DIY Floating Wall Mounting Blocks

Save money by making your own floating wall mounting blocks for aluminum metal prints

The 2014 Art Fair season is almost here, and I'm making last minute preparations.  I ordered a number of aluminum metal prints to add to my collection, but didn't order them with mounting blocks.  It adds an additional ~$8.50 per metal print depending on vendor, so I decided to try and save some money by making my own floating wall mounting blocks.  I already have a plunge router, so all I really needed was the router bit, template, and template guide.

• 3/8-Inch Keyhole Router Bit with 1/4-Inch Shank
• PORTER-CABLE 42046 5/8-Inch Template Guide
• Scotch Exterior Mounting Tape, 1-Inch by 60-Inch
• Rockler Picture-Hanging Keyhole Template

I had a 8' x 3" poplar board, and used the Rockler picture hanging keyhole template to create the floating wall blocks.

You'll also need a 5/8" router template guide for the template to work.

A plunge router works best if you have the router plunge depth set properly before your first cut.

I cut about 16 larger size blocks, and a few smaller ones.  I cleaned up the edges with some sandpaper, and they were ready to mount.

Using the double-sided tape, I stuck the new blocks to the back of each metal print.  

In the long run, this method will save me a ton of money.  For this batch, each block cost less than $1.50 each.  I made a few extra blocks for future metal print purchases.

2014 Art Fair Schedule

m2 Photography will be participating in a number of summer art festivals.  I will keep this page updated if I am accepted to any more.  I hope to see you at one of these events!

Monument Square Art Festival - Racine, Wisconsin Saturday, May 31st - Sunday, June 1st, 2014 Art Fair OFF the Square - Madison, Wisconsin Saturday, July 12th - Sunday, July 13th, 2014 Uptown Art Fair - Minneapolis, Minnesota Friday, August 1st -  Sunday, August 3rd, 2014 Art in the Park - Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Saturday, August 9th - Sunday, August 10th, 2014

Cloud Gate Time Lapse

I took a day trip to Chicago yesterday to play with my DIY time lapse rover, and captured one of the most iconic Chicago landmarks; Cloud Gate.  I believe that most in Chicago refer to this as "The Bean" and is heavily traveled by tourists.  Great place to test the longevity of the rover, and capture a ton of movement due the high volume of foot traffic in the park.  The cool thing about the bean is that it's basically on giant mirror, so in essence, this is my and the rovers first time lapse "selfie."

Unfortunately, I had to stand guard over the rover as it made its way around the bean, as I didn't want anyone tripping over it.  Therefore, I'm in the reflection of the bean too.  It wasn't a great day for clouds in Chicago, but there was some whispy clouds that showed up better in the reflection.  The eMotimo TB3 drove the rover hundreds of feet in 2 hours and 15 minutes.  I captured an image once every 10 seconds on 3 different cameras.  The 2 GoPros were there to document the journey, and my Canon 5D Mark III was pointed at the bean.  I had about 15 people come up and ask me what I was doing, and some aspiring photographers interested in the rig.  The problem with the rover is the time for set up, as I have to drive the entire distance that the rover is going to take, and it wasn't designed to go very fast.  So for this sequence, it probably took almost 20 minutes to set up.

I'd like to come back someday to drive under the bean, but most likely I'd have to do that at night.  I also think doing some light painting in the park at night while the rover went around the bean would be cool. Definitely a fun toy, but it take some patience to get the sequence set up and completed.  I definitely think that I can find other fun locations like this, and test the limits of the eMotimo robot to see how far of a time lapse I can do.  Who knows, maybe this set the record for farthest distance for an eMotimo time lapse sequence.