Tell us about it!

  • Almacca@aussie.zoneEnglish
    2·
    4 days ago

    I made a simrig for my youngest, with his help, out of the timber from an old bunk-bed, a car-seat from a wreckers, and some donated heavy duty locking casters that were the inspiration for the job. It was designed so the pedal area slid under the seat to make it more compact when not in use. All fully adjustable so it’d fit him as he grew. I was a bit miffed when he sold it, wheel and pedals included for $50. He could have got 4 times that.

    (Table with TV not part of the rig. That’s part of my rig that I’ve previously posted)

  • Lifecoach5000@lemmy.worldEnglish
    70·
    9 days ago

    I made a piece called “Sad Hammer”. It was a cheap hammer that got overused and bent down and I thought it looks depressed, so I put it in a shadow box and hung it on my wall after visiting MOMA. I guess it’s really not that cool but I like it.

  • Jspelts@lemmy.world
    29·
    9 days ago

    I do ham radio. Probably the coolest thing I’ve “made” is a setup where I can send email without the need for an internet connection on my end. I use a small laptop connected to a transceiver to send out high-frequency sounds (VARA) on very low power (5-10 watts) to towers around the world that will decode the signals, convert it to a regular email, and send it to the recipient (bob@overthere.com). Then reverse the process when I check for a reply. The whole setup fits in a small backpack and I can use a piece of speaker wire for the antenna. It’s about as fast as dial-up used to be, but it works!

    • urushitan 漆たん@kakera.kintsugi.moe
      8·
      9 days ago

      Do the towers have a spec that allows outgoing email to anyone? And does the email always come from the same address? If not are you authenticating through smtp? This is so interesting, thanks for sharing!

      • Jspelts@lemmy.world
        6·
        9 days ago

        Look into WInlink. You have to have an amateur radio license, and you’ll have to choose between different software (ie: radio modem), and you’ll need an HF transceiver. Once licensed you can create a Winlink account (via radio, no web signups!), which gives you access to smtp through their gateways (which are actually owned by other hobbyists). Different towers/repeaters have different specs/protocols (PACTOR, Packet, I use VARA) but all of them allow you to send email to any domain or recipient, just like regular email. Hardest part is configuring your laptop (or even phone) to control your transceiver to send the signals out. The email you’d have is your_callsign@winlink.org and with HF frequencies you can hit just about any gateway listed here https://winlink.org/content/gateway_locations

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      8 days ago

      Thats so cool.

      My paternal grandfather was a ham radio guy… he died before I could learn anything from any of it, and all his gear got sold at an estate auction.

      I think its neat how you guys can bounce signals off the atmosphere to talk over the horizon to europe and shit.

      • Jspelts@lemmy.world
        1·
        8 days ago

        Yeah it is a lot of fun, last week I was talking to a guy in Ireland just to switch bands and talk to another guy in New Zealand.

        It’s actually easier than ever to get in. You can get a decent handheld UHF/VHF local rig for less than $30, and a decent QRP HF global rig runs about $225 after you upgrade your license. There’s study guides out there for $10 (and even free ones) that go over the actual questions you get on the FCC exam. The license fee has gone up to $35 from $10, but the equipment has gotten cheap enough for anyone to get in.

  • aramis87@fedia.io
    25·
    9 days ago

    I made a batch of really good salsa over the weekend. It took me hours (I’m disabled atm), but it was a really good batch with incredibly fresh local tomatoes, peppers and onions.

  • Rhaedas@fedia.io
    25·
    9 days ago

    I have a scifi novel. It’s circling right now in the first revision stage, but the story itself is complete and I feel good about it. Even filed for copyright. Now if I can just get back to work on it (rewriting sucks).

  • disregardable@lemmy.zip
    23·
    9 days ago


    I’m still working on it, but this is my first attempt at making something with clay. How cute it’s supposed to be for reference.

    • Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world
      3·
      9 days ago

      First off, I’ll take yours over the one in the picture any day. There’s a roughness that comes from early amateur work that just feels more alive. Second, the one in the photo is a polymer clay, it was probably press molded and cleaned up for the photo.

      What material are you using? I’ve been doing ceramics and sculpinh for about 20 years now and I’d be happy to answer any questions or give pointers.

  • gigastasio@sh.itjust.works
    18·
    9 days ago

    I make songs. I’m not sure how to link to them or any of my artist profiles without doxxing myself but yeah. I make songs. It makes me happy.

    • Almacca@aussie.zoneEnglish
      1·
      4 days ago

      That’s really cool. I never tried kitbashing and painting (too messy for me) but I did dabble in building mecha out of Lego back in the day. Getting them fully articulated and proportional was a challenge, and I especially loved trying different methods of making hands.

      The coolest one I ever built was about 15cm tall, fully poseable, and fit a minifig pilot.

      I still have all that lego, but nowhere to set it up, so I haven’t built anything in years. :(

      • plaztek@piefed.caEnglish
        2·
        4 days ago

        I tried getting back into Lego for a while before switching to Gunpla/mecha models. Lego was starting to get expensive and I had a friend who was pushing me to give Gunpla a try. Your guy looks pretty cool, though. My goal was to build my own custom mecha.

        • Almacca@aussie.zoneEnglish
          1·
          3 days ago

          I got most of mine through second-hand bulk lots from kids selling their collections after they thought they grew out of them. Fools!

  • CombatWombat@feddit.onlineEnglish
    17·
    9 days ago

    I’ve recorded a few audiobooks for Librivox, a group that releases free recordings of public domain books. I use my government name for them, so I won’t say which ones, but you might have heard my voice if you picked the right one from !audiobooks@literature.cafe

    • Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world
      3·
      9 days ago

      Thank you so much for your contribution, librivox is what got me into reading and helped me discover my dyslexia and I’ve always held anyone involved to a high regard for it.

    • ace_garp@lemmy.world
      3·
      9 days ago

      Thanks for your efforts! 💗

      I’ve listened to 100s of librivox.org books over the past 15 years.

      The only name I can bring to mind right now is GreenKRI, who did some Aesop’s Fables and other readings. 🙂

      Excellent website.

  • notsosure@sh.itjust.works
    16·
    9 days ago

    I’ve made four sci-fi novels, self-published them and am working on the fifth. I have been making sketches and paintings and done many exhibitions.

  • Postmortal_Pop@lemmy.world
    15·
    9 days ago

    IMG_20220330_013939_679_122346

    I’ve posted her elsewhere, but this is Teana. A few years back, my boy wanted a posable body for a Halloween Halloween monkey who’s head broke off. One rabbit hole later and I was knee deep in the ball-joint doll section of the 3d printing community. He and I decided we’d make our own but as monsters.

    The smoothing process for the white ABS I was using reminded me of my time working with porcelain and that’s how Teana happened. Eventually Id like to sew a little dress and pose her on my brick-a-brack shelf in a decorative cloche.

    More recently I’ve been building a mid century modern sectonal couch out of scrap lumber and a memory foam mattress. I’m far from a carpenter, didn’t even own saw when I started, but it’s coming together very nicely. It will look great with my TV.

    5712

    It was a later model zenith with a broken screen. It’s not the real wood style my parents had, the front is molded plastic, but it still feels nice. I gutted it, used a dremel to widen the hole behind the face, and nylon straps to hold up a cheap 32in from Walmart. I then disassembled an old tower and built it into the empty space inside and mounted a soundbar to echo off the back wall. The screen actually loses about 4cm off the edges became of the frame, but it feels more like the classic aspect ratio and that’s nice. Also I’ve yet to watch a movie that needed that area anyway.

  • bizarroland@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14·
    9 days ago

    I released a couple of albums, unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you’re looking at it, the great myspace purge of whenever the fuck that happened deleted their existence off of the face of the planet.

  • nanometer1625@thelemmy.club
    14·
    9 days ago

    When I was a teenager, I made a trebuchet. It was so fun. It was not sophisticated at all – just made of 2x4 with a steel rod as the axle. The axle was about 1 m from the ground, to give you a sense of its size. It wasn’t large, but it could throw things quite far (about 60 m).