Hey, Ask Lemmy, we all know that people love to talk about themselves, and I’d love to hear about some of your pleasant experiences. So, please, no matter how big; no matter how small, tell me something that you are proud to have made :)
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When I was on paternity leave with my first, I used the boring nap times to make a children’s book. I have a first draft done with a second now underway which is effectively a full redo… But I got the first draft printed and it’s cute. It makes me happy when my kid now grabs it off the shelf and I remind him I made it for him.
My partner asked why I didn’t just sleep when he slept…I’m just really bad at taking naps. Tried getting the first draft published and there weren’t any bites so I let it sit for over a year before revisiting for the new draft. Maybe someday. Maybe never. The act of making it is fun, regardless.
I took a wire weaving class yesterday and made this:
I also managed to finish these in time for my mom’s birthday:
I didn’t know that kind of jewellery was called ‘wire weaving’, TIL. I love the detail on them.
i made a windows app that dims my screen. but specifically for use on hdtvs, cuz I’ve neved had space for an office setup and have used every dimmer out there and they all lrave me unsatisfied one way or another.
i know theres 1000 dimmers out there, but i really put a lot of work into making mine useful, small, and intuitive. there’s event automation, hotkeys, and a convenient ui.
no one seems to really care about it online, but after literally 10+ years of suffering I’m incredibly proud of it
I was at work, but I got a patent on an antenna that is used to jam cell signals so that explosives experts could stay safe disarming IEDs in Afghanistan and Iraq. It was more compact than previous antennas that stuck up really high, making the guy with the radio a target for snipers. Or they would fold them up to get through doorways making them less efficient. I have no idea what happened to them but I came up with the concept, designed them, simulated them, built them, tested them and even shipped five of them myself. One of the best programs I had working for the man. I sincerely hope I might have contributed to saving a life.
this is so much cooler than my thing
I made this halloween costume out of scrap from a hospital demo I’ve been doing and I’m pretty happy about it.
It gpt too hot too early in the season to complete it, but this greenhouse will be completed soon!
Looks nice, I wish you luck with your gardening endeavors :)
Thanks!
Are the stones for heat retention?
Aesthetics. There’s pine mulch between to, hopefully, promote moss growth with a more acidic medium to grow on.
It was ridiculously expensive, I could have built an RTX 5090 gaming system for the money… in 2025. But what is the fun in that? (Almost) anyone ready to shill out that money can do that. I enjoy projects where I can design and build something to my own specifications, something that ends up being more or less unique, yet functional.
So I built a 7.5 L small form factor PC based on a Strix Halo with the best iGPU on the market (with RTX 4060 levels of performance), completely fanless, operating at 100W TDP sustained for CPU and GPU combined. This was rather nerve wrecking given the investment and how it could have easily ended up as paper weight or with my custom cooling solution just being not up for the job, as the first prototype is also the final thing. But it worked and that’s why I am pretty proud at it, even if it means something only to me.
Interesting stuff, what do you use itnfor?
I use it when my main system, a Mini-PC (Ryzen 7640U), doesn’t suffice (complex CAD models, modern 3D games) and as it is a system with 64GB unified memory (crazy amount in this day and age) I also experimented with local GPU run LLMs, for example Gemma 4. I honestly don’t use LLMs that often in general but when I do, it is nice to have the option of actually having one that is really private.
Sounds cool, I never got the chance to build in the before times. Seems odd to have a custom sff and mini pc. I am out of my depth though, maybe that is as powerful as a bulky pc.
Indeed. It is a replacement for my previous “bulky PC”, with some capabilities that go far beyond that system but in terms of graphics it is pretty close to it. So it can play even current demanding games, on moderate resolutions, if you aren’t an fps fanatic. It is about 3-4 times more powerful than the iGPU on my Mini-PC. Due to the big unified memory it can handle locally some LLMs that even high end cards like a 5090 can’t handle but at a moderate speed only.
The CPU side is actually pretty powerful, so it is a pretty strong productivity system, helped by the large unified memory as well.
I made a charging station/toolbox/catch tray thing out of cardboard to set on my nightstand and put all my pocket stuff in. Going to test that out for awhile and redo it in wood once I’ve confirmed I’m happy with it.
Convenient solutions are the best.
I made a printable pattern that allows you to origami fold two d6 dice from a sheet of letter paper. It means I can give my acute psych patients board games if they ask and even if they’re sick enough to insert them into their orifices there’s very minimal harm possible.
spoiler
I have other games that also utilize pieces made very similar to the pieces used by this chess set and have even made checkers to accompany that set.
You are awesome.
That’s a brilliant solution, I had never even considered anything along those lines. Sounds like you’ve really helped some people out - I’m absolutely saving this template for later use.
It’s no longer online in order to minimize data exposure, but during some major wildfires a decade ago, a small city was evacuated with my city being the nearest safe place to be (~4 hours away), so I built a site within a couple of hours to let people with spare rooms offer space to evacuees. For nearly a week I became the place to find vetted information about resources for everything an evacuee needed to know. It took the province and Red Cross 4-5 days to get their systems up and running so I was an important stop gap. I’ve since devised a system for evacuee information that I can deploy in less than an hour (it’s always running, but I confirm data for each deployment to make sure links and phone numbers are still valid).
People like you make the world a better place.
Thanks. Very kind of you.
You are a hero.
I don’t know about that. If you see someone that needs help, you help. I do appreciate your kind words though!
As the saying goes “You’ll know a hero from a coward when you see which way they run.”
All it really takes to be a hero is the willingness and ability to help meeting opportunity. A pinch of humility while we’re at it.
You’re really cool. I hope one day to be skilled enough at something I can help people with like that. :)
Aww, thanks.
The best way to gain skills is just to start. Find a problem that needs solving and try to solve it! On that note, if anyone is interested in building a similar site for their area, reach out. I’d be happy to clone what I have and help with the setup to build out a network of sites that are ready to go, The tech is fairly basic - the hardest part is the initial time to find all the information that will be needed and having someone ready to run point in their area when bad things happen.
https://remocon.tv/
It is a platform that lets people control robots from anywhere in the world in real time, with a live camera feed and everything. There is an API so people can upload their own robots and have others control them.Sounds cool but it is all white for me where I assume the feed would be
Once made a game on my calculator. Not uploaded from my computer, literally typed it in and developed it on the calculator. Had to do some optimization and everything to get it to run reasonably since this wasn’t a very advanced system. It was a pretty simple game about flying a spaceship through an asteroid field, with collectables that blew up all the asteroids onscreen, and your score was how far you flew. It was just nice to actually finish a project for once, and on such limited hardware, and have it actually be fun to play!
Years ago I was asked to make a website to educate the public and promote a campaign to bring back a formerly-declared-extinct species.
There were scientists, zoologists, researchers and volunteers in the field who did the REAL work. I had the easy part.
But when the website was launched, I received ‘thank you’ emails from all over the world. Reading all of those letters was one of the most rewarding feelings.
And the best part . . . Though it’s still a threatened species (I’m told recovery potential is strong), today there are more than 500 of these animals living in the wild.
What animal? Critter pics please!
Thanks for helping them out. It’s definitely something to be proud of.
What a wonderful lizard!
handsome little fella
Last year I built this cupboard and hutch, along with a matching buffet.
did you name it Jimmy or Warren?
Phoebe.
Longtime woodworker here, I’ve never built a traditional china cabinet - that’s mighty nice work! Hat tip.
Greetings fellow craftsman! Thank you very much. It was a big but worthy project.
I would kill to have that cabinet, it’s so pretty… Thank you for your contribution :)
I took a lot of the design elements from Vermont Wood Studios’ 50" Shaker China Cabinet. They price theirs, in Walnut, at $14,927. I’d build you one for, say, $12,000.
Damn, that looks fine!
Thank you.
I’m impressed
This was the biggest woodworking project I’ve tackled yet.
I once sanded and (poorly) refinished a nightstand. In my defense, it was my first time and I don’t think it was stain grade wood. It was always meant to be painted. That’s as far as my skills go. Although, where I moved, inherited quite a few very nice wood working tools so, I might be learning once some of the house maintenance is under control!
Finishing is an entire discipline unto itself. The finish on the cabinet above: I took the surfaces to 180 grit with a random orbit sander, then sanded along the grain at 220 by hand, vacuuming and tack clothing between each grit. Popped the grain with water, sanded at 220 again, and a final tack clothing. No stain, and a polyurethane finish, first coat was 2 parts urethane to 1 part thinner, the remaining 3 coats are 50/50. Wiped on with a cotton rag, cut from an old T-shirt, rubbed out with a piece of paper grocery bag between each coat followed by a light tack clothing to remove the whisper of dust. Do that between each, but not after the last coat. The result is a durable shell coat that still has the texture of wood, you get the depth from wetting the surface but not a visibly thick layer of plastic.
Granted, I did start with $9/board foot black walnut that I hand selected from the lumber yard, not some random night stand. But, I’ll assert there’s no such thing as “stain grade” or “paint grade” wood. People take wormy maple and make stuff like this out of it:
I will grant you that some species of wood have open and uneven grain that will absorb stain at different rates across the surface, creating a hideous blotchy appearance, and wouldn’t you know it most of those species are cheaper, easily available species that have bland and boring grain like pine and birch. Most “stains” look terrible on wood like that. My choice is to go with little to no stain, let the wood speak for itself, maybe subtly tint it with the top coat, or use shellac, either as a top coat or as an intermediate layer. If the wood you’re working with is very prone to blotching, start with a coat or two of blonde shellac to fill up the pores, then switch to your darker garnet or whatever. Shellac is compatible with basically all finishes and is sometimes used as a compatibility layer between water and oil based finishes so you can top coat over it if you want something more durable than beetle poo.
Great info, thank you for taking the time to share!
I make music and I’m occasionally pretty happy with some of my guitar playing.
