mcraenz: Very cool! Can you give some more detail on the hardware and software?

 The LCD screen come (TX39D99VC1FAA) from an old HP laptop running at 1680x1050 60Hz. I got a cheap LCD driver controller Board from eBay

I'm using a Raspberry Pi 3 because of the WiFi Ethernet. I using HDMI to VGA converter because the HDMI to HDMI connection caused red dots to appear all over the screen.

There is a 240v AC to DC 12v 6A converter with a 2way splitter, one for the screen and one for the Pi. The Pi actually has as 12v to 5v 3A USB buck converter.

The screen is an automatic refreshing webpage using client side processing (no PHP required) and local-hosted Apache Web Server. There is one simple shell CGI Script to obtain the CPU's temperature from the OS.

The webpage shows the current date & time along with the current temperature with a forecast for the next 12 hours every 2 hours. There is a daily forecast for the next 7 days.

It has an 'inspirational quote' just to fill the space plus GeoNet real time data and RSS news data from NZ herald 

The weather information comes from darksky.net 

The background image are pictures of Wellington and it changes depending of the current weather condition i.e. Cloudy, Raining, Sunny and Nighttime.

I'm using the Midori Web Browser as it's meant for this kind of full screen webpage display. Chrome can do the same, but there is a few extra startup command line parameters required.

The screen automatically turns off between the hours of 11:00PM and 7:00AM just to save power. Currently there is no power override unless I keep taking it off the wall. I planing to have and PIR sensor hooked up to the Pi to automatically turn the screen on when a person presence.

It hangs on the wall using a simple 'French Cleat' which means it not going to fall off the wall easily and convenient to re-hang.

CGI-SCRIPT to get the temperature:

#!/bin/sh

TEMP=`cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp`

printf "Content-type: application/json\n\n"
printf "{\"temp\":$TEMP}\n"

Impulse building today. I was *supposed* to be tidying out the garage. However decided I could really do with a heavy duty box to hold some of my odd bits of wood.

Materials. These are doors of a side board cupboard thing that came with the house. One for the base and four for sides. This is thin tongue and groove pine veneers laminated onto cr@ppy MDF. I hate working with MDF - nasty stuff, full of opinions and a bit big for its boots... wait... what was the question?

Cutting some rabbets/rebates. This makes the joints stronger and easier to square up. Step one.

Step 2. I should have been a bit more careful. I needed to tidy up a few with a chisel.

It fits! Or so I thought. Turns out the last door was bigger than all the others and needed trimming down some more.

Glue up. I'm too impatient to wait for the glue to dry with just clamps so there's a fair few brads in there as well.

A practical use for geometry!

Whoops. One is upside down. Doesn't matter. These are pretty rubbish castors, I am pretty sure salvaged from a baby's high chair. We'll see how long these last.

All done!

In action. And it *did* make the garage a bit tidier. I got a bit nervous about the glue not being set so put a sash clamp back on.

This was a pretty quick and dirty project, but I like making stuff for the garage where it doesn't really matter what it looks like. Get the fun of building without the frustration of seeming to be half a millimetre out on everything.

richms:

 

mcraenz: Nice work! Looks a lot tidier than my version! What kind of tracksaw is that? I've been thinking about getting one.

 

I think I need one too, all my attempts at clamping a bar down and using the circ was have had the bar bow, or else the saw wander away from it.

 

@richms + @mcraenz

Toolshed plunge/track/rail saw is on sale until Saturday: http://www.thetoolshed.co.nz/Products/Power-Tools/Rail-Saws-and-Accessories/ToolShed-Plunge-Cut-Rail-Circular-Saw

The blimmin' rails are on sale this time too, so an even better deal than I got a couple of months ago.

I've used this saw more since and can't speak highly enough of it. Except the manual, which is useless. 

Well its either that or finally build an outfeed table for the table saw and find somewhere to run it. Might be busting out the gem visa that I have been not touching for a while.

richms:

 

Well its either that or finally build an outfeed table for the table saw and find somewhere to run it. Might be busting out the gem visa that I have been not touching for a while.

 

I find my large wheeli bin is the perfect height - just a smidge shorter than the table saw when it's on it's stand - to act as an outfeed table

nickb800:

 

richms:

 

Well its either that or finally build an outfeed table for the table saw and find somewhere to run it. Might be busting out the gem visa that I have been not touching for a while.

 

 

I find my large wheeli bin is the perfect height - just a smidge shorter than the table saw when it's on it's stand - to act as an outfeed table

 

Brilliant! I don't have an outfeed table either and the fence on my table saw is pants. It takes ages to set up and get square (though it won't shift a mm once it's locked it). The rail saw is awesome for one off cuts, since you literally just line the rail up with your cut line. But the table saw is quicker for multiple cuts the same. I also find the rail saw easier for full 1200x2400 sheets, since it's way easier to move the saw on my own than keep a full sheet moving straight and smooth through the table saw on my own.

I need to do some work to tidy up my table saw. I'd like to build a sled for it. Might use it more then.

Moving 20+mm thick 1200x2400 sheets isnt something that one person can really do, let alone push it onto the table saw in anything like a controlled manner.

mdf:

 

Impulse building today. I was *supposed* to be tidying out the garage. However decided I could really do with a heavy duty box to hold some of my odd bits of wood.

 

 

This was a pretty quick and dirty project, but I like making stuff for the garage where it doesn't really matter what it looks like. Get the fun of building without the frustration of seeming to be half a millimetre out on everything.

 

A nice collection of "wood" :-) It's all those random off-cuts that I find no use for, and get rid of, and then within a few days / weeks, it off to Bunnings, etc, to load up with some more wood of the same size that I dumped previously. Conversely, no matter how long I hang onto wood off cuts, I never seem to use them ?

I use the obsolete AKL Council recycling bin, cut down a bit, for the wood storage. It's too tall for the shorter bits.

My most recent project is very minor in comparison to those who have posted above but I found the result very satisfying.

Last year it was decided that we needed a home theatre cabinet to tidy the lounge. The one selected rest on legs which is very "designer" but defeats the point of hiding all the cables as when they exit the back of the unit as they fall onto the floor and can be seen from the front when on sofa.

So off to Mitre 10 to buy suitable lengths of timber with a couple of brackets and paint.

The wood is 3 cm taller than the gap under the home theatre unit and brackets use to attach short lengths of timber so the plank rests on its edge. The end result painted with same colour paint as the skirting board and placed behind the home theatre unit with cables between it and the back wall.

Now when I sit in front of the tv there are no visible cables and there appears to have seamless skirting boarding running behind the unit as the edges of the wood are hidden behind the legs of the home theatre unit.

In our home theatre cabinet it used to be a total PITA to swap cords, leads etc around.  So: -

1) I made generous cut outs in the back panel (hole saw and panel saw) so I could access the back panels of all the components. 

2) I mounted the power board on the back panel.

The cabinet is still rigid and now I simply unplug HDMI and data from the wall (easy) and there is enough power cable to slide the whole unit out and get to the back.

The Onkyo receiver is running cooler too.

mdf:

 

 

 

 

 

Drilling lots of pocket holes. All the serious woodworkers on youtube seem to look down on pocket holes, but I found them really useful. Because of the angle, you never have any screws going straight down the grain. I also was able to use much smaller screws (38mm) and was pleasantly surprised at the strength of both the pull together and how robust the joins are. 

 

 

 

I have the same experience.  I enjoy pocket holes a lot.  I was reluctant to buy the jig at first but it exceeded my expectations.

Question, where can one source good plywood for cheap (if there is such a thing).  I use MDF a lot because it's reasonably priced at Bunnings but it doesn't always cut it.

I am having a go at tiling our front entrance way.

I have used some timber floor levelling screed and am now srewing the cement/fibre board sheet down to that.

next weekend it will be onto the 600x600 tiles and angle grinding any strange angle cuts to get around door jambs.  

I am designing brand new version of my High Voltage Battery Analyser ... and there is something in the pipeline for Nissan Leaf, just watch the space....