Indoor Playhouse Bed

OPEC and excesses of the elite might be cramping our budgets.

But wouldn't it wonderful to build a fantasy bedroom for a son or daughter?

The good things about interior fantasy designs are great family joy and smaller pieces. A quart of paint and leftover materials can go a long way.

In a retail store, these scrumptious bedrooms will wallop our wallets $1000 to $10000.

But why not look around for small plywood panels, end cuts of framing and trim and a collection of leftover paint?



Searching Google for +playhouse +bed, I found a few. There are many flat-pac bunk-beds and combo- computer desk designs on the market, but very few kits or plans to make real beauty and practicality.

I had no luck locating the maker of the top picture. The lower picture is Sun Furniture on eBay. Another indoor playhouse bed is here.

Unbreakable sunglasses

Gloryfy worked four years to develop ski and sunglasses that are indestructible.

The key was to find a material that is robust enough but also can be used as glasses. They say the Gloryfy glasses can withstand tons of pressure and return to their original shape after the pressure is released.

Free Green Home Plans

John Barrie of Ann Arbor says,

I’m an Architect. About half of my practice is designing homes, however things are about to change.

FreeGreen is a new online design firm that has a unique Web 2.0+ approach to their service. They provide free home designs. I just downloaded construction documents for two of their homes and the documents are first rate. For many of my clients what FreeGreen offers is what they need. And did I say Free? Really, Free. I’m lucky to also be an industrial designer because FreeGreen just might put me out of business.

Nothing concrete

The studies seem to say that we don't understand concrete or mortar yet. Yes, the textbooks and the experts might be screwy.

Isotopic Technologies applied to the analysis of ancient mortars

The boys are looking at Rome first. and they're finding binding is better than we knew; not merely mix, but atoms too.

Robo-Builder advances to market

When Bill Gates says the next great marketplace will be personal robotics, it's hard to see how this will be true. But here's a clue that reveals another advance in this new generation of machines.

Honda is showing this 'walking device' which uses flat brushless motors with a built-in control system.

An earlier post, Here Comes the Robo-Builder, shows how robots fitted to construction workers can help lift heavy panels, hold materials for fastening, or prevent strain and injury.

The "tool-belt" icon of today's builder might be in for a surprising shift soon.

Rip to a point

Trying to peel wallpaper? Why doesn't it roll off in a straight line instead of tearing off in pointed shards?

Lifting tape from a stubborn roll? It will likely rip to a point, a frustrating triangle that leaves a sticky and unusable remnant. Removing a label? Once again, the label will verge into triangles.

Pedro Reis, an applied mathematics instructor at MIT, says, "This pattern, where two cracks propagate toward each other and meet at a point, is extremely robust. It applies not only to wallpaper but other adhesives such as tape, as well as nonadhesive plastic sheets such as the shrink-wrap that envelops compact discs. It even extends to fruit: The skin on a tomato or a grape typically forms a triangle when peeled off. This has happened to everyone. it's frustrating.”

The team found that those ubiquitous triangular tears arise from interactions between three inherent properties of adhesive materials: elasticity (stiffness), adhesive energy (how strongly the adhesive sticks to a surface) and fracture energy (how tough it is to rip).

[more at Science blog]

New gutter design

Busted gutters in snow country are the norm. Over the years the costs climb, foundations fail, leaks wreck soffits and our roofs rot.

An Australian inventor turned the gutter upside down so that snow and ice slip over a smooth surface while water wicks underneath into the gutter channel.

See for yourself at SnowGutters.com.

The Greening of Awnings

Awnings are back. Better yet, they can save you energy.

GetWithGreen has a two article series on the benefits of awnings.

“Energy efficiency, extended outdoor living and the potential for lower electric bills are some of the most valuable reasons to purchase an awning for your home.”

“Dollar for dollar, the value of this investment is hard to match when considering home upgrades.”

Turn Off Fluorescent Lights

Many believe banks of fluorescent bulbs use too much energy while starting, so it's best to leave them on. But Scientific American posts an article that says the power boost during start up is very small and only increases power usage by a few seconds.

"The U.S. Department of Energy estimates, from a strict energy-conservation standpoint, it's almost always beneficial to shut off fluorescents when leaving the room—the start-up energy is offset by the power saved in even the briefest outages."

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory says "a simple rule of thumb that balances both concerns is to shut off fluorescents if you’re planning to leave a room for more than five minutes".

What's up with your plant?

When your plant needs water, it will post to Twitter or call you!

Nails function as the soil moisture probes. The rest of the unit requires greater skills because it's a Make project that requires a number of parts, a small breadboard, power supply, ethernet and USB cables, downloading code... but what's a little soldering when your plant will be twittering away for many years to come?

Botanicalls, via Webware.

Here comes the Robo-Builder

Japan's Nagayo University has developed an exo-robot to help lift panels for ceilings. The Wearable Robot for Assisting Carpentry Workers [PDF] takes the strain from nailing ceiling panels in place.

The news item reports, "This particular task takes extreme brute force... not only great exertion of strength... inherently counter-human physiognomy... creating varying degrees of muscle fatigue in carpentry workers."

The four phases of this type of carpentry work require multiple over-the-head manual tasks:

1. Lifting up of the board
2. Setting the board with both hands in the proper plane
3. Support the board with one hand and fix the screws
4. Leave the board and fix the screws with one hand

The researchers found that steps 2 and 3 cause most fatigue in carpentry. [Raw Feed and Physorg]

Hang that picture

This might be a classic for the "I shoulda thought of that" department. They're already saying it's a genius product.

Picture Placer is simple, precise, and affordable and removes the hassle from the picture-hanging process.

The device easily makes its mark for a nail or hanger. About $8.00

Radio tag tools

Industry will deliver more machine to machine conversations than human communication soon as sensors begin to populate our world. RFID systems are appearing in distribution centers to shopping carts and now, pickup trucks.

For example, TouchMagic and Ford are offering an RFID system to track tools.

Fifth generation RFID readers and RFID tags are attached to tools or equipment you want to track. Place the tools in the truck or van and use the Tool Link system to scan them. The system identifies each tag, and you can type in the name of the item. Once the inventory is complete, the system can track the items you tagged whenever they are in the truck, and alert you if they are missing.

Forest Fire Sprinkler System

Australia's Calair Pipe Systems makes a variety of nozzles for outside or external sprinklers to protect homes and buildings from wildfire. Their Fire-Pro System includes heat engineered polymer pipe, nozzles and activation sensors.

The intense heat from a burning forest may overwhelm any system, but risk is usually from embers or proximity vegetation. An automatic sprinkler system might be the breakthrough homeowners are looking for.

Improved nail puller

Pull brittle old nails.
Pull pesky wire staples.
Pull pneumatic fasteners.

The jaws increase pressure throughout stroke, gripping the entire exposed length of the fastener.

The Nail Extractor is drop forged of the same steel used in the jaws of bolt-cutters and all 22 teeth are induction hardened to the Rockwell hardness of high grade wire cutters.

Jeff Wagner's invention of The Nail Extractor could earn a "Time Saver Award" on every jobsite, especially removing electrical wire staples.

About $25 from Jefferson Tool.