Projects

Here are some projects that I’ve worked on over the years and want to share. I’ll be adding content periodically, but feel free to ask me about any of them if you have any questions.

1987 Schwinn Voyageur

I bought this bike in Chicago in 2010, after my previous bike was stolen. It was my daily rider, and then I decided to upgrade it.

• 3x6 speed to 3x9, with new long cage derailleur and chain
• Updated to modern 1 1/8” stem and handlebars
• Downtube shifters to bar-end
• Heavy duty touring racks
• new ball bearings and cables throughout
• cream powdercoat

Here is a picture of the bike when I first bought it.

And here it is now.

1977 Schwinn Super Le Tour 12.2

Coming soon.

1928 Coleman Slant Lantern (228F)

I brought my great-great-grandfather’s lantern back to life. I don’t have a before picture, but it was all rusted out and I almost took it to the dump, before I realized what it was. Some consider this the holy grail of coleman lanterns.

Chicken Coop

We now have chickens! We got them in May of 2020. Their names are Debbie Noodle, Michael Jordan, Lara, Pete, and Dr. Fauci.

And they lay eggs! Michael Jordan obviously lays the best eggs.

And we salvaged their house from a hand me down of a hand me down of a chicken coop. Nothing about it is square, but it works. We painted it with an egg themed palette.

Planter Boxes

We had a dilapadated shed in our backyard that was full of garbage, raccoon poop, spiders, and rats. I decided to tear it out after 8 years. I power washed the redwood exterior and used it as paneling on these planter boxes. I was also able to use most of the 2x4 frame of the shed as the frame of the planters.

We now grow our herb garden in these new planters. You may recognize the tubs as old sinks from brewbot. I like to recycle this old junk, rather than just throw it out.

1971 Chevrolet K10 350 Motor Rebuild

I’ve blown up my motor twice now. In high school, a push rod snapped, and then in 2011 a main bearing spun. I bought this truck for $700 from my grandfather when I was 18. I did some body work on it, and this is what it looked like during that time. A few months after this photo was taken, the aforementioned rod snapped, and a mechanic friend helped me rebuild the motor.

Eventually, I got it painted and lifted a little, because that’s really cool for a young boy to do. The second time I blew up the engine, I did the rebuild all on my own because I’m a big successful engineer now, and I can do that kind of stuff. Below are some photos of the engine removal.

Here’s a shot of the culprit; a melted main crankshaft bearing. It made a chirping noise when the motor turned over. I suspect the truck got too low on oil, which got these bearings hotter than normal. They began to melt, then the metal eventually morphed into it’s final shape due to heat and excess force by the imbalanced rotation of the crankshaft.

And now that i’m done, here’s the truck on a lift.

Woodworking Restoration Projects

I like to build and restore things. I don’t have all of my projects on here, but there are a few.

Desk

My college roommate left this old desk at our apartment. Despite it being badly thrashed, I liked the desk itself. Ten years later, I refinished it.

Lamp

I found this flat rock and nice driftwood stick on a beach in Mendocino County, and then turned them into a lamp.

Night Stands

My dad made these for my mom for their first anniversary in 1976. In 2013, I refinished them and brought them back to life.

Jewelry Box

I built a jewlelry box out of an Ikea bed frame I found on the sidewalk and some felt.

Bar Table

This is a funky tall table I made one day with a bunch of material i had lying around in the garage.

Shelves

I thought these shelves would be pretty nice to refinish. After taking about 10 coats of paint off of them, I found that the bare wood was too damaged to keep bare, so I repainted the shelves and got new glass. There are two of these.

Table

I don’t have the before picture, but this table was left outside for over a year. It had about 100 circles stained into it from water damage. Using a hand planer, I was able to remove the entire damaged layer and revitalize the solid maple table.

Shopsmith Restoration

I got a shopsmith out of my grandfather’s shed, and it was totally rusted throughout. I completely disassembled the machine, sandblasted, repainted, greased, and fixed each part, then repainted and reassembled. Before.

Neither of these are great pictures. I’ll have to search for a few more. After.