The project that helped me meet my wife!

Maker Talk Projects Expo
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I’ve been a member of Hackerspace since 2015, when I built my bar (Vigilante Gaming Bar) at the space — I’ll post about that sometime — but after that opened I hadn’t been coming by as often.Two and a half years ago (Dec 2017), my sister in law said “hey Logan (my 2-yo nephew) likes to put his dolls to bed each night — why don’t you make him a cradle?” I also had this idea to build a notebook for my other nephew to tote his so-precious Pokemon cards around.

So it’s 11pm on the night before I’m supposed to get on a plane to meet my family, thrashing to get all the finishing and assembly, and there’s only a couple people in the space — Tony G (natch), and this very lovely person building an impressive blue cabinet.

We were all talking around this and that (including a brief foray into politics). She explained that she was building a “comfort cart” for the palliative ward at the hospital she worked at, for the nurses to hold incense or lotion or coloring books and other items that can help grieving families on vigil.

Dot dot dot we got married last month!

The rails of the cradle are red oak from Austin Fine lumber. The panels are 1/2" MDF, laser cut on Big Red and then rounded over on the router. Because I needed to take it on the plane, the whole thing breaks down flat and then goes together with wedge pins made of 1/2 dowel (pro tip: a 1/2 dowel won’t fit in a 1/2 hole). No screws anywhere!

The rails in the base are just 3-up MDF — I had originally intended them to also be oak, but they worked so well (and I liked the blue better) I just used the prototypes. The blue is non-toxic milk paint and the red is wipe-on dye.

The notebook is 1/8 bamboo, which is AMAZING for lasering — and quite expensive to buy. If folks want to go in on a bulk order let’s do that. For the gradients on MewTwo I used the Image Trace in Illustrator down to six gray levels in area mode for the raster. By forcing it to six distinct levels, I could use color replace to get the darkness of the final rastered image to be perceptually correct. (i.e. for six “even” darkness levels I used something like 100% black, 96%, 91%, 84%, 72%, 50%). I also traced MewTwo with a Black/White vector outline, to make the drawing “pop”.The hinge is from Home Depot and the notebook parts are just a regular 3-ring binder mechanism I dismantled.

I’ll get Kye to reply to the post with the details of her makings!

Comfort Cart
Comfort Cart3024×4032 2.69 MB
Shalom Print
Shalom Print1522×1192 390 KB
Logan Cradle
Logan Cradle3264×2448 1.85 MB
Logan Cradle B
Logan Cradle B3264×2448 1.81 MB
Andre Notebook A
Andre Notebook A3264×2448 1.51 MB
Andre Notebook B
Andre Notebook B2448×3264 2.37 MB
Andre Notebook C
Andre Notebook C2448×3264 2.02 MB

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:smiley: thanks for this. i just got to see it. <3 Yup, this was about how it went. :wink: I was listening to “On Being.” You said “I think it should only be as hard to own a gun as it is to drive a car.” So, focused on my project, I thought you were into guns. :laughing: Then it registered with me what you were actually saying. And you texted me the design of your MewTwo binder!
Details of Cool Blue Comfort Cart: Hardware was Lowe’s, those cool stainless pulls were the most expensive part of the whole operation – the corners are angle iron from Metals4u, which I cut at Hackerspace and did some polishing on. The casters you can’t see but I went for the hardest core I could for daily use that were still 1.75" diameter. I used Home Depot pine for the basics of the woods, I’d do that differently, but it was my first big project. There are hooks and chain inside that extend when you open the box, so each can make a little shelf, you can put out a candle on that shelf or a CD player with music, or a speaker for cell phone music, or aromatherapy, or whatever people need for their comfort. The bottom one we put kid stuff, coloring, play-doh. The paint is antibacterial! (Sherwin Williams.) It’s white, which limits the color options because you can only mix so much pigment and still keep the antibacterial properties. But I’m happy with this periwinkle. Made these two years ago – with Covid I am sure these are not in circulation at the hospital – unfortunately, because people are in need of even more comfort. I know the palliative teams are offering that every way they can. <3
Thanks for posting, @mrflip :slight_smile:

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Oh, and the picture-- a friend in Boston, Jojo, does print-making and two years ago created these Sh’ma’s – it is the first word of a Jewish prayer called “The Shema” – and it means “Hear.”

The thing I Like about it is to remember to listen, as a chaplain that is rule number one, everything else is a footnote. It was a gift to the chaplain office at Seton when I worked there. It’s funny to look back on it, I feel like I’d make different color ordering choices with the background :wink:

The background wood and aluminum is scrap from ATXHS. The imprints I made with concentric bits from a hole saw. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2025014583.html
The paint (the colors aren’t quite represented here, wish I’d taken some more intentional photos) is Valspar interior satin acrylic latex (which is a matte finish). I got the pint sample sizes, perfect for my needs overall. The paint is water soluble and gives a lot of shade possibilities. I’ve used it on other projects where it can give just a hint of color.

“The first verse of the Shema, from the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, is among the best-known in all of Jewish liturgy. It is recited at the climactic moment of the final prayer of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, and traditionally as the last words before death.”