DIY Cell Phone Holder - For Your Car

Wednesday, 22 February 2012

The other day on Lifehacker i saw how you could make a car cell phone holder out of a binder clip. It's used to hold your phone up while driving in the car.

I basically followed the same directions. But after bending the wires i decided to wrap them with yarn instead. And then so the phone didn't slip, i used Goop glue, which has similar consistency as rubber cement or hot glue.

It held the phone better then i thought it would.


So i tried it out while driving in the car and it worked fine. But it does depend what you are clipping on to. All i had in my car was the thin air vent, which didn't give much support and the phone wobbled a little.

But overall i think it worked really well.

It's a cheap and easy way to see if you like using a phone clip, before buying a fancy, expensive one.

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Mailing Coconuts

Monday, 20 June 2011

While in the grocery store i saw coconuts on sale so i bought 3. I read somewhere and then i saw it was on Mythbusters, that you can send a coconut in the mail. Not in a box, but just by putting the address and a few stamps on it. I decided to mail them to Adam in Arizona, John in Colorado and Katie & John in Michigan.

They each weighed over 2 pounds at first, but at home i drilled a small hole and emptied out the liquid.

Then i used hot glue to fill the hole.

I wrote their addresses on them then went to the post office. At that point, while waiting in line i realized how dumb this was, but the lady there said ya it's no problem. At the post office they weighed about a pound and a half. Postage was $5.
Katie and Adam said the coconuts arrived so i guess the stamps stayed on. I'm not sure what happened to the one i sent John, it's M.I.A.

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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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