He cooks, he photographs kitties, and he makes fun geek toys...

[cyan_blue]

So emmett_the_sane has been coming up with all sorts of endearing and quirky innovations for our household this week.

First he put together a Gaming Table, modeled here by the lovely Preia:



It's got a top level that a Settlers of Catan board can fit on, and the bottom level is for peoples' food plates and drinks to go on, maximizing the available space beneath the gaming surface.

Then he cooked a neat Indian dinner, chana masala with papadum.

Then he put the finishing touches on a web application for tracking and balancing shared expenses between two people. It is sophisticated, allowing bills to be divided either 50-50 or by specific amounts and percentages. Feel free to play with it... this one is a demo site. I'm encouraging him to do one next for sharing expenses between multiple people... a poly household budget tool!

Living here is fun... :-)

Comments

Poly budgeting

[mama-hogswatch.livejournal.com]

If/when he creates the poly version, may I link to it?

Re: Poly budgeting

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

He says yes :-) Thanks!

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Woohoo! Yay gaming table!

[eleanor.livejournal.com]

Both the gaming table and the budgeting tool are of excellent and admirable design. My compliments.

[emmett-the-sane.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Re:

[eleanor.livejournal.com]

You have a wonderful and innovtive design sense. Personally, I'd like to see you do something with it -- it's quite a talent.

[polytwo.livejournal.com]

Beautiful table! Beautiful flying cat...

[merde.livejournal.com]

go, emmett! where can i get one of those? *grin*

[emmett-the-sane.livejournal.com]

Hah, well I could do commissions, I suppose. :) I need to improve the design in a few ways, however.

Ah, if only I had access to a lathe! Much would be simpler.

[auros]

When I was hanging out at your place, it looked like there were two main design issues. One was that something in the way the legs were bolted to the table was preventing them from actually being tightened down all the way, so each leg had a lot of wobble room (because it wasn't tightly pressed against the table at the top). The other was that it really might as well have four legs instead of three -- that way you don't end up trying to cram two people between one pair of legs in a four-player Settlers game.

It's definitely a nifty idea.

[emmett-the-sane.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the three legs was a cost-saving idea, since I intend to have interchangeable legs.

The leg mounting system is a standard one, and I got the legs premade to fit the plates. I got them to tighten down all the way to the plates, but nevertheless they wobbled like mad. I think the bolt's just too thin to support more than a telephone table. :(

What I'll probably do is just use the metal post leg system I used on the other table. I'm trying to come up with a way to make them more elegant, though. Functional is easy.

The other option is to use a stiff, thick (1.25" for example) dowel going into both a thick leg and a mounting block on the underside of the table. A smaller dowel inserted from the side could lock it into place. The real trick here is getting the holes drilled perfectly straight w/o a drill press or lathe.

Actually, with a lathe I'd turn the legs myself, then make a hole for the thick threaded-end metal tubing, tapering the end concave so that the leg would hide the metal completely when attached, plus provide more support.

[butterfly-smile.livejournal.com]

Did he make the whole thing or just put it together. I need to find a really handy person who can make things around and that might do it for trade....

I have a bed that needs work on.......

[emmett-the-sane.livejournal.com]

Well that could be taken more than one way... *smile*

I made it. Actually am still in the process of... the leg attachment system isn't nearly sturdy enough. I'm debating on whether to use the ugly, but very sturdy, metal legs... or try to come up with a better wooden leg interchangeable attachment system. I also think making a lazy-susan for the removable top table might be a good idea.

[adamchristopher.livejournal.com]

I love the table. Especially with that there "accessory'. ;)
What a cool dude you've got.

[2wanda.livejournal.com]

My D&D playing husband and son think that table is great. What a clever idea.