Thursday, 3 February 2011

Mud Room Lockers from 2 Kilby's


Materials: 2 Kilby book shelves, circular saw, drill

Description: The great thing about Kilby is that it is only 9.5 inches deep and fit into an opening that I had at the side door.

In order to do this hack you will need to put together all inside portions before you assemble the outside to the bookshelf.

1. Open Both boxes of the Kilby.
2. Bottom Vertical: We are going to be cutting up one long section of the Kilby from the extra box. Cut 9.5cm off the bottom of long board.
3. Bottom Vertical: Cut the same board 72cm from the bottom cut. This will be the verticle on the locker bottom.
4. Top Vertical: Use the big remainder piece from the Bottom Vertical. From the top (uncut end) of the remaining portion of the first board board, cut off 17mm.
5. Top Vertical: From the cut in step 4 (inside top), cut the piece to 108.9 cm from the top.




The new Vertical boards will likely be hollow except around the edges. We are going to dowel the Verticals to the top board, middle board and bottom board.
1. Find the drill bit that matches the doweling in the Kilby kit. Best to use a particle board bit but a wood bit will do if you can go fast accurately. Put tape on your drill bit so that you only drill to half of the length of the dowel. All holes will be the same depth.
2. On the Top vertical board (it is the longer of the two you cut). Drill two holes on the top unfinished edge 2cm from the front and the back.
3. On the Top vertical board (same board as step 2). Drill two holes on the bottom unfinished edge 2cm from the front and back.
4. On the Bottom vertical board (it is the shorter of the two you cut). Drill two holes on the top unfinished edge 4cm from the front and the back.
5. On the Bottom vertical board (same board as step 2). Drill two holes on the bottom unfinished edge 4cm from the front and back.

Now we are going to attach our vertical boards to the top, middle and bottom boards. Remember to only drill to the depth of half the dowel.
1. There will be 3 boards in the first box that are about 63cm long. Mark the boards as Top, Middle, and Bottom.
2. Measure and mark the center of each board. You will need to measure the Middle board top and bottom.
3. On the Top board make sure the finished edge is away from you, and then drill two holes 2cm from the front and back.
4. On the Bottom board make sure the finished edge is toward you, and then drill two holes 4cm from the front and back.
5. On the Middle board, make sure the finished edge is toward you and then drill two holes on the top 2cm from the front and back. Turn the board over so that the finished edge is away from you and drill two holes 4cm from the front and back.

Put together the inner portions.
1. Put 2 dowels in the top board, and attach the top vertical board.
2. Put 4 dowels in the middle board and attach to the top vertical board.
3. Attach the bottom vertical board to the middle board.
4. Put 2 dowels in the bottom board and attach it to the bottom vertical board.

Put the bookcase together according to instructions, cut out some shelves and install. Note we had to put the bookcase in place. Position the hooks where we thought they should go and put a nail through the back board. Then remove the unit and put wallboard screw supports in so that winter coats did not pull them off the wall.

Hope this inspires someone!

~ Connie, Canada

Wednesday, 2 February 2011

Expedit Bar


Materials: Expedit, Capita, Lack

Description: Just screw the LACK wall shelf with CAPITA brackets on an EXPEDIT room divider.


Ready for the next cocktail party :-)

~ Eva, Leverkusen, Germany

LEKMAN Watercooled


Materials: LEKMAN-Box, Dremel, Driller

Description: Being an EXPEDIT-FAN (got a lot of them in our home) my wife inspired me to put my whole watercooled Computer in a Lekman Box as she always hurt her knees at the BIG Computer-Case under the EXPEDIT-Desk...

I knew that it is possible to put a "normal" PC in a Lekman Box, but the problem was to get a whole watercooled PC in that tiny Box...

So first I tried a 3D-Modell with Google-Sketchup to find out anything would match in the LEKMAN Box; And Yes it should work...


So I had to cut out the AIR-Holes for the radiators in the front and for the Mainboard, Power-Plug and another Radiator at the Back, so the Air can get through the whole Case, because the PC will stand in an EXPEDIT beneath my desk.

As I have no Laser or anything like that I had to drill an "dremel", what was really tricky with that plastic of the box, but finally it worked (would get much better with the right tools)..

~ Dirk Rafelt, D�sseldorf, Germany

Elevated iMac Monitor Shelf


Materials: Ikea table, and stackable Ikea shelves.

Description:
I was originally looking for a monitor stand for my iMac. My intent was to lift my iMac slightly off the desk so I could have just enough space for a keyboard, my laptop, or some papers. Another feature I was looking for was some front facing USB ports, since all iMacs have the USB ports on the rear of the monitor - makes using a USB hub almost a necessity. Upon browsing online it seemed like a decent monitor stand for my iMac was going to run me $60 - $80 for the bare minimum that I was looking for. I couldn't justify spending that much for something that would provide so little in terms of functionality, additional storage, etc. During my search, I came across a posting on LifeHacker that pointed me to IkeaHackers and I discovered that a lot of people had been mixing and matching different pieces of Ikea furniture to help make their workspace more functional. At this point, I looked at my Ikea table (the one I use as a desk), and a set of shelves in my living room that I have been dying to get rid of. Instantly I was inspired to make the shelves into a raised monitor stand on top of the table. Here is the steps I took to achieve my finished result.

1) Clear off the table and shelves - this was a perfect excuse to clean all the dust off them and make them shine like new again.


2) Go to a hardware store and obtain something to use as spacers to place between the table top and the bottom shelf. I originally had 4" PVC pipe in mind, but at the hardware store I saw that they had a stack of thick cardboard tubes from carpet rolls that they were giving away for free. Since my project didn't involve liquids, the cardboard tube made sense since it is easy to cut in pieces with a common wood saw (and it was free instead of $7 per piece).

3) Cut the cardboard tube into 5 pieces to serve as legs for the shelf. (this could just as easily be feet from a sofa, wooden blocks, packs of printer paper, PVC pipe, or anything that is strong and stable.)

4) Place the first shelf upside down on the cardboard blocks.

5) Then place the black uprights of the shelf 2 rows high (be sure to use the wooden doweling in all the holes - otherwise bumping the table may cause everything to fall apart.)

6) After you have all the uprights in place, install the top shelf as normal across the top. By inverting the bottom shelf, it provides a nice space to fit a large flatscreen iMac, or any other monitor of your choice.

7) Optional - I wanted front facing USB ports, so I took a USB hum and stuck a piece of velcro on the back of it. I then stuck it to the bottom side of the bottom shelf off to the side so it almost disappears visually. Now it hides all the wires, and combined with the powerbar that I attached to the underside of the table, there are no visible wires hanging behind or beside the workstation.

As it sits next to my Ikea Jerker standing desk, it is a nice compliment to my home office. The rotating shelves of the Jerker serve nicely as printer stands that push away when not in use - providing even more effective working space when combined with my new workstation.

~ Dave, Calgary, Aberta, Canada

Tuesday, 1 February 2011

Convert LED Wall Light for use in RV


Materials: Jansjo

Description: I fell in love with the Jansjo LED wall light and I wanted to use it in my RV. It makes the perfect bedroom reading light, and since it's based on a light-emitting diode (LED) it's low power and you can't burn yourself by accidentally touching it.

Unfortunately, it doesn't run on a standard voltage. The special power adapter is built into the cord which plugs into the wall so there's no way to use it while camping or in a trailer. No problem.

In order to accomplish this hack you will need a Janslo lamp, a sub-miniature toggle switch ($3.00 from Radio Shack), a 1-watt LED power driver ($3.00 from Sure Electronics on eBay), and the ability to solder.

Cut the cord off the lamp and remove the little plastic screw that holds the cord in place. Unthread the power cord from the hole and clip off the white connectors, using care to leave the remaining wires as long as possible.

Drill out the hole that the cord went through using a 1/4" twist drill. Bend the contacts on the switch to be as flat as possible, slip the switch into the hole from the inside, and epoxy it in place. When the epoxy has set, you are ready to attach the cord and wire up the switch.


Solder the wires to the switch as shown using a piece of the old lamp cord. Polarity is very important with this project. You do not want to get the leads reversed. If you look carefully at the lamp cord, you will notice that one side of it is marked with little black dashes. Connect this side to the silver wire on the lamp. Connect the other side to the switch as shown. Connect the white wire from the lamp to the other side of the switch.

You are now ready to wire up the LED driver.

Strip a 1/4" of insulation off the wires to the lamp and attach them to the LED+ and LED- terminals on the driver board using the screw terminals. Once again, mind the polarity. The wire with the black dashes goes to the LED- terminal. The other one goes to LED+.

Attach the other side of the driver board to the 12-volt wires in your RV, being careful to observe the polarity. If you hook it up backwards, you will destroy the driver board (and possibly burn yourself).

That's it! You now have a very bright, very efficient reading light. It uses less than 1/10th the power of a standard 12-volt light bulb (150mA vs 2000mA).

~ Rick Scherle, San Francisco, CA

IKEA Polarvide capelet


Materials:
1 Ikea Polarvide throw
Scissors
Pins
Pencil
Needle and thread
Sewing machine
Tape measure
1 snap, button, or other closure
Strips of an old sweater, optional

Description: A lovely little capelet from the Polarvide throw.


See more of the IKEA throw capelet.

~ via Craftzine. (Thanks, Becki!)

Extra long media furniture


Materials: FAKTUM wall cabinet, FAKTUM legs, SIGNUM cable outlet kit, PERFEKT SOL�R plinth

Description: So, moving in to my new apartment made me realize just how much stuff I had and how little extra space I actually had available. Therefore I had a little brainstorming session, and this is what I came up with.

Instead of using a normal media furniture (I couldn't find any that wasn't super-expensive), I decided to use the FAKTUM wall cabinet made for kitchens. In this case I used 4 double door and one single (H�RLIG doors, doesn't get cheaper than that).


With a little magic called FAKTUM legs, 2 pieces of oak-worktops (not IKEA but I saw that they have them now as well) and PERFEKT SOL�R plinth it ended up really really good.


To continue the magic, do the finishing touches with SIGNUM cable outlet kit and hide all the ugly stuff inside one of the cabinets, like in my case printer, WLAN, the base station for the music etc and most of all the cables.

~ Johanna Bergman, Sweden