This summer has been occupied by 3 major projects: a 55′x50′ garden, a flock of ducks, and a couple alpacas.

The garden is pretty self explanatory: till, plant, weed, weed, pick, can, pick, can, can, can…..

The flock of ducks involved a large, insulated, and frankly over-engendered coop.(at least I have a place to sleep if I ever get locked out of the house)

The alpacas involved fencing all our property and making a simple shelter.

I’ll be honest, most of my construction projects are pretty much by the seat of my pants.  On a whim for this one I decided I would attempt to plan a bit better and see if I could limit my trips to the store.

My criteria for this project were pretty simple:

1. Simple structure
2. Moveable to a different pasture once we build horse stalls in the front paster next summer
3. Have to be able to build it in less than a week.
4. 80+ square feet x 6-8ft tall

These criteria lead to the following structure parameters:

1. Skid foundation
2. Sloping corrugated flat roof
3. Sheet goods siding

With those parameters I dove into Google SketchUp. I started out with a simple 3 sided structure on skids. After some tinkering it evolved into this (download the SketchUp File):

This took me about an hour to design and model. Nothing fancy, but it allows me to make a very accurate shopping list.

Lumber:
pressure treated 2x6x8 – 2x
pressure treated 6x6x12 skid – 2x
2x6x12 roof – 10x
2x4x12 – 5x
2x4x8 – 35x
siding 4′x8′ pieces – 8x

Fasteners:
Galvanized nails
Construction screws
Deck screws for siding
6″ long galvanized bolts, nuts, washers – 4x

Roof material to cover – 11.5′ x 12′
Roofing fasteners.

4′ solid cinder blocks – 4x
Total cost for the shed: ~$550

Construction of this shed is pretty strait forward. I chopped a couple of lap joints into the 6×6 skids to house the 2×6’s. This allows 2×6’s to lock in and make the entire base self squaring (provided I did my layout and sawing square).

After day one I have the base and 3 walls built and in place.

Day two the roof and front small wall is in place

Day three I spent about 6 hours ripping 2×4’s in half and trimming out the shed.

Need to paint the trim when I paint the fence next week, and we are good to go.

So with the help of the ShetchUp workflow it took me just about an hour to design this shed…. and it saved me AT LEAST one trip to the store. That means that it was a time saver, and a money saver, in gas at the very least.

And here is our new fury friends.

I’ve been waiting ever since the 11″ MacBook Air was introduced, for Apple to put a decent processer in it. Finally that time as come and I jumped in and grabbed an i7 11″ Air.

Unfortunately my desk needs some rearranging to work with my new mobile lifestyle. I had to dump one of my monitors, and I need to make a stand to raise and angle my Air a bit, and maybe mount a few USB peripherals, we’ll see…

I haven’t had much time in the shop this summer as I’ve been building a coop for our ducks, managing a large garden and doing numerous outdoor things; but I had an itch to work with some hardwood so I decided to throw together a quick iPhone dock. I had some scrap Wenge and Cherry laying around so here is a quick gallery of the process.

Ok back to canning a huge amount of tomato sauce…

While demoing Snow Leopard during the recent geeksouth OS showdown, my Dell Mini 9 running OS X seemed to cause some interest. So, to answer any questions I’ll just give a rundown of my basic systems and their uses. (I’ll throw in some basic current prices in case anyone is interested in the budget to build their own.) All pricing comes from newegg.com (or dell.com in the case of the laptops).

Kheiron (iBook Mini):

• Dell Mini 9
• 2 GB ram
• 16 GB Runcore SSD
• 16 GB SDHC
• Currently running OS X 10.6.2

This is the system that I practically live on. This is system has been all over the world with me and serves as a great ultra probable for offloading camera images and basic in the field Adobe Lightroom work. I got it off of ebay bairly used for less than $200 plus another $100 for the Runcore SSD and the RAM. The Mini 9 has been discontinued by Dell but they currently make 2 alternatives: Vostro a90 ($219 as of writing) Same as the Mini 9 with just a few styling changes. It comes with an 8GB SSD and you can up it to 16GB SSD for $50…. but I would get the 8GB and replace it with a 32GB SSD from RunCore (a way faster and better SSD). Dell Mini 10v (make sure it’s a “v”) ($299 as of writing) A tiny bit larger than the mini 9 and it comes with a 160GB, 2.5inch, 5400RPM SATA (or you can order it with a 16GB SSD). The only downside to this laptop is it doesn’t have the greatest track-pad. Gizmodo just did a great writeup on a step by step tutorial on installing OS X on these netbooks: How To: Hackintosh a Dell Mini 10v Into the Ultimate Snow Leopard Netbook If you run into trouble for some reason, this forum is your 1 stop stop shop for all things Dell mini: http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/general-mac-os-x-discussion/

Aker (Hack Pro):

• GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L mATX motherboard: $54
• Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale Dual Core 2.5GHz: $64
• 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800: $85
• EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card – Retail: $134.99
• 2x 500GB Western Digital SATA Hard Drives: ~$90
• Thermaltake TR2 W0070RUC 430W ATX12V Power Supply: $42
• Dual 19″ Dell LCD’s
• Currently running OS X 10.6.2: $29

I built this about 6 months ago on the cheap. Obviously I built this into a old G4 Sawtooth Case I had laying around just for such a project (I custom painted with automotive paints). Because of that case I had to use an mATX motherboard. If I were building this today and wasn’t using the g4 case I would make these changes:

• GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P ATX motherboard- $129.99 (way better board with lots of expansion options)
• Linkworld ATX case: $37 or
• Thermaltake Tsunami VA3000SNA Silver 0.8 mm All aluminum: $80
• Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80580Q9400 – Retail: $189.99 (this is what I consider the price sweet spot right now in Quad core, I’ll probably get one of these soon for my system)

o2 (PHP Dev server):

• SGI o2
• 400 MHz R10000
• 512 MB Ram
• 4GB Internal SCSI Storage + 8GB External
• Running: NetBSD 5.0.1

Media Center:

• ASRock P4Dual-915GL
• Intel P4 3GHz w/1MB L2 Cache HT [SL7E4]
• 1GB Ram
• 750 GB Hard Drive Space
• Sapphire ATI x1950GT 256MB PCIe
• 52″ Westing House 1080p LCD
• Currently running OS X 10.5.8 (iDeneb 1.6 Light)

This system is a bit strange. The P4Dual was the original hackintosh motherboard. I bought this and made my first hackintosh in July 2005 shortly after the Intel transition was announced at WWDC in June. This system requires some kernel hacking to run properly, unlike modern hackintosh’s. Don’t even bother trying to duplicate this system; there are much better ways to do it now. (Hack Mini for $400) I have this computer set up to watch Movies, TV shows, and Video podcasts on our TV. It utilizes a Logitech Harmony Remote, a eHome IR receiver, Remote Buddy software, and PLEX Media Center software (a feature enhanced XBMC port for the mac). mythTV (SD Cable Tuner and Recorder): You can’t see it. It’s stuffed in a 4U rack-mount case in the TV stand with the AV receiver.

• Asus K8U-X
• AMD Athlon64 3200
• 2 GB Ram
• 8GB SSD Boot drive
• 250GB IDE Storage
• 1x Hauppauge PVR-250
• 1x Hauppauge PVR-150
• Geforce 6200 GT AGP
• PCI Sound Blaster Live! Value
• Currently Running: Mythbuntu 9.10

Just for those morbidly curious – the other active computers in my house: eee 4g (the original netbook):

• Celeron 900mhz
• 7″ LCD
• Internal Bluetooth Hacked in
• 2GB Ram
• 4GB SSD
• Currently Running: Windows XP / Whatever Linux derivative I happen to be playing with.

Wife’s PC (office & iPod Syncing):

• AMD Athlon X2 2.2Ghz
• 2 GB Ram
• 120GB SATA Boot drive
• 250GB Firewire Music Storage
• On Board ATI Radion
• Currently Running: Windows 7 Ult (thanks to MS Party Pack)

After must reading and looking into my budget to get started I settled on the Tritrix Design by Curt Campbell for my HT setup. (I love the price range and I can start with a 2.1 then 3.1 to 5.1 eventually).

First of all I want to say thank you for such a great resource as the HTGuide.com forums. I’ve been lurking there mostly and reading but have ask a few questions and got some great help. My current set up is a new 52″ Westinghouse LCD (amazing set for the price). a Media Center PC, a PS3 for Blueray & an inexpensive slightly older Pioneer 5.1 receiver. I just finished remodeling half my house and am just starting to get into some woodworking and furniture making. (speakers are the first project so I can do our new TV justice). So after getting much inspiration from all the great photos there I decided to try something a bit different for TriTrix. I have a box and a half of bamboo flooring left over form redoing half our house (Most of the floors are Ash but we redid our closets in Bamboo). I didn’t want entirely bamboo enclosures. So I decided on hardwood sides and bamboo face and top. I spent some time trying to decide on the wood for the sides. In the end I decided I didn’t want to deal with allocating for hardwood expansion and contraction in a speaker design. So plywood it is…. but I want to round over some of the edges so I need to edge it in hardwood strips. So all my decisions made it was time to start. So with most materials in hand already I started on this last Wednesday. Step 1: I need to join some of the flooring strips to create a solid bamboo piece for the top and front faces. So using my router as a joiner I squared up the sides of the flooring (flooring strips have a bevel between the strips usually, so I also have to get that off so that you don’t see the seem).

Step 2: Once I had 2 strips (per speaker) ready it was time to glue them up.

Step 3: Sand off the finish that was put on the flooring at the factory. (dang this finish is hard to get off, still got some more to work on).

Step 4: Bevel layout on the 3/4″ MDF that will back the bamboo.

I did all my cutouts with a Jasper circle jig after this, but forgot to take pictures (also didn’t want my camera in the workshop with all the MDF dust). 06-02-2008 at 10:42 AM: Step 5: Starting on the side panels… Decided on red oak hardwood ply because it was easy to match the hardwood side strips to it. (It was an easer grain pattern to match than Baltic Birch). Spread some wood glue and get ready to clamp.

Step 6: Square everything up and clamp it down (1/2 of 1 panel finished, 3 more side panels to go after this one)

Got one of the crossovers finished and tested

Speakers mounted in the MDF

Tested, and wow they sound so much better than my Altec Lancing even without the box (no low end of course). But they are so much clearer sounding!!! Makes the Altec’s sound supper “muddy”. I think I’m going to have to replace every speaker in my house. (I think the kitchen is next)

Dang I’m hooked. More to come, stay tuned. 06-03-2008 at 06:28 AM: Step 7: Got the ends glued on for a complete panel last night

And got steps 5 & 6 done on 2nd panel. and got the 1st panel sanded down to 220 grit this morning. Now I just have to repeat #5-7 on 3 panels so I have my sides ready for routing and staining. (may be no pictures for a few days as I just duplicate stuff I’ve already done, yay for duplication/production) 06-09-2008 at 08:39 AM: Well the sides are finished. I spent the week finishing up my glue ups and then used plane to flush the hardwood strips to the plywood.

Next I routed the edges with a 1/2″ roundover bit.

I sanded them down to 220 grit and prepped the surface for staining with a 1lbs cut of Shellac to promote even stain absorption. I also finished the lower half of my bamboo fronts but for some reason my router died on me. It was working fine, then I went and changed bits and it wouldn’t start up. After I tinkered around a bit with it (mostly just taking it out of its base, blowing it off and shaking it around) it started working again. I routed for a while then changed bits again and again it won’t start. I think there must be a loose connection in there. Of course the allen wrench I need to disassemble the motor is the one I’m missing form my set. So I’ll have to pick up a new set today and try and get it working. 06-11-2008 at 06:40 PM: I’m making strange 5-legged creatures in the workshop. Got the fronts all glued up with the bamboo…. and (not pictured) the the miters cut for the top bamboo panels.

Also got the sides stained and 3 coats of a 2lbs cut of Shellac.

About ready for final glue up… finally 06-19-2008 at 08:19 PM: Wow it’s only been a week since I posted, feels like a lot longer. A lot happened…. Well my router switch bit the dust… looking back it was right after I bought some new chisels and a plane. (I’m starting to think it was in rebellion). Because…. I needed to do a couple of finish cuts so I went and bought a couple of Japanese saws to start working with, and guess what rebelled next? Of course, my table saw up and died. Well it was an old Delta bench top model that they still sell for only like $100 and I think it was older than me. So anyway I’m in the market for a new table saw, I think I have it narrowed down to a RIGID 3660 or a Delta 36-980. Let me know if anyone has any advice in the $600 range. Ok, back to speakers… I hatted the color of the sides and that’s the Minwax Mahogany (about the darkest thing they sell). So I stripped the side panels back to bare wood and started playing with Water Based Dies. FYI I love these things, you can get them as dark as you want, and mix any color you need. I highly recommend them. So sides are redone, got the x-overs finished and in…

And I just finished testing them and gluing them up

Tomorrow I’ll finish sand them with 600 grit (I have a seal coat of water based poly on the sides), and start applying the final finish coats of Shellac. Well I’m done, for now. I have grill cloth and was going to make some grills to cover them but my wife said she kind of likes the look of the the drivers…. and I’m feeling lazy.