DIY stuff

[frederic]

That's funny to me Rick, as I throw out scraps of wood all the time. Which I probably shouldn't, but I see no purpose in storing 200 1' lengths of 2x4's. Though I'm sure you'er talking about hardwood, rather than home depot construction materials. I chuck scraps out regularly, because the only place for me to store it is in the garage, where it will absorb moisture and warp in about a week. I stopped burning this type of stuff in the fireplace mostly because it disappears too quickly... when we moved here the house came with about three cords of termite-eaten oak firewood, which I burned through in about 2 months. Even though the logs were anywhere from 6-12 inches in diameter, it disappeared almost instantly. Flash fire!

Steel an aluminum however, I have large non-movable rubbermaid containers holding anything from an inch to several inches of scrap - I use that stuff up fairly regularly, though I add to the bins more than I use it.

I even save drill press spirals, because a local junkyard will pay scrap weight for spirals. Not that $25 a year impacts my wallet much, but I'm incredibly cheap so to me, that's like a free set of taillights or something similar

My wife enjoys that stuff by far more than me so I'm off the hook so to speak. My yardly responsibilities including mowing, and hauling. I load the truck at the home center, bring it home, load it onto my mower cart, and make 10 trips around the perimeter of the property and dump whatever it is in a pile, and that's the last I see or hear of that kind of material. Woohoo!

 

[punkin]

Frederick...are you "connected" somehow for access to metal stock or do you have a supplier near you that doesn't require you to buy in bulk? I'm finding that it's actually pretty difficult to buy smaller quantities of square tubing.


sjl

 

[frederic]

Frederick...are you "connected" somehow for access to metal stock or do you have a supplier near you that doesn't require you to buy in bulk? I'm finding that it's actually pretty difficult to buy smaller quantities of square tubing.

sjl

For new material, I buy metal here:

http://www.metalsupermarkets.com/

They have a franchise about 20 minutes from my house, two towns over. Very convienent, and they stock most everything I've needed, steel or aluminum.

The smallest piece I've bought from them was a 6" long 1" square tube

Mail order, there is http://www.metalexpress.net/, though their prices are high unless you're buying at least a small quantity. One or two pieces and you're going to get raped for sure. Once you hit about the $200 mark, both material and shipping goes way down for some reason.

There's also these guys in AZ and they do ship, but are slow to do so:
http://www.imsmetals.com/


An awful lot of the material (especially steel) is from a junkyard or their scrapyard neighbor, two towns over in the other direction. I visit both with my gas-powered circular saw (with a metal cutting blade) or my backpack oxy/acl torch, and cut off what I want/need/etc. This is time consuming if you need a lot of material, but the prices are darn good. Fridge sides, tops and doors are thin-wall flat steel, easy to cut out with almost anything, and you can use that flat plate for spans, boxes, whatever. Larger diameter tubing I can get from rear axle housings from older cars and trucks in the junkyard, and often the scrapyard has piles of steel trailers I can cut rectangular/square tubing off as well. Sometimes if I need a somewhat large flat sheet of steel, I'll cut out an old caddy's trunk lid if I find one in good shape

One friend of mine was starting to price out square steel tubing for a drag truck, and another friend was thinking of tearing down a homemade steel shed framed out with rectangular tubing. I introduced them, and the guy with the shed told the guy wanting to build the truck "take the whole thing down for me and you can have all the steel". I loaned him my gas-powered circular saw and it was down in 20 minutes being loaded onto his pickup. His drag truck is 2/3 done now!

there are also places like howe racing, aircraft spruce and various other car/plane material providers that do really small quantities of just about anything you can dream of, however both are expensive and should be a last resort. There is a difference between overpaying slightly for convienence, and being gang-raped by rabid zebras.

Anyway, there are some options for you, and a few silly anecdotes.

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

I consider my garage a place where I can butcher wood

So do I. On a regular basis. That is if I can find the piece I'm looking for

 

[frederic]

Rick, that's pics of what you have in storage?

 

[punkin]

Thanks Frederick...I appreciate the input.


steve

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Hi frederic, forgive me for posting non studio related stuff, got carried away with the "find stuff to fix" theme That is half my "garage shop". The other half is filled with my wifes ebay stuff Thought I'd toss in a pic of some of my 1/2 finished boxes. Thier all made from scraps. Next time I'll post pics of the studio stuff I'm building.
fitZ

 

[frederic]

Fitz, since when have *I* cared if anyone posts studio pics? Guess you haven't seen my truck bumper on 20 of the prior threads Ha ha ha.

I saw the pictures of all the wood, aluminum and the boxes, but it wasn't immediately obvious to me that it was your place, or maybe where you worked, I just wasn't sure and why I asked.

The boxes are darn cool though. I could make one out of steel or aluminum easily enough.

But wood? not on my life!

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Hello frederic. Just thought I'd show you a couple of boxes close up. Most don't have the interiors finished, or a lacquer finish yet. Usually I line them in velvet, leather or other fabrics. Some have drawers, some trays, some nothing. Some mirrors and jewelry racks, some have masculine details, like my Cadillac,Mercedes, and Harley boxes. Their not finished yet. Custom auto paints from the actual cars and chrome hardware with the real cars emblem on top, and nauhide interiors You know, for car buffs. Or the Feminine boxes. Delicate veneers, or "shabby chic" paints like the crackle and eggshell finishes. Most are just experiments and having fun. And then, theres the "60's" psycadellic jobs.......hahahahaha.......heres one and a few regular "bread and butter" stuff.
Anyway, take a look.

 

[frederic]

Wow.

BTW, you should sell them on e-bay to suppliment your studio

that's what I do with car parts!

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

BTW, you should sell them on e-bay to suppliment your studio

Thats the plan for a few just to test the market. But you know how ebay is. My wife sells all the time but people go there for a deal. This stuff takes time so I'll probably do better at the crafts market here in Coos Bay. In the summer, they have a farmers and craft market right on Hiway 101, which is the coastal high way that runs all along the pacific from San Diego clear up through Washington. Lots of tourists. Plus, the market is right next door to a huge Indian Casino right on the bay. Kinda neat. Plus I'm actually using the crafts as a display to market my custom cabinet and millwork. Right now I'm building a high end custom kitchen for some people down the street. There arn't very many cabinet builders along the whole Oregon coast, so I should do pretty good. Plus craft shows are fun.
Hey Darryl, that "woodbutchers" shed is out back. Hangs out over a 75' ravine straight down Here is the plan for it, or should I say an elevation. "Woodbutcher" comes from a book on handmade houses back in the 70's. Some guy traveled up the coast of California back in the woods and found all kinds of people building homes out of "found" and discarded objects.
VERY cool. Artsy fartsy stuff. But thats what I like. Typical modern residential design turns me off. Especially the tracts like you see everywhere now. They run for MILES in the Sacramento Valley. A hundred or two MILES of homes that look like a giant machine stamped them out in a day. And now, these crap homes are STARTING at 1/4 MILL$. FUCK that. Anyway, take a look. The shed is just past the two big trees. Thats what I mean by my "iso" room. When I first moved in, this pathetic old shed was ready to fall down the ravine. I had to crawl in under it and jack it up and replace the posts and piers. SCARY I just found me a couple of steel beams and bought some cardboard sonotubes to start pouring my new piers for the plan. Damn, the things people go through for ISOLATION!
fitZ

 

[punkin]

Plywood boxes...never thought about working "with" the exposed edge like that. Looks quite nice...different. Would make some nice microphone storage cases. Hint, hint...e-bay.

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Hello punkin. I've been exploiting exposed ply edges for 20 years. I even have a line of custom furniture and casework that I design/modify per job. About 3 years ago, I was a CAD detailer for a large store fixture manufacturer. Their main client was Macys/Federated Dept. Stores. I routinely detailed architectural interiors and showcase type stuff designed by their own design department, but once in a while I was "allowed" to design things. I submitted a design for a line of wall to wall shelving units, that I used this exposed edge on.
Do you know what baltic birch is? It is a marine grade ply with no voids, 9 ply per half inch. Thats what I use on drawer cases among other things. They loved it and approved it for use in 3 Macys flagship stores. Thing was, this only comes in 60"x 60" sheets, which wasn't tall enough nor thick enough as 1" is the thickest it comes in. The shelves and verticals called for 1 1/2" thickness. Easy. I detailed to expose and edge althouth it wasn't ply. I told the shop to laminate 3 sheet units, and rip 1 1/2" strips, and then machine them into a triangular shaped edgband. We built the units out of 2 laminated sheets of Birch veneered MDF, and machined a "V" groove in the edge, which we then glued the "exposed ply" edge into. Ha! Saved about $12,000 in Baltic Birch, which is fairly expensive. Looked great. My boss gave me a $500 bonus for the design/detailing which only took 4 hours to detail. This is the basis for my furniture/casework line. I built my own chest of drawers in my bedroom 20 years ago out of plain ole birch ply with exposed and champhered edges . Lacquer it and it is amazing. People go..."How did you do that?"....never ceases to amaze me. Thats how I got into doing my boxes. I wanted to use the scrap. I hardly ever throw ply away, even old grey ply. Old stuff I resaw after assembly. Comes out EXACTLY like T-111 house siding ply. Those are my "rustic" boxes. you can see one made out of old grey cedar ply in the pics. On those I use a transparent house stain/sealer. They come out great.

fitZ

 

[punkin]

It's good looking in my book. I didn't take in the "void "free" until you mentioned it. I was getting ready to jump into my scrap pile but I'll bet I don't have any materials that would turn out nearly as nice.

Baltic Birch you say...I'll have to do some surfing.

Thanks.

 

[notbradsohner]

I want you boxes. Im gonna try some of those for some mics.

 

[ronsmith]

garage

Rick....quite the crafter!

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Thanks Ron. Been doin it since the 70's. Had a very cool crafts shop and store called Environmental Woodcraft, in Sacramento CA. What a ball. Had 8000 sq ft in an old concrete dairy building. Man would that place made a studio. Damn, had a cold coil room lined with 4' of cork on all 6 planes, and a 75' high room for the tanks, that were on vertical teired floors. The whole room was white ceramic tile. Talk about acoustics!! Best reverb room you ever heard.
fitZ

 

[frederic]

Rick,

NotBradSohner has a great idea... wooden microphone boxes. I'm debating buying one of those ebay mic flight cases, but those things while useful, are fuggin ugly for a studio.

Maybe I'll make one out of steel, or con you into making me one

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Maybe I'll make one out of steel, or con you into making me one

Hahahahaha! No need, I'd be glad to send you one frederic. PM me your address and give me some dimensions. No problem. Hey, while I'm at it, I'm still waiting to see how much of that bulk snake you have left. Let me know. Let's make a deal

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Maybe I'll make one out of steel, or con you into making me one

Hahahahaha! No need, I'd be glad to send you one frederic. PM me your address and give me some dimensions. No problem. Hey, while I'm at it, I'm still waiting to see how much of that bulk snake you have left. Let me know. Let's make a deal
PS. How many mics and whats the dimensions of them? Maybe a case with drawers and a hinged top would be nice. Or just drawers. You tell me.