Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Homemade Baby Gate

Tyla and I have been thinking about building a “baby jail” for Elijah. The idea is that it’s a blocked off area with toys in it where there isn’t anything terribly awful for him to hurt himself. He can play in there safely while we turn our backs for a couple minutes here and there. Since our dining room isn’t in use, we decided to block off the two entries there and just use the whole room.

The doorway to the kitchen is a normal size and there are plenty of gate options for that in the $50-60 range. The other entry to that room is 7 feet long and there isn’t much available to fit that well. I did find a couple options that were about $120-140, but I didn’t love them. So instead of spending close to $200 on baby gates, I decided to build them myself!

I built the smaller one first. It’s pictured below. I based it loosely on this plan from diynetwork. The frame is made up of 1×4 mixed whitewood (super cheap) boards glued together to make a 2×4. Dowel rods are spaced to create no more than 4” gaps. By choosing my measurements carefully, I was able to not have much waste wood and this whole gate only cost $32 including the hinges and latch. I sanded the whole gate quite thoroughly with the random orbital sander that I picked up for my last project, and then I covered it all with two coats of oil-based polyurethane. Yes, that’s safe for kids to suck on once it cures.

I think the longer gate will cost about $70 when I’m done. It’s not a huge savings but we end up with something that exactly fits our needs and looks pretty good.

So I’m saving money right? Well… sort of. I quickly realized that drilling ~60 perfectly perpendicular 1/2” deep 7/8” diameter holes for the dowel rods was going to be a tedious task with a normal drill. So I bought a brand new drill press to help. Ha! In fairness, I tried to buy a couple used ones on Craigslist and failed. The drill press worked wonderfully and will come in handy for lots of future projects.

P.S. We did NOT choose the paint colors for that room! Once it’s done being a baby jail, it’s on my list of rooms to redo. I’m thinking that we’ll have wainscoting along the bottom and then choose a better color for the top. The previous owners had almost the whole house coated in a hundred shades of yellow.

benmartens February 25, 2014 Projects, Woodworking

Blade Nano QX Review

A newfound RC addiction in the middle of the rainy season in Seattle is a tough combo. Thankfully, indoor RC has been making tremendous progress in the last couple years. One of the products near the top of the list right now is the Blade Nano QX. It’s a tiny little quadcopter that flies extremely well. You don’t need much space to have a lot of fun. If you’ve been to our house, I regularly fly it in the man cave and downstairs in the living room/kitchen. I’ve even taken it outside a couple times when there is no wind.

The Nano QX comes in two packages. One is the RTF (Ready To Fly) and it includes a transmitter. The other option is BNF (Bind aNd Fly) which requires you to have your own Spektrum transmitter. If you’re just getting this as a one-off toy, then the RTF is probably the model for you. But if you’re buying other planes and helis  that use Spektrum receivers then BNF can save you money since you don’t need to keep paying for new transmitters.

My previous favorite in this area was the Syma 107 helicopter. That is a lot of fun for a very low price, but it doesn’t take too long to master it and then you’re a bit bored. Plus, I flew mine so much that I wore out the motor. The Syma has throttle, rudder and pitch. The Nano QX adds aileron so you can move side to side as well. It gives you a lot more control but it also is more of a challenge. Don’t worry about the learning curve though. The Nano can stand up to a beating, but if you do have some trouble, a second set of blades is included in the box. You can also replace everything else piece by piece if needed.

The awesome guys over at FliteTest.com have a video about the Nano QX as well. Give it a look and I bet you’ll want to buy one!

benmartens February 24, 2014 Radio Controlled Flight

Too Much Snow?

This has been a very bad year for skiing in the Pacific Northwest. The bad weather, combined with my lack of free time, means that I haven’t had any days on the slopes yet. That all changed about a week and a half ago when a series for storms started hammering the mountains. They were receiving about a foot a day every day.

On Sunday night, Crystal received two feet. Then on Monday they had to stay closed all day because of a power outage. On Monday they got another foot and a half leaving 3.5 feet of untouched snow and 66” in four days. I took Tuesday off and headed for Crystal.

This ski trip was a lot different than last year given that we have a baby at home now. Also, Tyla wasn’t feeling well so I wasn’t sure I could even go. The night before, I decided to relax and just take it as it comes. I wouldn’t worry about getting first chair, planning an attack on the mountain or anything like that. It’s a good thing I took that approach.

First I left the house about 20 minutes late as I took some extra time to make sure Tyla and Elijah were off to a good start with their day. Traffic and slow drivers in the snow added another 40 minutes to the normal trip time. That meant I hit the Crystal parking lot at 9am (when the lifts open) instead of the 8am I had planned. Once I got up to the ticket counter, I discovered that their online system for buying tickets had been offline so the normally short lines were HUGE. It took 30 minutes to get a lift ticket. Oh how I missed my season pass from last year!

Only Chinook Express and Forrest Queen were running while ski patrol detonated lots of avalanche bombs to make the shaky snow pack safer. I took some easy runs while I waited for more interesting lifts to open. The lines were enormous as all of the powder hungry skiers and kids on mid-winter break crammed on to the two lifts. Rainier Express finally opened and, after a 30 minute wait in line, I made it to the top. Down below, the snow was falling very fast (1-2” per hour according to the telemetry), and up top it was WINDY. The sensors were showing 30 mile an hour average winds with gusts well over 50mph. Throw in the very thick cloud layer and it was almost impossible to see up there. Now add in that 3-5 feet of fresh snow and wow, it was a crazy situation. These are the types of days where you really do need a partner to stay safe up there. It’s so easy to fall into a tree well or get stuck somewhere. It was so bad that I actually called it quits for the day. Even though I had only been there a few hours, I got stuck in the parking lot trying to leave. Thankfully I had remembered my shovel and was able to dig myself out and get traction with some old t-shirts in front of the tires.

It sounds crazy, but apparently you can have too much snow… or maybe I’m just getting soft in my old age.

UPDATE: I wrote this on Tuesday after I got home. Later, I learned that a skier died on Monday at Stevens Pass (hit his head on a rock) and a skier died at Crystal on Wednesday (stuck in a treewell and his buddy couldn’t reach him in time.) Couple that with numerous in-bounds avalanches triggered by ski patrol with explosives and I think it validates my decision to come home early. The mountains are no joke.

benmartens February 21, 2014 Skiing

Wool Socks

A couple years ago, TimS and AndyD convinced me that I need to try wool socks. It sounds silly, but it was a life-changing discussion. Since that first purchase, I have worn wool socks almost exclusively. In the winter they keep my feet warm and in the summer they keep my feet from getting sweaty and wet. They’re brilliant! You can get them fairly cheaply in big bundles at Costco. Unfortunately they only sell them during the winter so I like to stock up and have a few bundles in the closet in case I wear some out.

benmartens February 19, 2014 Commentary

Power BI

My project at work is called Power Query for Excel. We released our first version last summer and now our second version is available as part of a larger offering called “Power BI for Office 365.” BI stands for Business Intelligence. The offering includes a bunch of tools that help you make sense of your data, create nice reports and then share them out with your colleagues. This marks the first time that something I’ve worked on at Microsoft is available for purchase!

But never fear home users, while the collaboration and sharing features require payment but you can use some of the pieces for free. For example, you can download the latest version of Power Query from the Microsoft download center.

It’s exciting to see all our hard work available for public use and we love getting feedback! Please use the smile/frown buttons on the Power Query tab in Excel or leave feedback in the Power Query forum (or one of the other Power BI component forums.)

The marketing department put together a nice Power BI overview video. The Power Query specific part is in the “Discover” section around the 36 second mark.

benmartens February 18, 2014 Geek

Printer Tech

I love that everything around us is becoming a gadget. The buzzword/phrase is the “internet of things.” Add our printer at work to the list. It has always had capabilities like scanning and emailing documents, but it was also a huge paper waster and logging in for advanced features was a pain. People would print stuff and then forget to pick it up. The default setting is that when you print something, it sits in the printer’s queue but doesn’t actually print until you walk up to it. At that point you swipe your badge over the card reader, it brings up all your jobs and ask which ones you want to print. At this point you’re also logged in so scanning and emailing is very simple too. It’s one of those seemingly obvious “why didn’t we do this before” inventions.

benmartens February 17, 2014 Commentary

Sweet And Sour Slow Cooker Chicken

We heard about this one from MandyE on Facebook and really enjoyed it! You can find the original recipe from Kraft or use our slightly modified version below.

Use at least a  2 quart slow cooker

Ingredients

  • 1 onion, sliced
  • 1 carrot, sliced
  • 1 stalk celery, sliced
  • 1-1/2lb. boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces
  • 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup KRAFT Classic CATALINA Dressing
  • 1/4 cup lite soy sauce
  • 1 tsp. grated gingerroot
  • 1 Tbsp. cornstarch
  • 1 can (8 oz.) pineapple chunks, drained, liquid reserved
  • 1 bell pepper, cut into strips
  • 3 cups hot cooked rice

Directions

  • PLACE onions, carrots and celery in slow cooker; top with chicken.
  • MIX sugar, dressing, soy sauce and ginger; pour over chicken. Cover with lid.
  • COOK on LOW 4 to 5 hours, increasing heat to HIGH for the last 30 min.
  • STIR cornstarch into reserved pineapple liquid. Add to slow cooker with pineapple and peppers after it has started boiling on high heat in the previous step; stir. Cook, covered, 30 min. or until sauce is thickened. Serve over rice.

Can be made ahead the night before and placed in fridge

benmartens February 12, 2014 Food