Angus 2.0

 

Skip to video of Angus HERE

Last summer Maria and I went up to visit her family in Idaho which is when I first met Angus. Angus is their four wheeled two seater Rhoades bike which we had a blast riding around the Tetons that week. After looking at the existing hardware I mentioned to my father in law Pat that the bike already had most of what it needed to be motorized and that it looked like a fairly easy and cheap project. My original idea was to put in a 200cc honda clone. Pat was interested but also a little more responsible than I am. He was concerned about the legality of such a creature. Anyway, the idea had been planted and Pat was later able to find a 50cc kit that would be mostly road legal in Idaho.

This summer when we went back up to Idaho for another visit Pat had already started putting the kit together and I was able to help him mount it onto the bike. The engine is light enough that you can turn it off, pedal, and forget that it is back there (in fact that is the backup plan for when we see police). It is also unique in that the engine uses one of the existing sprocket sets so you can use one of the bikes shifters with the engine as if you were driving a manual car.

Click HERE to watch a little video of the bike in action.

UBA helmet

A while back my dad found some old  pictures from one of my earlier creations which he emailed out to the family. We called it the UBA helmet (Underwater Breathing Apparatus minus the Self Contained part of SCUBA). We had a lot of fun with that thing, bouncing around on the bottom of the pool in slow motion like we were out on a moon walk. Strangely enough, my memory of events don't completely match up with those of my siblings but I thought it would be fun to include their memories from that chain of emails.



"I mentioned Rich's early inventions like the diving helmet.  Here is a later diary entry with a drawing of the famous helmet and also a couple of photos of the prototype in actual use (notice who he has working the pump on the edge of the pool).  I continued to use that big rock with the strap attached when I would clean algae off the bottom of our pool.  I noticed the note says "hose can be as long as you want it" (which in Rich's case was about 30 minutes since he got interested in other inventions as soon as he finished this one)."
Russell Cannon

"I remember when we first tried this out. Rich tied a rock to himself and sank to the bottom with the bucket on his head. Once he got to the bottom the hose detached from the bucket, and all the air bubbled out through the hole. He sat at the bottom of the pool for a while, tied to a rock with no air, while we debated about who should jump in to help. He eventually made it out on his own, though."

Jesse Cannon

 "I also remember that first trial run. As I recall, it was still winter or early spring, so Rich was wearing his wetsuit since he didn't want to wait for warmer weather to try it out. None of us wanted to jump in the freezing water, so instead we tried throwing small rocks down on him as a signal..."
Nate Cannon

"I don't think this experience was actually a test run for the UBA but a test for his brothers."
Gina Steed

standing desk

Maria had been dropping hints for some time that she would like a standing desk so I started building one last month for her birthday. I am normally a big fan of surprising her with gifts but the desk took up too much time and space in the garage to slip under her radar. Besides that, it was fun to get her input and get a better idea of what she wanted and take measurements to customize the height for her. She wanted kind of a utilitarian look (oh good, the only thing I know how to do) and this is what I ended up with.

 I picked up a couple sticks of 1"x.095 square cross section  for the metal frame. It makes the desk fairly light but very sturdy. For the wood sections I used MDF. The stuff is easy to work with and you don't have to worry about picking up warped or knotty pieces. One downside is that it picks up stains and smudges very easily and I will probably have go back and throw on a coat of polyurethane before long. There is one metal cross bar that can be unbolted allowing the whole thing to be disassembled and stored flat (in your face ikea). Before this project I had been working on building my own chop saw, it was 90% complete when I found a nice one at a garage sale for $20...oh well. The chop saw made a big difference in producing sharper cuts and welds for a more professional look.

 Maria and I came up with the idea of doing half peg board and half cork board for the backing which has really helped clean up some of the clutter from the old desk.

 When I got my grandfathers old table saw I also found some cool little attachments that simulate routed edges. For the desk I used a simple round edge that would be comfortable to rest your wrists on.

And here is a link to a fun article to make you want your own stand up desk    Become A Stand-Up Guy





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Marble Works

I built these several months back for a couple of my younger nephews. I had some plexiglass laying around and had recently picked up some straight routing bits I wanted to practice with. Simple construction and I think the kids have had fun with them.

And here is a video of how it works
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caVIwxnXLxM&feature=youtu.be