Category: Home

Valve Lamps

These large stainless steel valves came from an old hydroelectric plant. They are quite handsome and had great potential to become awesome lamps, but a few major issues were holding them back. The first was that the valves didn’t stand sturdily on their own, and needed stabilization at the base. The second issue was attaching lamp parts to the hardened steel drive screw and routing wire to the socket, which had no obvious path. This instructable documents the steps taken to achieve lamp transformation status from some super neat old hunks of metal. Hopefully, you’ll glean some useful info for your own lamp projects!

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Gather Tools & Materials

Materials:

  • lamp base (valve)
  • lamp shade
  • lamp harp
  • socket with side out
  • plug
  • finial
  • electrical cord
  • threaded rod to match socket
  • two part epoxy
  • various other metal bits

Tools:

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Live Edge Maple and Epoxy Table

Turn a slice of raw wood into a durable coffee table! This guide follows my process for finishing a cross-cut maple “cookie” slab with epoxy resin and attaching hairpin legs.

This live-edge piece of wood had some holes on top that I wanted to fill, and something had to be done to hold the bark on. So I decided to use bartop epoxy resin to finish the whole piece.

Epoxy resin doesn’t stand up to high heat, so use coasters for coffee and cocoa and never put a hot pan or dish directly on the table.

This slab of maple came from my parents’ property in Connecticut. I was told the spalting (pigmented ring patterns caused by fungi) made this wood very desirable.

Before beginning the transformation from slice to table, this cookie dried out in my parents’ barn for about two years.

Supplies

The supplies used for this project include, but are not limited to:

This project is very messy and uses materials capable of causing permanent property damage and bodily harm. Follow all the manufacturer’s instructions and safety warnings.

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How To Make an Android Smart Home Mirror

Make a mirror that’s also a display! Use any Android device and some two-way mirror plastic to whip up a smart home mirror, using Hannah Mitt’s code on Github! This guide will walk you through my process of installing Hannah’s app on my Nexus 7 tablet and installing it at home. First up be sure to read this page and download the code:

HomeMirror by HannahMitt on Github

The app has modules for date, weather, chore reminders, stock prices, XKCD comic updates, news headlines, and more. I find the temperature display particularly useful for deciding which jacket to grab on the way out the door.

I had never done any Android development before (though I did make my phone unlockable with an NFC ring), so I think it’s safe to call this project beginner-friendly. It took a little tinkering to get it working and then some crafting to assemble the mirror, but was very satisfying at each incremental step.

Besides your Android device and its power supply (and a long USB cable), for this project you will need:

  • two-way mirror plastic (see-through) – I got mine at Canal Plastics but you can also get it online
  • double-stick tape
  • velcro tape
  • black construction paper (or dark file folder)
  • packing tape
  • velcro tape
  • scissors
  • power run to your mirror’s desired location
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Quick LED Robot Ornament

Crafting under pressure is irresistible. This year the Craftzine gals suggested an ornament swap– 12 days before Christmas. With a lot on our plates, we all agreed to make time for crafting eight handmade ornaments each, and the deadline made it even more intense. Cheers to speed crafting!

Step 1

Spray paint some scrap cardboard — I chose silver.

Sketch out your robot designs, either in a notebook first or directly on the cardboard.

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