welcome to my projects page
this is going to be very bare bones for now but it's a start. The links below don't go anywhere... yet. But in time they will.
thoughts on design and manufacture
at the time of writing this, 2025/08/24, I've been trying to come up with a more considered approach to the things I design and make. It's something I've been thinking about in passing for a long time but, for whatever reason, has become an active thought recently.
what I've come up with so far is a largely meaningless way of categorising my approach. In what feels a pretty pretentious move, I've settled on the moniker of "Additive Design", hoping that giving it a name will help me to refine my thought processes. The jury's out on whether that will be a success or not.
now, additive design/manufacture tends to be synonymous with 3D printing but this is by no means a requirement in my line of thinking. I'm intending it as a more generalised term: trying to be more constructive than destructive, adding more than you take out. Building things up instead of taking things away. I guess a lot of this standpoint is built on the idea of material efficiency and wanting to get the greatest value from the material that is used. Reclaiming/recycling existing material will probably end up being a pretty core principle wherever it can be applied as well.
in a world of increasingly stretched resources, this just seems a better way of trying to move forward. The impact of one person working away in their garage is negligible in the grand scheme of things but it's something, even if it's not stopping millions of gallons of crude spilling into the gulf.
something to note in this philosophy is I'm mostly thinking about in terms of guitar design and construction. That being said, I'm not looking to make it so specific that it can't be applied to any other projects I'm doing. Not everything will have much crossover and I think it's probably only right that this unofficial ruleset adapts over time. Knowledge and experience isn't static so why should a set of guidelines not update to suit a given time or challenge?
i'm almost certainly going to break my own rules but I'm not really intending this to be a set in stone set of rules I must follow or else. If nothing else, I'm hoping it'll make me be more considered in how I approach the projects I set myself. Not just following tradition or the path of least resistance.
i'll keep trying to review and refine my thinking on this and some time down the road see if it's aged like the finest milk or if I've managed to hold myself to it, at least to some degree.
| date | category | title | status | update |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025/08/25 | workshop | workshop/windows | inProgress | back window is done now. Had a productive afternoon out in the garage and got the solid panel recessed into the frame and then glued it all together. Did some gap filling on the front window and there'll be a bit today on the back as well. Should be able tyo get that sorted through the week and then onto painting before the window panes arrive. |
| 2025/08/24 | workshop | workshop/windows | inProgress | got the front window frame finished up today. Needs a little more work to fill in some small gaps round the joints but nothing that can't be fixed or hidden under paint. |
| 2025/08/17 | graphicDesign | hobbiesWeeklyVol124Font | complete | created a basic font from a template in the back of a Hobbies Weekly magazine from the 50s using calligraphr. There's no punctuation marks so that might be a future project if I fancy it, but for now I'm calling it done. |
| 2025/08/17 | workshop | workshop/windows | inProgress | managed to get the basic frames finished last weekend. Nipped out yesterday to get the ply I needed for the solid panels and started cutting the rebates for the panels to fit into. Got as far as cutting the channel in the bottom and middle sections for the front window. Window panes are due to arrive on 09/09 so I've got until then to get everything buttoned up and painted. |
| 2025/08/03 | electronics/audio | ipodClassicRepair | inProgress | took the back off to see if I could work out why it had stopped working. The iFlash board had become detached and then snapped a component off the jack/hold switch assembly |
| 2025/08/03 | bike | cubeAttain/refresh2025 | inProgress | started sanding down the frame in preparation for repainting it, mostly to get a feel of how much work I've got ahead of me |
| 2025/08/03 | workshop | workshop/windows | inProgress | after getting a bit done through the week got out today and managed to get the outer frame fitted together. Still got the centre upright to fit but getting close now. |
| 2025/07/05 & 06 | guitar | customBassBody | inProgress | started making the routing template for the pickup cavity and did some more refining of the body outline |
| 2025/07/05 & 06 | workshop | workshop/windows | inProgress | got the joinery started on the front window. Managed to get the base horizontal and sides fitted together and started on the top horizontal |
| 2025/06/23 | bookBinding | notebook/2025-01 | complete | finished off the cover and then attaching that to the book block |
| 2025/06/20 | bike | cubeAttain/refresh2025 | inProgress | I'm now down to a bare frame (except the bottom bracket and headset). I've given everything an initial clean and just need to remove some glue residue from the old frame protection strips |
| 2025/06/18 | bookBinding | notebook/2025-01 | inProgress | trimmed my book block down ready for making the cover |
| 2025/06/08 | workshop | workshop/windows | inProgress | finished fitting the centre upright. Frame for the back window is now basically done except fitting the solid panel to the smaller section. |
| 2025/06/08 | bike | cubeAttain/refresh2025 | inProgress | finished removing the brakes, brake hoses & brake discs. Next step is a real thorough cleaning of the frame. |
| 2025/06/08 | bookBinding | notebook/2025-01 | inProgress | sewed the signatures together and glued the spine |
| 2025/06/03 | bookBinding | notebook/2025-01 | inProgress | folded up all the signatures and punched all the holes so it's ready to (start) sewing together in the near future. |
| 2025/06/02 | electronics/audio | 3In1AudioSwitcher | complete(-ish) | finished the wiring for this yesterday and made up the 3.5mm cables to connect everything tonight. Everything works as it should apart from one issue. When I've got both my laptop and desktop connected I get interference/noise/crackle. I think it's probably ground loop hum but I'm no expert and it's beyond my expertise. A bit of research needed to fix it. |
| 2025/05/29 | electronics/audio | philipsPortableSpeaker | complete | replaced the disintegrating input cable so that I can actually use this again. Both of the battery connections seem to have gone bad as well but I'm planning on using it plugged in, y'know to really make the most of it's portability, so I'll repair that in the future if I need to. |
| 2025/05/27 | bike | giantTcx/maintenance | ongoing | new TAG T1 saddle arrived so swapped it on in place of the existing one. Once the weather's improved I'll be able to see if it's more comfortable or not. |
| 2025/05/27 | bike | cubeAttain/refresh2025 | inProgress | crankset retaining bolt tool arrived today so I could finally remove the cranks |
| 2025/05/26 | bookBinding | notebook/2025-01 | inProgress | printed the dot grid pattern onto what will become the pages. Could do with some improvements for next time but I'm happy enough as a first go. Now that's done, the first hurdle's out of the way. |
| 2025/05/26 | bike | cubeAttain/refresh2025 | inProgress | spent a couple of minutes removing the front derailleur & looking at removing the rear brake hose |
| 2025/05/26 | workshop | workshop/windows | inProgress | started cutting the joints for the centre upright |
| 2025/05/08 | guitar | yamahaImageCustom | complete | replacing damaged battery clips |