Shelf

The bookshelf or maybe should I say BookChelf because I made it out of chains.
First I made shelves out of wood that I glued and screwed together to a solid piece.
Then I made four big holes in each of the five for the chains.
Marked the holes in the ceiling and mounted “hooks” there for the chains.
I put up the chains and then just slid up each shelf up the chains to desired height and put a bar through each pair of chains.
Easy in theory but really much job, but that's half the fun.

Glued two 150cm/5ft pieces together side by side. Put one bit on each end on the  underside and finally one all the way under.
Repeated this five times and then I had five sturdy, rustic shelves to my own wishes.

I then made four holes in each and put on a layer of semi-transparent gray paint to protect and further emphasize the rustic vibe i'm looking for .

Then I mounted four sturdy mounts in the ceiling and attached chains in them
Cut 6mm metal rods that I put through the chains and let the shelf rest on.
It turned out awesome and was worth the work

OSB wall...one of two

Speedshop development continues...
The decision to use the machine room as mancave was not really a change for the build.
The machine room should looked the same anyway and that's one of the reasons i changed the plan.
Simple as, it would be to nice as machine room.

First wall to tackle was the wall against the storage.
I bought OSB board and cut them in 40cm/16" strips each, much like wallpaper.
MUCH easier to handle such a strip than a whole boards, especially when there is lots of cutting involved.
The first wall is made of five strips.

 First strip up

Five strips cut, mounted and done

Transmitting

Driving the Mini-Z is as much fun that I've hoped.

But the lack of adjustment on the OEM transmitter  became really apparent, so a another was located.
Found a Kyosho branded KO EX-5 on ebay in the UK for a fair price.
It felt brand new when I opened the box so i'm more than satisfied.
A whole lot of stuff to learn though.
All settings on my old Multiplex  EX-9 was analog, this is all digital on a display.
Quite steep learning curve but the guys at the track are super helpful.
The most important setting for me was the exponential steering and when I found that the car acted more liked I was used to.
The backside was how apparent it became how bad im at piloting a RC car.
So with a great car and radio, the excuses are over and it's up to me.
:)

My dear, dear, now obsolete EX-9 that have been my trusty friend since the nineties.

The new kid on the block, the EX-5.

Blasted

Bought myself a soda blaster.
Many reasons for this purchase, one of them was to remove worn out paint on otherwise OK bodies for the Mini-Z.
Works awesome……..IF you have a air compressor that delivers 10bar/145psi with free flow.
With my tiny compressor I only get about five !! seconds of 7-8bar.
Definitely not good enough, but I got some result tiny so I'm on the right path anyway.
But until my real big air compressor is up and running this have to wait.

The equipment

The SLOW, but really good result.

Mind wondering…

Sometimes I just want to give up, sell EVERYTHING and buy a ping pong table instead.
Order all sports channels on TV and just watch sport and drink beer.

OMG, feeling nausea just thinking about it.
Nah, the Speedshop plans remains even if it feels tough now.

The give up vision

Lockie, lockie

The “lock” on the garage door was in need of an upgrade.
I wouldn't been calm even if this lock was on garden shed to be honest.
So my locksmith friend suggested a sturdy mortise lock.
And with some directions from him me and my son began the task to upgrade the lock from the sixties to a more suitable level of security.

The old lock soon retired from +50 years of use

The new, shiny lock in all its glory

Some light woodwork and the new could fit the old hole


The other door needed some more massage to be convinced

But in the end we won.

A to B

Sometimes life's mysterious.
Have been searching for a new A to B car for a while now, but the hours moving the shop and everything around it have made an actual purchase impossible.
But now when things have calmed down a tiny, tiny bit the hunt was real.

So I Decided for a Smart Fortwo.
The Smart car have been a soft spot for me since the late nineties when they arrived.
So I found myself a nice 451 Fortwo two hours from home.
I decided that's the one and went there to see it.
Test drove it and it's a really fun car and I was convinced, BUT I wasn't convinced on THAT car..
It was a really nice car, but the spec wasn't as I have imagined
I also found out that in Sweden most Smart cars only have semi automatic instead of fully automatic.
Automatic gearbox was the main reason for a new car so that was a big disadvantage to say the least.
OK, I didn't had to play around with a clutch, but still...
The VERY basic level also resulted in the lack of power steering.
No biggie really, but the steering was surprisingly hard for such small car.

Some considerations and pro/con thoughts I walked away from that.
But the reason for the trip was a new car and that goal was still on...

A quick look on the classifieds again, was there any other nice car nearby?
Some browsing later I found a Mercedes W203 I looked at online before.
It was in same town and only 9 minutes away according to Google maps so of we went.
It looked really nice so…...a short test drive and some haggling later I was tastefully cruising home in my first “starcar”.
A 2005, C200 Kompressor and of course automatic.
Really high level of gadgets in the car as well and everything still works!!!

So now I only have to wait for stuff to break.
😀