Downstairs stadium

I wonder if I could turn my downstairs den into a dual couch stadium seating area with a wall fan, remove the ceiling fan and add a retractable projector and retractable screen.

This is the idea with the fan, but this one specifically is not sold in the USA.

craft a wall bracket.

I like white on birch.

Stadium seating. Is next.Some examples.

Retractable screens are a dime a dozen. It seems the big question is if I want it to be manual or powered.

https://www.amazon.com/Manual-Pull-Down-Projector-Screen/dp/B07QP14YDD

https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-retractable%20projector%20lift.html
https://elitescreens.com/product-category/electric-projection-screens/electric-recessed-in-ceiling-screens/

Creative commons in U.S. Government

I am a big advocate of creative commons. I think it makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons. One arena I have been watching the growing use of Creative Commons licenses is in the U.S. Government. I am particularly interested in the issue of over licensing. That is, my understanding is that the Federal government can not be a copyright holder unless someone else created the work and then gave the work to the US Government, and that items (creative works and intellectual property) created by the government can not be copyrighted, such content is by law supposed to be in the public domain. Therefore, when a government (in this case the U.S. Government) produces content and licenses the content under creative commons, doesn't that mean that they must copyright the material and then release the material under license? The following website talks about data - government data, and how that is legally supposed to be open. https://theunitedstates.io/licensing/. (And Ben Balter gives some really clear suggestions here: http://ben.balter.com/2014/10/08/open-source-licensing-for-government-attorneys/.) There are certain rights reserved, like the use of logos. In short I am a bit confused then by moves in the Department of Labor and the Department of Education where the CC-BY license is adapted:

Is this just saying that if I create something with money from the Federal Government then that work needs to also be CC-BY?

The Creative Commons wiki currently says about the US Government:

Federal

Works by the US federal government are automatically part of the public domain in the US as stipulated by http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#105
Third-party content (such as the text of speeches by the first lady) on the White House web site are licensed with CC BY 3.0 US by default.
President-Elect Transition Team, Barack Obama and Joseph Biden. CC BY 3.0 Unported. (Not an official federal government site, but an election team site, hence not required to be public domain.)
The U.S. Department of Education has made OER an invitational priority in their Ready to Learn (PDF) and Ready to Teach (PDF) grants.
The U.S. Department of Education has included open educational resources in their Notice of Proposed Priorities for discretionary grant funding. Essentially, if the priorities are adopted, it could mean that grant seekers who include open educational resources as a component of an application for funding from the Department of Education could receive priority.
The U.S. Department of Labor and Department of Education commit $2 billion to community colleges and career training; CC BY required for grant outputs.
The U.S. Department of Labor Career Pathways Innovation Fund Grants Program; CC BY required for grant outputs.
U.S. Open Data Action plan is under CC0 + some federal datasets: report (pdf); blog post

State

New York State Senate, Senate Content, CC-BY-NC-ND with CC+ allowing non-political fundraising use of content.
State of Virginia, legislation that indicates a preference for state-funded materials to be released with a CC (or equivalent open) license.
Washington State open policy and requirement of CC BY
New Hampshire adopts Open Source and Open Data requirements (policy friendly to CC use, but not a specific CC tool adoption)
OER K-12 bill passed in WA state. The focus of the bill is to help school districts identify existing high-quality, free, openly licensed, common core state standards aligned resources available for local adoption; in addition, any content built with public funds, must be licensed under “an attribution license” (CC BY)
The city of Washington, D.C. has made available an unofficial copy of the DC Code under the CC0 Public Domain Dedication.

So, as a business person looking at the limitations of CC-BY and the DMCA. If I were a grant recipient from the department of labor, and I wanted to profit from the output of the grant, I could make all the output CC-By and then release that content via an app that I sell. Make the app with funds not from the grant and make the content only available via the app. Hacking the app would constitute Copyright infringement and would be enforceable via the DMCA.

Creative Commons does not solve the open access and permanent access guarantee problems.

And Also a Playground

So, if I am going to do a shed in the front yard, then a playground should fit there too.

What kind of plans or ideas are out there, that I can draw from?

Here is a list of links with some helpful materials:

http://www.detailedplay.com/SwingsetPlans.htm

http://www.toolcrib.com/blog/2009/03/25-free-backyard-playground-plans-for-kids-playsets-swingsets-teeter-totters-and-more
http://www.totalplaygrounds.com/blog/28-free-diy-playset-plans/#diy
http://www.moneycrashers.com/build-wooden-outdoor-kids-playground-equipment/
http://www.ericsoutdoorfurniture.com/705-princes-exercise-station-play-set
http://www.maeshedandplayground.com/collections/accessories/products/air-pogo
http://lasgd.blogspot.com/2015/02/10-x-8-pent-shed-plans-gable-roof.html

Shed:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/garden-yard/garden-shed-plans-zm0z11zgri.aspx
http://www.thegreenden.co.uk/products/playground-storage-shed/
http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to-plans/how-to/a178/1276536/
http://www.todaysplans.net/free-storage-shed-plans.html
http://www.shed-plans.biz/
http://freebies.about.com/od/homegardenfreebies/tp/free-shed-plans.htm
http://www.woodworkersworkshop.com/resources/index.php?search=FREE%2010%20X%2012%20SHED%20PLANS
http://shedas.blogspot.com/2015/03/5x7-shed-plan-info.html

Homemade shop-vac dust collector

I started looking at some homemade shop-vac projects.First I did some googling, then I searched YouTube.
I found that there are different ideas and terms covering the shop-vac solution space.

The two most informative videos I found were:

Some of the basic questions I am asking are: which shop-vac should I get and how should I evaluate other options? There are people who do review shop-vacs. And I found that C.F.M. measures are really the most important. I also learned that if one adds a cyclone dust separator to the shop-vac that the filter stays much cleaner. The next question is how should I make a cyclone dust separator?

There are several interesting projects which I found. The guys in the video had some really good solutions too, including a $15 cyclone, and blast gates which can be purchase on Amazon.com. I also found the following interesting homemade solutions:

  • http://lumberjocks.com/projects/19069
  • http://www.woodturnersresource.com/extras/projects/cyclone/Cyclone.html
  • http://home.comcast.net/~prestondrake/Stuff_Workshop_Cyclone.htm

Blast Gates:

  • http://www.homemadetools.net/blast-gates
  • http://lumberjocks.com/topics/41990
  • http://www.woodworkingtips.com/etips/etip020726ws.html

Silence: around the shop-vac
A Noise block around the vacuum.

Building Wooden Trains

The potential to build my own wooden trains as recently been observed. That is, the idea does not seem soooo far fetched any more now that I own a router and a router table. Towards that end I have started to amass some ideas and some links. Some additional thoughts are that I could use a CNC machine. I would like to make my own CNC machine. To that end I have started another post about ideas for building my own CNC machine.

Some places to order router bits:

A second way to approach this would be to use a tool like a CNC Shark. This has a lot of appeal for replication of items. However, at nearly $4K (at Rockler) that is a lot to start out with. Better to get some experience first. Learn where I can source my supplies from etc.

Some plans for cutting track:

Tutorials on how to make curved track:

Some Places to get components for rolling stock or rolling stock:

Some places to learn about child safe paints:

Some places to order manufactured sets

Some places to get a custom branding tool or wood etcher to sign the pieces I make.

Accessories:

  • Wooden Train tables
  • Research Parts