Author Spotlight: Lemonie

When you sign up for Instructables you are greeted by the Instructables Robot. When you post your first Instructable, you are often greeted by lemonie (a.k.a Les Oates). Lemonie is a long-time member of Instructables and if you spend any significant amount of time here, you will quickly learn that he is not one to reserve opinion. I recently got a chance to ask him his opinion about some of his work here on Instructables and this is what he had to say:

How did you first come upon Instructables and what inspired you to post your first one?

I was looking for something on the internet (and I forget what it was), Google linked here. Having seen a lot of really neat stuff, I thought there were things I could share to. The first I think was about exploding things, I deleted it because I tired of the comments. But it was a bit silly.

Is there any unifying theme that you feel can describe all of your projects?

Generally, I do things to see if I can, or for the sake of doing them. The cheese buttons, video toaster and Lego machines being good examples.

Of all the projects that you have posted, is there a single project that you are most proud of?

I do like the toaster, it was a project I had in mind since the early 80's it was good to realize it. However, while that was manly hard-work, I enjoy the technical challenge of making new pasta-shapes, peanut butter thingies etc. For simplicity the dog biscuits are one of my favorites. I'll go with the toaster.

Are there any big plans for new Instructables in the future?

I have a Lego tape/punch-card-reader in development, I'd like to get that turned into a fairground-type organ.

Do you still use the soup can headphones?

No, the sound is genuinely "tinny", but I've got them hung up.

How long have you been building things with Lego?

Since I was very small, I never really gave up. Lego is very versatile and easy to use, it's a great starter for many projects.

It would be an understatement to say that you looked at a lot of Instructables. Is there a single Instructable that has stood out above all others?

I couldn't pick one over others as there's such a wide range of projects. I like to keep my eyes open for something new, nothing is absolutely the best indefinitely (esp. on the internet)

If you could give any advice to someone about to post their first Instructable, what would it be?

Take the time to think about what you are about to do. If you've something to share, put yourself at the other end of the internet-connection: how are you going to show and explain what you did so that *most people* could reproduce it or at least understand how even if they can't practically do it/or have no need?

How come you can't easily get chocolate peanut butter cups in Britain?

You can now, I believe Lidl / Aldi have them. The peanut butter make was started because my sister had grabbed an expensive import. I think these sweet-snacks are particularly US, and that'd be due to peanuts being a domestic-crop?

What's with your personal website? ...Seriously, why?

That is a good question. It's not been touched for years, and the principle reasons for keeping it going are: the name, The Journal of Unpublished Chemistry, and the e-mail. Apart from J.Un.Chem. the content was/is experimental. I gave up on the Democratic Republic of Poundland though, that's gone.