Wine bottle labels ... ...

This is an extension of my recent experiments in using the metal from drinks cans to make things, things like the wall hangings below.

Results of a recent experiment with metal from a drinks can -

An interesting use for an old can, if I do say so myself.

The first bottle label (it's not the finished item, more of a prototype)

I made the chain as well.

I started to think about other things you could make using a similar method. So as it's coming up to christmas we decided to give away a bottle of our homemade blackberry wine as a gift, now I do intend to make an amusing paper label for the bottle, but as I was playing around with bits of metal I decided to make a label for the bottle, similar to the old decanter labels that are now collectables (google decanter labels and you'll see what I mean) they are basically a fancy metal label that sits round the neck of the decanter, or in this case bottle, connected to a small chain, with writing on it, usually stating what's in the bottle, they are sometimes made of silver for example, they are nice little things.

This I thought was a good way of making a wine bottle a little more interesting as a gift, so I set about messing around in the back room, which has recently become an extension to my workshop (alright it's a shed) 

Basically I used the same method as I used for the wall hangings, I used wire wool to get the printing off the can and then made a simple design on the pc and printed it out to use as a template, and then I drew round the template using a ball point pen, and this is what I ended up with.

The first draft - 

It's not perfect, but the idea worked.

Over all I was happy enough with the result, the chain I made myself by bending bits of wire round a small drill bit I clamped into a vice, not as hard as you might think, although it does depend on the gauge of wire you use.

At this point I was starting to feel quite pleased with myself, until my lovely wife pointed out that as it's a gift I should use the pewter sheet we have (I had forgotten about it) and as ever she is right, it does look better, I still used the chain I made (I may do a quick how to for that)

Here's the finished pewter bottle label - 

It does look better.

This label was made the same way as the other one, but this one I changed the wording a little ;-) (thanks again to my wife for the choice of words) I have since used a small file to remove any sharp edges and tidy it up a little. The good thing about pewter sheet is that it's quit soft, you can cut it with scissors (same goes for the drinks cans) I think it's a great idea to make a plain bottle look a little nicer, and the label can be kept for other bottles, so hopefully it will serve as a reminder of the gift once it's gone.

Here's another picture - 

Ta da !

As you can see I've given the label a raised effect by placing the template on the metal the wrong way round, so that when you look at the front of it you get a raised look, you can just place the label on the right way round and when you're finished it will have an engraved look about it.

So why not have a go and make your wine bottles or decanters a label, or do as I have and include one with any bottled type gifts, you don't have to stick to wine or spirits either, you could add a similar label to a perfume bottle or even a jar of jam and if you don't feel like making a chain you can get lengths of chain from most diy type places (b&q have some nice ones) or if you want to get really posh you could get a real silver necklace and use that, it's up to you.

Thanks for reading.

Artistic recycling ... ...

It seems that these days it's all about recycling stuff to save the world, round our way we have 3 bins now, a blue one for recyclables like paper,tin cans and such like, we have a black bin (most are green) for normal waste and just recently we got a mini bin for cooked food waste, not that we have much, what we don't eat the dog does ;-) we also have the option for a brown bin that costs extra for garden waste, but we compost all ours.
 I will freely admit that it's a hassle sometimes, sorting stuff into various bins, but I guess it has to be done.

Now I have long been a fan of making things out of odd stuff, which makes the whole recycling thing a lot less tedious, especially if you get good results.
Have you heard of a website called " Instructables " ? I'm pretty sure a lot of people will now the site, but just in case here's the link ---> instructables (link opens in new window) it's a fantastic site for inspiration on just about everything you can imagine, sewing,wood working,metal working (the list is probably endless)

Whilst I was having one of my regular trawling of websites sessions I found an excellent craft idea on the site I mentioned above, and it's the best use of a drinks can I've ever seen (from an artistic point of view) here's the instructable page ---> drink can tinwork (opens in new window) take some time to look through the various steps used to create this piece of artwork, it's worth it, but please come back here after ;-)

I have to say that I was impressed a fair bit by this, it beats squashing the cans and taking them to the recycling bin, I haven't actually tried to make the box, but I will.
This set the wheels in motion and gave me the inspiration to have a go at creating my own artwork using a similar method. Now we don't really have drinks cans lying around, we don't drink fizzy drinks or beers, we do however have some cans of coconut water, so I've been bugging my wife to drink them so I can have the cans.

The items I have made are prototypes really, I have been playing around with different ways of putting them together, and different materials.

Here's what I've managed to make so far -

Be nice ;-)

You can see how I've applied the method used to create the tin box for my own ends, basically using some wire wool I've rubbed all the printing of the cans to get back to bare tin, this actually gives quite a nice effect, then I've applied a pattern to one side so that it appears raised on the other, there's nothing stopping me from switching them round so that the patterns look like it's been engraved.

The tin is pretty easy to work with, it's not very thick which helps when getting a design onto it, all I've used is a ball point pen and the end of a metal crochet hook, you don't need to press too hard.

Here's a picture of the first ones I made - 

The best one is the bottom left in my opinion.

The designs aren't as crisp as I wanted, the best I think is the bottom left one (the triskelion / triskele) and the frame on the bottom right isn't to my liking, I was trying different ways of making the frames, I think I'll stick to the way I did the frames on the other 2.

Since I made these 3 pictures I've bought a scroll saw, which means I can make templates of various designs, so I can get the designs crisper and neater, and also put them on the tin faster, still working on a quick, but neat and tidy way of making the frames.

Here's a picture of the templates - 

I printed out some designs and stuck them to the hardboard.

My lovely wife remarked that with a bit of spray paint the templates would look pretty good as well, that's why she's the brains of the out fit.

Here's one made with a template - 

The wood for the frames comes from our garden.

In my opinion this one looks neat compared to the others. As it says in the caption all the wood comes from our garden, the frame for the one above is actually made from buddleja that I had to prune because it got damaged by the wind, the string hanging loop is an off cut of string left over from knitting hanging baskets, the only part of these that doesn't come from our house is the hardboard back I have fixed the tin to, I got 2 off cuts from a bargain bin in one of our local diy stores, so it is kind of recycling as they generally throw the smaller stuff out if no one buys it.

And it's not just designs like the one above either, it's possible to do loads of different designs, especially if you use a template ;-)

Here's one I made for my wife - 

Again I've used buddleja for the frame.

The one above I made by printing out the word on paper and then using some masking tape to secure it I drew round the letters with a ball point pen, can't really get easier than that ?

There's a bit of flexibility on how you can display them, for example with these ones I've used string to make a loop, I have also worked out a way to make them stand up like a picture frame does, you can also hang them together to make bigger hangings, have a look at the picture below.

Hung in a group of 3 - 

Looks pretty good, but then I'm biased ;-)

Just by using a drawing pin you can hook them up in groups like this, and make combinations of them, and if you had 3 that were all words you could make up short sayings, so there's a fair bit you can do with them (have I sold the idea to you yet ?) so why not have a look round your home or garden and see if you can make your own unique piece of recycled artwork.

Thanks for reading.

Fluid design... well sort of... ...

I'm the sort of person who spends a lot of time thinking about things, all sorts of things, like how can I make this or that, what's the best way to fix this, and loads of stuff in between.
Building things makes me happy, and I think you get a grate deal of satisfaction when you find a problem and solve it, or when you build something from scratch.

With that in mind I have had to re-think the towing hitch for my bicycle trailer, I hadn't really considered it much before because what I had worked reasonably well and so I decided why fix it if it isn't broke ? that is until I realized it could be better, and because what I had was actually causing damage to my bike.

The first trailer hitched to my bike the same way as the second trailer, but it wasn't until I built the second that I decided to re-design the towing hitch, the trailer and the way it attaches to the bike are constantly being reviewed by me, hence the "Fluid design" post title. Basically I used a u-bolt to attach the trailer to my bike by way of a couple of d-shackles, these were the best option for the first trailer, and they work well for this one.

Here's a u-bolt -

U-bolt, which you can find in most hardware/diy shops.

What I did was to buy 2 of them and use the metal plate from 1 on the other, so I had 2 metal plates which I could use to clamp the u-bolt onto the bike frame, it was a pretty easy way to solve the problem of attaching the trailer to the bike.

Here's a very crude diagram of how I did it - 

Not the best technical drawing in the world.

As you can hopefully see I clamped the u-bolt to one of the rear forks of my bike, this was okay for the most part, but I started to notice that after time the bolt wouldn't stay in the right place, and it eventually moved quite a lot, especially when I had heavy loads in the trailer.

Here's a picture of the damage it has cause to the forks - 

You can see all the paint has gone, down to bare metal.

I had attached the bolt to the higher of the 2 forks, and it eventually started to move up and down, the damage on the lower fork was caused by the end of the trailers tow bar moving more than it should have been.

So not so long ago I set about re-designing the towing hitch, and I think I came up with a pretty good solution, I have managed to make a hitch that is easier to use, stronger and most importantly is very stable, it allows parts to move, but the right parts.

Here's the new hitch - 

It's a little rough, but it works.

As you can see by the picture above I still use d-shackles to attach the trailer, but the hitch is much better, I have re-used the u-bolt and the 2 metal plates from the original hitch, but I have added a strip of metal and 2 bolts, the new hitch now fixes to both of the rear forks (on the left side of the bike) the u-bolt makes up part of how it fixes to the bike. It is stuck where it is, it doesn't move in any direction, and hopefully it will stay that way, I just need to patch up the damage, I may just re-spray the whole bike.

Here's a picture of the back of the new hitch - 

The other side of the hitch.

So basically what I've done is to use the 2 metal plates to clamp the hitch to the forks, the u-bolt is in the middle of the large metal plate and using 2 extra bolts I have managed to make a much more secure fixing, which means increased stability when I have the trailer attached, it still moves a little, but it's the right kind of movement.

A picture with the trailer attached - 

I will explain the blue bar.

As you can see the shackles work well, and allow enough movement to be able to hitch and un-hitch the trailer easily. You can also see that I've used and eye bolt in the end of the towing bar and the shackles basically join the 2 to each other, you may also notice the cable that goes through the eye bolt, this is a safety and security measure, it provides a way to padlock the bicycle to the trailer, and should for some reason the towing hitch fail there is a back up, you may have also noticed the towing bar is bright blue :-) this is because I broke the original bar, and had to use this as a replacement, it's an old part of a climbing frame, very strong, but light weight (don't worry I didn't dismantle the kids climbing frame to build this)

And that's about it really, I had to find a better method, and this is it, well I think so, I have used the trailer several times since I made the new hitch and I have noticed a difference in the way the trailer behaves, it is much more stable at speed (not that I go that fast, but it wobbles less when loaded)

I will spray the hitch when I get round to spraying the rest of the bike, so it doesn't rust.

Now for my next trick....... finding a way to get rid of the bike and hitch the trailer to the dog, like a sledge :-) Just kidding.

Here's a pick of the dog -

Meet Pepper, the family mutt :-)

Thanks for reading.

Recycling steel from an old pedal bin

(Just to let you know, links open in new windows)

It seems that in this day and age everyone is telling everyone else that they need to recycle, reduce your carbon footprint, buy locally produced food, hell grown your own if you can.
To be honest I tend to agree, there's no harm in recycling stuff (or growing your own food, fear not I will be posting about that as well) most councils now encourage it, plastics,paper and the like, we all have some way to recycle the day to day stuff, cereal boxes, plastic milk bottles and so on, but what do you do when you have something you can put in your blue wheelie bin (or what ever you use) ?

Here's a radical though, what about recycling it yourself ? could you take the item in question and make it into something else ? It just so happens that I have recently found myself in this very predicament.
We had a pedal bin in kitchen that we got cheap from some where, you know the stainless steel type, well ours broke and I fixed it and then it broke some where else, and I fixed it and in the end it couldn't be fixed any more.
So we got a new one, but we were left with a broken stainless steel bin and no where to put it, you can't throw it in the rubbish, for a start it would be a good few years before it broke down in a landfill site somewhere, and you really shouldn't put that sort of thing in your bin anyway, and so I left it outside wondering what to do with it.

But then I had an idea to make a weather vane for our garden, you know the sort you get on churches, the big rooster type things, only I'm not actually making anything that large, and it's more for an educational tool, so that our kids can see which way the wind is pointing and observe how the wind behaves.
And that's when I though about the bin, it's basically just a sheet of steel that's been formed into a cylinder, so I set about finding a suitable design for the main feature of the weather vane, seeing as my son is mad about dinosaurs this seemed a good way to go.

After a bit of google searching I found this site that has colouring pages on it - free colouring pages
and I selected this picture -

Dinosaurs are cool.

I had to make the image a fair bit bigger before I printed it out, you can do this with most image editing software.

I then got out my tin snips and cut out a section of the bin, roughly A4 size, and I was feeling pretty chuffed that I had found a use for the bit of steel I had left from the old bin.

This is not the end because I then ran into a small issue, that being how do I get the dinosaur in the picture onto the steel ? and the I remembered something I saw on line a while back, it was on a website somewhere, I don't have the link I'm afraid, but basically it was an image of someone making fantastic designs on bits of sheet metal, steel,copper etc and all they were using was a hammer and a nail, and this is how I got the design onto my bit of steel, yes I know I could have drawn it on, but I'm not that good at drawing, so here is what I did.

I got the piece of paper and a bit of scrap wood (I seem to have a lot of scrap wood) and some clamps,a broken drill bit (I have a few of these as well) and a hammer, I then clamped the piece of paper to the metal sheet and the wood, I mainly did this because the piece of metal had a curve to it, so the clamps held it flat enough to work with.

And then I got my broken drill bit (you could use a metal punch or small Philip's screw driver maybe) and hammer and basically I punched out the design as a series of dot's which I can then use as a guide to cut out the dinosaur, which will then be attached to the weather vane, I'll be posting about that as well.

Here's some pictures of the design punched onto the metal

The tools I used and the metal sheet - 

The tools.

Now before I go on, I would like to make a couple of points for safety.

Firstly a metal punch would probably be the best option, but you'll need one that has a fairly fine point.

Secondly the metal sheet will be very sharp on the edges once it's cut, so a good pair of thick gloves would be a good idea.

The lighting wasn't that good for taking pictures but here's another - 

The punched outline.

It didn't take as long as I thought it would, and I think it has transferred quite well, at least well enough to cut out the main shape and the use my multi tool for the more detailed parts, and to make the edges a little smoother.

Now if your not building a weather vane for your garden and you have scrap metal, from an old bin or from other place you can use it to make art with, and it's pretty easy to do, I found this on a blog, its about halfway down.

 So if you have some old sheet metal lying around maybe you and the kid's can make some art out of it, but remember the metal will be sharp once it's cut, so gloves are a good idea, especially if little hands are helping, you can smooth the edges of the metal with a file or some sand paper, or you could just fold each side over.
I don't think enough of this sort of thing is done these days, so it maybe be a good project for kids as they will learn a little about metal work, and design, as well as how to use tools safely.

Thanks for reading.