Thoughts and Designs

Concrete Topography

2008-06-22T16:01:00.005-04:00

This is the inspiration for my next set of projects for furniture design. I have seen a few other similar styled art pieces as well as a few sinks. I will update my projects as I continue to work on them, hope you enjoy, this is some really neat looking stuff.

Peter Weigl Concrete Art

Wolos Clock Design

2008-01-08T00:23:00.001-05:00

A pretty cool design for a design that's been around for a long while.
Some have said "Alarm Clock Design is So Stupid it's Brilliant", others have referred to it as one of a few "Fantastically brilliant alarm clock concepts". I'm hard pressed to disagree.

To me this seems to be something that I think of as Retro Contemporary design. While some may say, "Oh, this looks like a mid eighties beta machine," or something like that I find a lot of these designs a great expression in simplicity. The ability of the new designs feeding of off both new and older design styles, to be able to stay true to the original design concepts of the eighties while adding new elements that are cutting edge in production, materials, and appearance; is quite an accomplishment.

Who is this Greg Wolos person anyhow...
Well done Wolos.

Replicators, PolyJet boldy on it's way...

2007-11-16T09:51:00.000-05:00

A new rapid prototyping machine from Objet that is quite unbelieveable.

PolyJet Matrix

design a hairbrush? print it. use it.

Pure Geography

2007-10-19T12:12:00.000-04:00

So, I found this on a blog mainly containing articles about landscape architecture. However, it also includes things related to that which delves into geography, geology, etc.

This one in particular, Pure Geography, is a really neat combination of landscape architecture, geology, and art. Somehow to me this looks like another planet or a video game. Doesn't quite look real, yet really opens your eyes to possibility for new kinds of landscape architecture.

Located in Punta Pite, Chili this oceanside pathway spans over a 27 acre plot of land. Sure makes it a place you want to add to go visit.

Metal like plastic

2007-10-07T14:40:00.000-04:00

This is a pretty cool new application of a new alloy. For non-heat critical applications this allows for production of metal parts with high tolerances (micron level) and less need of machining after manufacturing. As stated on their website, imagine being able to mold a scalpel blade and having it come out of the mold as sharp as needed with no need for machining the blade to a sharp edge... pretty cool.

LiquidMetal

Resin Coffee Table

2007-10-05T12:19:00.000-04:00

For some reason recently I've been into coming up with designs for coffee tables. Maybe it's because it itself is a conversation piece just like the magazines or coffee table books you might keep on one. This one is a great idea, not that cost effective, but the outcome is really nice.

Resin Coffee Table

You can also see more at his portfolio page:
Here

Mac Tilt Control

2007-10-05T12:14:00.001-04:00

This is pretty neat, funny how people find things to do with something never intended for that use...

Roomba Meets Mac

Hammer Time

2007-08-22T22:45:00.001-04:00

Atom Design Split Head Hammer

So if you are into design, woodworking, or are looking for a gift for someone that has every tool known to man you should check out this site. I will be getting one as soon as I can find a good source to buy one from...

Q-Fix

2007-08-21T08:22:00.001-04:00

Q-Fix

Check this out if you have the time. At my new job I will be highly involved with this kind of stuff.

You can also take a look at the catalog... here.

Hobbit Houses for Humans

2007-08-14T15:26:00.001-04:00

Hobbit Houses

These look pretty cool you have to admit. It also goes along with the green mentality that seems to be growing slowly with mass produced products in construction kept to a minimum. While this might be a bit much to deal with for a full time home as a summer or winter getaway it might just be something to think about...

Perseid Meteor Shower

2007-08-06T10:27:00.000-04:00

Site of the Day:

Meteor Shower

The Perseid Meteor Shower is coming this Sunday Aug. 12th through Monday morning the 13th. This is one of the better meteor showers of the year with potential of 60+ visible meteors an hour. This year it coincides with the new moon so if you're in a low light pollution area you should have a good chance of a nice show. Information says that the best viewing will be after midnight into early Monday morning hours.

Ferrofluids

2007-08-03T14:41:00.000-04:00

Site of the Day:

Ferrofluids

A liquid with suspension of magnetic particles allowing the liquid to react to magnetic fields. NASA developed this for use in controlling fluid fuels in zero gravity. It has many other uses including electronics, mechanical engineering applications including dampers, medical treatments, and others. The link above is to a decent video of the behavior of ferrofluids, if you search on youtube or google there are a lot of other ones out there that are good to look at.

CabBoots

2007-08-01T11:18:00.001-04:00

Site of the Day:

CabBoots

This one at first seems like it might be a bit silly compared to the navigation systems that are visual or audible.. but if you start to think of other applications (such as those who are vision/hearing impaired, or other applications) it starts to seem like a pretty neat idea.

Aperture

2007-07-31T10:03:00.000-04:00

Site of the Day:

Aperture

So you know what aperture is if you've gotten into photography a bit... if not think of your eye, specifically the iris. It is your eye's aperture, when it's bright it closes to decrease the amount of light getting in and increases in the dark to let the most light in.
This is a pretty interesting application I think.

Reduce, Recycle, Sit

2007-07-30T13:09:00.000-04:00

Site of the Day:

Recycled Furniture

Some interesting recycled products for your living room and patio. For those of you that are into recycling this is a great way to continue the cycle, or you could even try holding onto all those milk jugs and making your own deck chairs out of them... let me know how that one goes.

"Lawn Furniture"...

2007-07-26T11:12:00.000-04:00

Site of the Day:

Lawn/Sod Furniture

Pretty cool, although might be a pain to mow/weed-wack/trim. Definitely an interesting conversation starter for BBQs though. Or if you want a simpler piece to begin with here's a smaller design...

Grass Chair

No the question is what else can they make out of dirt and grass...

LiTraCon

2007-07-25T11:18:00.001-04:00

Site of the Day:

LiTraCon

I came across this a while ago when I was researching different processing techniques of concrete. Pretty cool stuff, pretty pricey as well. Light Transmitting Concrete, basically is just concrete with embedded fiber-optics allowing for light transmission through the concrete. When you start reading more about how difficult it is to manufacture you can get an idea of why this stuff is so pricey. Makes you want to figure out a poor-man's solution to make your own.

Extreme Wood Bending

2007-07-24T20:39:00.000-04:00

Site Of The Day:

Extreme Wood Bending
and additionally more from the same group can be seen at:
Fluted Beams LLC

These are pretty cool and definitely extreme ways to work with materials resulting in very unique looks for a lot of different applications. The first two that come to my mind are sculpture and contemporary furniture designs, but as you'll see on the Fluted Beams site there are many other applications.

Photography/Art, etc...

2006-08-08T11:35:00.000-04:00

This post will just be an ongoing log of some photography I've done and edited and some image processing projects I've worked on. I may put some works in progress on here, but for the most part it will be works that I consider to be complete with some related comments if I find the time.

line drawn me...

Suburban Monument
12.31.2006

This is just a recent photograph for an online contest submission. Theme was fences. Not very exciting, but helpful to get some creative thinking going for me.

Brushfire Something

Ride to the Klein

Guess What Season It Was

Wooden Mirror Frame

2006-07-27T10:49:00.000-04:00

A old bathroom mirror presented itself and I wanted to find use for it. It is a plain beveled piece of mirror about 38 inches by 29 inches.
I purchased 2 inch by 6 inch lengths of hemlock fur, cut them, and joined them. With this frame sized correctly I am in the process of routing out a half inch depth cut around the back of the frame to allow the mirror and backing to set into.
After routing and woodfilling the corner joints I will sand down the entire piece. After sanding is complete I will use the router and dremel tool to carve out a design I have found (a family crest design) and then inlay steel into the wood and finish the surface of the steel.
With the inlay complete I will stain the frame, seal it, and polish with steel wool.

Pictures of frame in progress:

Concrete End Table

2006-07-27T10:45:00.000-04:00

Showing the progress of the creation of my concrete end table. Hopefully this will help me get used to the process of concrete tables and countertops and I will be able to make more in the future, as I already have a few ideas in the works for a coffee table, bar top, and kitchen counter top.

The base is from an old outside patio table. It is a square iron frame.
The top will be about 5 inches thick with a bowl shape in the middle. The color will be a a dark charcoal, as of now I am not planning any special kind of aggragate as I want to avoid any grinding or polishing after I pour the mold. This is a possibiility later, but for now the cost for diamond pads and a grinder is not something I feel that I want to spend. So once the mold is complete I am planning on putting a glass top on which will provide a nice surface as well as allow for display of items in the bowl.

Pictures:

BMX bike restoration

2006-07-10T11:35:00.000-04:00

10July2006

Well, I've been wanting to give a shot at building/rebuilding a bike, so when I found one in the classifieds listed at $5 I couldn't say no. The bike was a piece of trash when I first got it. Take a look at the picture and you'll see what I mean. The work so far is going a lot faster than I expected. I've taken most of the bike apart and degreased/derusted all the bolts. I purchased a new brake and handlebar grips as the previous ones were beyond help. I've almost completed scraping off all of the decals and sanding down the frame as well as the pedals to get rid of the large amount of rust. I'll post the progress of the bike as it comes along. Left to do is:

- remove rust from spokes of wheels
- refurbish seat if at all possible
- prime and paint frame (gloss black)
- buy pegs
- buy new pedals or refinish current ones
- reassemble

19July2006

The bike is nearing completion. This project definatley has moved along a lot faster than most of my others and I've learned quite a lot about bikes in general.
I finished sanding down the entire frame and as much of the spokes on the wheels as I could. I then taped off all the portions of the frame I wanted to keep the brushed steel and primed, painted, and clear coated the rest. I also painted the spokes of the wheels because getting all of the rust off and returning them to a high polish turned out to be quite tedious. I purchased a new bike seat, pedas, tires, and tubes. I had wanted to keep the pedals if at all possible to keep down costs, but the bearings were quite rusted and the pedals a bit too worn. I have the brakes installed and am waiting for the pedals and seat to come in the mail. Once they come and I out on the new chain (the old one was also as you can guess quite rusted) the bike will be complete.

Some updated pics:

M6 custom grill stage 1

2006-06-09T14:58:00.000-04:00

This project was to create a new custom grill for my Mazda 6. Using the stock plastic grill as a base I cut away a large amount of material and then using a combination of fiberglass, bondo, fiberglass jelly, and a lot of sanding I will form the grill, then prep, prime, and paint to match my car.

Here are some pictures of stage one of this project.

Headboard

2006-05-22T10:00:00.001-04:00

This project was the construction of a maple headboard. I came up with the design and through iterations of specific geometries and wood sizes came up with the final product. All the joints are dowel joints with wood glue. The lower leg section is stabilized to the top portion of the headboard with "L" and "T" brackets.

--- pictures of assembly process (after sanding, staining, and drilling) ---