Gremlins and a Project
My brain is full of gremlins. They feed on something. I’m not exactly sure what, but I think they most prefer to feed on my creative output. If they don’t get any, they might go dormant, or maybe they find the right neuron to randomly fire that gets my creativity and desire to create going for awhile. If not fed for awhile, they tend to transform into anxiety producing versions, which are not good. They must remain properly fed. In return, I get a drive to create. We have learned to live in a symbiotic relationship in this way.
The gremlins aren’t very good at finishing projects, they aren’t really very good at anything. Their hunger is very good at making me start projects. One project that I started in order to feed them has been a lighted house number sign. Here are a few pictures.
Some lessons I learned in doing this.
Plywood, while fairly strong, isn’t as easy to carve. The thin top section (with the carved “21”) chipped along the edge several times while I was using a jigsaw. I did get some wood filler which seems to have repaired the worst of it. We will see if it takes a stain (it says it will).
The mitre gauge that came with my table saw is actually pretty good as a guide for cross cutting. Most woodworkers probably already knew this, but I didn’t. I didn’t even need to make any kind of cross cutting sled (though I probably will eventually)
A hand jigsaw, while it is possible to remove the sawblade, and put it through a hole cut by a bit, is fairly difficult to control for fine work like this. A powered jigsaw, even a cheap one, is much faster and easier.
The one rasp/file I had in my toolbox wasn’t sufficient for the finishing work. I had to get a squared file to get to the tiny corners. It still doesn’t look great up close, but at a distance nobody will notice.
A positive thing: I can imagine something and make it come into form. The gremlins were happy to learn this. I think it is a filling meal for them.
Questions I still have
Where did all the LED’s I bought a year ago disappear to? The gremlins (and I) want to know
Will using parchment paper work as a light diffuser, or will the numbers just look like LEDs behind some paper.
