Creuzer – Page 84 – Random things Creuzer

Leather Wrapped Travel Journal

I have been wanting a leather wrapped travel journal for a long time now. I could never find one that I liked however.
Yesterday, I bit the bullet, and bought a leather journal, and some graph paper pads the same size. I then took my brand new journal apart, with a knife, and put it back together again with my modifications.

I forgot to take a photo of the journal before I attacked it with my knife. So, you get to see it tore apart. I cut the strings at the knots, after I had written down the order I thought they had sewn it in.

Here is a new pads on top of a pad that came with the journal.

I sewed it together with 35lb braided fishing line that I colored with a permanent marker. I just held the marker in my knees and ran the line back and forth twisting it so it got colored on all the sides. Be careful not to pull too hard, or you can cut the tip off of your marker. (I knew this, and was gentile, no damage done!)

I used a #1 Milliner needle to sew the book back together. I used the lighter as a thimble to push the needle through the paper and leather. It was also useful for heat-singing the ends of the line.

Here is the finished book! Looks pretty sharp, doesn’t it? You can see the stitches on the spine. I didn’t figure the stitching order right, as I missed a section on the outside in the back. I am guessing that few hundred years ago, anybody literate knew how to sew these together.

And the pages inside.
I think I may try to tool the cover somehow. Brian gave me a meat-brand so I can brand steaks, but I think I may use that to emboss my name on the cover. Not sure how branding the name will look?

When I do this again, I think I will get just get regular paper refills, cut, fold, punch, stitch and trim the pages my self. It will be much cheaper. But, having seen how these pads where assembled, it’s a good to buy them once.

If you don’t want to make one, I suppose you could order one online?

Hungry?

I don’t know what to say about this photo…

Sliding Glass Door Insulation

I have a leaky sliding glass door. No, water doesn’t poor in every time it rains, cold air comes in. I don’t know why, by my apartment sucks – it pulls air in from the outside.

So, I decided to insulate my sliding glass door. I looked at the sliding glass door insulation kits for $13, but that renders the door useless. I thought about doing just the glass, but that doesn’t really stop the leaks, just reduces the cold air falling off the window from being in contact with such a large, cold surface.

So, I build a double pain, plastic door.

Using my favorite stuff… Duct tape!

I used a bit of scrap lumber I had to build the frame. I had kept a bundle of edge that got trimmed of some one-by at some point in the past.

The joints are just duct taped together. This is a temporary structure, so it’s fine by me.

I created a duct tape hinge by leaving a gap in the wood when I taped it together. This allows the joint to hinge. Clever, I think.

I have moved this messed up roll of double sided tape, foam weather stripping from WI, to FL, to IL. I am such a packrat. It is a sickness. I can make cool things by scrounging around in a closet. **grin**

Here, I have the whole set up installed. The window isn’t usable for looking out anymore, but that’s not a big deal, the drainage ditch in the yard and street aren’t that grand of a vista anyhow.

I used some small hooks to hold my contraption to the wall. I just screw them down until I can twist them and they will hold the frame snug. I used the weather stripping for both sealing and also shimming the frame out so the hooks would hold it snuggly. I put these around the right hand half, including on top.

On the left hand side, by the slider, I put just a single hook. I use this as the ‘latch’ as I can give it a quick twist, and the frame can open up on my duct-tape hinges. I can now use the sliding glass door, even though it’s covered in 2 layers of plastic sheeting.

How cool is that? (ugly as sin, too, isn’t it?)

The blinds close to hide the whole thing, so it look just fine from the inside.

Finishing the TV antenna

While I was at my parents, and making my cat annoyer, I also made the backplane to my Home made Digital TV antenna. This is just a reflector for the antenna to give it better gain.

It’s actually a little short, but I didn’t want to pay the $6 difference for the taller wire mesh.

It needs to all turn white or something, as it’s visually kinda dominating the room.

It needs to be tipped away from the wall a little bit to get the right angle to point towards Chicago to get the towers. It does reject Rockford and DeKalb stations quite strongly though, but alas, that is it’s design.

Cat Food Tray

My cat, Brother, has a habit that drives my wife crazy. He scoops the food out of his feeder, onto the floor and eats it off the floor. Well, some of it.

So I made a cat food tray to put the feeder on top of. It will catch the food and allow us to pour it back into the feeder.

Not to bad for not taking any measurements. It’s a tad long, but not too bad.

And he likes it. It’s gonna frustrate him to no end, but he will eat off of it.