Pete Brown's Blog (POKE 53280,0)
Pete Brown writes on a variety of topics from XAML with the Windows Runtime (WinRT), .NET programming using C#, WPF, Microcontroller programming with .NET Microframework, .NET Gadgeteer, Windows on Devices, and even plain old C, to raising two children in the suburbs of Maryland, woodworking, CNC and generally "making physical stuff". Oh, and Pete loves retro technology, especially Commodore (C64 and C128). If the content interests you, please subscribe using the subscription link to the right of every page.
Archive for tag:
Home-Renovation
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In every project, there comes a part you just dread doing. It's
always the part you put off until the very end. When programming,
maybe it's that exception logging, or security interface. With most
house projects, it's painting.
With carpentry/cabinetry, well, I hate building cabinet
doors.
There. I said it. I love woodworking, but BOY do I hate doors. I
know the appropriate tricks...
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Today I made some more progress on the trim around the window
bench seat I built.
For reference, the wall the window is in was a blank wall when
we moved in. We had the bow window installed. I designed and built
the trim around the window, the bookcases and the bench seat all
from plywood, stock lumber, pine panels (for the seat itself) and a
little bit of trim. You can see pictures o...
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In addition to all the programming projects I have in my
backlog, plus things like migrating my website to a new provider
(and finishing migrating the old irritatedvowel hobby pages), I
have a number of fun maker-type projects I want to work on in the
near (and distant) future. In most cases, the projects would
require learning something very new - that's the appeal. If I can't
learn so...
Published
Thursday, August 18, 2011 |
Tagged:
Home-Renovation, Hobbies, CNC, Synthesis, Synthesizer, Gadgets, geek, Steam-Engines, Netduino, Micro+Framework, Robotics, Electronics |
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I hope you all have (or had) a Merry Christmas! I just finished up helping Santa put some presents under the tree for our boy (he'll be two in February). Now I'm down here removing all the old alphas and betas and installing the latest VS and Expression tools, as well as the latest Silverlight bits. A full uninstall of VS2008 Beta 2 followed by a full install of VS20...
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I just took a "vacation" <g> for a week, and managed to
get a bunch of cabinetry done. Below are some photos of the current
state. I have another two weeks coming up in September, so I should
be able to get a bunch more completed at that time. Also keep in
mind that the open spaces you see in the photos will be covered
with door and drawer fronts.
Upper Cabinet Legs
The wall ...
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This was an interesting weekend.We had the AIS company picnic on Saturday, which was a lot of fun. I couldn't believe how many young kids (under 2) were there. My son love the ballons and whatnot. Unfortunately, he picked up a deer tick so we're off to the doctor today for that.Saturday night, I ripped open my PC (which really needs an upgrade once the server/infrastructure situation ca...
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Over the weekend, I seriously looked into what I could do to have a centralized media server in the house and a HTPC setup in the TV room. It turns out, it's a lot more difficult to get a good experience than you would think. Ideally I'd like a full solution that gives me:TV everywhere, including on-demand (currently have this with Comcast). Only viewing one channel at a time across the...
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I've updated the kitchen cabinet plans several times over the
course of construction. Here's the latest set (click to zoom):
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I installed the base corner
cabinet over the weekend. I assembled this in the kitchen as
the cabinet is pretty huge. As of now, the two installed cabinets
are the oven cabinet and the
corner cabinet. The others in the photos are the temporary
cabinets.
Like all the other cabinets, the toe kick was
assembled separately from the base. For this cabinet, it
made sen...
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I scribed the wall oven cabinet to the wall and permanently
installed it today. After that, Melissa and I hefted that oven into
the cabinet. It wasn't an easy task. I have had it sitting on a
wheeled furniture mover (basically four pieces of maple with carpet
over two of them and four wheels under it. I picked it up at
Lowes.) We wheeled it in front of the cabinet, protecting the floor
...
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During my two week vacation, I made a lot of progress on
the cabinets. I still have a few days to work before I go back, but
this is what I finished:
Redesigned the cabinet legs and some details. I'm very happy
with the design now.
Milled all the wood required for the base cabinets, minus the
peninsula
Rough cut almost all of the plywood pieces for the base
cabinets
As...
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Over the weekend, I assembled the carcass and face frame for the
double oven cabinet for our Thermador C302BS.
This was a bit of a one-off cabinet as I had to adhere to
manufacturer specs for support and spacing. The cabinet is sized
exactly for that oven. You can see from some of the photos below
that I used a sandwich of plywood to hold the weight of the oven. A
similar support ...
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Over the July 4th holiday, I managed to get some of the wainscoting installed in Ben's room. I decided to trim the alcove like I am the doors. The trim is primed 4/4" wood, except that on the inside which is unprimed 3/4". I'll paint that soon. Overall, I'm very pleased with the results with the wainscoting and the trim. I finally finished resawing all of that cabinet...
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Not quite finished, but good enough for now. All that's left are some plugs, some fillets (trim under the railing), some trim on the board against the far wall, and the actual finishing. We agreed the finishing can be done later, when it's too hot/rainy/whatever outside to work on my other things. The balusters look fine, but they're actually only primed. Everything will need to be ...
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This is one way to install box newels. The Newels I am using are solid box newels by Coffman Stairs. The procedure can be similar for hollow newels if you block them up inside. However, if you have hollow box newels, you might want to instead look at the cleats that screw to the sides and to the floor. I'm using the L. J. Smith Sure-Tite Newel Fastening System, picked up from eith...
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I have one section of the balcony railing and balusters installed. The balusters are the longer ones I purchased from the person on eBay. The primer on them is almost like plastic, so the trim nails slid off of them if shot at too steep an angle. That meant I had to install the nails on the visible faces (instead of between balusters), where I could shoot at a more shallow angle. I'll have ...
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I cut and installed the starter newel today. It took me almost all day to cut and fit it, as it was one solid post (actually it is filled with poplar 1x or something similar), and was too deep for my circular saw, and with the molding, too akward for my table saw.In the end, I started the cuts with the circular saw and then finished it with chisels and a flush trim router bit. It took forever t...
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Last weekend I stained, painted, and finished the stairs. Melissa asked that I move the stairs ahead of the cabinets because Ben is going to get mobile sometime soon here, and we need to be able to put a safety gate up. Makes sense to me.The stain is General Finishes Early American water based stain. The topcoat is five coats of Varathane Satin water-based floor finish, sanded be...
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From my earlier entry, you know that I bought about 500 bf of Ghost Tiger Maple for our kitchen cabinets. I cut the maple down to manageable sizes. In my shop, as tiny as it is, I can't really handle anything longer than six feet. In addition, the resaw capacity of my older model MM16 is about 13", so that is as wide a board as I can handle. My planer has the same width limitation.So, ...
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My father in law and I picked up the maple this past rainy Saturday. We figure it weighed in at around 2500 pounds, a little over the rating on his truck. Nevertheless, we made the almost two hour trip back in the pouring rain with no problems.The wood is currently in my basement (which is heated and open to the upstairs) acclimating. I will cut it into manageable pieces and begin the resawing ...
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I made a trip up to Hearne Hardwoods in Pennsylvania today to check out and buy (if I liked it) the wood for the kicthen cabinets. I purchased an entire trees worth (about 420 board feet) of Ghost Tiger Maple, sometimes called Wormy Maple. This differs from Spalted Maple in that the fungus infected the tree via worm holes instead of just regular rot (spalting).We both wanted something different...
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I finished the bookcase for Ben's room this week. Painting and sanding took a while, as it has been pretty cold here, and I had to paint outdoors, so I was at the mercy of whatever 50 degree day I could get for a couple hours. The low temperatures also made the paint goop up a bit (it didn't flow like it would on a warm day), so it was not ideal. Sanding and additional coats fixed that,...