Candy Temptation

I don’t have too much of a sweet tooth, but during the holidays… I definitely had more cookies and things than I’m accustomed to. And from time to time, I have the thought that “A cookie would be nice, right about now.”
I don’t have too much of a sweet tooth, but during the holidays… I definitely had more cookies and things than I’m accustomed to. And from time to time, I have the thought that “A cookie would be nice, right about now.”
We had a blast, watching kids step up and try to “win” their candy. I think the most memorable moments for us were when the kids tried to unsuccessfully play the game (we had several kids just throw the pucks at the board, head-on).
The whole thing was held together with alligator clips, and wires plugged in directly into the breadboard. It ain’t pretty, but… we got it to work.
I’m not sure how I even accomplished my first and second solder attempts. I was so ham fisted today, I was leaving huge gobs of solder left and right.
As much as I struggled, I can’t even imagine doing anything small and with precision. I really need more soldering practice.
Back to it. We’re getting a little better at using the belt sander, to fine-tune the curve of the leg stand legs. Really starting to get an itch to get an actual stand-up belt sander.
I did several test cuts, and tried several variations of the small shims that came with the dado stack set. I was really surprised at how drastic the cuts were, based on the inclusion of one small little shim.
A big issue: in trying to get our pieces fully in, I was hammering the frame pieces in with a mallet. Despite me using a block of wood to lessen the direct impact, I was trying to really get the frame pieces to fit in.
Turns out, the dado cuts weren’t big enough. And my hammering ended up splitting the bottom frame. And we also damaged part of the right frame.
Drilling holes for the dowel rods. It’s gettin’ real!
So you may or may not have guessed: we’re building a Plinko board for Halloween. This project involves a lot of newer things we haven’t done before (angled cuts, dado stack)… but we felt like it would be a good challenge. And a good opportunity to stretch our skills a bit.
Our cart. At least three different times, one of us said “I don’t know if we have enough.” Which then resulted in us throwing another $15 bag of candy into the cart. Even now, I’m still not sure if we have enough.
Liz and I have some big plans in the works. Being a little coy here. Maybe you can tell what this is. Maybe not.
Either way – it’s gonna be fun. Stay tuned.
Went outside today, and was delighted to see this fun bit of Halloween decoration up already. We’ve got some new neighbors in the building next door, and I’m fairly certain this was by them.
The best sound of the whole night? When young kids were simply unable to really manage the salad tongs, and so it would just be this sound of constant buzzing for like 20 seconds. Hilarious. Made me laugh every single time.
When the power tools come out, things are getting real. It was a bit of a snug fit, but we slowly carved out spots for each of the electrical outlets.
It’s been a long, long time since I did this. But the parts and pieces are all familiar. Though we had a lot of electrical outlets in the basement, the shapes weren’t quite what we needed… so Liz and I made a special trip to Home Depot, just for some newer outlets. Which turned out to be an excellent call, because we got some good stuff.