Monthly Archives: December 2014

Future-proofing the workbench

Posted on December 29, 2014 by paulwallich

I think the workbench was one of the first things I built in the basement after we moved in 14 years ago, out of leftover flooring from the previous place. It’s long since become just one more flat surface punctuated … Continue reading →

Posted in making, possibly useful | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Like kids in a candy store

Posted on December 18, 2014 by paulwallich

This morning I had a short meeting with the Cardboard Teck Instantute (aka Ben Matchstick and Pete Talbot), who have a residency at Generator next month.  These guys are so good at building toys, games, vehicles, whatever entirely out of … Continue reading →

Posted in making, possibly useful, toys | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

This year with less risk of exploding batteries

Posted on December 16, 2014 by paulwallich

So there was this spot in our living room that was just perfect for an Ikea lamp. The only problem was that we didn’t want to pay an electrician to put in a new electrical line, or a sheetrock/painter type … Continue reading →

Posted in making, possibly useful, probably boring | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The encrustation of the analog on the digital

Posted on December 8, 2014 by paulwallich

If Henri Bergson had been writing around the turn of the millennium, he would have talked about abstraction violations. In his time, it was about living beings acting like mechanisms. For me this weekend, it was about digital devices acting … Continue reading →

Posted in probably boring, things that don't work | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

I am amazed that this works

Posted on December 1, 2014 by paulwallich

I knew those clip-on magnifiers were good for something other than soldering. That’s an 0603 surface mount LED, held down by wire glue. The traces are silver conductive ink, and those huge-looking red and black conductors are 22-gauge hookup wire. … Continue reading →

Posted in making, possibly useful, toys | Tagged , , | Leave a comment