inventor

     Growing up my dad had a workshop.  he worked on old cars and welded things together.  it was big, hot and noisy but i mostly have fond memories of it.  I put new shocks on my first vehicle all by myself at the age of 15.  it was a jeep - 1975 cj5 with a levi package.

Dog Wheelchair

     It was at that time that my dad would invite my brother or i to help think through ideas or inventions or layout of something.  we made a portable camping grill, a survival tube with accessories, etc.  i don't think he made them to ever try to sell, it was mostly just for creativity.  or he didn't want to go the the arduous process of patenting an idea.

     many years down the road i have spent many hours on refining things, repairing things, creating things, breaking things and learning things.  My wife says i should have been an engineer........anyway here are a few of the things i have designed that i actually remembered to have photos taken.

     thanks to instructables.com who have hosted many of my ideas and made them bigger.  The dog wheelchair was out of neccesity to rehab our dauchsand back to normal.  it worked well and has served many people well over the years through an affordable way to put it together.  it has been featured in wired magazine, NPR and make magazine.

multi layered guitar pedalboards

     as a musician i began to put pedals together to change, record and modify my acoustic guitar.  occasionally i would go to a gig and my few pedals had fallen off my velcro board.  Eventually i would  mount them more securely and then my cables would cause problems with kinks or flopping around in travel or whatever.  so as invention is usually from necessity i have gone through many pedals and many designs to land on this setup.  All the pedals are hardwired electrically to a 9v source that is converted to 110v.  every pedlas has been modded in some way.  The top layer is birch ply with each pedal space routed out about 1/8 inch to recess them.  the second layer has all audio separated from the electrical and secured to the wood.  it continues to change.  it will....

birch hoop christmas tree

     this Christmas tree was a fun endeavor and was picked up by a few companies but i never moved forward on them mass producing them.  It is made out of 1/2 birch play, a galvanized fence post, stainless steel cabling and aluminum stops.  there are solid chrome designs as well but this one i love~

each hoop is 3 inches thick and fits inside the next.  right now the original hangs in my shop mounted flat to the wall.

props to my photography friends:  adamdagley.com and lucianajustice.com