Steel Washer/Dryer stand with adjustable legs

First a little background:

When I bought my washer and dryer a couple years ago, I couldn't justify the extra $400 for the stands to raise them up to a comfortable height for loading and unloading.  I decided to build my own stand out of wood and was able to put together a real sturdy setup.  The only problem was that my washer and dryer were located in a part of the basement that had a sloping concrete floor.  I shimmed my heart out trying to get the platform level, but it still walks all over the place and I have had the dryer slide off the edge a couple times.

Time for an upgrade.  I decided to build a new stand out of steel. I haven't found any information online on how to build your own out of steel, nor with adjustable feet, so I will be designing and building the project.  Ever since I got my new wire-feed welder I have been looking for projects and this one fits the bill properly.

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Adjustable child's bench

My son has been attending cello lessons for a couple of years now, and one thing that kids his age end up needing is a bench whose height can be adjusted as they grow older. The bench's characteristics are simple:  When the kid is sitting, his/her feet must reside flat on the ground There has to be a way to hook an end-point holder (a piece of wood on which the cello's tip resides; used when playing on slippery surfaces) to the bottom. Other than those two, imagination is the limit. The style I used for this cello is not of my invention; it's quite common, and I saw it used on several benches that other kids in his class had. The only differences I made with his are that it is wider (19" instead of the approximate 12" I saw everywhere), and I used dove tails to hold the top and sides together (I don't remember seeing them used on other benches I saw).

This instructable shows all the materials, tools and steps I followed to make the bench, but it could all very easily be adapted to building other items. The bench used three interesting techniques that are worth mentioning here: Dove tails - they offer very high strength union for parts that are connecting at 90 degrees. Commonly used on drawers and chests, they can be made fully visible on both ends (like with this bench), or only visible on one end and not the other (I think that one is call a half dove tail). Mine were made entirely by hand, but if you're mass producing these things and looking for efficiency you should switch to using a router with a dove tail guide. Mortise and tenon - another high strength technique for attaching pieces. This was used for the quarter-round supports under the bench, and involve having one piece fit partially (but very tightly) into another. For the bench, the supports' entire top and side fit into the seat and leg (respectively) of the bench, and the union is practically invisible. Glue only. No nails or screws were used to assemble the top and the the legs it connects to. The adjustable legs on the outside of the bench are held on by simple bolts and wing nuts. The material of choice in this case is obviously wood. But there are several kinds, and choosing the right one depends on several factors like the wood's beauty, the cost, the ease of working it, etc.

In my case I knew I wanted to experiment with dove tails and mortise and tenon techniques, so I didn't want to buy really expensive woods only to see them get trashed. I ended up choosing pine to work with, and actually got lucky with the pricing too. It turns out that planks of pine that are knot free are more expensive (probably because that wood is stronger), but the knots are what would give the bench more character and beauty (in my opinion, at least), so the cheaper wood was actually exactly what I wanted. I ended up using two 8 foot lengths of 1"x10" (which cost about $12 each), but I think you could get all the material from just one board. I used two because I messed up one of the legs and also wanted more pieces with knots in them.

Once everything was finished I was able to stain and varnish the piece so the colouring can really be played with a bit at that point. The wood can probably be made to look like any type of wood (with the right type of stain), and the only thing to keep in mind after this is the softness of the material and how easily it can get scratched and dinged. Pine is a relatively soft type of wood (i.e. a 2x4 won't bend, but you can mark it with your fingernail), but given that this piece of furniture is going to be used by an 8 year old I figured it's going to happen anyway so there's no use using something really expensive.

As for tools, you need several clamps (especially tabletop clamps which will be useful when cutting the dove tails), a roughing planer, chisels, files, exacto knife, wood glue, jigsaw, regular saw and a coping saw. You will also find a mitre saw quite handy, as well as some sanding blocks, files, and the usual hand tools.

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3D Printable Adjustable Volume Pipette

Pipettes are prolific in laboratories everywhere and used to transfer variable amounts of liquid. Professional tools are calibrated and have dials that allow the user to set the volume. The following instructions are the result of an experiment to develop 3D printable and low cost alternatives to standard lab tools, such as the pipette. This simpler version uses a straw and allows the user to adjust volume using two limit thumb nuts. It should be very useful around any wet lab and works nicely with a relatively high range of possible volume settings. You can calibrate the volume but it is generally only good for low precision work. With the exception of a balloon or rubber glove, spring, straw, and some tape, all the parts are 3D printable without support using a variety of low cost printers. This is a very nice example of alternative lab tools and I hope will contribute to further work in the area. You can also find this model and some user remixes on thingiverse: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:64977 Print the upper body, lower body, plunger, and two thumb gears using a 3D printer, the STL files are attached. I printed all the pieces on a Makerbot Replicator 2 at 0.1mm with 15% fill and 100% fill for the plunger.

You will need a spring, which I got from a kids Pez dispenser for its form factor. The balloon membrane or rubber glove is elastic so you may get away without the spring but it is nicer to have it. You also need some tape to seal the gap, and a straw. It is designed for standard straw diameter (which also works with the standard pipette tip) but I can upload others if there is demand, let me know.

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Fun Summer Adjustable Wire Button Ring

I tend to lose jewelry more in the summer than the rest of the year.. My hands get warm and rings feel tight, I take them off somewhere and they disappear... These are great to deal with both issues. They are adjustable, so they can be loosened up when needed and they are CHEAP and fast to make, so I don't cry when one disappears. A button that attaches from the back ( not with holes going through the middle) Jewelry Wire (18 or 16 gauge works well) Nylon jaw pliers (or flat pliers- the kind that don't have 'teeth') A ring mandrel, or another hard round object- like a socket or a tube of lipstick

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