Show and Tell @Mike and Molly’s House | The Future All Over Again

By Mike

May212012

Last Friday one of our readers, Tina Phillips, shared an intriguing link on our facebook page.   It was about an experimental building method called spaceplates being developed by the Danish collective N55 that looks suspiciously like the future of building from the late 60’s.

Based on the research of the late Danish engineer Ture Wester, spaceplates are  a rigid, light weight modular building system.  Being a pure plate structure, there are no other structural members than thin plates, bent at all edges to achieve a simple, mechanical assembly method.  While the design and the production requires digital technology, the structure itself can be assembled using only hand tools. » » »

The Snaptastic Room Divider

By Mike

Mar52012

Snaptastic Room Divider

The Snaptastic Room Divider is an attractive modular wall made up of an array of panels that are fit together with slotted connectors to make a large freestanding room divider.  It can be expanded or reduced to fit the space it’s being used in.

It’s always tempting to put up a project and only show the ‘straight line’ from concept to result-  Get these materials, do these steps and voilà a finshed project!  I don’t know about you, but my path is usually a little more meandering.  I thought I’d share the design process and some of the mess-ups on the way because it’s interesting. » » »

Ravioli Daze

By Mike

Jan162012

Last spring I got into making ravioli.  After the the first session of cutting them out by hand a ravioli press sounded really really good.

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Gear Coasters

By Mike

Oct302011

My friend Rick is a talented craftsman and tinkerer.  Among other things, he’s made a career out of  making artificial rocks.  I know!  Who woulda’ thunk you could have a career making fake rocks!  If you’ve been to the New Orleans Zoo you’ve seen his work.  A few months ago we started an inventors club.   Really it’s just some time set aside each week for experimenting and tinkering.  Lately I’ve been working on Rick to get him excited about CNC routers.  A CNC router is a router that is controlled by a computer. You can use it to very accurately cut out 2D and 3D shapes that are drawn on a computer.  Think of it as a wood cutting robot. » » »

Pie Party Trivets

By Mike

Oct232011

2011 piefest

One of the benefits of having our birthdays so close together is that we have the perfect excuse to have one big annual party.  We both like throwing parties built around an activity; we used to host a pumpkin carving party.  It only made sense given the time of the year.  It was a great family event where battery powered saws and knives were pulled out- Fun for all!  After five years of the pumpkin party we decided to try something new.  Last year we came up with a new theme.  A pie baking contest. » » »