Introduction: Various Random Projects I Didn't Feel Like Making an Instructable For
The title say it all. Just a jumbled heap for the excess ones I don't have time or pictures to fully document.
Step 1: Guitar String and Cracked Marble Pendant
I saw a celtic knot pendant. And I saw cracked marble earrings. And I thought "hey, those would look good together". So they went together.
How To:
Cook some marbles in the oven at 350° for about an hour, pull them out and toss them in a bowl of ice water. They'll crack internally into great patterns. Choose one you like.
Bend a guitar string into a celtic knot shape (can be tricky) and leave the ball end sticking up to thread a string through.
Bend a small gauge guitar string to a spiral shape that fits around the marble with extra extending upwards and downwards. Use small drops of superglue to glue to the top and bottom of the marble.
Solder the extra ends onto the back of the celtic knot. Can also thread the small gauge wire into the larger wire.
Put a string through the ball end sticking up.
Made this as a birthday present for my guitar-playing girlfriend, she loved it.
Step 2: Rifle Shell Rose
A combination of two of life's most beautiful things, a flower and spent rifle casings.
How To:
Pop out the primer and drill the bottom of a 30-06 shell enough to snugly fit the nose of another 30-06. Split .556 shells and cut into shapes that look like leaves or petals.
Cut the bottom 3/8" off a .556, drill the bottom to fit a 30-06 nose, split the sides in ~7 places, and shape into smaller petals. Do a similar thing without drilling and only 5 petals on a 9mm shell, and with 3 on a .22 shell and curl over the petals on that one, stack them all together to look like a flower head. Glue a small rhinestone in the .22 to add some color.
File small slots into the sides of the 30-06 stem to fit the leaves, then solder (or superglue) them on. Solder the head on as well.
Buff the whole thing to get rid of any heat discolorations and solder marks.
Gave this to a girl, she is now my girlfriend. It's a wonder how homemade gifts will affect a woman's heart (life lesson though, it's not just the gifts that matter)
Step 3: .22 Shell Earrings and Paracord Bracelet
Why not wear your spent bullet shells as jewelry to show off your many kills? Or at least shots.
How To:
Making the bracelet is fairly easy- Drill out the bottom of a bunch of .22 shells and thread your paracord through while making a paracord bracelet, there are tons of tutorials similar to the one above on how to make the basic bracelet. You can wash and spray paint the casings first to make it look fancier.
The earrings are a little more work but still fairly simple. Cut a short section of wooden dowel and hammer it into the top of the empty shell, then sand to match the shape of a .22 bullet. Drill a hole and add a small ring to put an earring loop through. Spray paint gold or brass color.
Made these to give to the same girl as the first two projects.
Step 4: Shotgun Shell USB Drive
Empty, useless shotgun shell. Unexciting USB drive. Why not stick them together?
How To:
Pry the plastic casing off your USB drive to get at the innards. This won't damage the memory function, the case is just for looks. Measure your device guts against the side of a 20 gauge shell and cut the shell down to that height. Keep the piece you cut off and trace the top of the shell onto it, save this for later.
Put the drive into the shell, then pack some filler material (plastic bits, pony beads work well) around it and fill with glue so the filler doesn't bounce around. This holds the device in place and gives the drive some rigidity.
Cut out the tracing you made earlier and mark a rectangle where the drive will stick through it. Cut out the rectangle first and place it over the end of the drive, then cut out the circle. Glue it on over the end of your shell.
You can use it as is or pop a 12 gauge shell over it as a storage case.
I made this in 2014 and it's still my daily use flash drive.
Step 5: Guitar String Ring
This one turned out really well for a project I had no idea what I was doing on at first.
How To:
Pick a long and unbent guitar string, a thicker one but not too thick to bend. If you need guitar strings ask at a store that restrings and they'll give you a bag full.
Start at one end of the string and wrap it around an object slightly smaller than the diameter you want the ring to end up. Tie it into a turk's head woggle, a video is above.
Starting at the same place, wiggle a different color of wire between the two you already have, and thread it all the way around to give it a neat look.
Solder all ends in one place and smooth.
This was just a fun project that I ended up giving to my girlfriend as well. She seems to inspire many of my projects.
Step 6: Rifle Shell Chess Set
Chessammo sells for a few hundred dollars. That's a bit pricey for something you can make at home.
Easy enough, pick sizes of shell and spray paint one side gold and one silver, or whatever contrasting colors look good.
This one was a Christmas present for my military brother.
Step 7: Guitar String Flower
Originally planned to simply add onto the rifle shell flower with guitar strings, but ended up making a flower fully from them.
How To:
Bend 5 ~4" sections of nickel guitar string into teardrop shapes. Solder the sides together to get the petal shape of the flower.
Stick a length of thicker copper wire through the center of the petals and solder it on for the stem.
Make 2 teardrop shapes of copper wire and colder to the stem.
Curl a piece of copper wire tightly around something round to make the pistil part. Solder it on top of the petals.
Instead of buying flowers for a girl I prefer to make them, that's where this went.
Step 8: Christmas Ornament 3D Guitar Star
This came from just playing around with guitar strings and seeing what shapes I could make.
How To:
Make a star shaped jig, in a similar way to the one I made in this other in a previous Instructable:
https://www.instructables.com/id/3D-Guitar-String-...
I will add a photo of mine if I get a chance.
Bend the strings around the jig and trim to get 5 star halves. Solder the tops and bottoms all together.
Solder a small loop on top for a hangar.
Step 9: To the Future!
Any other ideas? Upgrades? Thoughts? Things I should try or add to? Make a full Instructable on something?
Let me know and I'd be happy to experiment!
