Bonfire Night antics!

November 5th in the UK always gives me a legitimate excuse to have a stinky bonfire and burn things!!

If anyone recalls an earlier post about me re-vamping my trusty copper half-cistern and dustbin lid garden bonfire, here it is in action on this year’s Bonfire Night. The improvements I made back then have been really successful, and it’s now even got a new lid (courtesy of a second metal dustbin lid), ideal for keeping the rain off or to let the last of the embers safely burn themselves out. I never did get around to burning the filigree into the upper regions, but there is always time before next year, I guess!

Here is a shot in full flame, and also in its cooled state (I love the blackened outer layer – hard to recall when still looked like copper!):

Burner in use and cooling down

Here are also some of the things I got up to with it that night:

Melting lead

I love this shot of some lead melting in an old saucepan – what doesn’t show very well in the photo is that the metal of the old saucepan itself was glowing red! I’m always amazed how hot the burner gets… The lead was then ladled out and used to fill in the base of my latest steampunk lamp (full details to follow when it’s completed).

In the meantime, here are some (upside-down) shots of the lamp base being constructed – the smaller top part partially filled with lead to hold the copper tube shaft in place (left), with the larger second part screwed over this (see the copper shaft protruding through and the larger hole I’ve cut to allow the lead to flow between the two sections (middle),  and a final shot of the lead having been poured in and set in place (right).

Base of new lamp being filled with lead

Here’s my favourite result from the night however… I had an old saw (found, as always, in a skip) that had a broken wooden handle. Rather than trying to unscrew the thoroughly rusted screws affixing the two parts, I thought I’d simply burn the wood off in the burner.

What I hadn’t banked on was the saw blade bending in the heat into a lovely subtle curve. When cooled it has, amazingly, lost none of its springiness! Given a coat of spray varnish to protect the rusty patina (it’s actually a lot darker than this photo shows but I had to push the Levels up a bit on order to show the blade off properly). So now, what to do with it?

It looks great as just an ornament, or would look wonderful mounted on some sort of pole in a upright position as a bit of minimalist sculpture. My favourite idea at the mo’ is to mount it on a wall at 90 degrees on its side, sticking out as some kind of artistic ’shelf’ . Will see how that works and post some shots up . In the meantime, if anyone has any other ideas, please let me know!

Curved saw blade

Finally, some goggles!

Look what my friend CCBB has just given me !!! (no steampunk aficionado should be without some, apparently!)

Goggles!

Rather than a niche fashion accessory however, these are Gas Welding Goggles, of a Shade 5 strength. As such they may not offer enough protection for my general arc welding (I think around Shade 8 or so are recommended for that purpose?) but as general safety goggles seem most excellent!

Not only do they secure firmly around the head (leaving both hands free for general tasks), they have built in ventilation slots to prevent fogging and, best of all,  you can flip the dark shades up to reveal the plain glass lenses for when you need to see normally.

I tried wearing them around the office the day she gave them to me – not only did I look particularly cool, but I discovered that the whole world seems a much calmer/less stressful place when in near total darkness!!

Never throw anything away. . .

. . . because you never know when it is going to come in handy!?

This philosophy has been the tenet for most of my life (and hence why my tiny house is so full of stuff!). Anyway, here’s a recent story that reinforces the idea…

Years ago a friend of mine into IT gave me an old Yamaha Sub woofer unit from a set of PC speakers. I’d never used it, had none of the right cables, none of the accompanying speakers and, if truth be told, no real use for it either. I’d finally consigned it to the loft a few years ago, and during a recent futile attempt to de-clutter my life, had even contemplated simply taking it apart for ‘bits’, giving it to the local Freecycle site or even, heaven forbid, sending it to the local tip (scandalous!). . . Then, something happened (stick with me on this one). . .

Original woofer!

A couple of weekends ago I did a little gig at the excellent Hitchin Folk Club (winner of 2005 Folk Club of the Year, no less!) with Navaro, supporting Little Johnny England. We’d done a sound check, sat around for a bit, and then decided that we should use the intervening time wisely by having a quick run thought of some newish material we were doing that night. The rest of the band were all ok for doing this (they had acoustic guitars, their voices and even a tambourine!) – I on the other hand (playing as I do in that band a solid body electic bass guitar, completely inaudible without some sort of amplification), realised that I had absolutely no way of playing along with them / being heard (band bass amp being already set/miked up on stage and hence unmovable).

The only way I managed to play along with them at all was to rest my front teeth on the upper bout of the guitar body so that I could ‘feel’ the notes (a bit like the feeling one gets if you hold a tuning fork in your teeth!). Not only are my teeth getting too old for that sort of thing, it looked ridiculous, gave me a pain in the neck / back and was clearly a waste of time for the others.

What I need, I thought to myself, is a tiny little amp capable of being carried anywhere at will (just in case it’s needed), which doesn’t need to be too loud, yet can handle bass frequencies without shaking itself to bits. Eureka! Enter the redundant bass woofer unit – essentially no more than a purpose-built solid box, with its own little built-in amp and a sturdy bass-friendly speaker – it even has a little bass reflex tube for added bottom end!

With a quick bit of modding (I added some feed on the side so that it can be stood and carried in a more space-saving upright position, made a handle out of some old bits of cast off metal, soldered together a lead to allow a standard guitar jack lead to plugged on to the thing and voila! It’s never going to make an appearance on a stadium stage, but as a portable, ‘go-anywhere and simply be heard for rehearsing’ amp, it does the job. And more importantly, it’s now put to good use rather than adding to landfill!

Here’s a few photos:

Handle components

Handle assembled

The new 'Bass Amp' woofer!

Note the new handle, cable and cable tie

Shed Night logo

After the success of Inaugural Shed night, some friends and I are working on booking some more dates into the diary (particularly now GG has bought a shiny new MIG welder we all want to have a go on!). . .

We decided we ought to ‘brand’ the event in some way, so that emails / general communications about it to each other (and others)  are instantly recognizable – a bit like the Bat Symbol being shone into the night sky to announce the event!  (Too far? You might be right. . .!).

So, here’s my first attempt – it may be open to tweaking in the months to come, but it does the job for the mo! (GG said it should be more grungy but I didn’t have time to draw a crushed beer can!). It’s got a few gears and cogs on there however, so hopefully will keep my fellow Steampunk fans happy!

Shed Night logo!

Any ideas!?

So I’ve just found this in my local charity shop. . .

I know it’s some sort of lamp, but exactly what kind and how it works is stumping me. It is missing any inner ‘gubbins’ (for example the reservoir, wick etc) so I really can’t figure out how it is meant to be lit, regulated etc? There is a black grommet of some sort on the side near the bottom, but again, I’ve no real ideas. Is there anyone out there can help – please send me any comments / suggestions!

New lantern

Sorry, I yet again forgot to put any sort of scale on there, but it’s quite small, only 15cm high and about 5.5 cm diameter at the base.

Apart from that, it looks absolutely spiffing, particularly when sat next to my porthole, which has a very similar look/feel material and style-wise!

Steampunky front door

For what seems like months now, I’ve been repairing/restoring my front door!

As well as being pretty old and tired, it’s also faces directly on to a busy main street so gets lots of wear and tear, traffic soot, general grime etc so tends to get pretty shabby, pretty quickly.

I’m not totally convinced by the colour (to a certain extent this is governed by the surrounding colours of the neighbouring houses/shops) but I was very inspired by some doors I saw on a recent trip to Lille (and my general love of brass and copper things) to make it look as spectacular as possible.

Here’s a ‘before’ shot:

Before shot (shabby!)

And here’s the finished article:

After shot (snazzy!)

Once I’d painted it, all the brass fittings were cleaned (liberal use of tomato sauce, brasso, wire wool etc), given several coats of clear laquer and re-fitted. The pièce de résistance is the addition of a copper-covered step (using strips of copper sheet generously donated by my friend EM),  fixed in place with some judicious hammering and copper clout nails.

Here’s a close-up:

Copper clad step

The only thing left to fit is a brass door bell (coming soon!) and the addition of a spectacular (yet totally over-the-top) outside lantern, amazingly found abandoned in the skip of a friend of mine. Here it is in its existing state – again I’m in the process of re-vamping/cleaning it up (the existing patina really doesn’t do it any favours so I feel OK about stripping this – possibly faked – original finish)

Found lantern

I got me a shed badge!

Uncle Wilko from the excellent Readers Sheds site kindly said he’d send me a couple of his Shed Badges for submitting an article to him about my Shed Night.

Lo and behold they arrived today, and most excellent they are too – collectors items for sure!

Shed Badges

Many thanks – I will wear them with pride!

Shopping guilt!!

I have just treated myself to one of these:

Mini tool

I’ve wanted one for a long time, mainly for use on my Steampunk projects, which always seem to involve lots of fiddly sanding / grinding / polishing of old bits of tat! I was going for one of the more fancy makes (eg a Dremel) when good old GG told me about the Tool Station own-brand equivalent. I am sure it’s exactly the same gubbins, just without all the fancy packaging/logos etc.  I’ve not got fully to grips with the thing as yet, but first impressions seem excellent.

The two main things I have learnt is that, firstly, the flexible drive shaft is invaluable and makes the whole thing a lot easier to use (GG told me tha toot!). Secondly, the very thin cutting wheels are extremely fragile if handled badly – I managed to break one just fitting it onto the mandrel.

Anyway, I’m hoping it’s going to prove very useful – now I just need yet more time in the day to make some things!! (less sleeping, eating and breathing would help!)

Scarface!!

Note to self…

In future, do not try doing DIY in a hurry, balancing on a chair, with a roll of masking tape in one hand and a newly-bladed craft knife in the other! It can only end badly…

Scarface!

Bizarre gig location!

I guess it had to happen one day. . . !?

All joking aside, Gerald and I did a fantastic little duo gig yesterday evening, playing for a friend’s private art view. Part of the 2009 HVAF Open Studios, the show featured a collection of several artists’ work, and took place in the amazing old courthouse in St Albans (situated on the ground floor of the Town Hall building). Unfortunately, the only space available for us to sit and play was within the dock itself!

Accessible only through a tiny door (presumably to stop convicts from escaping too easily?), it was rather odd to play to a ‘audience’ whilst sitting in a low, enclosed pulpit-affair, literally separated from everyone by bars! Here are a few shots taken my my friend SI - all-in-all a great fun evening! We were only providing some very ambient / background music for the punters, but it seemed very well attended and there was some great art on show. The exhibition is called ‘Art Symphony’ and is open in two day blocks – 30th Sept / 1st Oct and 3 / 4 October.

Our amps, with the spiked bars of the dock behind us

Gerald and myself, firmly behind bars!

The amazing roof in the centre of the Courthouse

Bizarrely, I realise it’s actually the second time I’ve played in a courthouse / dock! When I first got to know Navaro, they used to rehearse in the TV set where the BBC TV crime drama series ‘Judge John Deed’ was filmed! Here’s a very rubbish photo from a couple of years back – you can just see the band setting up on the far right:

'Judge John Deed' TV set

Life is a strange thing…!