And something goes ary in Dr. M's Lab

I've always been fascinated with how things go together, and come apart. Whether it's clothing, mechanics, furniture, even peoples phsyki. Most of my life I've fed this interest without any one noticing my strange prevalence for taking things apart.

But the last few years, I've started slipping and I'm getting some odd looks. I can't decide if it's just age; I either don't care what anyone things any more or can't remember I should care. Or, if the lack of a professional environment and continued educations has made it more necessary for me to test my limits.

Then to make it worse, I got all tied up in ehow.com. You can post small articles on how to make or do things and you get royalties. You don't get rich, but the royalties never stop until the sight goes under. I made almost $70 last month, some of it off articles that were over a year old. So all of a sudden, EVERYTHING has a purpose. Even if I don't want to make and sell the pattern, I can write up the instructions for ehow.com.

Regardless, I have a revolving door or experiments going on at my house at all times. In fact, I have five of them in some stage of "figuring them" out right now.

1) I've been working off and on for over 3 months on how to convert a watch-glass press (which is only $10) to a snap-press (which is $160). I plan on making up a washable diaper pattern and I think those types of people would be more interest in how to get a cheap press than a pattern -- there are literally hundreds of patterns for diapers available.

The weird thing is that I've been collecting cloth diapers of different sizes and styles as references when I make my diaper pattern -- for the last 6-9 months. You can't go in a room in my house that there are not a pile of diapers in some odd location. I just can't make my mind start that pattern until I am happy with the completed snap press.

2) I have hair on hide in my "leather" room that I am experimenting with to see the best way to trim the edges for equal hairless space on all sides. I also have several different razers and Steve's mustache trimmer in there. Trimmer is winning so far.

3) I have started collecting empty candy bags -- made of plastic. And melting them and other recyclable plastics to make my own durable plastic for bags and etc. I have melted pieces in all sorts of strenghts, some sewn together, some washed, you get the idea.

4) I have been trying to come up to an inexpensive alternative to PUL (plastic lined fabric) that is used in diapers. I've got pieces of fabric with rug backing, Plasti Dip, Paint, and plastic type caulk applied to it. I let them dry then washed and dried them to see how they worked. I also melted plastic to fabric with my iron and with my t-shirt press to check them out.

5) I have cut up deer antlers soaking in paint, ink, and stain to see which penetrates and leaves no trace best. I'm going to write up directions for making a hair on checker board with deer antler checkers. Hey! Someone will think it's cool.

Really, I'm weird.

This doesn't even cover the odd things I have tried over the last year: I figured how to address sweaty boobs, have installed my own cable line, built a playscape for Will almost totally by myself, designed a tunnel for Will's playscape from two plastic barrels, built my own toy organizers for Will's room, installed my own duplexer on my laser printer, made my own floating chlorine dispenser, found out how to make fire starter logs from lots of different ingredients including my favorite (dryer lint and old melted crayons), made extra butterflies for Will's EleFun Game, and discovered several cheap methods for repelling mosquitoes from your back yard. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Last night I was at WallyWorld in the hair isle and I saw the coolest looking curlers. They were light weight and pockey -- no need for closures. I was thinking now that is cool. I could put up my hair after my bath and by bed time it will be dried. But, of coarse, I wasn't paying $10 for a single set. Much less the $20 or $30 I would need to get enough of the right sizes to suit me.

So tonight I took out some plastic grid and cut a piece out, then I sewed two sides together to make me a lightweight cylinder shape. As it turns out I have a box of just the pokey side of velcro in my sewing room. Since I just wanted to see if the theory would EVEN work, I didn't bother sewing the pieces together and taking them down well. I pretty much rolled the velcro around the cylinder and rolled up a piece of my hair. It worked great! Well, it worked great until I tried to unroll it and the velcro pieces began to separate the catch hair everywhere.



I still consider it a success and when I get a chance I'll make me up a set and document the process.