This is my new bass. I put it together from parts I bought on ebay. I also refinished the body. I really like it so far. It is a Precision bass body with a P/J pickup set, wilkinson bridge standard jazz bass wiring and controls. The neck is a standard Jazz bass neck with Schaller tuning machines. I like the gold sparkle/metalflake paint and black pickguard.

Here is the body before. You can see some more before pics and stuff in my flickr account.

Technorati Tags: Custom Bass, Custom Guitar, Fender Bass, Gold Bass Guitar, Gold Fender Bass, Jazz Bass, metal flake, metalflake, P-Bass

I got this new TV for myself. The 36″ tube TV I have been using was too big and heavy. It was crushing my danish modern tv stand. The new Hitachi 42″ Plasma really ties the room together.

I am still streaming recorded TV signals, movies, etc from my MythTV PVR and server through my modded XBOX using XBOX Media Center. I have not upgraded my Myth box nor my Satellite TV service for HD programming. It doesn’t seem worth it since I don’t watch many new shows.

Click Here to See the Restoration Process!

I have basically finished my resto-mod of an original 1981 Atari Centipede game. It was a wreck when I bought it and it was basically gutted. It now plays hundreds of arcade and console games using MAME and other emulators. I am in the “beta-testing” phase of the project and may have a few people over soon for an inaugural celebration.

Click Here to See the Restoration Process!

Technorati Tags: Atari, Centipede, Classic Arcade Game, emulators, M.A.M.E., Mame

The goal of this project was to modify an existing unit Jen had bought a few years ago from Ikea and make it hide a lot of clutter and fit our decor better. I made the colored doors and bins to fit the existing openings and painted them to match the colors we are using in our living room/dining room area. Jen uses the dining room for sewing and I wanted a place to hide all the notions and whatnot when she was not using them.

Here you see one of doors open. I used the same pivot hinges I used on my danish modern wall system. This project also called for inset doors and I like these hinges.

The top row of doors has these cork bulletin boards recessed into them.

The bottom row are actually bins. I wanted them to look the same as the doors when they were closed. I really like the shape of the handle opening.

Technorati Tags: Colorful, Cube, Furniture, Furniture Design, Ikea, Mid Century Modern, Modern Furniture, MSM, Storage

I bought this the other day for $40. I have been working on a MAME arcade emulator project and have decided to house it in here.
I created a work log for this project in which I will post info about my progress.

Technorati Tags: Atari, Centipede, Classic Arcade Game, emulators, M.A.M.E., Mame, Restoration

I made a couple of this type with the two black doors. I had a limited amount of the veneered stock so I chose to alternate the door and cabinet colors.

Here you can see how the doors pivot open.


This one is probably my favorite. It took me a long time to figure out the hinge layout.

The door folds down so you can use the back of it as a litte writing desk. It was really important to me that the back of the door was flush with the inside of the cabinet. This was dificult because I also wanted the door to be recessed into the cabinet when closed. I went back to Rockler a couple times looking for the right hinges.

This one was the hardest to deal with because it is so big. It is about 50″ across and is pretty heavy.

It opens basically the same way as the first cabinet.

Here is one of the drawer cabinets I made. This one is by my front door and has a place for all the stuff I can never find when it is time to leave the house.

This is basically the same design with only one drawer.

All the drawers are made using half blind dovetail joinery. They also have full extension drawer guides. They are pretty narrow front to back so they would be ussless without them.

I bought the pole hardware from Ikea. They are a bit more industrial looking than I wanted but they are pretty close and I think better than if I had made poles out of wood. I got all the Walnut or Teak veneer stock from recycling another piece of furniture my friend Bryan was throwing out. This limited me in the design phase but I ended up with plenty of finished cabinets. I refinished the venner with a tung oil rubbed finish which is appears identical to the original finish. All the black material is painted MDF. It took a couple weeks to get the paint to be the way I wanted it. Overall I am pleased with the result and it should help organize my stuff.

Technorati Tags: Cube, Danish Modern, Furniture, Furniture Design, Ikea, Mid Century Modern, Modern Furniture, MSM, Storage, Wall Unit

The dash had a lot of holes from police radios and was pretty beat up so I covered it with this fuzzy fabric. I also put the super bright blue alarm LED right in the middle. You can see it for a couple blocks at night. I added power locks too. I really like the convenience of keyless entry.

I carried the same three piece ceiling treatment throughout the whole van.

The overhead console was one of the first things I did to the interior once I gutted and cleaned it.

In addition to storage and a switchpanel I also installed these speakers on each side. I am also thinking about putting in a CB I have lying around. I think it might be fun on long trips.

There are more speakers in each door.

I also built this ported box for a 10″ subwoofer bolted behind the seat.

Technorati Tags: camper Van, Custom Van, Dodge Van, Van Conversion

Here is a view from the back doors with the bed installed and folded down. The bed is held in with metal pins that allow it to be removed
pretty easily. The benchs that run along the sides of the van are for storage and also house the AC and DC power systems.

This is a view from inside the van. You can see the DVD player on the ceiling. This is portable and comes out when we aren’t using it. I did run wires so I can plug it into power and also output the sound through the van’s rear stereo system. You can see some of the speakers in the ceiling also.

Here is another shot looking forward. You can see the Fridge and Microwave in the background. I paneled over the windows for security and privacy. I left a small porthole opening to let in fresh air. All the back windows have custom made screens on them.

The DVD screen swivels so you can see it from pretty much anywhere in the van.

The sofa bed in booth mode. I just put this table in today. It uses a standard RV table base so it transforms for sleeping very quickly.

Here is a closeup of the fridge and microwave. The fridge draws a lot of power but should last long enough on the auxilary batteries to make it to the next campground. The batteries are stored in a compartment below the fridge.

The DC Switch Panel for the overhead lights, outlets and stereo system controls are in easy reach from the bed.

The AC transfer switch is next to the main electrical outlet. I also made custom ducts for left the rear heat and air system.

I made these custom door panels and the curtains as well. I think they look pretty good.

Here is a pic showing one of the screens I made. I also put in a pretty nice roof vent/fan and a lot of insulation. It still gets pretty hot in there in the summer.

There is a hidden compartment in each door. Not a huge space but every bit helps.

Technorati Tags: camper Van, Custom Van, Dodge Van, Van Conversion

I built this new snack tray/cupholder for the van. I recently got a GPS

system for my laptop and wanted a better place to put the laptop while

we drove. I didn’t want to lose any of the features I had with the old

one so I came up with this fold out design. This first pick shows it

all closed up.

In this second pic you can see it open. This design adds a storage area

in the back. It is big enough for sunglasses, change or whatever. If

you are really thirsty it could hold 6 beverages.

This last pic shows the real reason for this project. With the laptop

in this posiiton it is easier for driver or passenger to see the map or

log onto open wifi networks to check email. And of course there’s still

room for beverages.

Technorati Tags: camper Van, Custom Van, Dodge Van, Van Conversion