Memory Box with lid-triggered audio

After having our son, my partner wanted me to make her a memory box where she could keep all the trinkets and keepsakes from his birth.

As it is something of an old stereotype that such things would be kept in an old shoe box, I wanted to mimic that aesthetic.

The box is made from iroko, sides of approx 1cm, joined with box joints.
The base is simple hardboard, rebated into the sides.

I didn’t really want to add hardware such as hinges as I felt it would detract from the shoebox aesthetic, so I opted for a simple lift off lid.

The lid itself is made from a thicker piece of iroko, with trim added around the edges.

In order to provide a good friction fit, a piece of plywood, wrapped in t-shirt fabric, matching the boxes internal width and depth was added to the lid. This holds the lid on without rattling around, and incidentally hides the “bonus feature” of the box.

The bonus feature

Of course I can’t do anything normal like just make a box.

During his first few weeks, whenever our son sneezed, he would follow it up with a little noise that sounded like he was saying “oh..”. Of course it was incredibly cute and a memory we want to cherish forever.

What my partner didn’t know at the time, is I had managed to catch this on video, and I wanted to surprise her with it. 

A few years ago (around 2015-2016 I think), Sainsburys brought out a Christmas biscuit selection box which included a gadget for recording a message that would play when the biscuit tin was opened.

Somewhere along the line somebody I know must have got one, I scavenged the gadget from the tin once it was empty, and it spent the past few years sat in my electronics junk drawer, waiting for a project to be used in.

 

 

The circuit board is clearly designed as a disposable product – it is powered by 3 button cell batteries, which are riveted to the PCB itself. Whatever microcontroller powers it is hidden under an epoxy blob, and the only other notable features are a small microphone, speaker, a light dependent resistor (which is how it detects if the box is opened), and a small switch used to start and stop recording.

First thing to do was to drill out the rivets and get rid of the dead batteries.
Rather than replace them with more button cells, I opted for wiring in a AAA battery holder, I just had to follow the PCB traces and connect it at the right point.

 The microphone is pretty much as crap as you would expect for something of that size in a ostensibly disposable product, so I needed a better way to record the audio.

To do that I replaced the microphone with a 3.5mm jack and coupling capacitor. Once I’d copied over the recording, I removed that as well to save space, and also removed the record button to avoid overwriting.

 

Then it was simply a matter of hiding the electronics in the box. This was done by carving out a hollow in the middle of the lid. The ‘inner lid’ of plywood that was also used to create a friction latch, added sufficient depth to the lid in order to hide the battery and PCB.

The underside of the lid with hollow for PCB/battery and speaker.

The t-shirt fabric that covered the inner lid also hid the circuitry, while also allowing enough light to pass through to activate the recording.

Hardwood slim line LED panel light fitting with accent lights

I recently purchased a pair of low profile LED ceiling lights from a charity auction on Ebay.

It seemed like the kind of thing that I’d find a use for eventually, and it was for a good cause.

After buying I had a message from the seller to tell me that they only had one driver for the two panels – I went ahead with the purchase because at the end of the day I wasn’t expecting them to be new and pristine from a charity auction.

My curiosity was piqued when they arrived. I noticed another label sticking out from underneath the address label. I peeled it back, and revealed an Amazon delivery label to a different address.

Initially I figured perhaps it was an Amazon returned item – one of the drivers was missing, therefore the original purchaser returned it, and it was sold on to the charity as one of those wholesale return pallets that you see advertised.

I did also think that the wires on the mains side of the LED driver seemed a little bit thin. However I tested it with those panels and they actually seemed to work okay, so I didn’t think much more of it.

Losing faith

So, I started to put together a project plan to make a light fitting with them.

I wanted to add in a few extra accent lights but everything I had was 12v, and the light fittings driver was 18v. While I was mulling over options – adding in a separate transformer, the space and heat issues to work round, etc. I noticed a couple of other things.

The case of the driver seems to have fake screw heads stamped on them. Not in itself a problem, but kind of sketchy.

And the panels themselves are stamped with 18w, not 18v.

The output of the driver says 9-18v at 300ma.

W=V*A.

There’s no way that if those panels are 18w, the driver can provide enough power to them.

This made me rethink my theory on the background of these lights.

Having a look on Amazon I can see very similar products, with identical looking drivers – the only difference being that the outputs are rated differently.

My guess is that this set of lights came with incorrect drivers, and the original purchaser damaged one whilst trying it.

It’s only a theory and not enough to make a claim against, it ultimately is enough to destroy my faith in these lights and make me not want to use them as they are.

Rebuilding the electronics

I had built the design around the size of these panels, so I decided to rip out all of the electronics.

On doing so I realized that the panels were just flexible LED strip edge mounted to a diffuser.

I swapped out the LED strip that was there with some white 12v strip LEDs. I had to trim about a millimeter off the sides of the diffuser in order to account for the slightly larger LEDs.

In an initial test the LED light was quite patchy, so I took the diffuser from the second light and doubled up. This makes a notable difference.

To drive the strip I’m using a regular RGB LED control box.

Initially my choice of this was simply because it was available and had a small profile so would fit well in the fitting.

However this also gave me the idea I could run the accent lighting and the main light on different color channels, allowing them to be controlled separately. It would also allow me to dim the light.

The design

Because I don’t want to carve out my ceiling to flush fit the panel I planned to build a small mitred frame, with another frame mounted at forty five degrees behind it. The back frame would contain some accent lights, with the front frame housing the main light fitting.

the fitting needed to fit in with the of our lights in the room, so I disassembled the original fitting and spray painted it black.

For the wood frame I opted to use zebrano.

The frames are simple squares with 45 degree mitres, and a 2mm deep by 10mm wide rebate to fit the light fitting frame flush with the surface.

The back frame was turned at a 45 degree angle, and screwed to the front frame.

The back frame also had a pair of key hole plate mounted to the back, which will be used for connecting to the ceiling.

Accent Lighting

Rather than cut up the filters from the second light, I opted instead to use a stack of filters from an old PC monitor. It was simply a case of measuring out the triangles, cutting them and then gluing them in place with hot glue.

Each corner would have a single segment of white LED strip (3 LEDs per corner). These would be connected in series and then connected to the RGB LED control box, on a different color channel to the main light, allowing them to be used independently.

The rest of the electronics

The IR receiver from the control box sticks out behind the front frame, so it is not visible from ground level, but catches enough reflected light from the ceiling to function.

However, this didn't last long and soon found itself wrapped in black tape because what I didn't realise at the time was that the IR receiver worked on the same encoding as our TV remote and we soon bored of having the lights change as we scrolled through TV guide menus.

PSU

The power supply is provided by an AC-DC “wall-wart” – I had to be quite selective in which one I picked to fit within the frame. The one I opted for had a removable face plate which allowed me to remove the socket pins and wire directly into.

The end result

 

Dartboard Cabinet

I got a dartboard for Christmas, which I have on the wall in my home office.

Darts is a great excuse for getting up and stretching your legs between video meetings, or while thinking over a problem, rather than just pacing back and forth.

However up until now it's simply had an old piece of hardboard as a backing, so thought it's time it got a proper cabinet.

The design is to have two compartments, the main dartboard cupboard (obviously!), and below that a small compartment which can be used as storage for the darts and accessories, and will open to provide a platform to help catch bounce-outs.

The Frame 

The frame is made from a reclaimed iroko desktop - I believe it was from an old school chemistry lab. It's about 5cm thick, so ideal for covering the thickness of the dartboard.

This was ripped down into 4 lengths to make the sides of the frame.

These are jointed using lapped mitre joints, screwed through from the back for extra support.

The divider between the main dartboard compartment and the lower storage compartment is joined into the sides with pocket screws.

The backing of the main compartment is hardboard, reclaimed from some dismantled hollow-core doors, simply pinned into rebates in the frame.
The backing of the lower storage compartment is reclaimed laminate flooring, which helps to add rigidity to the structure, again, screwed into rebates in the back of the frame.

I layered some cork over it, to try and prevent bounce-outs and reduce impact noise, although in hindsight I regret that decision, as the thin cork veneer seems to disintegrate at the slightest provocation. But seeing as it's there to catch errant darts, it's pretty much a consumable anyway.

The doors
The doors are iroko, edged with oak to add some contrast.

The fold down door for the storage compartment is reclaimed from a previous project which didn't pan out, and is already built in the same manner.

It also has a leather lining, again from a previous project - I don't know how well that's going to withstand some dart bounce-outs, but I don't think it's chances of surviving being ripped out are much better, so opted to leave it in.

For the storage compartment, a leather lace is used to create a limiter to stop the door folding down too far. This simply threads through a hole drilled in the divider and is knotted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A simple latch for this is mounted in the side, made from miscellaneous brass hardware from the junk bin.

On the door side, the lace is threaded through more brass hardware (I believe a Chubb keyhole cover), and knotted. The knot is recessed into the door to hide it, and the hardware screwed to the door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The handles

The handles for the doors are made of leather. This is done by creating a loop as shown below.

A hole is drilled through the thickest part (the 3-layer section). Between the second and third layer only, a small screw is placed with a washer.

The first and second layers are stitched together, and the handle screwed to the door. The hole in the first layer provides access for the screwdriver, as the head of the screw is hidden.

When that's done, the hole in the first layer is hidden by the rivet.

  

Finishing touches

In the back of the cabinet, keyhole hooks were recessed into the top and bottom of the frame. The sides would've been preferable, but the placement on the wall would have collided with cabling behind the wall.

A whole was cut in the centre of the dartboard compartment, this is to allow the existing wall mount to pass through - so the dartboard does still have a direct mount to the wall, which aids with it's positioning on the wall - we can make use of the calculations we did when it was first hung.

Finally, a couple of coats of danish oil were applied to bring out the pattern of the grain.

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Glass display tray

Last Christmas I was given a nice set of drinks glasses.
In order to keep them safe, I keep them in their original cardboard box, which keeps them safe, but isn’t aesthetically great and keeps them hidden, so this was a quick project to create storage for them that is better looking and more permanent, and would fit in with the display stand I created earlier.

The box itself is made from iroko scrap. The outer walls are simple butt joints, and the dividers interlock each other as shown in the animation below.
For a finish, the wood was treated with danish oil.

Obligatory TL;DR finished project pic:

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read on for a description of the build (and me practising my 3D skills in Blender!)

Thin foam was cut to squares as a base in each of the six segments.

Thin strips of foam were then wrapped around the glasses and they were placed into the box, where the edges of the box act to hold the circle of foam in place, and finally small triangular segments were cut and placed around the circle to pad the corners. This creates a suitable fit, and the foam has an almost velcro-like quality that holds all the bits together without needing adhesive.

Drinks display stand

This is another small part of a larger modular project.

The aim is to create a display for drinks bottles and miniatures, which will present them nicely, while at the same time securing them to protect against small amounts of movement. i.e. I'm not expecting them to be secured if the whole stand is tipped over, but they must be able to tolerate the stand being wobbled side-to-side without the bottles clinking or falling over.

There is also the need to balance the trade-off between the display aspect of the unit, and the amount of storage it provides.

After iterating over a number of designs I settled on the idea of having a central area which would display a number of larger bottles, with a frame/shelf element around the back and side edges to hold miniatures (the front would need to be left open to allow access to the bottles).







The base

The base is simple plywood, with foam to support the larger bottles. The foam is spray-glued to the plywood, with cut-outs to place the bottles, and is wrapped in fabric - also spray-glued and stapled.

The frame

The frame is oak, attached through the bottom of the plywood, and supported by the miniatures shelves and the top frame, which is mitred, and screwed to the uprights with dowels to cover the screw holes. The sides are left open, but the back is enclosed with iroko (there is a logic to this that will become apparent later). The mixture of woods creates a nice colour contrast and adds additional support. 
 

The miniatures shelves

The basic idea behind the miniature shelf is to use a forstner bit to cut out grooves for the bottles to stand in. But this alone raises a couple of problems

• If they're just sat in holes, it won't be possible to see the labels and know easily what they are.
• There's no definitive standard size/shape of the bottles.

The latter question has an easy answer, just pick the smallest forstner bit that covers the most bottles that I have to hand - this turned out to be 41mm.

The solution to the first point is to cut the groove off centre, so that it has an open front, allowing the label to be seen, but again, this raises the next question - if the groove is open-fronted, then what's to stop the bottle just falling out?

I'd already planned to line the bottle slots with leather to prevent rattling. By over-sizing the corners of the leather (see below illustration), the leather also acts like a clip to hold the bottles in place, with a sturdy leather disc glued in the bottom to provide extra support.

The finished display
 

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Mechanical Pencil

About a year ago, at Makers Central, I did a wood-turning tutorial and made my first pen.

Since then, I've added a mini-lathe to the workshop (purely because I lack the room for a full size one).

Just before heading back to Makers Central this year I thought it'd be good to have another go and see my progress.

Being me, I'm not really a fan of just constructing kits, and I always like to try and incorporate elements of upcycling and reclaiming into my projects.
 

I've had this ballpoint and mechanical pencil set for as long as I can remember - it's old to the point where you can see how faded the plastic has become. So there's the upcycling bit of the project sorted, this time I'm going to make a mechanical pencil to re-house the innards of this one.


The pencil is walnut and chrome - I wanted to try and keep the same shape as the pen I made last year, but use contrasting colours to the maple and brass that I used last time.
The metal bits came from a clicky pen kit, but were a good enough fit to work with the pencil mechanism.

So there we go. Making pens is enjoyable, but doesn't make much of a project, and I generally don't make more than one of the same item, so I don't see myself becoming a full-time pen turner any time soon, but I do have some variations of the theme that I might pursue.

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A walnut and chrome mechanical pencil, trying to match the shape and style of the pen I made a year ago. #diy #handmade #woodturning #woodworking #hardwood #walnut #maker

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Leatherworking Punch Press

Following on from the stitching pony I built a while back, this is another leather-working tool build.

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Living in a flat I am a bit limited on what I can do DIY-wise due to noise, particularly in the evening. Even simply using a mallet with stitching chisels to punch holes in the leather can be a bit too much.

The aim of this project is to create a press-like tool that is sturdy enough for me to just push the chisels through the material, allowing me to work more quietly.

I opted for some hardwoods for this project as although the original plan for a very utilitarian tool, testing found a lot of flex and give in the cheaper pallet wood I'd originally planned to use.

The base and back are iroko, with oak providing the corner piece and the uprights that connect the lever, which is maple.

All the pieces are simply screwed together, with a bolt passing through the oak and maple to create the pivot.

The levers handle was rounded with a notch cut into it's underside to support the chisels, and a cheap cutting board was used to create a working surface.

Finally, a small scrap of leather was attached to the back with upholstery nails, which creates 4 loops, to store the chisels.

In time I intend to give the handle a leather wrap, but that can wait until I've got a suitably sized scrap to spare.

It works great, not only in reducing the noise, but is actually a lot faster to use than the mallet, so I'm a lot more productive as well.

3 Panel Oak Picture/Poster Frame

A few years ago I bought a set of three Hotline Miami posters from the Eurogamer Expo. As much as I liked them I never round to hanging them - I kept telling myself I'd get a good frame, but never did.


This frame was made from a single piece of oak, and consists of dovetail-like joints in for the middle of the structure with half-lap miters for the corners.

The glass was upcycled from 3 individual picture frames from the local scrapyard - The existing frames were completely mismatched and in a bad state, but they all happened to have the same size glass, which cleaned up easily for this new frame.

Pic of the finished frame below, with sketch/build video below.

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Ring Box part 2

In my last post, I showed the process of building a small wooden engagement/wedding ring box. Obviously it needs some lining to be fit for use.

The original sketch had a note next to it about an LED in the lid which I definitely wanted to do, but there's some space constraints to consider, namely where to fit batteries in the box while still keeping the traditional ring box appearance.

To create the padded sections, I used some leather offcuts, rolled up with the suede side exposed. The front "pad" is literally just that.

The rear pad has rolled from a 'L'-shape piece of leather, like in the illustration. When rolled, this creates a small hollow in the tube, where the batteries will reside.

Electronics
The circuit is very simple. A white LED in the lid of the box will be powered by two G3A batteries (v. small cell batteries), and triggered by a normally closed reed switch. (i.e. putting the switch near a magnet breaks the connection).

The reed switch is carefully placed in the hinge near a small magnet (hidden under the leather), so that when the lid is closed, the magnet holds the reed switch open.


G3A is not a common type of battery, I just happened to have a lot that I recovered from some recycled electronics. As a result I couldn't find a battery holder for them, so I adapted this CR2032 design from Thingiverse.

The battery holder. View on Thingiverse.

The LED itself is just mounted with hot glue, angled down toward where the ring will be situated. The wires run down the inside of the lid to the hinge, where the reed switch is positioned.


On the base side of the hinge, is the small magnet which triggers the reed switch.

All of this is covered by another strip of leather, which is glued - suede side up, to the inside of the lid, and runs down to the hinge, overhanging it into the base (see photo). This overhang is tucked behind the leather roll containing the batteries, hiding all the wiring, but meaning it is still accessible should the need arise (to change the batteries, for example).

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The finished box

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A moving shot to try and illustrate the sparkling of the ring under the LED light.

Ring Box part 1

Between the sign and the cake stand, and now this, my projects seem to be very wedding-focused of late.

Originally this ring box was going to be a project for the same wedding as the other two, but unfortunately due to various circumstances, it didn't materialise in time for the big day.

So when my brother got engaged recently, I gave him the designs I'd already sketched up and he picked this one for me to build for him.

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The woodworking component of this is pretty straightforward.

The wood I used is oak for the main body, and a darker hardwood (of the well-known species 'offcuttus miscellanei') for the sides, to provide a nice aesthetic contrast.

I was referencing an existing ring box for scale,
and purely by coincidence, the wood sections
I was using were a spot-on size.

Because of the small scale of the box, it's difficult to do any advanced joinery, so the pieces are simply glued, but the wood is light enough and small enough that the joints are still sufficiently strong.

Once all the glue-up is complete, it's off for some sanding to ensure everything's cleaned and squared up, leaving us with a sealed hollow cube.

Some work in progress shots of the ring box. This was certainly one of those projects that at times seemed a mess and you had to keep faith it'd look good when it's done. #diy #maker #woodworking #handmade #wedding #ring

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With that done, the cube needs to be cut. Typically, it seems, most ring boxes are about 50-50 (half the height in the lid, half in the base). However, I've opted for a 25-75 split, leaving a larger base, as the plan is to include a small LED light, and I'll need space for batteries and wiring.

I took the hinge from the existing ring box I was using for reference. To fit it, I drilled out a small cavity in the back of the box for it. As the wood is only about a quarter inch thick, this was the most nerve-wracking part of the whole project.
Once I got it fitted, I sanded off the top of the base-back and the lid, so that their edges didn't collide when opening.

When satisfied with the opening mechanism, I epoxied the hinge in place.

Then the rest of the exterior is just a case of shaping with the sander and a coat of danish oil to finish.

Then onto the interior...

Oak Desk with Embedded TV/Monitor part 3 : Fitting the TV

This is a continuation of my build of an oak and glass desk with a 32" TV & computer built into it. The previous parts of the build can be found below.

• Part one
• Part two

Step 5: Fitting the TV

The TV that was volunteered for the project is a Samsung 32" LCD.

Removing the bezel revealed the actual dimensions of the panel and the frame which would need to be incorporated into the desk. To allow this whilst keeping the panel near to the glass I had to rout a border into the underside of the desktop - as mentioned in part 2.


Fortunately the frame of the TV included mounting holes. Less fortunately, they were in line with the thinner ledge that held the glass. It didn't seem wise to mount screw the TV to that thin ledge - it had enough weight to support with the glass alone, therefore I created small plywood mounts to go between the TVs mounting holes and the main body of the desktop.

A photo posted by Anthony (@darkmidnight_diy) on Sep 12, 2016 at 5:46am PDT

In order to protect the user and the electronics from each other, I decided to keep the plastic back of the TV. This was simply held in place by several "mechanical retention blocks" (a fancy name for small offcuts of wood that wedged the back in place). This held the back securely, while also allowing access should it be required for maintenance/upgrades.

A photo posted by Anthony (@darkmidnight_diy) on Sep 19, 2016 at 4:46am PDT

Step 6: Fitting the CHIP

Rather than have cables trailing to the TV from an input device, I decided to add a small single-board computer. The system I've opted for is the CHIP - a $9 dollar board. I backed their Kickstarter for a couple of CHIP systems and a VGA adapter board. The spare CHIP will surely find it's way to another project, but one of them and the VGA board are being used here.

After setting up the board and configuring it using a spare monitor, it was time to transfer it to the TV. I removed the back of the TV, and sat the CHIP there - there was sufficient space for the board, but I had to cut out a bit of plastic for the cables to run through (the VGA cable into the back of the TV, the power, which went to a phone charger in the desk's extension lead, and a USB extension lead which just runs out to the back of the TV so that I could connect peripherals if needed.)

Once the back was replaced on the TV, there's not really much to indicate it's anything more than a standard TV.

A photo posted by Anthony (@darkmidnight_diy) on Oct 24, 2016 at 5:31am PDT

A photo posted by Anthony (@darkmidnight_diy) on Oct 24, 2016 at 9:53am PDT

The next (and hopefully final step) will be to get some software on there.

Oak Desk with Embedded TV/Monitor part 2

This is a continuation of my build of an oak and glass desk with a 32" TV & computer built into it. The first part of the build is here.

Step 3: Routing the back to fit the TV

Even with the plastic bezel removed from around the front of the TV, there's still a metal frame supporting the screen, which can't be removed.

Just sitting the TV against the back of the desktop would leave a gap of 28mm between the glass and the screen, which is enough to look a bit weird.

I routed the back of the desk to allow the TV to be positioned closer to the glass. This meant removing another 10mm from the desktop thickness, leaving the 'ledge' that the glass sits of at 18mm.

Step 4: Creating the legs

It made sense to use the section that had been removed from the middle of the desktop for the legs. However, I didn't want to just use the flat board, as it would just look lazy and reminiscent of flat-pack furniture, even when cut into 4 for the legs.

I also needed to give consideration to the cabling for the screen, which led me to the idea of splitting the wood into 8 pieces, and pairing them together to create the four legs. This would allow for the cabling to be integrated, and give a more solid leg aesthetic which better suited the style I was aiming for.

The 8 leg parts, ready to pair up and join

The wood cut from the centre of the desk, cut to 8 pieces and joined by dowel and wood glue in pairs to create the four legs #DIY #woodworking #oak #doityourself #carpentry #woodwork #handmade

A photo posted by Anthony (@darkmidnight_diy) on Aug 20, 2016 at 12:29pm PDT

To allow for the cable to be run, before joining the last leg, I routed a groove in the joining sides. a hole was drilled through to the outer corner of the leg. This will be tidied up later to incorporate the hole in part of the design so it doesn't look too out of place.

A photo posted by Anthony (@darkmidnight_diy) on Aug 21, 2016 at 3:07pm PDT

Then the corners of the legs were shaped, and open mortises were cut to attach the desks skirt

A photo posted by Anthony (@darkmidnight_diy) on Aug 23, 2016 at 4:55am PDT

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A photo posted by Anthony (@darkmidnight_diy) on Sep 2, 2016 at 4:43am PDT

With the legs done, I can move onto fitting the TV.