A bit late but for Halloween I wanted to try out something new. I have seen this DIY magic mirror on the net and wanted to try something like that. I started out with a mirror that I picked up at a low price outlet for about $10.  It had a nice frame but a real mirror and that is no good, I wanted a magic one. Little did they now that the frame became magical with the help of a some window glass and a sunscreen for car windows. Unfortunately I don’t have any images of the build.

The mirror have some of the features that the DIY magic mirror have. For example, it can read alcohol fumes. In other words a vanity breathalyser. It is activated by pressing the button below the mirror.

The mirror is basically a semitransparent mirror with a LCD mounted behind and hooked up to a computer.

The controls are connected with a Arduino to the computer. As this was going to be used at a party and we wanted to know when people arrive. The logical step is to put a wireless doorbell connected to the Arduino. Thats about it.

This weekend me and my friend Kim where trying to clean up a little at our bar. Well, about 100 cans of beer where cluttering the storage room and we usually crush them by simply place them on the floor and stomp them flat. For a while now we have been thinking about building some kind of crusher device. As Kim wanted to be able to get some chums to work when ever he is displeased with them we went for a manual crusher. I wanted a pneumatic ram to crush them but as we are a bit low on cash and don’t have any pneumatic equipment it would have to do.

The device is quite simple really, there are a box that serves as a crushing chamber and feeder with room for 5 cans. The two levers makes it easy to crush a can. The hole in the side and the block of wood inside are just a way to secure it to the table.

The feeder is fully loaded and ready for action. All you have to do at this point is pushing the levers apart and together until the feeder is empty.

Here is the last can in a load before and after.

The force needed for this result is not that great. I don’t think a eight year old could do it but for any normal strength adult it is easy. One thing I didn’t take a picture of is the exit port. In the “after” picture above you will have to imagine a hole just a little bit larger than the crushed can. When the ram moves back and lets go of the can it will fall out in the bottom.

Found this great project. A one armed bandit mixed with alcohol and tinkering. This thing would be great in the bar.

Check it out over at NYC Resistor.

With work and getting married I have had little time for blogging not to mention working on any projects. I hope I’ll have more time soon 🙂

Today I woke up to a warm and sunny day.  It was already 30 degrees centigrade on the balcony and to my horror all plants was close to dead and very dry. A emergency water run to the kitchen was required. About 15 litres of water later and I think they will be fine for another summer day. The picture is taken about 15 minutes after I watered the plants and in such short time they are getting back on the right side of the track.

The last two of weeks or so I have been waken several times, most times at sun break by some seagull chicks outside. A week or so ago they where mere balls of feathers. Today however I got a chance to see al three but by the time I got the camera out only one where left. But the one left are not shy for a camera let me tell you.

The window in the first picture are the bedroom.

The cats are more than a little interested but the chicks and the cats seems to be more of companions than enemies.

On a completely different matter, this weekend there was a furniture sale and we picked up a new  sideboard. Now almost all our kitchen furniture are from IKEA. But I still happy with the new arrangement.

Today I found a wax containing the main ingredients for a good moustache wax, beeswax and petroleum jelly. Unfortunately is smells like a fourteen year old girl. Now, I don’t mind the smell, if your a fourteen years old girl. However it is also quite soft. To soft for my rebellious upper lip hair. I am still on  a mission to make my own.

It is crazy difficult to take a good picture of my own moustache, so I settle for just plain crazy.

I’m not much of a LEGO builder, but on the other hand I have never really grown up ether. I stumble upon this piece by Wochenender on the  Brothers Brick blog.  I really like the details. If I only had the time, money and talent… 🙂

It was such a lovely weather yesterday that we thought that we should get a table for the balcony.  It’s one of those hanging over the railing, and thus needed something to keep it level. Some bamboo and string fixed that.

And while doing that I found a way to hang up a concrete picture that I got from my mother over two years ago.

It turned out quite well even thou I had to use a lot of string to get it to hang strait. It’s quite heavy. I don’t know if this qualify as creativity of the day but I hope that it does 🙂 I leave you with two pictures of the balcony, it’s turned out quite cosy.

As we are in the “30 days of creativity” I don’t want to miss out on writing a post. To be honest I don’t really have anything to say. All my creativity went into my work and some beer as it’s Friday (not that I drink every Friday, but today it was TGIF).  I still want to post this video I found on the Maker blog. 🙂

I have more updates coming, trust me…

Btw. I will redo the blog design to fit these larger youtube videos. And if it looks reasonable good, I have already change the design.

xoxo – Gossip boy