hours putting it together, and then played with it for maybe 40 minutes. Since then, we’ve had it down off of the shelf a handful of times. I think it’s lovely in its mechanical complexity, and it has a reasonably prominent place on Molly’s “Precious Things” shelves (another post), but having the thing wasn’t the point. Building that kit-bot may have been the first time The Boy and I talked about the idea that the process is where we find the best part… That the making is what matters most.
Since finishing it, I’ve been meaning to post about it, but Mike insisted that I include a video. Well, I finally got around to it:
Pretty sweet, right?
Posted: August 3rd, 2009 | Author: ccollins | Filed under: General | Tags: Parts, Shop | 1 Comment »
Over the last few years I’ve gotten a few things via Craig’s List. For example, I bought 2 sets of handle bars for $30, and a set of bar-end mirrors for $15. The best thing I got, however, was free.
I had gotten in the habit of checking CL/Motorcycles for sweet project bikes (mostly to fantasize about) as well as to see what people were doing with their bikes. I also was checking CL/Free Stuff because… well, because it’s free! That’s where I found a set of military flight cases from the 50s.
Case #1 open on my bench
Something about having these in my work space just makes me feel good.
Case #2 on my desk
They are essentially big, metal boxes, hinged on the side, and filled with plastic drawers. There were two of them and the guy who owned them had just had them sitting in his garage for years. Apparently they had belonged to his wife’s father who had been an engineer of some sort in the Air Force. There were even little tags attached to the handles… I’ll try to post those later.
Now, they are back in use, keeping my workarea somewhat in order. I hate to mess with them too much, but the bottoms are a bit rusty. Maybe I’ll repaint them.