DIY: Sunday

What I did on Sunday was just DIYing the whole morning and afternoon.


First thing first, my bed frame. You know those planks of wood that goes from one side of the bed to the other? Those planks need a place to support it, right? Apparently those folks from Cavenzi either don't have a measuring tape or they just don't know anything about carpentry.





Those "sleepers" as I would call them are resting on supports that are too short, or either the "sleepers" themselves are too damn short. The result is that those "sleepers" keep on falling onto the floor, along with my mattress.








The solution? Well, just add another plank of wood to increase the width of the support.



[The scar from the 'sleepers' that keep on falling of its supports...]


Good thing the 'In-apartment-mini-mart' has roughly the same 'sleepers' frame at the back that I would just help them clear out.





1. Dis mental the salvage 'sleeper' frame with a hammer, safety glasses and gloves.







2. Take out those pesky nails.






3. Measure twice, cut once.



[To know where the screws are so I wouldn't drill into them...]


4. Remove the existing 'sleepers' and those things under the bed.


5. Drill and screw... Wait, that didn't sound quite right...





6. Tadaa! The increase width of the support makes the whole difference in the 'sleepers' not falling off.





I'll test drive it later...



But, wait! There's still more... I also made two step stools, if that what you would call it..



I needed/wanted a step stool for quite awhile now... Seeing that those plastic ones are hot, flimsy and could very well take your eyes out when you carry them around, I wanted a wooden one, especially when I needed to do more DIY projects in the future...



So, from good quality soft wood ( I would presume since they are very soft and loosely grained) I salvaged/found (I forgot), I started off making my step stool.






1. The top has to be made from two planks, good thing is that I managed to find both with almost equal height, laying flat side by side. (A good thing if you don't want your bottom to be pinched.)


2. With the planks quite long, I saw off roughly six inches to make its leg.


3. With a third plank, I fashion a cross brace, or horizontal column cum stabilizer.


4. Drill and screw all the parts together with 1'1/2 screws.


5. Tadaa! A wonderful step stool... Now I have something to rest my legs on instead of the speaker sub-woofer...








And, for the second step stool for my second sister, I used an Ikea shelf unit which she salvaged from her condo.



[Ikea Rian]



Roughly the same steps, but the outcome is far different. With the shelving unit a fair bit wide and long, it looks like it was used as a peddle-stool for someone giving a speech, like those soap box crates. I guess with a couple slaps of matte black paint on the legs and supports, it would look stunning.. Maybe during Monday afternoon...



[The double stool... LOLz]

DIY - cable sorter/organizer

Tired of having your mobile phone charger falling off your desk?

Well, all you need is

1. some sort of plastic/flexible material with reasonable stiffness
2. hole puncher/ eyelid puncher
3. blade/pen knife
4. stapler gun/drawing pins/push pins





With the plastic/foam material, you punch holes with the amount of cables you need to sort.
To fit the head of the charger into the hole, slit an opening at the center of the hole towards the edge of the foam material.
With the stapler gun, staple the material into place on the bottom part of the table top.

The end result:



Now there's less cable slithering under my table. :)

DIY and Murphy's Law.

I read something about Murphy's Law here, which goes like this

1. Nothing is as easy as it looks.
2. Everything takes longer than you think.
3. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
4. If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. Corollary: If there is a worse time for something to go wrong, it will happen then.
5. You never run out of things that can go wrong.
6. If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
7. If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
8. If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
9. It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
10. Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.
11. Every solution breeds new problems.

It is so true in every way possible whenever you are doing something like DIYing, fixing your PC, or even cleaning it, upgrading it or modding it, everything that can go wrong will go wrong. And it always take longer than I thought it would be, even just cleaning the dust filter off my PC. It took roughly an hour.


Well, during the hols, I did some DIY on an Kitchen Island Peninsular.

First thing first, I got myself some material, compress wood, cheapo plywood that goes fat when drinking (must be careful) and table tops that are really hard-wearing. Well, the sizes are big, the length of the peninsular will be 8 feet, so its quite a project.


Didn't take any pictures of it since I forgot.



Plan out the design of the table, include drafts and support trust and braces.






Went to a hardware shop to get a few things.

1. 2.5" brush
2. ICI Dulux SatinWood paint (black)
3. Thinner
4. 90 Degree Brackets
5. 1 1/4 " screws
6. Wood filler putty, those cellulose type.

And tools includes

1. Drill set
2. Screwdrivers and Allen Key (DUH..)
3. Saw
4. Manual Sander and Sandpaper.


Since the raw material is from an L-shaped table with most of the things laminated with grey paper and top with Formica plastic, not much prepping is necessary.


There are some holes that need to be filled since I was making an ordinary rectangular table instead of an L-shaped table.


The first work is to paint the wood since this is a one person job and I don't want to paint upside down. Besides, moving a big table is a hassle by myself.


Thin the Dulux paint if necessary, cause you would want a thin coat of paint to make is even. If you really want it to look like those Cavenzi, Rozel smooth black, I would suggest you either

1. Use a really fine brush, those china white brush that has plenty of hair (pig's) and risk having pig hair on you finish.
2. Use a roller, with foam inserts for a smoother finish (I speculate that it would look nicer)
   
3. Use spray paint.
   
4. Use a different type of paint, that is water based so you can get a thinner mixture. Though I'm not sure that it can stand up to the wear and tear.
   

Take your time to let the paint dry. Under normal humid temperature, it could take up to an hour for the paint to initially dry, but maybe 3-5 days to dry completely.

I took myself 3 whole days to do the painting itself.


There are some problems like rain, since I'm doing it on a balcony with limited space.


After the paint session, its time to follow the plan and cut one piece of the plank into size as an additional support leg.





Measure twice and cut once.


According to Murphy's Law,
8. If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.


Yeah, like you know how you put something against something of standard length and draw a line to cut it, that's how I almost made my mistake.


This plank had wood pegs in it that made it taller that it really was. So if I just drew a line and saw it, I'll end up with something shorter than I really need.


Good thing I measured it again to make sure.


Now with the plank cut to length, its time to attach it to one of the leg and the supporting trust.


Drill holes that are SMALLER than the screw. Seems simple right?
9. It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.


Good thing the drill set comes with a screw set, too bad there's no Allen key add-on.


Slow and steady, and don't tighten the screws before all of it are on so that it will fit perfectly with almost no need of adjustment.




Add the braces on the structure before putting on the top unless your eyes are on the top most part of you head and your hands can make a fist with the screw driver on the same level of your knuckle. Either that or your fingers can screw things.


[Without braces]





[With braces, obviously]


Finally the top goes on last. Lock it in place and you are ready to go!




And the finished product,