Going to Build: let

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Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Landscaping With Boulders Let Out Your Creative Instincts

Landscaping is a lot of fun and can be much rewarding in the end. That is, if the whole landscape design is perfectly harmonious to the architectural design of your home. But what if it is not? Or what if you are growing weary of that same sight for many years that seemed to have similar looks as all the others in your neighbor hood? Then, you might want to consider redesigning it.

You don’t need to get an overhaul or major repair. All you need to do is to take or move off some landscape pieces, say old trees and flowers. You can also opt out the tiles and prefer something that will yield a better, natural-looking landscape. Boulders are a good choice for this matter. Yes, you should try landscaping with boulders. It will bring out a whole new look to your yard and you will love the excitement that boulders can bring out of the entire landscape design.

If you are going to use boulders in your landscaping, be prepared with stronger men beside you though. Boulders are heavier than they look; thus, can be difficult to transport from one place to another. Having said that, it is therefore a must to carefully plan for the spots where they are going to be positioned. You might want to consider placing them in permanent positions.

The fixtures and elements that come with boulder landscaping will be better off if you place them in permanent positions too. If these are done in the right places, you will find that boulders can be great as a magnificent outlet for your creative instincts.

What boulder type should you use?

Boulders come in different sizes and shapes; therefore, you have to determine what type you should incorporate with your landscaping idea. If your place is not that big, using gigantic boulders will ruin the plan. In the same manner, using smaller boulders if your yard is spacious will result to the place swallowing them; thus, a ridiculous sight. The color is one aspect that must be carefully chosen as wrong color picks can end the landscape design not too pleasant at all.

Be wise to select the right ones then as you are going to use them for permanency. If you have got a certain mood, you can choose a monotonous color to treat that landscape mood right all year round. But if you are not certain what mood you prefer, you can alchoices select several colors of them. When putting the boulders, you can group each color family, or you can re-invent by mixing and matching together for a different look.

By the choice, boulders do come in a variety of shades, including vibrant yellow, red, calming white or fresh ivory, soft grays with streaks of green moss, and black. With these color choices alone, you have different options for your landscaping plan. And that is the good thing about boulders because they come in exciting colors that surely give you nice options to match your preference and taste.

Color has an exciting influence that plays up with the entire landscape design, so you can actually use your boulders as medium to sort out the different areas of the garden and transform them into a calming or energizing spot. Whatever it is that you prefer, landscaping with boulders will render an air of solidity which, of course, gives you that nice, rewarding feeling knowing you got it permanently fixed with your garden.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Let There Be Light Part I

A few months ago, my good friend Aristotle Dreher starter Arisitotle Photo. In order to assist with his fancy studio shots, he asked me to make him a light ring. He’s a good friend, who’s done all my shirt and blog design work, so how could I say no (it also seemed like an interesting project)?

The raw materials.

The light ring consists of 12 light sockets arranged in a circle. The middle of the circle is open and the camera is placed there and the photo taken through the ring. This provides balanced light on all sides of the image (or at least this woodworker thinks it does).

Determining the ring layout.

I began the light ring project by buying 12 cheap plastic light sockets. I asembled them in a circle, and used that to determine the size of the ring. I also used the width of their bases to determing the width of the ring. I left about ½” of space between the sockets and on the inside and outside edges.

The ring itself is constructed from two (2) pieces of Baltic Birch plywood. The front piece is ¾” thick. This was the first piece I made. Because all of the circles are referenced off the center, I worked from the outside to the inside so that I didn’t cut out the middle and then realize I still had to reference it.

After determining the outside diameter of the ring, I marked it out and cut close to the line with my jig saw. Then I built a trammel out of scrap Baltic Birch and routed exactly to the line with a fixed base router and ¾” diameter straight bit.

The outside is milled.

Once the outside circle shape was finished, it was time to route the wire trough. This trough is centered on the width of the light ring. I made it using the same ¾” straight bit. I used a small piece of wire to determine the proper depth using relative dimensioning.

When routing with a trammel, plunge routers are more versatile.

That’s when I realized my mistake. You can’t use a fixed base router to plunge a trough into the center of a ring. I switched the trammel setup to a plunge router (this required running out for longer mounting screws), reset the circle diameter and depth and went to town.

The center trough is milled.

I routed the center trough in three (3), roughly equal depth passes. The feed rate was nice and slow and I thoroughly vacuumed between passes. It still resulted in a bit of burn on the wood and on the router bit. Since it’s a functional (rather than aesthetic) piece, I’m not sweating any burn.

Just about done with the front ring.

Once the Center trough was done, I re-set the trammel again and hit the inside of the ring. I paused briefly and considered switching to a narrower bit for the inside (as I only needed to cut through, not create a trough wide enough to house wire), but since the trammel was already set up for the ¾” bit in the router I just went ahead and routed. I again made it though in 3 passes and had about the same level of burning as I did for the trough.

The connecting trough.

I finished the center piece by routing one (1) more trough connecting the center trough to the outside edge at the bottom. This trough will allow access for the power cable. I first made this trough with a pattern bit to keep it straight, but when it proved too shallow, I deepened it with router freehand.

Next, on to the back . . .