All Your Base R Belong to Swedes

[akirlu]

Two great tastes that ... well, you know the rest. For devotees of the cult of IKEA, fans of DIY, and of modern craftiness of the make variety, it turns out there is a website called IKEA Hacker which, while it sadly does not seem informative on the question of how to make your couch into a regionless DVD player, does have links to all sorts of projects for modifying IKEA products for kewl uses. Just in case you need to turn your teddy bear into an articulated platform for your webcam, say. Or want to create a sliding cabinet / secret entrance to your bathroom.

While at IKEA Hacker, I also discovered the very fabulous Modern in MN -- not really my design sensibility, but chockfull of good DIY information that's actually applicable to home improvement projects of all sorts, even ones not aimed at replicating the Bauhaus in four-part harmony. Strangely, home improvement has been on my mind lately. Mmmmmmmmm. Power tools.

Comments

[cluefairy-j.livejournal.com]

Kewl.

IKEA Hacker

[anitar.livejournal.com]

yes, this is a daily read, even though I haven't done any hacking of IKEA stuff. now you'll be pretty close to IKEA in your new place!

I wasn't surprised when they closed their forum and directed folks to ikeafans. an under-populated forum is a spam magnet, for sure!

Re: IKEA Hacker

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yep, IKEA will be quite close. Close enough for random grocery runs for caviar or herring, or going there just for dinner, in fact. Also nice to have a short trip home in case one finds something in the AS-IS section that needs to come home with me. Be afraid...

Thanks for the IKEAfans link. I suppose it had to exist.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Power tools.

Maia gets them for Valentine's Day. Usually she tells me she doesn't need/want something (like a 12.4v Makita Drill). She will then accuse me of getting it just for myself.

Then she will need something done; decide that it's just the tool; for me to use to do it for her.

:)

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

You may tell your love from me that she is mad if she thinks she doesn't need/want a 12.4v Makita cordless (it *was* cordless, wasn't it?) drill. Unless of course her point was that what you ought to have gotten was the 18v drill instead, in which case, she has a point.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

She thought it would be too heavy, and she didn't want to have more than one battery (because she has the 9v flashlight), etc.

Then she had to use it for something.

She likes it fine.

She also gave me funny looks for the Dremel kit (dremel, flex-link, plane, and the small sabre-saw).

So far the only thing it's been used for is buffing a sharp spot off a piece of Navajo jewelry I bought her in Tombstone, but it will end up like the Makita, something will need that sort of tool, and she'll decide I wasn't being foolish.

So, what sort of power tools are you in need of (her present lust is a decent cut-off saw. I was looking at one [in lieu of the dremel] but the only ones I was happy with were more dear than I was willing to spend right now)?

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

So, what sort of power tools are you in need of

"It was so dark; there were so many." Short term, I'll be on the lookout for a better cordless drill (we have a Craftsman -- maybe if I just replace the batteries it'll be good for a while yet, but I'd rather have either a Makita or a deWalt), and probably a chop saw. After that a router, a drill press, and eventually maybe a wood lathe.

Once we have the weird, bulky old wood stove hauled out of the family room downstairs, and replace the carpet in there with laminate or bamboo or something, I'm planning on lining the room with built-in shelves and I'll want to be able to cut the shelves to length.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

By chop saw, I assume you mean what I was taught to call a cut-off saw.

If I were building a shop.

Cordless drill.

Table saw

Router (table, with a plunge for the base)

Lathe.

With those, and some good hand tools, one can make just about anything.

Then I'd look for cut-off saw, sabre saw, shaper and then a mill (if you have the mill, you can, sort of, do without the shaper, but with a shaper and a lathe you can build a mill...)

Oh yeah, an ox-acectyline torch.

I'd also like a forge, but that's a personal quirk. A foundry is much easier to make.

For the cordless, batteries, in the short run, but a Makita, Ryobi or DeWalt, will be in order, get at least the 12.4v. I look at it now, and think the 14v would have been better; but I'm suffering from "more power"/reading too many reviews.

For most, non-construction related work, the 12.4v is more than enough. The Makita I got Maia came with a spare battery, and the charger will do all their batteries, so the 9v can be charged while the drill is running.

I think the balance on the 12 is the best of the lot, and much better than the 9, now that I can compare them. It really matters when you have to work over your head. Even though it's heavier, it's not at tiresome.

If I had the time I'd offer to come up and work on it, but until Maia is done with grad-school nothing non-madatory is acceptable in the away from home dept.

I had to turn down a mission to teach in Ariz., because the 10 weeks away from home would probably have led to a nervous breakdown. The fieldwork is a huge time suck, and this isn't being very fulfilling. I fact it's being depressing.

So as much slack as I can pick up at home is the first order of business.

Then again, I don't think the place will be done in the next few months.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if what you mean by a cut-off saw is a chop saw. According to OSHA, this is a chop saw. They list cut off saws separately. At some point Graydon opined that for building shelves, a chop saw is more useful than a table saw, and I'm inclined to trust his experience with carpentry tools. I'm really only wanting it to make short square or miter cuts. Yes, a sabre saw would be a good thing eventually, and the torch is certainly on my list for after I take the glass beadmaking class, but that's for play.

So when is Maia due to be done? I was assuming not befor a year from now. Now, you're probably right, that we won't be near done puttering with the house by next June, 'specially if you count the kitchen, but a year seems like a bit more than a few months.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

They are related, and often sold, one for the other.

I'd reccomend a radial arm cut-off saw, to a chop saw. The chop saw limits you, pretty much, to less than the diameter of the blade.

I disagree with Graydon, if I had to choose one, the table saw wins.

Yes, for shelving, the chop saw/cut-off is handy, but it's limits are such that it's handy factor isn't enough to make up for them.

A good table saw will have miter adjustments, as well as making angle cuts.

You can make a shelf with a chop saw, you can make a bookcase with a table saw.

But I'm spoiled, Barry has both.

Maia will be done a year from Sept. The story is that her "plebe year" ends this september, and everything is downhill. We'll see.