RoboCop Statue in Detroit

Tuesday, 8 May 2012

It started as a rumor...then rumor became legend.

Then people started to collect money to build a 7' tall Iron statue of RoboCop in Downtown Detroit. It may be taller and made of bronze depending on cost. And it still hasn't been finalized as to where the statue will be located. It will either be at Wayne State University Tech Town or near Michigan Central Train Station.

I made a Photoshop drawing i made of what it might look like.

Stats:
2,718 people donated money
$67,436 raised (the goal was to raise $50,000)

Here's the laser cut die pattern they will be using.

So now people going downtown for Tigers games will start saying "Let's meet at RoboCop at 7:30."

And for every person that says (in a nagging voice) "why are you building a RoboCop statue when Detroit needs money for poor people and bla bla bla..."

To answer that imaginary person; it's because that's what the people with all the money decided. They came up with a plan for a cool statue, gathered money and now it's going to be built. It's amazing how things can get built in the city when the City Council gets out of the way.

Had this been a Detroit City Council project, half the money would have mysteriously turned up missing and the other half would have been wasted to pay off their political buddies and nothing would have been built. Then they would have bickered and claimed it was a race issue saying "Why does RoboCop have to be a white guy...hummph?"

If people wanted to start a campaign called "Money to revitalize Detroit's neighborhoods" then the money would go to building houses. But that didn't happen. And even if they did, i'm sure they would have collected a lot less then the amount they collected for RoboCop.

I would only donate money to Detroit housing if it was called "Dynamite collection fund to improve housing in Detroit"

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Wood Bench

Thursday, 9 June 2011

Karrie asked if i could make a quick and simple bench for her back yard, just cut a couple of 2x4's and nail them together. Instead i decided to make this:
Obviously it took a bit more time and effort but it was basically the same cost, right around $30. I measured several existing chairs to get the right dimensions and sketched several different designs on paper until i ended up with something i liked. Then i drew it on AutoCAD to get the right dimensions and made sure it all went together correctly. Here's an image of the AutoCAD drawings i made.Here are the actual PDF files:
PDF 1
PDF 2
I printed out the full size pattern then cut out the pieces. I added the holes to lighten the weight, which i think it makes it look better too. Again form and function working together.
I spent a few hours tracing the patterns onto the wood, then cut out all the pieces.

I used a router to round over all the edges, then screwed and glued everything together.
There were a few surprises. One major change was that i decided to make it 4' wide instead of 5' wide. When i put the first 2 slats on i realized that it was too wide, so i cut them down to 4'. That also meant that it was stronger and there would be no wasted wood since they were 8' boards.
It didn't turn out exactly as i hoped. The seat could be longer and back rest could have been be more comfortable.

Once i had it all together i took off the slats then sanded, stained and put two coats of polyurethane on everything.

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Car accidents suck

Monday, 26 July 2010

About a month ago i was driving to the airport for work and in a construction area on I-75 i got rear-ended by another car. I called 911 but since i was in Detroit, the Detroit Police said they didn't need to come out. The damage doesn't look real bad but i slowed down to about 30mph and he had to be going around 60mph. Neither of us was hurt.
Long story short i ended up going to 3 police stations, including the state police, but finally got a police report and had my car fixed. They originally estimated the repairs at $3200 but it ended up costing $4900 and took 2 weeks to fix.

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Dirt in the Driveway

Monday, 17 May 2010

I had 6 yards of 50/50 - topsoil/compost mix delivered for my garden this year. I also had 1 yard of sand for my new underground gutter drain pipes which i'm only half done with.
The total cost was $200. $50 of that was for delivery. It doesn't look like a lot but it was; 7 yards of dirt turned into 72 wheelbarrow loads to the backyard.

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