This is a pipe organ chair that plays a tune when you sit down (insert your musical furniture joke here). I built this as the encore to the Word family's musical playroom. This isn't the easiest DIY. So if you're not up to the challenge, just sit back, relax, and enjoy my silent movie debut.

MATERIALS:

* Wooden chair
* Aluminum alloy tube, 2" outside diameter, 1-1/2" inside diameter, 6' length
* Oak Dowel Rod 2" Diameter, 36" Length
* 2 Black pipes, 10 3/4"
* 1 Black pipe, 6 3/4"
* 3 Flanges, 3/4"
* 3 Black pipe reducers, 3/4" to 1"
* 3  Rubber reducers, 1" to 2"
* 90-Degree elbow fittings, 3/4"
* Big piece-o-leather .105in or 2.66mm thick
* Box of 100 small wood screws, 1"
* Wood glue
* 3 Ball valves, 3/4"
* Scraps of lauan
* 2 Spring loaded hinges
]]>Guru BrianAug 27, 2008http://2pointhome.com/diys/steps/46039There’s nothing wrong with a good old photo album. Except that it’s dusty, prone to wear and tear…and stuck in the past. Rich and Nancy Jaeger wanted to see the latest pics of their new grandchild, too. So we built a digital memory wall that plays a live stream of photos, past and present, across multiple LCD monitors, right before your eyes.

In this memory wall, each monitor displays a separate feed, which is networked via FiOS to other family members. So you can set up friends and relatives to add to your wall instantly, with their latest pics.

Just check out this reaction from The Jaegers, when they watched hundreds of family moments come to life.

MATERIALS:

* Customized computer
* Windows XP or Vista
* Bluetooth mouse and keyboard
* 2 Fire MV ATI PCI-e graphics cards
* 1 Dual output ATI graphics card
* Google photo screensaver software
* Photo sharing software (like Picasa or Flickr)
* LCD monitors (VGA or DVI inputs)
* Internet connection (FiOS recommended)
]]>Guru LloydAug 15, 2008http://2pointhome.com/diys/steps/44319
(Image: popsci.com)

...Or "dingtones," as Popular Science author Dave Prochnow calls the personalized sounds that echo through your home after doing this cool custom hack.

In a nutshell, AFTER the all-important step of disconnecting the power, you connect your doorbell's wires to the inside of your mp3 player's play button, and rig the player and a small speaker to work on electrical power. Pick a song on your mp3 player, and you'll hear it whenever someone rings your doorbell.

This project takes a decent amount of electrical know-how already, but if you want to get really 2.0 about it, you can even rig up a fingerprint reader (pictured) and play a different song for each one of your friends! (Full instructions at popsci.com)

Thanks to bvosrich for pointing out this cool project on the discussion board, in What would you like to see in Season 2? Got any other projects or ideas you think the Techno-Gurus should incorporate into their new high-tech makeovers? Join the discussion board and let us know!

]]>Jim 2.0Mar 21, 2008http://2pointhome.com/diys/steps/44267An older gentleman told me the other day "no one makes any records anymore!" Well, I thought to myself; "millions of people make records every week, just not on vinyl or tape like in the old days..."

Ever since the Irving Family episode where I showed Joelle how to convert all her old mix tapes to mp3's, a lot of people have come up to me asking how to go about doing it.

Well I finally got around to putting together a short tutorial on how to convert those tapes to mp3's, and many of you will find it surprisingly easy. Most of what you need is probably lying around your office, or in your storage closet; I also offer suggestions on how to achieve the best audio quality. Good luck and enjoy this fun video!