What was your first DIY project? (Pics if you got them)

[Mello_SixtyNine]

For me, it was a closet in a vacant apartment I was fixing up to rent. Honestly, I'm friggin' amazed how it turned out since I've got minimal tools and zero experience with this shit. I thought it would have turned out crooked/loose/crappy but it turned out surprisingly well. Prior to the upgrade, the closet only had one rod for clothes. Now it's got three plus two coat hangers and a shelf on top.

http://i.imgur.com/qiIKtwJ.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/AnIvb45.jpg?1

 

[thør]

First DIY?

Hmmmm.

What if you've been doing shit all your life?

I can't recall the first time.

 

[Conager]

First DIY?

Hmmmm.

What if you've been doing shit all your life?

I can't recall the first time.

That's kind of what I was just thinking. Other than making things out of it rector sets and putting together my siblings toys the first thing that I comes to mind was I made a little airboat with an electric motor, some batteries, and a prop that I cut and bent out of an aluminum can.

My dad sold Real Estate so I did a lot of repairs and painting. He used to pay me the same 50 bucks the appliance store got for replacing one of his clients dishwashers. That was an easy task.

I was about 20 when I bought my first house. I converted a 10 by 20 Tool Shed out back into a guest house with bathroom. Learned a lot about wiring and plumbing on that job.

Re-roof the house at some point as well but I paid someone to come in and do the torch down part on the patio cover. that house was solid. It was built out of block in about 1963 I think. The roof was all tongue and groove.

 

[Mello_SixtyNine]

My parents had rental properties my whole life. My father was the handy one though with the plumbing/electrical/drywall/etc. I was the collect rents/cut the grass/shovel the snow/paint apartments son. I've must have painted over 200 apartments throughout the years but this is the first time I actually built something.

As a kid, I did have a shitload of space-themed lego sets that I assembled myself. Also assembled the Mousetrap game that I got for Christmas when I was nine. As an adult, my day job was sitting at a desk working with Photoshop.

 

[Wat_Tyler]

First DIY?

Hmmmm.

What if you've been doing shit all your life?

I can't recall the first time.

My experience, mostly. I just came from DIY people. My grandmother could fix amazing amounts of stuff. She was from the country, so go figure. My grandfather would tackle almost any mechanical contraption that had quit working to see if it could be fixed, and he had a high batting average. Dad build a killer set of cabinets with shelves when I was seven or so.


I started assembling models before I can remember. Cars and tinkering came along in high school, and houses followed afterward.


I taught myself to frame, to do interior trim and to hang cabinets. Plumbing and wiring came by trial-and-error.


It ain't like building the space shuttle, but that might not be too hard, either, with a shop manual.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

I built a go-cart (sans engine) when I was eight and then took it down the big hill next to the house.



It crashed and burned (sans flame).

 

[oggbashan]

I had a toy woodworking set when I was three years old. The metal saw could cut balsa wood. I made a basic plane shape which didn't fly.

When I was eight I made friends with a Cooper - the man who made barrels for Navy Rum and dry barrels for transport and storage. Most of the time he made curved shapes but he taught me how to use a plane, a spokeshave and an adze.

The first thing I made with him was a small footstool. Like many of my early projects it was overengineered for its role. It was made from offcuts of very old oak. The legs were 3 x 3 inches and short. The top was a 2 inch thick piece of oak.

I made it as a present for my older brother. He appreciated the effort that I had put into it but he didn't really need a footstool. Many decades later the footstool was used as a stand for his MG car engine when he had hoisted out for repair.

 

[Liar]

Driftwood rafts. Can't remember which one was the first. Most of them actually boyant.

 

[ishtat]

Brought up on a farm where fixing stuff was mandatory so I cannot remember the first thing I made or fixed.

However, a memorable fix when I was an 18 year old at college was when I by passed the meter on the electricity supply for a girlfriend. This illegal act brought its own reward - she used the extra heating in her bedroom to entertain the guy who I thought was my best friend. Life's a bitch sometimes.

 

[Mello_SixtyNine]

Brought up on a farm where fixing stuff was mandatory so I cannot remember the first thing I made or fixed.

However, a memorable fix when I was an 18 year old at college was when I by passed the meter on the electricity supply for a girlfriend. This illegal act brought its own reward - she used the extra heating in her bedroom to entertain the guy who I thought was my best friend. Life's a bitch sometimes.

Isn't that like a class-d felony?

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Back in the 50s and 60s DIY was mandatory for all kids. You got shit for birthdays and Christmas, and otherwise you were on your own.

My first involved a row boat I found on the lake bottom. I attached a rope to it and got my old man to pull it up with his Jeep. The stern was rotted away. I removed the rot and replaced the wood. Then covered the new wood and whole bottom with roofing tar. I collected several old tar cans at the dump, heated the cans, and poured the tar into a large bucket.

 

[BotanyBoy]

When I was twelve I bought my first big aquarium, 240 gallons. Mowed a lot of lawns and took out a lot of trash for that tank, but I couldn't afford the furniture which was more than the damn tank so I built my own.

That was when my old man taught me how to use a miter saw and some other things but it came out pretty slick after I got some nice finishing wood to skin the stand with. Wish I had pic's, maybe my mom does but I don't.

 

[Mello_SixtyNine]

That's 1,920 lbs of water. You must have made it really solid to withstand all that weight.

 

[ishtat]

Isn't that like a class-d felony?

No idea what a class D felony is but definitely a crime in the UK. Many landlords installed coin operated meters back then, but then fiddled with the meter to screw their tenants. So whilst it was a crime to bypass the meter you stood a decent chance of getting away with it because the landlord himself could be prosecuted for his gouging in the first place. He would therefore be reluctant to report the incident and in any event proof of 'who dunnit' would be difficult.

 

[thør]

A current DIY.

Two of the bolts that hold the thermostat housing broke off while untightening them. They're now out and everything is ready to pop back together. Waiting for the postman to bring the parts and then, the rain to quit so I can work in the dry.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Work in the dry?


Pussy!

 

[thør]

Work in the dry?


Pussy!

As I've gotten older, I've gotten smarter.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

*chuckle*

 

[Mello_SixtyNine]

Just finished the second closet.

http://i.imgur.com/l3Eq8gr.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/mx5WT3t.jpg?1

 

[Mello_SixtyNine]

Quick question,

The sliding closet doors in the pics above are pretty shitty. The rollers keep unhooking from the tracks. How difficult would it be to swap them out for bi-fold doors like this:

http://diy.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/diy/fullset/2011/2/24/9/RX-DK-DIY169023_finished-door_s4x3.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.1280.960.jpeg

Can one person do this on their own or is it a two man job?

 

[BotanyBoy]

That's 1,920 lbs of water. You must have made it really solid to withstand all that weight.

Yep, plus, rock, sand and lights it was pushing 2500lbs

I'm pretty sure I over built it because of that...either that or I got lucky.

I had 10 oak 4x4's held together by a fortress of fir 2x4's. Grade 8 bolts/washers in the corners and a couple lbs of 3 1/2" deck screws, held fine for several years until I took it all apart to get it out.

The high dollar stand I couldn't afford was far flimsier looking.

Now I just do steel stands with wood skins.

 

[Mello_SixtyNine]

I used to have a 80-gallon hexagon tank. I had found this large cone-shaped piece of driftwood that had a couple of fist-sized holes that went through it laterally. I had the bottom sliced so it was flat and then had it drilled to a large, flat stone. That fucker was heavy. I needed three friends to help me gently lower it in without accidentally smashing through the acrylic bottom. It fit the tank perfectly leaving two inches of clearance at the top. Even with that big stone, I still needed 75 lbs of pebbles to keep that boyant piece of driftwood down.

I had a mating pair of discus.
http://www.myaquariumclub.com/components/com_mojo/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/kissing-discus-fish-brandon-alms.jpg

One black ghost knife.
http://www.aquaticstoyourdoor.co.uk/images/P/black-knife.jpg

One plecostomus.
http://lasvegasfishandaquariumsupply.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/PlecostomusCatfish.jpg

3-4 African dwarf frogs
http://factfile.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/African-Dwarf-Frog-Colors.jpg

A pair of small crabs
http://aquariumfish.net/images_01/fiddler_crab_120212c2_w0640.jpg

One Red Fighting fish
http://natgeo.petsmart.com/content/img/betta-fish/betta-food.jpg

A school of 12 small guppies
http://cdn1.the-orbit.net/splainyouathing/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2016/03/Dreamtankweb-cr-1.jpg

4 small Angelfish
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/cichlid/images/Angelfish(Silver)WFCiam_Cn0937.jpg

I tried keeping fire belly newts but the little
bastards were escape artists. I kept find their dried
husks in the carpeting after their escapes. They
really didn't think it through.
http://www.segrestfarms.com/images/products/55400025.jpg

It was a nice mix that filled the tank nicely. The frogs & crabs tended to stay on the bottom. The angelfish & the fighting fish stayed near the top. The pleco was almost always sucking on the acrylic sides and the rest kinda hung out around the middle level.

Most of them lived for the decade that I owned that tank.

 

[BotanyBoy]

I used to have a 80-gallon hexagon tank. I had found this large cone-shaped piece of driftwood that had a couple of fist-sized holes that went through it laterally. I had the bottom sliced so it was flat and then had it drilled to a large, flat stone. That fucker was heavy. I needed three friends to help me gently lower it in without accidentally smashing through the acrylic bottom. It fit the tank perfectly leaving two inches of clearance at the top. Even with that big stone, I still needed 75 lbs of pebbles to keep that boyant piece of driftwood down.

I had a mating pair of discus.
One black ghost knife.
One plecostomus.
3-4 African dwarf frogs
A pair of small crabs
One Red Fighting fish
A school of 12 small guppies
4 small Angelfish

I tried keeping fire belly newts but the little
bastards were escape artists. I kept find their dried
husks in the carpeting after their escapes. They
really didn't think it through.


It was a nice mix that filled the tank nicely. The frogs & crabs tended to stay on the bottom. The angelfish & the fighting fish stayed near the top. The pleco was almost always sucking on the acrylic sides and the rest kinda hung out around the middle level.

Most of them lived for the decade that I owned that tank.

Nice!

Yea, reptiles, eels, loaches and octopus are all major league escape artist LOL

I kept discus in a 125 for a good while with nice tetra school and some panda corys, but the 240 housed a parachromis Dovii for it's entire run.

Full grown at over 20" he was a serious glass banger.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/attachments/parachromis-dovii2-jpg.1078209/

It fed him small children.

I'd like to get another one up and running now that I have my own home but my electrical usage won't allow it at the moment so it will have to wait until next winter...prob jan-feb 18' . I got a killer spot in my dining room/kitchen area for an 8' tank.

I'm not sure what to put in it but I think it will be a community tank since I've already done the solo predator tank.

 

[Mello_SixtyNine]

I had a friend build a huge tank in a house he bought. He went to one side of the basement and built a wall with a small door on one end. the tank was 5' tall. 4' deep and 12' long and was embedded in the new wall. He had two feet of clearance behind the tank so he could access it to clean it. It was pretty damn insane.

 

[BotanyBoy]

I had a friend build a huge tank in a house he bought. He went to one side of the basement and built a wall with a small door on one end. the tank was 5' tall. 4' deep and 12' long and was embedded in the new wall. He had two feet of clearance behind the tank so he could access it to clean it. It was pretty damn insane.

Nice...that would be cool as hell.

Browsing youtube/MonsterFishKeepers I've seen some pretty wild setups similar to that.

Maybe I should just convert my garage to a fish room and use my workshop as the expensive toy storage facility.

I'll have to convince botanygirl