“Picture and Collection Bar”

This is another one of those projects I found on Pinterest & decided to make a DIY implementation of. The original pin describes it as a “picture and collection bar”.

Essentially using a wooden strip to trap marbles in such a way that they have a little movement but due to the sloped design will always try to move downward and towards the wall.

This means that if you push a piece of paper through the gap at the bottom, there is enough movement for the marbles to get out of its way but they will immediately roll down, providing just enough friction to hold the paper – but not enough friction to prevent you from easily removing the paper again if you need to.

It’s kind of like an ultra slim pin board, but without having to put holes in your paper.

Design
The original design I found used pretty thin strips that appear to be jointed it mitred angles.

Instead I opted for using a larger piece of oak, but then cutting out an angled gap for the marbles.

The cross section looks something like this:

Construction
The actual construction of this was very simple, just a series of rebate cuts on the table saw, occasionally making one of them angled, and making one very us at the bottom of the piece, so that when it’s up against the wall there is a slight gap as can be seen in the above diagram, which will allow paper to pass through.

Then I capped off the ends with a little piece of mahogany, to prevent the marbles from rolling out the sides – this is simply glued and pinned in place – and then finally some finishing.

As the piece of oak I was using was reclaimed and had a couple of screw holes, I patched one which looks a little bit like a knot in the wood, and the other two which were at the edges, I decided to patch using brass tacks, as the holes were in a position where if I were going to screw this to the wall I would have put holes anyway.

Mounting
The tricky part of this project is mounting it to the wall. My design does not have a back piece because I did not want it to protrude too far from the wall. The downside of this means until it is on the wall, the marbles could fall out the back.

So, firstly, I filled the back with some marbles.

 I then used gaffer tape across the back of the marbles and the lower part of the bar – leaving the side top bit exposed as this is where the adhesive is going to go. I left enough excess gaffer tape to be able to fold it round so that there was a ‘handle’ hanging off the bottom of the bar.

Obviously the next step is to mark out a position on the wall to mount it, make sure that it is level, etc. Then apply the glue to the back of the bar, and stick it to the wall.

Once you’re confident that the glue set, you can put on the gaffer tape ‘handle’, to peel the tape away from the marbles on the back, releasing them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Result

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.

View this post on Instagram

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

A post shared by Anthony (@darkmidnight_diy) on Jun 1, 2019 at 2:35pm PDT

Woodturned Pen

This isn't a project as such but last weekend I attended Makers Central in Birmingham.

It was a brilliant event, and great to be amongst so many creative people and share the wealth of knowledge and experience.

This pen is the result of my first attempt at wood turning courtesy of the Record Power stand.

It's certainly not perfect, but as a first attempt I'm pretty pleased with it, and a lathe is certainly on the workshop wishlist.

A post shared by Anthony (@darkmidnight_diy) on May 8, 2018 at 10:38am PDT