00202 New "Radial" lamp

Radial lamp holes before filling
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

After several attempts at getting wood and epoxy together in harmony, I'm really beginning to crack it - this one has been filled and sanded back and is now silky smooth on top. I think I can easily replicate this again.

Now all I really need (apart from finishing it) is to find out the safety issues that stop me from seeing LEDs encased in wood on the shelves in shops.

Here's more shots of the build so far:



The last one here is the epoxy sanded flat to the wood. I ended with 1200 grit sandpaper and finished it off with toothpaste, to see if it would make the finish ultra-smooth. It worked ok, but as I'm going to diffuse the ligh anyway, it doesn't matter if the epoxy surfaces aren't perfectly transparent.

The previous attemts at marrying the wood and epoxy together were getting better. This was the last attempt at a small lamp, which has got as far as all the wooden bits cut out and the epoxy set on the wooden face:



The only bummer here is that I painted epoxy on the acetate sheet, placed the wooden face on top to create a seal and preempt the "bleed" of epoxy onto the outside of the face plate. The idea was that if the whole face was covered in epoxy it would stick to the acetate and create a seal, stopping the epoxy from leaking out onto the face and causing a buging bit of plastic to stick out - it's a real pain to sand back. The result, however, was that I ended up with a plastic coated bit of wood. While this was smooth as you like, it just looks too "plasticky" and the idea was to seamlessly blend the wood and the epoxy so that one ran into the other - something I've now sorted out.

00201 Winning again

Another cup - this time is called the November cup. I can't remember what the criteria are for winning, because it happened so long ago. The deal is that I had to do a tie shoot against Pete Jory, but we didn't get round to having it until now. The good thing about this one, like the championship, is that there were no handicaps allowed, so it's just down to the score. One more tie shoot to go for the Falla cup - a three way shoot out. This one was my first tie shoot and it was quite nerve wracking - Pete got 96 and I got 98. I don't think I got him on top form, but there you go.

00200 Collections and more lamps and other stuff

So now Flickr has collections, all our photos have been reorganised so that we can display the stuff in a much easier to browse sort of way. Mine is here.

Fullbore season has begun and I'm trying a new rifle, not that I can shoot for shit in windy weather - man I'm going to have to figure that one out.

The lamps are coming along, although it's all a bit rough n' ready at the moment.

This first attempt at making the face for a small lamp ended in failure because the epoxy spilled out under the face of the wood and the rings just came away:



On this batch I decided to print out the patterns (done in Powerpoint), sprayfix them to wood, cut them out, sprayfix acetate sheets to them and then pour the epoxy into the holes through the back. Worked a treat as an experiment - the epoxy sits completely flush with the face of the wood, bit there were too many bubbles in the epoxy. Maybe it was because I should have sealed the wood first, at any rate, they still look very promising:



This last one was just a bit of a laugh, really. I had some epoxy left over, so I split a block from a palette in half with an axe, then drilled three holes in the front randomly. then I poured epoxy in to make the lenses. Next I routed out the cavity for the leds and then I shoved them in and hot glued it together to see what it would look like. It not only worked, but I messed around with some rainbow leds that I bought - now when I turn the lamp on I have a choice between reading lamp and ambient colour-change lamp.



Now all I need to do is repeat this last experiment, but make the face a bit nicer. Maybe have a large central hole for the reading lights and smaller holes dotted all around it, each with a rainbow led in it.

The only flaw with this is that you would have thought that a reading light was no good if it projected straight forwards (instead of down), but because we have a ledge behind the bed, it works perfectly.

00199 Won

So it would appear (because of the facts of the matter) that I am the Island .22 Rifle Champion - or "World Champion" as Meriel likes to call me now (this will probably become annoying, after which she will be happy, having achieved her aim).

All bow down before me or I'll be better than you at shooting (maybe).

00198 Kitesurfing at Ladies again

Jump
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

But this time with images. Grandma looked after Cara which meant that I could drag Meriel down to the beach. She donned her wetsuit and got in the water to take piccies. She even got a ride - mike got her to hold on and dragged her through the ware with the kite - not too fast considering their combined weight is 19 stone.

Not only that, but here's the videos. First the backloop:



Then a little jump:



And finally just cruising up and down:

00197 Testing video from Sketchup

Just to illustrate the sort of thing I had in mind and also to se what the video exported from sketchup looks like. It seems good enough to get the general idea:



In reality, the holes would probably be different sizes and in different poitions. Not to mention the fact that none of the lines would look so clean.

00196 Epoxy lenses for the lamps

Light through the holes
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

So I poured some epoxy int holes drilled in a piece of old wood. Some was thin, some thick, some diffused with bubbles and coloidal silica. But I'm still not sure about how much to use to diffuse the light, and of course, it depends on how much light is being emitted.
I also played with the new 3watt power LEDs that I got from Rapid and I'm still not sure a) how hot I should let them run and b) whether it's safe to use them in a lamp. However, it's for a reading lamp, so it'll be me using it and I'll always be around when it's on. So I guess the thing now is, why don't I just make a lamp and see how it goes - yes, that's the way forward. Simple is best, so I'll try keeping the temperature of the LEDs down (which also means that the light will be comparatively dim) and mount them in a block of wood taken from a pallette - you know the cuboid blocks used to divide the upper and lower surfaces.
The thing that gets me about the LEDs is that you can run them very hot or not and if you want to have them at their highest intensity (i.e. the intensity at which they will still have a good long life), you have to take a leap of faith and just wire them up and hope they last. I think that way forward is to have more of them run dimmer for the moment. The other thing about them is that they are quite sensitive and while I'd like to just wire them up this article about building a specialised circuit to feed the power to the LEDs leads me to believe that they should be approached in a more delicate fashion and be linked to a sort of regulator circuit.

00195 Winning?

Unbelievably I may have won the Guernsey smallbore shooting championshion. I had a good start to the season and have managed to hold a slim lead until yesterday, the last round. I've just got to wait 'till Thursday when the last of the competitors get to shoot - there weren't many, but hey. At worst I got a 99,97,96,98 in the last round and had a two point lead, at best it's a 100,99,97,98, so using a sort of law of kind of averages I reckon it's a 99,98,97,98 which would be a tall order to beat with a two point deficit to overcome. Still, as long as it's not a draw - anything but a draw. I don't think I could handle a shoot-out (not a duel).

00194 More lamps

Lit up
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

So I'm almost done with the next iteration of the lamp. It's bits of wood from the packaging of the heated towel rails. Then I've stuck in some silver foil and added LEDs.
Though I do say so myself, it looks wicked in the dark.
Now all I need is a bit of advice from someone who can tell me if it's really dangerous or not - especially if left on overnight.

Oh and I added a set to Flickr, seeing as this now counts as something I obsess over in a part-time fashion.

00193 LEDs and wood

Upstanding
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

Well I've started doing the lamp thing and the effects that you can create with just a block of old wood are really not too bad. I've been dyingg the wood and then using french polish. This version is yet to be polished, but considering the wood was lying outside after the building work, it's ok.
Shame I only had low power LEDs, although I'll be making something a little different with higher intensity light - I think staring really bright lights in the face without any diffusion will be unpleasant.
Got another one on the go now and all I need to do is to get some good power LEDs to go with it. They're really cheap, but the postage is always killer. Photos soon.

00192 More stuff to make

After looking into some LED circuits on instructables, I'm now adapting my un-thought-through ideas of making a night light for the kids and reading lights for me and Meriel (or is that "Meriel and I"?). Because they're so small and cheap and easy to mount in almost anything, the options are almost too diverse, but wood always seems to be an attractive medium to work with. So maybe just a big bit of wood with a couple of holes in it.
Hell, did you know you can get 20W LED's now? Really bright (and about £27) - probably too bright. I'll probably stick with 3W LEDs.

I said to myself that I'd also get into making either stools for inside, or benches for outside. The things made for the outside are always more attractive because you don't have to be too careful about how they're made. Maybe I should just apply that philosopy to all the things I design, then I'll build in an inherent crapness which won't look out of place in the finished article.
Also we have alot of wood left over from the building work.

Last times list of stuff I'll make when I get round to it are here

00191 Possible

100
Originally uploaded by Lenny & Meriel.

Got my first ton the other day. Never thought that would happen. On the other hand, now it has, I think I could probably do it again. I've got a slim lead in the island championship with one more round to go. It 'ain't over 'till it's over.

00190 Brake the rake

Slither

I managed to get out on a windless day and tried a reasonable large, fully shaded pattern down at Vazon. Haven't posted up any pics of the whole thing, mainly because it was a bit experimental and I wasn't entirely satisfied with the results - also my rake broke whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

00189 Quick scribble

Cluster thingy abstract

Managed to get something down on the sand at Pembroke yesterday, but it was really quick. Fortunately I'd at least had time to think of something to do. Not a bad experiment, but rushed, too small and could have done with something for scale. Not to mention the fact that it was blowing way too hard for decent KAP.

00188 Backgammon again

I'm still anticipating that I'll be honouring my pledge to JY - that I'll be making him a backgammon board. I've arrived at the possibility of making it from ply. Not only that, but I'd really like to look into laser cutting the pieces, so that I've just go to glue them together.
The only things that might muck it up are the choice of board colours (as well as how to make the "spikes") and the hinges. I might opt for leather for hinges, but then I'll be tempted to make the board look like a leather bound book. Like I say, tempting.
As fo the "spikes", I'm really tempted to do something with epoxy - maybe carve out the "spikes", then paint the carved out section and then cover the whole board with epoxy, giving it a 3D feel. On the other hand I did say I'd try to keep it simple. To go down the simple route, I reckon the best way would be to make a stamp of one "spike" and just roll paint onto it. Decisions, decisions.

00187 GPS

I got this nifty Garmin Geko 201 waterproof GPS for Christmas and I've just discovered how to do an altitude profile with it - just waiting for a windy day to get some air. Why do I get the feeling that I'll find out that I'll be getting about 5 foot?

00186 Resolutions

So I'll be making some new resolutions beore the new year, the main one of which is to make alot more stuff. We'll be fully settled in the new house soon and we'll finally be able to get down to making stuff again. I'm constantly browsing the Make blog and the inspiration I'm getting to make things is really building up - it always happens like this.

Here's a list of the proposed projects:

New kiteboard - this time a GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastic) construction. I've found someone who can advise me on a possible wood core construction and I've soursed a good supplier of all the GRP products I'm going to need.

PC case mod - we have a space under the living room shelves which is too low for a full tower case and I'd like to run a more powerul PC than will fit in a Midi case. So I'm looking at a wooden box with a glass front.

More rake art and KAP - I've been kitesurfing alot lately and the KAPing has suffered as a result.

So the lack of postings aren't due to slackness, it's just that I've got bored just jotting down the shooting and kitesuring stuff and I'm realising that I'd much rather use the blog to detail stuf I make. Although, having said that, I've been hungrily eyeing Instructibles as a way to post up projects.

00185 Eggy

Eggy

I meant to do this for so long, but as per usual I either never had the time, or I ws with small kids, who ran all over it. The plan was to do several of these dotted around a small area, but that takes time - which is difficult to come by.
Still, now I managed to take a picture of one, I'll probably be motivated to do it again.

00184 National Geographic comes calling

Got a mail from National Geographic about the Rake Art, which was nice. this was the correspondence:

NG: "My name is Jenna Pirog and I work for a Photo Editor here
at National Geographic magazine. We found some of your rake pictures on Flickr and find them very intriguing.
Would you mind writing me back at ****** to discuss what size these files are, what kind of camera you use, etc.? We have a page called Visions of Earth that we think some of your photos may work for if they are the right size for production. I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, ** Photographic Coordinator National Geographic magazine"

I said: "Ooooooh, what a lovely idea, let's do it." (or words to that effect)

NG:"Hi Lenny,
This is a really wonderful idea and you have very striking photographs and make beautiful designs with the rake, but unfortunately the files just aren't large enough for our publication purposes. We require a digital file that is at least 20MB for our Visions of Earth section.
Good luck to you!
Sincerely, **"

Well, it was nice while it lasted, but really, how am I going to hoist a 12MP camera up there? No wait, I can do it, but how can I afford it? No wait, where can I get a 12 MP camera? What? Online?

Oh, ok.

00183 Tree thingy at Petit Port

Tree thingy

I can handle snatching an hour every now and again to do this sort of thing, but this is the only chance I've had in recent months to get the rake out. It's indicative of the situation that it's been taken from a staircases running up the cliff face and not from a kite.

Still, as long as I've got more ideas than time, it'll always be quality time when I get to the beach. The only thing is that I sort of promised that I wouldn't take the rake & kites to the beach together, because it rules me out of being sociable when I get there.

00182 Roquaine pooh stick

Roquaine pooh stick

It's been a while since I posted, but to be honest, things have been ticking along and I haven't had much of a chance to do anything vaguely imaginative. Bit of shooting (won a tankard - it's a keeper), bit of kitesurfing (jumping higher, getting better), but not much in the way of KAP, which is a shame. What I really need is to get the Maxi Dopero sorted out so that I can be confident that it'll work without ditching the camera.

Just this partially successful stick & leaf number to show for all the outings we've been on. Somehow I can't help but feel that winter will be more productive. Wierd.

00181 Gusty KAP

Boats

Gusty winds meant I couldn't risk getting out over the water to get teh kids jumping off the pier. Would have been good with the new camera. Soon as I've stabilised the Maxi Dopero, I'll be more confident and heading out over the water a bit more.

00180 Back on

Kites in Poole

After moving into the house, I'm back online and I'll be out posting up again.

Had a couple of sessions on the 11 meter - it's so well behaved - one at Poole harbour on the way back from holiday and one at Ladies. I'll have the jump timing nailed soon. Wish I'd bought a 13, but with the Flexi 15 I though I'd get away with it. Truth be told, I'm going nowhere near a 'C' kite as long as I can avoid it.

00179 Rips

Rips

Ripped me bloney kite. Fixed it with spinaker tape, wonderful stuff.

00178 Weeks go by

Fort Richmond

With all the house stuff going on, I haven't really had time to update.
No rake art time, and only managing to snatch a couple of KAP sessions. The Maxi Dopero is misbehaving a little (maybe because the winds have been very flukey lately), which means that I can only lift the rig in strong winds. Got a reasonable one of Fort Richmond, mind - but only because it was nearby.
Kitesurfing was great about two weeks ago. Two brilliant days on the trot with the Instinct. Sadly the last session saw me put some rips in the canvas and I'm still wondering whether to send it away for repairs, or just tape it up.

00177 Rakeart goes BoingBoing

Cara in the middle

Well the rake art shots made it onto BoingBoing. Now, the wierd thing is that I don't know how popular BoingBoing is, but I get the impression that it's quite prolific. I've subscribed to it for a year or so and it was Dave (aka Mobilexile) who Flickrmailed me and pointed it out.
Either way, it's on another blog and it's right here.
Whatever it means, I certainly got a sudden surge of interest in the set.

00176 Rocks n' waves n' forts n' kitesurfin'

Rocks n' waves

So I got out to kitesurf in the morning and KAP when the kids went to bed.
The kitesurfing was mostly good. Man, I could do with a bigger kite. On the up side I could finally ride Vazon in a Swerly. Up and over the waves. Bit shakey, but with a bit more power it'd be spot on.
The KAP went really well. Went back to Fort Hommet to do it with a higher grade camera. Got this great shot of the waves n' Rocks, plus a couple of good ones of the fort. Now all I need is some new subject matter.

00175 Instinct flying

Went out yesterday in wind that Mike could only just get going in on his 14m Halo. I got out the 11m and managed to get going with a big board and alot of kite movement. And apart from a relaunch problem, which I put down to loads of seaweed on the lines and very low winds, it was a great success. Sunday promises more wind. I really want to see what it does in a hooley.

00174 Wake up

Mike's Jetski

After a full day doing the PTA thing and waiting for wind that never comes, Mike very kindly took us out wakeboarding again. Both of us got a go and the conditions were perfect. I even managed to Ollie after jumping to line up for the jump in the opposite direction and vice versa a few times - can't be botheres to make it any clearer than that.

00173 Ozone Instinct

Ozone Instinct

My new kite arrived on Thursday and its inaugural month will no doubt be heralded by a total lack of wind.
Still, it is beautifully made and the attention to detail and build quality is superb, which is a miracle because it's usually all hype.
Although it is a bow kite, it doesn't have a bridle per se. Intead it has a fifth line that splits near the kite, with lines running out to the leading edge, center strut and the two wing tips. Allegedly it will never inver, a problem that bow kite suffer from at times.
I just cant wait for a challenging and gusty day. Bring it on.