Ross's Awesome Wooden Shelf

Ross Nunamaker, world famous blogger from Nazareth, built this great shelf for his kitchen. It took about three days to build, paint, and install the unit under the watchful supervision of his wife. Ross says:

I enjoy home projects, particularly woodworking. It is a hobby I picked up after owning a house and came out of necessity (I don’t like paying people to fix things for me if I can avoid it).

From small items, like making a wooden Hex sign out of my daughter’s art project (now hanging off our shed) to larger ones, like making an Adirondak chair set for the sun deck or remodeling a bathroom, they each allow me to think, plan, and innovate as I go. I’m not real big on following step-by-step instructions, enjoying instead to build as I go with an end vision in mind.

So my wife has wanted a serving area/shelf that we could put two stools under in our kitchen below a window. We have limited seating and counter space, and now that the kids art table has finally been moved out (we had it for nearly 9 years and neither could really fit in the seats anymore) we had the space to install it.

First I got a reading on what she really wanted. Then I took some measurements and decided I didn’t want to come out from the wall more than 14” to keep a trim profile. The height would
be based on one quarter inch below the window trim. The width I determined by guestimating a comfortable amount of space for two people to sit and eat side by side – this became 48”. Finally, I noticed our base board heater ran the length of the wall, so I’d have to design something that mounted to the wall itself.

I quickly determined where the studs were based on wall pops and a stud detector to confirm. With this information, I had what I needed to begin to figure out to construct my serving/eating shelf.

Whenever I or my wife see an item we like that I might want to build in the future we tear it out of the magazine or print it out and I put them aside. I also occasionally pick up American Woodworker and keep many projects and tips. This is my library. I set out to the garage with my measurements and started to flip through all the articles and photos. I found an island from a wine magazine and knew I found the support structure for the back I wanted.

I drew up the idea on a piece of paper and noted measurements for each. Then determined which woods should be used for each part. We were painting, not staining, so I wasn’t as concerned with the type of wood. With my drawing complete, I set out to Home Depot and after digging through pallets worth of wood to find a few flat, curveless pieces I was set to begin.

I used 2x4’s to serve as the legs and main cross
support. After cutting the legs to size, I notched out ½” from each side of one top, then aligned the legs with the cross piece and cut out a notch so the legs slotted into the cross piece. I glued and shot some nails to attach the legs to the cross beam then used wood putty to fill the gaps on the front and back.

I next cut a curved piece to serve as the end cap from plywood. With the end cap complete, I cut smaller curves that sat inside for added support. These were glued and nailed to the cross piece.

With the legs, crosspiece, and endpieces in place, I was able to set the top on. The top was glued to the inset curved pieces and crosspiece. I also should note I sunk the plywood top one quarter of inch.

Across the front, I measured the width and cut a 3” pine board to length. I checked the curve of the side piece and marked where I should begin cross cutting the front. I decided to go with a straight angle on the bottom and rounded on the top and sides.

I used a router with a ½” round bit across the top and along both sides.

After sanding, I attached the front piece using glue only, as I didn’t want to show any nail heads. For good measure, I used a 90 degree curved metal piece and used small screws to attach the top to the front piece in the inside middle.

Final sanding of the entire piece was followed by painting. One more stop to Home Depot for my
wife to pick the color tile she wanted. I had decided doing tile work would take too long and I didn’t have a water cutter (would have to borrow one from a friend) so we used the stick-on linoleum floor tile. I could score these with a knife to cut to size and they were simple to use.

Last step was the hardest – getting the piece mounted to the wall. Ultimately I used deck screws into wall studs. Feels pretty solid and I haven’t yet heard a big crash!

Entire project took two days of wood working, an afternoon painting, and a few hours mounting (had to be level, you know).

Thanks, Ross! Be sure to check out Ross site, News Over Coffee to keep up to date on Nazareth area news and happenings.

If you would like to submit one of your projects for us to highlight in the Maker Diaries please e-mail us at weirdnazareth@hotmail.com.

Screen Printing a WeirdNazareth.com T-Shirt

Today I am going to show you how to make a beautiful Weirdnazareth.com T-shirt. It is pretty easy to make a swell silk-screened shirt with a little more than household objects and junk lying around. The tools and materials list has everything that you need. Almost all of this stuff you may already have lying around. The big exception would be the photo emulsion kit, which can be obtained from an online art supply place or on eBay. It is not too expensive and it is an absolute must if you want to get a nice detailed design on your shirt.

*Click here for a tools and materials list*

1) Construct frame and stretch the screen

The first thing you’ll need to do is make a frame for your screen. You don’t need to build a frame from scratch if you don’t want to. You can use an old picture frame as long as it is sturdy and made of wood.

A) Picture frame: get an old picture frame and remove the picture of your grandma and the glass and back. If there are any staples in the frame take those out. You want to find a frame that is at least 2 inches larger (in every direction) than your image. Assuming you’ll be printing your image on standard 8.5X11” paper then you’ll need at least a 10.5 X 14” frame.
B) Make your own frame: gather some pieces of wood that are about an inch or so thick. Use a miter saw to cut the corners at 45 degree angle. Glue the corners together and clamp. If you don’t have corner clamps (who does?) then use rubber bands and tape to secure the frame while the glue dries. When dry, put a few nails or screws in the joints to secure it even more.

Next you’ll need to stretch the screen over your frame. You can buy authentic silk screening silk (it’s actually nylon) from an art supply store. Or you can use a sheer curtain. If you use a sheer curtain try to find the highest thread count you can. The fewer holes per inch the better resolution of your design.

Cut the screen material about 3 inches larger than your frame in all directions. Wrap one side of the screen around one side of the frame and put a staple in the back of the frame through the screen. Stretch the other side of the frame, opposite the first staple, and staple it in. You want this to be uber tight so use all the strength you can muster up. Make sure you avoid creases and ripples. Use this same process to staple all the way around the frame, stretching tightly as you go. When you’re done it will be tight like a drum head and will not have any ripples or creases.

2) Create the graphic design

You should be able to use any type of photo editing software to do this, such as Photoshop or Paint.Net. I use Paint.net because it is a free software that you can download from the web. Whatever image you decide you use will need to have contrasting areas of light and dark. As you experiment with this you’ll find that some photos are more suitable than others.

Load your photo into your software program and select the contrast option in your program. You’ll want to jack the contrast all the way up so that the image is basically a shadow on a white background. If you can still recognize the image then you can probably use it.

Use the software’s other features to edit the image even further. For instance you may want to use the erasure to remove background noise. Or maybe you want to add text or other images.
Once you are done, increase or decrease the image’s size so that it is appropriate for your project. You can print it out on regular paper to see what it looks like. Once you get it where you want it load your printer with overhead transparency film and print it out using the best quality that your printer and computer will allow. Examine the printed transparency for streaks, runs, and blobs. You can use a Sharpie or craft paint to fill in any rough spots. The printer ink may never fully dry on the transparency. So for the love of everything Holy don’t touch the image or you will smear the ink & have to reprint.

Remember, the black areas are where the ink will be on your finished project.

3) Apply the emulsion

The photo emulsion needs to be worked with in the dark. So you’ll need to set up in the darkest area of the house/garage. A basement is good if you block out the windows. It doesn’t need to be photography-darkroom-dark but it needs to be pretty darned dark.

First read and understand the photo emulsion chemical instructions. Have a mental idea of what you are about to do.

You should have a red light bulb ready in a nearby lamp. This is how you are going to see in the dark and avoid stepping on your cat. Cover your work table area with black paper or a black sheet (more on this later). Get everything you need: paper towels, rubber gloves, squeegee, your frame-with-screen, your photo emulsion chemicals, your image-on-transparency, your glass piece, your light source rig, popsicle sticks or an old fork or spoon, a timer or clock, a fan, push pins.

Take four pushpins and put them in the corners of the screen-side of the frame. This will allow you to set the frame down without the wet screen touching the table.

Turn the lights off and turn the red lamp on.

Mix the photo emulsion chemicals. These kits typically include an emulsion and a sensitizer. Generally you will fill the sensitizer bottle halfway with cold water and shake. Then you dump the sensitizer into the emulsion bottle and mix with a popsicle stick (or fork or spoon).

Take a dollop of the emulsion and spread it across the screen with your popsicle stick. Take your squeegee and spread it around so that it creates an even and uniform film. Flip the screen over and repeat the process. Make sure the underside of the screen is the last side to get squeegeed. Hold the screen up to your redlight to check for pinholes and evenness. Repeat the process if needed to ensure a smooth, even coat.

Rest the frame horizontally on the pushpins on the table and let the fan gently blow on it for a few hours to dry. For the love of everything holy don’t turn the lights on yet.

4) Expose the emulsion

Now you can expose the image. Remove the pushpins from the frame and set it directly on the table under your light source rig. Remember, you should have a black sheet or black paper covering the table surface. This will prevent light from bouncing back off the table and messing up the image. Place the transparency on the screen (remember not to touch the ink because it will smear). The image should be readable (that is to say, not backwards). Take the piece of glass and place it on top of the transparency. This will weigh down the transparency and keep it tight against the screen to eliminate weird shadows.

Turn on the light source and start the timer. If you set your rig up like I did (i.e. 150W/12"/with pie plate) it will take 45 minutes to expose. A stronger light will take less time. You could also use the sun instead; just expose for a much shorter time.

5) Rinse the emulsion

At the 45 minute mark, turn the light source off and remove the glass and transparency. IMMEDIATELY take the screen to be rinsed. You can use a garden hose outside or the shower head in your bathroom. The best thing is the sprayer in your kitchen sink. Start spraying with reasonable pressure & tepid water (not hot or cold). Concentrate on the areas where the emulsion will be removed. After about 2 minutes of constant spraying the emulsion will loosen & wash away. Thoroughly wash the screen to remove all of the little detailed areas. Hold it up to the light to make sure you got it all. Really rinse it good. Before you print, you’ll want to let the screen dry completely; likely overnight.

6) Print the shirt

You need to have some way of determining where the image is going to go on your shirt and if it is crooked or not. One option would be to eye-ball it for each shirt. This is risky in my opinion.

A better way is to build a simple printing press. Take a piece of smooth plywood and cut it to about 18” X 18”. This will act as your printing surface. If you look at commercially available printing devices they usually have a hinge that attaches the screen. This allows the screen to fall onto the surface in the exact same place every time. They make special hinge clamps specifically for this purpose. However you can also use regular hinges if they have a removable pin in them (like door hinges). This will allow you to quickly remove the screen for cleaning after you’re done or mid-run. Lay the screen on the plywood and screw the hinges into the far edge of the screen and into the plywood so that you cam lift the screen up and down. Now you have a very simple press device.

The work surface that you use should be level and you’ll want to secure your new printing device to that work surface. You could screw it on (make sure you countersink the screws) or use adhesive double-backed tape. Or you could just use duct tape. The idea here is that you don’t want the device to move around on the table once you “register” your image.
About Registering your image:
In order to get the image centered and level on your shirt you need to register the image. Registering the image makes sure that the placement of the image is perfect on every shirt. Take a piece of clear plastic sheet (the kind that people use for fruit baskets) or a sheet of semi-see-through paper and drape it across your printing area. Then tape one side down to the table. You’re going to print your first image on this piece of plastic.

Stretch the plastic so that it is tight across your work area and lower your screen. Get everything you need for printing ready. Your squeegee, your ink, a tape measure, all of your shirts, etc. In each of the shirts place a piece of paper inside the shirt. This will prevent the ink for leaching through to the back of the shirt. Remove the tags and the size stickers from your shirts. The ink dries fast so you want to work fast and have everything ready.

Use a popsicle stick to spread some ink across the top of the screen above your image. Take your squeegee and pull it toward you on the screen while applying firm pressure. Lift the screen up slightly and prop it up with the ink jar. Now immediately pull the squeegee back up the screen. This is called flooding the screen and helps prevent the ink from drying while you are positioning your shirts. You’ll notice that you just printed on the clear plastic film. Fold the plastic over so it is out of the way but don’t untape it from the table.

Put your first shirt down under the screen and fold the clear plastic back over the work area with the shirt under it. Stretch the clear plastic sheet tight. Now you can see where the image will land every time you print. Adjust the shirt under the plastic so that image is where you want it. Fold the plastic back out of the way and let the screen down onto the surface of the shirt. With firm pressure pull the squeegee over the screen towards you. Lift up the screen, flood it like you did before, and set the shirt aside to dry. At this point you’ll want to marvel at how well it turned out. But since the ink dries so quickly, you shouldn’t dilly dally. Get to the next shirt quickly. Some times, on your first few prints, you might see some areas of the shirt where the ink did not go through the screen. In this case you can use a paint brush to touch it up with some ink. But do this when you are all done printing & cleaned up.

Once you are done you can wash the screen out in the sink. Just remove the pins from the hinges and hose the screen off while the ink is still wet. The screen can be used over and over.

7) Heat fix the design

Let the print dry for at least a few hours. Now you’ll need to heat set the ink or it could get messed up in the washer or dryer. Set the iron to the highest setting that the fabric will allow. Put a piece of paper inside the shirt between the back and the front. Cover the print with a piece of bedsheet or an unprinted T-shirt; you don’t want the iron to touch the ink directly. Iron the image with firm pressure for about 5 minutes. Turn the shirt inside out and repeat the process on the back side of the image.

GET THE TOOLS AND MATERIALS LIST HERE

Tracey's July 4th Cake

Tracey Bellocchio, a very talented cake artist from Nazareth, baked and decorated this terrific cake for the Fourth of July. It took Tracey a total of 5 hours to bake, ice, construct and decorate the 24" tall cake. Tracey says:

I made the cake for a 4th of July party that we attended. The cake itself was a butter pound cake. The bottom tier was 12 inches, the middle tier was 10 inches and the top tier was 8 inches. Each tier was two layers and each layer was filled with strawberries & buttercream. The outside was iced with buttercream and then wrapped in fondant. To make the cake, icing & fondant, I used approximately: 8 lbs. of powdered sugar, 4lbs. of strawberries, 5lbs. of butter, 3lbs. of marshmallows, 14 cups of flour, 8 cups of granulated sugar, 16 eggs, milk, vanilla, and salt.

Baking and making cakes is my passion. I make cakes for family, friends, birthdays, and special occasions.

Tracey says she has recently started taking commissions and can be reached at: TBellocchio@verizon.net.

If you would like to submit one of your projects for us to highlight in the Maker Diaries please e-mail us at weirdnazareth@hotmail.com.

Making a Dragon Car for Soap Box Derby

Back in 2008, I entered the Nazareth Adult Soap Box Derby. Matt Rinker and Co. have built this into an annual event of the area's best and brightest engineering talents.

But 2008 was the first year of the race and had no idea what to expect. I also had no clue how I would build my car. I did research online about the designs of soapbox cars but found that most are really lame. I started building my car in March and decided that I would use my inherent talents as much as possible to make the fastest and best looking car possible. I am good at paper art but bad at carpentry so I focused on making a mechanically simple design that incorpated paper art. I started by recording a few goals: 1) The car should look good 2) Use as many reclaimed materials as possible 3) Spend as little money as possible

I. The Chasis

I collected as much scrap wood as I possibly could from people's garbage piles around town. I started with a sheet of plywood and built a body out of 2X3 studs. These studs were the only wood that I bought from a store. They cost me about $8 total. All other wood was reclaimed scrap wood.

II. Wheels

I got some lawn mower wheels from my wife's grandfather. They did not have an axl. Rather, they each had their own mounting bracket. This would simplify things by allowing me to use 2x4's as axls rather than worrying about finding a metal rod.

III. Steering

The steering was going to be important. I needed to be able to straignten myself out but didn't really need to make any sharp turns (W. Prospect Street hill is perfectly straight). So I knew I could limit the steering capabilities. Many of the online plans I found had steering columns much like a real car. But these were far too complicated in my opinion. So I decided to make a foot-steering mechanism. I drilled a 0.5" hole through the deck and two 2X4's. Then I sandwiched the deck between the two 2x4's and bolted it all together. This way I could manipulate the axl under the deck with the 2x4 that is above the deck.

IV. Brakes

The rules of the derby stated that brakes were optional. However, I knew I wanted to add them because I did not know the logistics of the race at the time: would there be ample room to slow down naturally? Or would there be some sort of smashing-into-hay-bails type end to the race?

So I decided to make a simple brake mechanism. I contemplated having something rub against one of the wheels. However this seemed complicated and would intrude on the aesthetics of the car. So I read online that old soapbox cars from the WWII era had a pad that would rub against the road surface to slow the car down. I decided that this would be perfect because I could mount the brake inside the cockpit. I cut a lever shape out of an old 2X8" and cut a hole in the floor of the car. I made a fulcrum point using an old piece of metal conduit. For a brake pad I used a piece of an old bicycle tire. With this system I could pull up on the lever to force the brake pad against the ground. A small bungie cord served to snap the brake lever back into place when pressure was released.

V. Body

I obtained a piece of 1/8" plywood from my neighbor (he had been throwing a lot of wood out lately from some home improvement projects he was doing). This would be perfect to form the body of my car. I made a roadster design and included some fins in the back.

Design and Detail: I had comtemplated various themes and design elements for the car before I started building it. In my notebook I had every famous car I could think of from TV, movies , music, and pop culture. But nothing was really appealing. But I recently purchased Dan Reeder's new book Dragon Maker's Handbook. This inspired me to create a medievil themed car. I came up with the idea to have the car be covered with dragon scales and have a prominent dragon hood ornament.

Dragon Hood Ornament: I am not going to detail how the dragon was made because Dan Reeder does a good job in his book. If you're interested in learning his techniques you should buy it. Basically, it is a series of newspaper balls covered with glue-soaked cloth. My technique differs from Dan's only slightly in that I use some traditional paper mache and also paper towels in places were he may only use cloth.

The dragon would need to be very strong (much stronger than if it would just hang on the wall for decoration). So it was heavily reinforced with wire and paper mache. In order to attach the dragon to the hood of the car I needed to create a mounting bracket. So I cut the bottom of the dragon's body open and inserted a section of wood. This was further reinforced with paper mache (which dries as hard as a rock in about a week). This would allow me to screw up through the car's hood to attached the dragon.

VIII. Helmet

Race rules state that the driver must wear a helmet. So I got my old dirt bike helmet from my parent's attic. I took off the visor, sanded it, and painted it silver...like a knight's helmet. I make a knight's visor out of cardboard and glued it to the helmet. To make it look more authentic I "distressed" the helmet with some black paint and also attached some faux "rivets" which were actually nail and screw heads.

IX. Paint job and Scales

To create the scales I cut an old bedsheet into squares (roughly 1.5 inches). I used two whole bedsheets. I put some Elmer's glue in a bucket and diluted it slightly with water. Normally, for regular scupture I would not dilute it. But I was trying to be resourceful on this project and diluting it woul make the gallon of glue last longer. A handful at a time I dunked the squares in the glue and allowed them to soak. The I squeezed the excess glue out. Each scale is one square of cloth that has two corners folded over. This was applied to the body of the car in an overlapping fashion. It took a while to dry in the cool Spring air

I opted for a red paint job with yellow accents. To achieve this I first painted the entire car solid yellow. Then I lightly painted the car red making sure not to take advantage of the nature texture of the scales and not apply a solid coat.

X. Details

There were a few details of note that I added to the car.
The first was an emblem on the front grill. I made this out of papermache and cardboard. A fancy button finished it off:

I made a Pennsylvania lisence plate for the back. This was also made of paper mache and cardboard. I also made a witty bumper sticker:

I gathered some old knobs and what-not to add to the dashboard. I even put added a key and speedometer (actually an old pressure guage):

As far as the race went, the dragon was painfully slow. It was probably a combination of poor wheel quality and alignment. However, the car did win the crowd pleaser award which in the back of my mind was my real goal anyway. Shortly after the race it was time to disassemble my Dragon Coupe. I decided to save the dragon's head so I carefully removed the dragon and cut the head off with a hacksaw.
I mounted the head, trophey-style, on an old piece of wood and gave it to my dad.

Making a Supergirl out of an Old Mannequin

In January 2005, while commuting home from work, I noticed a pair of human legs sticking out of a garbage can near the corner of South Green St & West Center St. I immediately pulled over to investigate. As I got closer to the trash can I discovered that my prayers had been answered. The trash can contained the single greatest item that any hipster, dooface, trash-picker could possibly covet...a mannequin. I was beside myself. I loaded it into the back of my pickup, sped home, and unloaded it into my garage for closer inspection. It was in pretty good shape. It wasn't particularly new. It had a stand. It had both arms. But it was missing both hands. Oh, and it was a female.

The next few weeks were spent deciding what to do with it. The possibilities were nearly endless. Could it become: A french maid? A monster? A sexy nurse? A character from any number of movies? But the answer soon became obvious. Since the age of about 9 I had developed what some may describe as an unhealthy obsession with all things Superman. It was clear that my new mannequin needed to become Supergirl.

First thing was to clean it up. Then I got all of the applicable spray paint colors: blue, red, yellow, and flesh tone. I sprayed the head and legs the flesh tone. It was paler than I had wanted. She looked a little like a meth-addict. But it would have to do.
Next, I masked-off the collar where the costume meets the neck and the legs where the boots would meet the legs. I sprayed the boots red and the torso and arms blue. Those colors looked great.
For the Superman "S," I began by masking-off a diamond shape in the center of her chest. I painted this yellow. Using some red"Foamies" foam from the craft store and a razor knife I cut out the outline of the "S" and attached it to the chest so the yellow diamond was the background. This looked pretty good. I used black paint and a brush to add detail to the boots.

At this point I was done painting and needed to move on to the fabric. I went to the fabric store and bought some red fabric that matched the paint pretty well. I got enough for the skirt and cape. The problem was I have no idea how to sew. But there was one person who could. My step-mother-in-law is a home-economics teacher. She is very talented at all things crafty and is exceptional with fabric and stuff like that. She said she would help me. She came over and took some measurements and started right away using a portable sewing machine. The skirt was finished in no time. The cape was far more complicated than I had imagined and would require additional time.

For the belt, I used a piece of yellow craft foam. I attached it using Velcro. I used more foam to make the yellow "S" insignia that would emblazion the back of the cape. I also added some stitching to the yellow "S" insignia with some thick black thread.

My step-mother-in-law took the fabric home and worked on the cape at her leisure. It actually took almost 3 years before she completed it. But boy did it look fantastic. I got some jumbo sized snaps from the craft store & used epoxy to attach the male side to the mannequin. The female side of the snap was sewn to the cape.

The mannequin project was a huge success.