Santa's coming... Again?

Little late this year, but the December Hot Wheels Build Off is here!

Come vote on the latest custom Hot Wheel build! Please DO NOT try and figure out who built what, just pick your favourite and vote by "liking" the pic! Winner to be announced on Monday!

Vote here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1506673976308577.1073741833.1459737441002231&type=3

Almost there!

Hey all, I'm running out of time! I'm *REALLY* close to having this project funded. PLEASE SHARE even if you can't donate! There is a promo code that will match your donation- if you donate $5, they will donate $5 more! The promo code is EVERYGIFTMATTERS. Thank you so much to all of you that have already donated!

Donate now - Donors Choose!

This Old House #12: Baby, its COLD outside!

So the thermometer this morning said -12. Pretty, but YUCK.























Interestingly enough- the shop is STILL sitting at about 32 degrees. Havent lit the fire in there in like 2 weeks...



It was so cold that even our two kitties, who normally won't get within 10 feet of each other, decided to let past feuds lie for the moment...



The outside temps mean the upstairs temps get a little low. Started checking things with the infrared gun. The one storage room upstairs with the door closed was a*little* chilly.



I musta not been naughty enough for Santa, so I had to have a friend give me a bucket of coal to try out in the stove.



Didn't take much to get it going,



Threw in a couple of scoops of coal and viola!

HEAT!



Stove works great with coal, which I guess isn't surprising since that's what it was designed for... Going to pick up a few buckets of free coal tomorrow. We'll see how well it works over this week while we're home.

Custom Hot Wheels: Steampunk 2-4-2 #4

Made the stack with a little piece of copper pipe and flared it with a flaring tool.



Not sure about using the hood.



Time for some nitty-gritty figurin'. Enter the glass and sharpies! Planning phase on how to bolt it all together.This was my first idea- laid it all out, bent it all up and didn't end up liking it.



The goal was to hopefully get something along the lines of my penny engine in there so it could actually be POWERED...



The first attempt at the frame:



Looks like a pooper scooper.

Attempt #2. Frame rails.



Liking this- lots more room to tweak and adjust as I go, and I think in this case less is more.



Yeah. Starting to dig that.

This Old House #11: Thanksgiving and Dining Rooms.

What, y'all thought I gave up? Spent a portion of Thanksgiving break sucking up leaves...



Then the snow hit, and it got COLD.











Then we had a poop-load of people over for Thanksgiving dinner...







And the day after Thanksgiving, my wife decided to enlist everyone that stuck around in ripping the dining room to shreds. Something along these lines:



That left me to the simple task of peeling the wallpaper strip off the ceiling, cause, you know, I'm the tall one.







I scraped, I rolled, I sprayed, I sanded, I tired everything under the sun and that stuff DID NOT want to come off... Finally what ended up working sorta okay was the iron- yup, I spent the first three hours trying things out, and the last 2 hours holding that iron over my head while standing on a ladder, heating the strip up and scraping it off an inch at a time. Barf.

Moving on. Starting to look pretty good! One problem- never ask an "artist" to help you "paint".





Alas, it was in an awkward spot and had that green showing from behind so it got painted over.

Some of the help.