#diy
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#diy
DIY week is over, but don’t that that stop your DIY, lifehackers. Stumbled across this awesome blog that provides free, easy-to-build, furniture plans “inspired” by overpriced-but-stylish designs from Pottery Barn/West Elm etc.
Tons of furniture designs that will save mucho cash and look good to boot. None of that mortice/tenon/dovetail crap either. Did I say easy to build already?
E.g. the “Bedford” Corner Desk, which would look good as part of anyLH-inspired office remodel (including mine!):
See what others have built here:
[www.flickr.com]
Restore a Scratched-Up iPhone with Sandpaper [IPhone]
iPhones are scratch-resistant, but life throws some tough stuff at our phones. One MacRumors user, owning a phone that looks pretty beat, demonstrates the full process of restoring his phone with sandpaper and a new LCD kit.
The poster makes a point of noting that on most phones, you’ll only want to use a rougher sandpaper to try and remove 90 percent of the scratches, not get to a completely clean and polished look—with the scratch-resistant coating completely removed—as shown at the full post. For those looking to completely refinish their phone, there’s a very informative post on the technique of wet sanding, along with tips on taping up your controls and glass and polishing off the finished result. For those with cracked or deeply scratched glass, there’s a replacement guide included, too.
It’s a cheap process and doesn’t take much time, especially if you don’t plan on upgrading to a new model any time soon (ha!). While you’re at it, you can also try giving your bezel a brushed look. If you’ve discovered a similarly complete and thorough iPhone transformation guide, tell us about it in the comments. Thanks for the tip, NomadDNA!
DIY Backyard Gourd Lanterns [DIY]
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Looking for a cool, creative way to light up your backyard? Video demonstration guru KipKay details how to make backyard lanterns from hard-shell gourds.
It’s all pretty simple and explained really well in the video above. All you need are the gourds, a lighting source (not candles), a drill, and something to cut the gourd. The results—which you can see more closely here—look great, and give off a warm, earthy feel.
Build a Portable Flash Tripod Out of Tent Poles [Photography]
If you’d like to experiment with studio flash configurations but you’re short on the space or money to buy heavy-duty flash stands, this video tutorial details how to make portable flash stands using lightweight tent poles.
The design relies on sturdy but lightweight tent poles to provide support for your flashes and/or flashes with a soft box. The creator of the design, Peter Karlsson, put together two videos demonstrating first how the stand functions and then how it is constructed:
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The end product is smaller, lighter, and less expensive than a traditional light stand. It does have shortcomings, though mostly due to the lightness. You can put a flash on it, for example, but you couldn’t safely put a strobe on it. It’s also, as he notes in the video, a poor match for an outside shoot on a windy day. For portability and ease of packing, though, it’s a great stand for flash-based photography.
Paint a Room Like a Pro [Home Improvement]
It’s tough to completely screw up painting a room—dump the paint on the floor maybe?—but painting a room really well isn’t that easy, either. Home blog Re-Nest’s guide to painting a room efficiently offers a few expert tips.
Re-Nest’s guide to room-painting covers everything from making sure to remember to remove all the fixture and switch covers before getting into painting to the importance of edging in the areas you’re going to paint for nice even color and clean edges. If you’ve helped paint a room before but never done the cutting in part, it’s worth a read:
Cutting In: This is the most time consuming, but most important step to ensure a good looking paint job. When using the brush we just dip it directly into the paint can rather than pouring into a separate container to minimize wasted paint, but never dip a brush more than 1/3 [the] length of the brush or else you’ll risk ruining the brush because it will be very difficult to clean. When handling the brush, hold it as you would a pencil for maximum control. Press the brush lightly against the surface, then, as you move the brush, add just enough pressure to make the bristles fan away from the direction of your brushstroke. The bent bristles and the pressure will release a fine bead of paint that will spread perfectly along the edge you are creating.
Beginning at the corner of the room, use your angled brush to cut in (also known as edging), applying a thick band (2-3″ wide) of paint along the perimeter where you’re cutting in. Do this in 4-5″ long sections to ensure precision and a sufficient coating of paint. You will need to cut-in around all trim, ceiling/wall intersections, inside corners, and anywhere there is a change in color.
Check out the link below for the full guide, and if you consider yourself a bit of an expert hand at room painting, share your expertise in the comments.
Make a Heavy Duty Weather Shield for Your Camera [DIY]
It seems logical that the same things we use to keep ourselves dry would keep our gadgets dry as well—hence photography website DIYPhotography’s simple guide for turning a pair of rain pants into a weather shield for your camera.
Obviously, unless your camera is in the shape of a human leg, a little work is required—mainly a bit of cutting and sewing. Apart from some sewing chops (or proximity to someone that has them), you’ll also need some velcro and, of course, a pair of rain trousers. If you have some lying around, those’ll likely do fine, although you can usually get some for pretty cheap. DIYPhotography has some good tips on finding the right material depending on what kind of weather you’re dealing with, as well as the full instructions for making the rain cover—so hit the link if you’d like to save yourself some camera panic next time the weather turns foul.
Use Cheap Reading Glasses to Fix a Farsighted Webcam [Clever Uses]
Web cams are optimized for things like video conferencing, not close focus. If you’re trying to use your web cam to record things close up—awesome stop-motion Lego combat, electronics tutorials, etc.—you can hack the focus with cheap reading glasses.
Vik Ollver was happy with his webcam—it even worked in Linux!—but he wasn’t happy with the lack of close focus. He didn’t care if it could focus across the room, he wanted it to focus sharply on the contents of his work bench. His solution is simple and cheap:
The focus was a problem for closeups, so I cut a pair of dollar-store +3 reading glasses in half and wrapped the earpiece around the back of the webcam. With a little encouragement it clips the lens over the flat part of the webcam’s orb where the lens peeks out. Perfect.
Our favorite thing about this clever hack is that other than snapping the glasses in half at the nose piece and bending the temple and earpiece to hold the lens on, it requires no effort or even tools.
Have a clever hack of your own to share? Let’s hear about it in the comments.
Print a Free and Effective Flash Bounce Card [Printables]
You don’t have to search for very long to find a variety of printable bounce cards online, but most of them look cheap. Use this printable template to put together a free, effective, and good-looking bounce card.
The bounce card template is provided by LADIG, the Los Angeles Digital Imaging Group, a group dedicated to promoting digital photography and digital media of all kinds. You’ll need to print it out on cardstock for it to keep its shape.
Try it out by attaching it with a rubber band and if you like the design, a couple dots of velcro will make it easier to attach and remove it. If you really like the design and were feeling ambitious you could stop by your local print shop and ask for a piece of white and black vinyl cover stock, gluing them together and using a regular print out as your cutting template to create a really sturdy and durable version.
You can download the template from the link below or visit the LADIG website for more information about their organization here. Have a favorite DIY photography hack? Let’s hear about it in the comments.
Use Coffee Grounds to Deodorize Drains [Clever Uses]
We thought we’d heard of just about every alternate use of coffee grounds, but here’s one you’re probably already benefiting from without knowing it: grounds make for a decent drain deodorizer.
Photo by How can I recycle this.
Update: Many, many commenters—some with stories, some who say they know plumbers—called out the de-clogging aspect of coffee grounds, especially without the addition of very hot water. Thinking more on it, I can’t say I disagree. Coffee grounds are perhaps best used in small amounts to absorb bad-smelling, grease-based odors, but not as a clog clearing tool. My mistake, and apologies for putting out the wrong idea. I’ve updated the post headline and some of the text as a result.
That’s according to Baltimore’s WJZ television, which rounded up some tips on creative re-uses of used coffee. Some of them we’ve heard before—garden protector, exfoliant—but the drain cleaner de-odorizing and another tip were new to us:
Another great use for coffee grounds is as a drain cleaner. Mixed with hot water, coffee grounds can … help keep it smelling fresh. In the refrigerator it makes a great deodorizer because the grounds can absorb odors.
If you have a piece of scratched furniture, steep some grounds and apply a bit of the liquid with a Q-tip. It will cover the scratch.
Please take note of the mixed with hot water portion of that tip. A little Google-ing shows a good number of testimonials to the first idea, often in combination with very hot water, to both de-clog and improve the smell of your sink.
The second use was harder to vet, but it sounds like a nerdy challenge, trying to match your French Roast to your dark wood chair.
Houston-Hull, TX