A tremendous caveat: I used a lot of scrap wood, and some pretty twisted 2x4s. If you’ll grant me a kindness, let’s blame the flaws in this construction on those warped boards… and not on my lackluster skills as a craftsman.
Sanded down the pieces that we had covered with wood filler.
So. I spent a lot of the day in the basement, working with these supplies. And it seems like all I did was make a few prototypes of Halloween anuses. Because let’s be honest, this is what they look like.
Started getting to work on our Halloween project for 2023. Not really going to share a lot of details here, so mostly just photos for now.
I walked into the living room after work, and thought “Well that’s weird. Why is there a big bag of candy on the table?”
As some of you may know, we get a lot of kids visiting our block for Halloween. We’re not quite on par with Harper Avenue in Hyde Park, but we’re working on it. We get a good turnout, and it’s been a source of fun/joy for both me and Liz these last few years.
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.