Project Type: Fabrication

Boxwood Hedges with Simple Planters

Two four-foot faux-foliage hedges with plywood "planters".

This image was provided by client. In the end we decided to make two short hedges instead of one of each.

Karaoke Taxi

Belt one out behind the wheel of this custom prop with realistic lights and detailed dash.

Signable 44” Nike Air Max

An arms-width keepsake painted to be written on with metallic markers.

Hand cut from quarter-inch Baltic birch plywood with crisp painted numbers and linework.

The linework was created with narrow vinyl masking tape. For the numbers, laser-cut numbers in tape and trimmed around the outside by hand.

400 Bottles of Beer Wall

Sixty-four square feet of rack with precision notches for hanging bottles by the neck.

My client wanted a rack to hold a wall of beer. A corporate logo would be painted on huge grid of bottles, which would then be dramatically and variably backlit. The rack therefore needed to have a very narrow profile and a largely open back.

Zigzag Rope Suspended Pendleton Blanket Frames

Sometimes projects change in arbitrary ways. This isn't one of those projects.

All projects evolve during the journey from concept to completion. Some transform so completely that the initial sketches are of something completely different from what (if anything) gets built. Sometimes things change in arbitrary ways. This isn't one of those projects: this project changed in a few simple ways that reflect the constraints of time and budget.

This is the drawing I made after the initial discussion.

The original idea was to to use grommets in the blanket and u-bolts in the frame. We also planned to make the zigzag rope go around all four sides of the suspended blanket.

But the needs of the event, budget, and lead time conspired to bring about the following changes:

Site plans changed such that the frames would need to be hung from hooks at the top instead of having legs and being a freestanding piece. A straightforward change.
Because the fabric would not arrive until quite late in the production period, the grommets were replaced with a row of loops and matching dowels. I expected this method to work more reliably given the unknown qualities of the material I would end up with. The loop-and-dowel plan would spread the load enough to keep the fabric panel straight even if were too thin or stretchy to take grommets properly. It also meant the loops along the sides could be omitted, saving hardware budget and simplifying construction.
No supplier could deliver the number of U-bolts within the available lead time, so with options and time dwindling I substituted screw-in eyelets.

Laminating the pieces that will become the sides of the frames. Each is made of three ½" by 1 ½" pine furring strips.

A cardboard — This is the template I made to mark out the openings between the loops. Along the bottom are notches I used to line the template up with tick marks I marked along the edge.

The eyelets and binding wire were weathered with self-etching primer and a cocktail of spray paint decanted into a disposable cup and applied with a brush.

Horse and Shoes in Steel

Clydesdales in ¼" Steel Plate, Rusted and Weathered.

I traced a pattern for 1/4" steel from the same client-provided file I used in the Engraved Plywood "Big Jake" Horse and Shoes. I outsourced the cutting to Portland Waterjet, whose work was beautiful and crisp. Sadly I never took a photo of the pristine parts, and by the time I removed the pieces from the good ol' under-bench time-dilating corrosion pot, they already had a nice crusty patina.

This one didn't look quite old enough, so I put it back in for another 25-year cycle.

Horse and Shoe Engravings

22" Clydesdale Engraved on Plywood and a 24 Second Photoshop Thing

The client provided an image for this project, but it’s wasn’t quite suitable as-is. To change it into something that would look pleasing engraved, I set up a few adjustment layers in photoshop in the following way:

Geometric Mosaic of Colorful Weathered Cedar Planks.

Design, Construction, and Finishing Four 4′×8′ Reusable Background Flats

This drawing depicts the intended pattern and scale of the planks.

I based this pattern on the dimensions of common cedar fence pickets, which I knew to be cheap, readily available, and have a varied and interesting grain.

See Panel Assembly, Finishing, and more

Collapsible Fairy Forest Partitions

Three foldable partitions with locally-sourced organic tree branches and two hundred seventy feet of fairy wire.

Pillar Mode

I rewired the lights to use one common power source.

SkeeBall Redux

Nine more balls for a tired carnival game.

This drawing shows the original design for the refreshed game.

The plan was to repaint and fix a drab old rental skee-ball machine.

First, I disassembled the machine a bit to assess things. The heart of the machine were plastic targets with integrated ramps and optical sensors. Unfortunately, these were blow-molded and had become brittle and were damaged beyond repair.

The broken targets rendered the game’s electronics completely nonfunctional.

I talked with the client and we decided to fabricate durable new targets and ramps and simplify the planned paint job to keep the overall project within budget.

I made the new targets from hardboard paneling and rigid foam.
Transplanted ball sensors and wiring harness.

Making new targets and ramps changed the project from one of refurbishment to one of game engineering and design. It took a couple tries to find the ratio of hole size to ball size to get the balls to “circle the drain” in a satisfying way, and I spent a while experimenting to learn the right shape for the ramp to lob the ball at the target without skittering across it.

The ramps are made from yin-yang-opposed slices of PVC pipe.

Ball return mechanism.
Reassembled for playtesing before refinishing.

The finished machine looked snappy, if a little plain for a carnival machine. But it’s durable enough to last years and it played, counted, and sounded great.

I ordered a few new wooden balls for each lane and rolled some games with the kids.

Daybed Swings

Simple, Sturdy, Daybed-Inspired Swings made for the Zipper

Here’s the drawing I worked up while discussing this project.

6:1 Rigging on Extra Large Fan

A six-foot aluminum fan suspended via a six-to-one pulley arrangement.

Chrome Bar

A chrome bar in the 50's style with checkerboard pattern and LED lights.

A Fusion360 model I used to show the client the project shape and proportions.

This bar was designed as four pieces: the top, left and right ends, and the center panel. Pictured above is a rendering from SketchUp I made to verify my figures for general proportions and the corner radius.