Fenestration and Debauchery

Story Time. So, in Los Angeles I lived in this comically tiny studio apartment.  There, I did all my projects on this 3′ x 3′ table, which was also pre-landfill staging for junk mail and whatever else I was holding when I walked through my apartment door.  Here is it in action:

15% of surface area unusable due to feline possession.

Over time this table, which was never exactly heirloom quality to begin with, became so covered with assorted solder/glue/paint, burn marks (thermal and chemical), and power tool ‘oops’ Events, as to be only an article of furniture by virtue of its horizontality.

When I moved into my  spacious Portland apartment, I decided that I wanted a proper workbench, with room for cat storage and a soldering iron.  Specifically, I wanted to be able to work with a 4′ wide sheet of material, and something sturdy enough that it wouldn’t jump around when I used power tools, with storage for all the little necessaries like sharpies…

The tracks running perpendicular to the vise allow me to lock down any size material up to the length of the bench (6′).  It also has a compartment in the center to hold sandpaper, etc.   Here’s an exploded view (top and bottom) showing how it all goes together— the top is detachable to allow it to fit through a standard door.*

The Feet: I ordered the foot hardware from McMasterCarr, part #62805K42.  Then I took some 1/8″ thick steel plate, drilled a hole in it and tapped threads to screw the foot in.  I put a nut with an integral washer on it so that the weight of the bench would be distributed across the plate rather than resting on that 1/8″ worth of thread.  Here’s a picture to help make this clear:

Detail from the bottom of the foot hardware. This was taken while only the primer coat was on, before I did the red topcoat. Which looks fucking hot, IMO.

This has proven to be very sturdy.  The bench itself weighs about 150lbs I would guess, and I’ve stood/sat on it several times to work on something.

The Vise:  I used maple because I really like maple, and Rockler had an offal block of it that they let go for cheap.  It was subsequently pointed out to me that woodworking blocks are typically made out of a soft wood, to avoid marking up the work piece.  So take that under advisement, I guess.  The guides are just 1″ diameter pipe with flanges that I painted gloss black.  It looks really nice with the stainless steel screws.  The crank was made from a veneer clamp I got at Rockler.  The set screw that comes on the end part of the crank is some really odd thread size, and if you over-tighten the vise it will break the set screw.  If I was doing it again, I would drill out the hole, tap it with a more standard sized thread, and replace the set screw with grade 8 hardware.  But it hasn’t been such a problem that I would consider taking the whole thing apart to get at it.

Remark the First: It’s really goddamn heavy, y’all–mostly due to the layer of MDF on top.  This is good because it doesn’t jump around when you use power tools on it, but if you may consider using 1/2″ MDF on top and one-by framing material if that’s a concern for you.

Remark the Second: Having the vise in the middle of the front like it is has proven to be less than ideal.  I find that when I lock something down to work on it I would rather have it near the corner for ergonomic reasons.  You may consider moving the vise to one side or the other.

Remark the Third (*): It will fit through a standard 32″ door by detaching the top, standing the frame vertical, taking off the feet, and passing it through the door that way.  It will pass through a 30″ door if you have enough space to rotate the first legs through, then the second (and probably take the door off the hinges).  In my new San Francisco apartment, I have 29.5″ doors at the end of a narrow hallway, and I wasn’t able to get the frame through the door.

I modified the frame so that it is 30″ wide instead of 38″ to get it through the apartment door, which also had the advantage of moving the vise to one corner where it will be more useful, I think.

Plan downloads are available in Autocad DWG and Adobe PDF format.

Today is 12 July.  There are 21 days left to study. I’ve decided to go up for my LEED GA accreditation exam on my own dime, to try an make myself a more competitive candidate if and when there are jobs again, anywhere, ever.  If you’re not familiar with it, LEED is a sustainable building program developed by the US Green Building Council.  I think it’s pretty great, because it addresses two problems I have with sustainable development as practiced today:

• Greenwashing. Often, a company that wants to build some green cred will do something ostentatious like installing photovoltaics on their building.  It makes for great press releases, but for what they spent on solar cells (they’re insanely expensive, if you didn’t know), the company could have improved the insulation and windows, added daylighting controls, upgraded the outdated and inefficient HVAC system, retrofitted the plumbing fixtures with low-flow valves, instituted incentives for carpooling, and on and on and on.  The cumulative environmental effect of these small changes, many of which have short-term economic payback, far outweigh the big-dollar measures we associate with Green.  LEED requires a whole-building, life-cycle cost approach.
• In the Future, there will be Robots. Media coverage of sustainable efforts tends to focus on Blue Sky research.  Cold Fusion.  Electrical power generation from sentient dirigibles.  Cars made out of sewage.  Fine and funding-deserving research all, I’m sure, but it leads to the impression that sustainability is something we will do in the Future, with Future Technology.  The thing is, LEED certified buildings have, on average, 13% lower maintenance costs, use 26% less energy, have 27% higher levels of occupant satisfaction, and emit 33% less CO₂, right now, today.  While LEED rewards innovation, the majority of credits must come from existing, proven, cost effective technologies.

Anyway, I’ve been studying for about a week now, and have three more weeks to go.  The study materials cover a lot of subjects that are well outside my comfort zone: construction materials, plumbing, HVAC, sustainable purchasing.  As I alluded to in the post title, some of these subjects are more interesting to me than others.  But in the end I think it’s going to make me a much better lighting designer, in giving me some awareness of the trade-offs other disciplines deal with, and how my choices affect them.  If you’re interested, here are the primary exam materials and the secondary materials that seemed particularly interesting or relevant:

• LEED for Operations & Maintenance Reference Guide-Introduction (U.S. Green Building Council, 2008)
• LEED for Operations & Maintenance Reference Guide-Glossary (U.S. Green Building Council, 2008)
• LEED for Homes Rating System (U.S. Green Building Council, 2008)
• Cost of Green Revisited, by Davis Langdon (2007)
• Sustainable Building Technical Manual: Part II, by Anthony Bernheim and William Reed (1996)
• The Treatment by LEED® of the Environmental Impact of HVAC Refrigerants (LEED Technical and Scientific Advisory Committee, 2004)
• Guidance on Innovation & Design (ID) Credits (US Green Building Council, 2004)
• Guidelines for CIR Customers (US Green Building Council, 2007)
• Green Building & LEED Core Concepts Guide, 1st Edition (US Green Building Council, 2009)
• AIA Integrated Project Delivery: A Guide (www.aia.org)
• LEED for Operations & Maintenance Reference Guide-Introduction (U.S. Green Building Council, 2008)
• LEED for Operations & Maintenance Reference Guide-Glossary (U.S. Green Building Council, 2008)
• LEED for Homes Rating System (U.S. Green Building Council, 2008)
• Cost of Green Revisited, by Davis Langdon (2007)
• Sustainable Building Technical Manual: Part II, by Anthony Bernheim and William Reed (1996)
• The Treatment by LEED® of the Environmental Impact of HVAC Refrigerants (LEED Technical and Scientific Advisory Committee, 2004)
• Guidance on Innovation & Design (ID) Credits (US Green Building Council, 2004)
• Guidelines for CIR Customers (US Green Building Council, 2007)
• Energy Performance of LEED® for New Construction Buildings: Final Report, by Cathy Turner and Mark Frankel (2008)
• Guide to Purchasing Green Power (Environmental Protection Agency, 2004)

Book of Sorrows, 4th Ed.

My exam is on the 3rd, wish me luck!

Update: I passed!  I’m now a LEED Green Associate.

I bought this gamma ray counter for $15 from Surplus Gizmos, intending to use it as an enclosure for another project.  Any ideas?  It appears to be from the late sixties, and has a tube inside to amplify the signal from the particle chamber.

Thing is, it still works.  As near as I can tell anyway, not having a source of gamma rays to test it against.  And the quality of design and construction is so nice, now I feel bad about Frankensteining it.  In the coming zombie apocalypse, I’m sure it’ll come in useful.

brainsss....

If You’re Like Me, you don’t own a blender, but you sure as hell own an electric drill.  It’s strawberry season, and Safeway had two large cartons of strawberries for $4.  Fresh strawberries and cream are really one of the better things in this universe, but whipping the cream without a blender is a real chore.

So, a slight modification to my egg whisk:

Alrighty, good to go!

Apparently, taking appealing photographs of food is harder than it looks.  It doesn’t help when you’re rushing so you can stop clicking and start eating, fwiw:

A Little While Ago, I produced a film with some friends of mine called The Long Apology.  We’re nearing the end of post-production, and it’s time to start thinking about the DVD slipcase of the finished product.  I’ve been tasked with designing it, because I’m currently an unemployed layabout, whereas my friend and business partner Ryan, who actually designs these things for a living, has distractions like a job, dog, social life, &c.

We have some artwork I did as part of the marketing package for the film, and if we used that the front cover would look something like the above.  I put it together in about a day, so it’ll need some work, but it’s nice to have something to start from.

I wanted to see what the current state of the Art was, so I went down to Blockbuster with my digital camera, and took pictures of all the DVD slipcase backs I liked.  Which seemed to make the sales clerks nervous for some reason, but they left me alone.  One of the advantages of living in a city like Portland, with its abundance of weirdos that are only to willing to share their theories about Transcendental Meditation or whatever.

Strangely, it seems like the people that design these things are just phoning it in by the time they get to the back.  There’s a very consistent format, and very few of them show even a modicum of design intent.  The big budget movies actually had the least interesting backs, strangely.  I probably looked at over a hundred of them, and there were only a few that were worthwhile.  Here’s a pretty typical example:

We have the following elements:

• A tagline
• A synopsis
• A barcode in the upper right
• DVD special features
• A larger still from the film, integrated into the layout and background
• smaller stills in some kind of framing device
• Credits
• A bunch of icons corresponding to the format and such

Here are some examples that were interesting in one way or another:

I like that they picked a color palette and lived in it. Also, using a portrait for your primary design element is always a good choice, since we're hardwired to want to look at faces.

The diagonal slash dividing the top and bottom is a strong design element. Not so much the gigantic fucking barcode in the middle of prime design real estate.

Again, nice color palette work. Here, however, they've chose certain highlights that aren't in palette, which makes for a stronger design than a completely monochromatic palette.

Using a series of portraits like this is sort of hackish, but it was successful in getting me to pick the DVD up off the shelf, which is half the battle. Doesn't tell you much about the film, though.

I don’t know who does the promo artwork for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but it’s riveting.  Maybe not so useful for a DVD back, though, because it relies so much on simplicity.

From a design standpoint, they made some good choices: good layout, strong color choices. The overall effect is a little underwhelming, not sure why.

I’m going to watch the film again, and then fire up Photoshop and see what I come up with.

Chemicals and Electricity, What Fun! One Christmas, I made custom bookplates for myself and a few friends by etching zinc plates.  They came out great, and the process, while taking much longer than I would have liked, is a great technique for customizing copper, brass, or zinc metalwork.  Here’s the artwork I did for the whole set:

You Will Need:

• 12ga. zinc plates, available from any well-stocked art supply store.  You can also use copper or brass.  I’ve read that steel will also etch with this setup, but also that it won’t, so if you have a definitive answer on that let me know.
• Semi-gloss inkjet photo paper, the cheaper the better so that the paper will be thin.  I used HP Everyday Semi-Gloss Photo Paper.
• A clothes iron.
• A plastic water pitcher
• A steel oven rack or barbecue grill
• A few 100W bulbs and sockets
• Pure copper sulfate, which is sold under the trade name RootKill or as Bordeaux mixture.  You can find it in the gardening section at Home Despot.

The process of getting all of these from Illustrator into Zinc is somewhat involved, and here I should probably say we will be working with toxic chemicals and electricity, together, and this process releases hydrogen gas, which is highly flammable. It’s not for the faint of heart. But it doesn’t require any special equipment, and if you work safely you should be okay.

Continue Reading for the Instructions!