This best-selling authoritative, visual handbook details all the important aspects of wood-frame construction. Hundreds of meticulous drawings provide visual explanations from actual job sites.

A unique guide to practical mechanical design principles and their applications In Making Things Move, you'll learn how to build moving mechanisms through non-technical explanations, examples, and do-it-yourself projects--from art installations to toys to labor-saving devices. The projects include a drawing machine, a mini wind turbine, a mousetrap powered car, and more, but the applications of the examples are limited only by your imagination. A breadth of topics is covered ranging from how to attach couplers and shafts to a motor, to converting between rotary and linear motion. Each chapter features photographs, drawings, and screenshots of the components and systems involved. Emphasis is placed on using off-the-shelf components whenever possible, and most projects also use readily available metals, plastics, wood, and cardboard, as well as accessible fabrication techniques such as laser cutting. Small projects in each chapter are designed to engage you in applying the material in the chapter at hand. Later in the book, more involved projects incorporate material from several chapters. Making Things Move: Focuses on practical applications and results, not abstract engineering theories Contains more than a dozen topic-focused projects and three large-scale projects incorporating lessons from the whole book Features shopping lists and guides to off-the-shelf components for the projects Incorporates discussions of new fabrication techniques such as laser cutting and 3D printing, and how you can gain access Includes online component for continuing education with the book's companion website and blog (makingthingsmove.com) Hands-on coverage of moving mechanisms Introduction to Mechanisms and Machines; Materials and Where to Find Them; Screwed or Glued? On Fastening and Joining Parts; Forces, Friction and Torque (Oh My); Mechanical and Electrical Power, Work, and Energy; Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Motor? - Creating and Controlling Motion; The Guts: Bearings, Bushings. Couplers, and Gears; Rotary vs. Linear Motion; Automatons and Mechanical Toys; Making Things and Getting Them Made; Projects

-- Discusses all aspects of laying foundations, raising walls, and more for small or one-person crews

This Old House meets Wayne’s World in this zany guide to designing and building tiny homes Derek Diedricksen has always had a love for small, modest houses ever since his father gave him the book Tiny Tiny Houses by Lester Walker for his tenth birthday. Combining his artistic abilities, wild imagination, and his passion for small houses, he self-published Humble Homes, Simple Shacks, Cozy Cottages, Ramshackle Retreats, Funky Forts, and Whatever the Heck Else we could Squeeze in Here in 2009. This book is a collection of Diedricksen’s creative/imaginative sketches for building small houses, shacks, cottages, and forts. The sketches are accompanied with hand-written commentary, both instructive and comical. Derek’s main purpose is to get your creative juices flowing and encourage you to get off the couch and use your hands. Believing that specific building plans squash creativity, he avoids too many detailed instructions, giving you the chance to put your own creative spin on your very own small abode (even if it is just in your imagination).  

America’s best-selling deck book—better than ever   In this revised and expanded fourth edition of the all-time bestselling book on decks, homeowners learn, in unsurpassed detail, the process of designing, building, and maintaining a deck. Not only are all the classic deck-building techniques included, but the book also shows how to incorporate the latest contemporary options, such as how to work with eco-friendly wood and reclaimed plastic. Hiring a contractor to build a deck easily adds up to tens of thousands of dollars, but with the help of this book, readers can design and build the deck they want without the high price.   For homeowners who already have a deck but are in the market to update or maintain that deck, The Complete Guide to Decks features important projects for repairs, upgrades, and major additions, such as adding full electrical service, lighting, and kitchen appliances. From design to construction, and tools, material, and planning, this is the only book consumers need to build the deck of their dreams.

The most detailed, most current and most complete deck building book on the market. It reflects the latest changes in building codes and it features deck building materials that are popular today. The additional two signatures (32 pages) contain all-new deck plans with complete plan drawings. Updates to the materials section focus on new composite and non-wood deck building alternatives, as well as the current generation of deck hardware that resists corrosion caused by non-CCA pressure treated lumber. Step-by-step projects feature clever ways to customize and accessorize your deck to enhance both utility and enjoyment.

Build the Perfect Housing to Fit Your Flock Bring your chickens home to roost in comfort and style! Whether you're keeping one hen in a small backyard or 1,000 birds in a large free-range pasture, this delightful collection of hen hideaways will spark your imagination and inspire you to begin building. Author and farmer Judy Pangman combed the country to select these 45 coops for housing both laying hens and meat birds (chickens or turkeys). The coops range from fashionable backyard structures featured in the annual Seattle Tilth City Chickens Tour and the Mad City Chickens Tour in Madison, Wisconsin, to the large-scale, moveable shelters Joel Salatin has fashioned for Polyface Farm in Virginia. You'll also find ideas for converting trailer frames, greenhouses, and backyard sheds; low-budget alternatives for working with found and recycled materials; and simple ways to make waterers, feeders, and nestboxes. A gallery of color photographs provides other creative ideas to get you going. With basic building skills, a little elbow grease, and this book of conceptual plans and how-to drawings, you've got all you need to shelter your flock.

Tree houses capture the imagination of the child in all of us, and they have never been more popular than they are today. This inspirational yet thoroughly practical guide shows even the most inexperienced weekend carpenter how to design and build a lifetime of memories for the entire family. With more than 200,000 copies of their popular Weekend Project Books sold, David and Jeanie Stiles have become America's First Couple of do-it-yourself woodworking. In Tree Houses You Can Actually Build, they explain basic building procedures through clear, simple instructions and non-technical line drawings that illustrate every step of the project, from the earliest sketches to the final cedar shingle. The authors outline five basic designs that can be adapted to virtually any set of conditions, and throughout the book, they emphasize safety for both adults and children. In addition to line drawings, the book contains a section of full-color photographs highlighting a variety of tree house projects, plus helpful building tips based on interviews with their owners.