Welders Glass ND Filter

Sunday, 11 December 2011

I was reading online about a cheap alternative to a Neutral Density (ND) filter to use for photography. An ND filter is basically sunglasses for your camera. It decreases the amount of light that gets through, thus allowing you to keep the lens open longer. Neutral density filters can cost as much as $400 for a really nice one.

The cheap alternative is to use a welders glass. They type of glass that welders for eye protection against the bright light created during welding. So i went to Lowe's and bought one.

Then because my new camera only has a small lens i decided to cut the glass down to about 2" x 2".

And make a type of "dark housing" to fit over the camera lens. I used a piece of PVC pipe and a permanent marker to color it black.

Then glued it together.

I used a rubber band to hold it onto the camera and some cloth on the edge so it wouldn't scratch anything.

The two main problems with using the welders glass is that it is not as high a quality as an ND filter and that it has a green tint. This is what the image looks like right out of the camera. This was a 64 second exposure during the day.

But in Photoshop this can be corrected, mainly by adjusting White Balance and Tint.

That design was not the best, it was too big and heavy. So i tried to simplify it.

I started with the same 2" square piece of glass that i cut from the larger glass. But then i used pliers as a kind of glass nippers and slowly broke off corners until it was round.

I sanded and filed the sharp edge. Then just as before i glued it to a PVC pipe i colored black, inside and out. But the key difference is this time is that i glued a foam ring to the inside of the PVC.


I sanded the foam down until i could slide it onto the outer lens, but with just enough pressure that it wouldn't fall off.

I plan to use it when i'm in Tennessee to take pictures of some waterfalls.

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More Drain Pipe

Sunday, 11 September 2011

In mid September i installed yet another drainage pipe in my yard. This time however i used black corrugated plastic pipe instead of PVC. I should have used this stuff from the beginning. It's much easier to use, cheaper, can bend around corners and doesn't need additional fittings.
The new pipe is at the back of my house.
I first dug a small trench. This went a lot faster since i didn't hit tree roots like last time.
Although i did have to dig up some potatoes in the process.
I also unearthed my bamboo roots.
But i laid the pipe and backfilled the trench with grass clippings. Then dumped dirt on top. Like before, i used grass clippings to try and allow the water to seep into the ground. If i just backfilled with the clay soil it would never drain.
Although i did make sure to pack the pipe near the house with clay. That's the one area that i don't want the water to drain into the soil, because it would then leak into the basement.

This was easy compared to the other times. No 300 pound slabs of concrete to move and no tree roots to chop. It took a couple hours to dig.

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Gutter Drainage Again

Monday, 20 June 2011

The first drain pipe in installed by the side of the garage works perfectly. 1st drain pipe The second one i made doesn't. 2nd drain pipe

There's 2 reasons why it doesn't work. First, all the soil in my backyard is clay, which doesn't let the water drain. Second, is that my backyard is basically flat, which also doesn't let the water drain.

So i tried extending the pipe another 10 feet.

Then instead of just backfilling the trench with clay i added, then compacted, logs and grass clippings. I then put the dirt back on top of that. I'll probably have to fix this again next year.

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Bored at Home

Thursday, 12 August 2010

A while ago i made a stand to hang bananas. As usual i looked at a whole bunch of different versions and didn't like them. So i made this. The base tube is PVC and the arm and hook is aluminum.


I also bought a crock pot a while back and i've used it a few times. This was corned beef brisket with 2 soups and lots of vegetables, oh and as much garlic as Emeril would use. So far i've done beef, chicken and pork. The beef brisket was the best. Next i'm going to try just adding ribs and barbecue sauce. I've heard it's great.

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Kitchen Counter

I was thinking about building a counter between my kitchen and living room. To see how it would look and if i would like it i tried it out an old counter on some milk crates.

Then before i went camping i went with my sister to the Haworth outlet/reject store and got a counter top for $9. The store is really cool, the kind of place where you never know what you'll find. And everything's super cheap.

I traced the wall shape onto a piece of cardboard, copied it onto the counter and then cut it out.

I mounted the counter, which is really heavy, to the wall using some metal brackets. Then made the leg and foot rest from PVC pipe. I'm still debating whether i'll keep it. If i do i'll paint the PVC some kind of brown color.

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