[Tech] BILLY Bookcase, Lights on!

Lights on, y'all. This is a continuation to a past post. I've wanted to put together something to display my collectibles dust-free for some time, but have always put it off for that "perfect timing"... what exactly was I waiting for though? I didn't have an answer to that. Let's give this display case thing a try... and while we're at it, let's get our hands into LED lighting as well.



Took an unusual approach to this project. I gave LED strips a try for the 1/64 cars in the bottom half of the display, ran 3 strips per row, and stuck them to a sheet of foamcore which I can then mount onto the shelf. This just makes the whole setup more modular and less tedious to modify if the LEDs needed to be removed. I was distraught to find this happening:



So the schematic for the wiring goes like this. From the LED controller, 3 strips are ran in series, then ran up to the next set of 3 strips which account for the second shelf. For whatever reason, nothing happened during testing, but once I put the hot glue in place, the end of the first strip begins to burn on the voltage line. Thinking it was just a bad strip, I trimmed off the last section and wired in a new piece. Burns again! Did I short the thing twice?! What gives!? To keep the long story short, I had to redo the wiring so the strips at the back of the line weren't pulling a ton of voltage through the first. This made very little sense to me as the product out of the package was a 5 meter strip that didn't have any issues powering up this entire length.



Either way, I finally got it working after an adequate test.



Next, lighting the figures. Went the IKEA route on this one to give those OMLOPPs a try.



Top row of lights were ran directly through the back board, since they won't be going anywhere else.



The lower row can always be moved around, and so accommodating potential changes, I put the hole through the backboard, but directly behind the shelving board. Yes, a hole is ultimately still visible, but being off to the side should make things more discreet. Speaking of discreet...



2-piece foamcore L-bracket was glued in place to hide the wiring.



Voila! It's so pretty!



This isn't the final arrangement by any means. I'll be taking out Saber and the bike eventually, or I may shift the middle row upward to put the glass pane back in.



I future-proofed this setup by purchasing the 10-slot power supply. In the event the LED strips aren't doing it for me any longer, I won't have any issues installing another set of 4 lights.

[Tech] Table-mounted Jigsaw

I don't need a bandsaw now! If there was a power tool I've always wanted, it was a bandsaw. To have what would be the general cutting tool of the household, I could easily get into crafting things beyond just foam and small pieces of wood. I've seen people mount their rotary tools to wooden mechanisms they've built themselves, and this got me thinking about mounting jigsaws. People have found way to screw their jigsaw base to a wooden board, but unfortunately for mine, this is not an option. So the workaround I've decided on involves securing it into a slot I made and locking it into place. Unwilling to spend moolah to build this, I've managed to put together a system using wood and screws.


Watch the video to see it in action.

A video I watched previously assembled legs and a base piece which could be clamped down to a table. This assumes that this setup will be portable and will depend on a larger table.



I was planning on doing the same, but before I did, I ran a brief safety test of how stable the jigsaw operates in its current state. This was possible by using two folding chairs as its legs. As sketchy as it sounds, I could see myself continuing to use the saw this way. It keeps the finished product small enough for easy storage, and the saw doesn't cause enough vibration that I absolutely need to clamp it down to something more stationary.



While it's unfortunate that the blade will be rather short and the that the blade will have a tendency to bend during use in this setup, it shouldn't be too bad as I will likely only be working at a small scale anyway.



Thanks to having an electric saw, cutting out these shapes have saved me a ton of time.

[Tech] 15-Piece File Set Holder

I haven't made a post about it yet, but I'm going to get into a project of crafting scale models of fictional weapons, with the outlook of turning it into a small business (screw custom Hot Wheels). Without sufficient tools to make metalworking easy, I'm taking first steps with wood instead. So to make my life easier, I've stocked up on a whole set of files I'll be depending on regularly, but there was one thing that bothers me: it doesn't come with a storage container of sorts! What ever shall I do?!

By coincidence, I thought of using this old beer glass I stopped using for years. It's tall enough to hold every piece. I could toss everything in here- no sweat..... but what if I could have something to hold the shorter files? One thing led to another, and here we have a beer glass with enough cable ties glued on to hold every single piece 'cause I just looooove making storage solutions. Now normally when I make things for practical use, aesthetics is not a priority, it's a tool that will receive wear and tear through use, so why make it look pretty at the risk of defacing it? Under these circumstances, it's not a priority- shit, it's almost mandatory to leave it out! But I decided otherwise just this time.

Thought of blocking out the unsightly hot glue and wires by painting the outside. I decided it may be helpful in leaving the bottom half as-is so you can browse for the file you need without having to pull out each one. Also doing a fade makes it look fancier.

What's really cool is that this idea came to me on the spur of the moment and I finished it in less than an hour. Love quick projects like these!

[Crafts] Office Wall Improvements 2018

Disregarding the tech on the table, ever since I moved from the sitting desk to the standing desk, the orientation of where my attention is in the room, where I'm situated, how the lighting now affects the surfaces I work off of, I have not fully changed the rest of the room to follow suit. I've been going at a desk with an off-centered fluorescent lamp with still no steps towards doing something about displaying the big cars. I've done too much idling and decided it was time to start something; anything- just do...something!

So being lousy at documenting progress for whatever readers (who actually read this) can see for easier following, I can only show the first photo as a frame of reference. Since 2013, I've had that glass shelf on the wall in that spot, not center-aligned with the width of the wall it is attached to. The left side of the wall has been neglected for many years, and in all fairness, the previous one who resided in this location had a bookshelf on the left, which shrinks the visible width of this wall. That would explain why the framed paper, and lamp are where they are. Well I've had enough of that. It was time to finally make use of this wall to do something I have no other use for; display my model cars! I've already used up all the real estate on my bedroom walls. This is some of the last remaining space I've left, so what I do from here on forth should be carefully considered. The white foamcore Hot Wheels shelf on the right has been hanging since 2013. It still looks great for what it is, but it is also a hindrance for expansion and development of the remaining wall space. Basically, there were a few objectives to this makeover:

1) Accommodate space for 1:18 model cars.
2) Accommodate space for the Monster Hunter figures.
3) Bonus: Set up some LED spotlights to up the display game.


So with all this in mind, it was time for another round of IKEA shopping. With a new year and putting more thought and consideration into budgeting for needs and wants, more time was taken to find a suitable balance between end-results and cost. Other factors taken into consideration were the dimensions of the wall influencing my options, what restrictions are imposed based on the display cases' sizes. Let's have a look at what products were considered.



These are the BESTA and EKET respectively. They provided initial interest due to the closed-frame appearance that would give the car or figure its own "home" so to speak. Having a roof over its head also opened up the possibility of installing a spotlight. It's basically more than just a plank of wood on a wall. Unfortunately, I had to turn down the BESTA because of the bezel on the front window that covers up a portion of the bottom compartment. Any car displayed down there would be 50% visible. If an individual EKET shelf came in larger sizes, I would've most certainly bought these for the figures. It can fit Barufaruku and Rathalos, but I'd be forced with one or two display angles, and I don't want to close off my viewing options just so I could have a square box on the wall. It's arguable I could make my own wall shelves, but nah. This would be one of those things I wouldn't want to spend the time and effort into building. Let's move on to whatever other options were available:



The SVALNAS is a recent addition to IKEA's product line. It's light on materials, meaning I wouldn't be too concerned whether the drywall could even support it. The vertical bracket means it can take on a good weight load, and it's modular enough that I can customize how many shelves I want to line up beside each other, as well as how far apart to space each shelf. I believe I turned this down because of its high cost and because the width of the shelf too short to hold two cars while also being too long to hold just one.



And here we are with the basic shelf. A floating shelf like the EKBY JARPEN (white shelf) wasn't a terrible idea. Having no visibility of a bracket underneath is a nice feat. The board itself has a gloss white finish, which means dust is less noticeable and is easy to clean off, except the JARPENs and the EKBY BJARNUM brackets were $15 and $8 respectively. The board is wide enough to comfortably hold 2 cars, mean I could work with an even number of cars in a row on the wall. Doing the math, I could do 6 cars per row, two rows in total, depending on how much wall space I want left over. But then doing the math on cost, I'm paying about $8 per car to be displayed. Looking at the triangular bracket, EKBY VALTER, I can save big depending on how many models are to be displayed with a low cost of $2 per piece. Most would say that having too many visible brackets is unsightly, but when put close together with at least two rows and a lineup of cars, I can see it looking like structural framework to an underpass or bridge. Appearance checks out, cost checks out, except one thing: the display cases would obstruct the brackets from being installed. Luckily there was another bracket I could use that works out even better:



Enter EKBY STODIS. Plastic bracket, $1 each. The lack of a triangular brace means that I can install the top row of shelves closer to the bottom row. They still have the look of a structural support for an underpass. The board that was being marketed with it is the EKBY LAIVA (seen on the right), shorter than the HEMNES or JARPEN, and at a whopping low cost of $3. It's too short to hold 2 cars, but the total width of two boards can comfortably hold 3 cars! I can go for a row of 6 cars with 4 boards. If I were to house 12 cars with this combination, I'm paying about $3.76 to display each car.



This is it installed on the wall. The overall appearance isn't terribly ugly in my opinion. And for $45.11 after taxes, I'd say I got great value out of this. I also positioned the uncovered lamp so that it is centered with the wall. This wall is now done and complete. I now have a place to display the big cars. Now comes the question of what I've done with the glass shelf.



I ain't throwing this away. I lined this up with the bottom LAIVA shelves (well, I tried to) because it wasn't too high to make viewing the figures less desirable, as well as being able to cover previous screw holes that the Hot Wheels foam shelving used. What about the Hot Wheels that used to be there? Should it go above? Or should it go under????



Seeing as how there are still a bunch of ugly holes between the shelf and the utensils rack, this is the perfect excuse to squeeze more stuff on the wall. So how should this be approached?



I did want to explore the box-on-the-wall options like the EKET shelves. I original thought of crafting small foam boxes that I would strategically scatter at random, each only housing a single car. The idea seems cute, but I managed to give myself another reason to do another frame with K'Nex. So in above pic, I'm exploring how far I want to space each row; how much head room do I want to give each car? What's the perfect balance between the positive and negative space, and how many rows can I do without the space looking too crowded?



Here's a side-by-side of a second pattern I sampled. On its own, it's cute, it's tight and is extremely pleasing to the eye of how the cars all fit together... but that's when it's just a rack of 3 cars. Visualizing what they pattern would look like if I extended it across the stretch of the wall, I felt that would've been too many cars. So I'll stay with the former.



This is almost identical to the wall shelves I made years ago for the Kyoshos, but the row spacing is tighter this time around. I've also left out the idea of building platforms with the K'Nex pieces because I simply didn't have the pieces available, and I could easily get the job done quicker with strips of foamcore.



There's that triangular bracket look when you have a lot of them together.





I've saved on materials by using less in the back, but I threw in the red rods at the front just to be a little different.



This was a cheap project, so I'm cheaping out on the finish. I'm avoiding the idea of using a single piece of material to run the stretch of the framework, so I'm piecing multiple strips together instead.



And with that done, it was time to throw the cars in there with no clear cut spacing. Without a thought on how many cars I planned to hold, this is doing about 13 cars per row, in all shapes and sizes. Quite an upgrade over the max capacity of 20 from the previous shelving.

[Tech] Under-The-Desk Storage - Console Rack

I've been looking for a way to suspend the Wii U so it doesn't have to sit close to the ground
and (hopefully) get better air circulation by exposing the bottom side.



This is the keyboard tray pull out. It's the second "table" that sits beside me. The keyboard tray
does not serve its original purpose. Instead it's a second layer of storage space for smaller item the
top of the desk cannot hold. It's basically a place for my trash; space poorly used. I thought of drilling
holes and making a rack using K'nex as it saves me money and it allows custom sizes. Luckily the trusty
dollar store had something plain and simple that would work perfect. A dish rack! Holy moly!



A metal rack is nice. It's light weight, rigid and can be bent into shape.
Basically, fold up the legs like so:



You may be wondering why I've bent the legs at a 45-degree angle at the bad. The dish rack was
longer than the depth of the keyboard tray, so it could not have been a simple matter of bending
the ends and calling it a day. There is one particular advantage to this layout.
I can slide the tray into place without having to bend anything.



Slide on one side. Slide in the other. I've kept the legs long enough to eliminate the
possibility of a heavy load bending the arms to the point of pulling the rack off the desk.




The front was accidentally warped in the process of bending the legs. No big deal.
Frugal materials; frugal quality. Aside from that, there is at least a 2 cm of clearance
for the Wii U so transporting the thing won't be restrictive.



Console is now off the boxes! Less clutter down there means I have an easier
time arranging the power adapter, gamecube adapter and controller on the boxes.
Simple stuff, room size doesn't expand, so there's a greater need to use all the space
available that's normally unused. More to come when more things need accommodated space!

[Tech] Del Prado Display

Foam is always a convenient sheet material for me. I can get them cheap locally, they cut easy, and they're light in weight!

As you can probably tell from my past display cases, racks and shelves, they've all included foam in its construction. Today's display is no exception. Del Prado is a brand I never heard of, so I wanted to explore the quality of their products, and perhaps indulge a bit on my growing fascination in service vehicles. When I learned they produced 1:64 scale models, I had more than enough reason to sample some. When they arrive, they've got a base, but no clear plastic case of any kind. Well I wasn't about to go line up a bunch of trucks on my desk. I didn't do it with any Hot Wheels, so there definitely wasn't a need to start now.

So I whipped up a display cabinet just for it.



Nothing fancy. It's the same old formula, but with an added feature:



I've added a second inner layer that I've glued to the primary walls. This will not only create a slot for the base to slide into, it also help support the weight load the trucks put on the platforms. The slotting idea, as unnecessary as it may be, was originally thought of to hold the base in position. Should the display be tilted back or even held upside-down, the trucks wouldn't move in their cubicles preventing the chance of any delicate parts being damaged or broken off.



That's the collection. Like the Matchbox and Maisto planes, this is a start and stop collection. Explore without further spending on the brand, and get to make a display for it on top of that!



Edit: Photos to each specific truck:

Renault Camiva

Morita Super Gyro Ladder

'52 Seagrave 70th Annivesary

Morita MSR-1 Super Rapid

Morita MSB-20 Gyro Snorkel

Volvo FL6-14

MAN 10224

IVECO-380E