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|projects philosophy faq|
frequently asked questions|
|Overview||We have compiled a list of frequently asked questions below. Answers regarding questions on a particular project are on the respective project page. If you have a question that is not addressed here you can email us at the following address: firstname.lastname@example.org|
uniqueprojects provides free and unique project plans. Our plans are detailed descriptions on how to make a wide variety of unique items. They vary from simple accessories, gifts and decorations to complex sculptures, games and furniture etc. You are bound to find many profoundly interesting projects within your abilities - give one a try! We urge everyone to get personally involved in the things they live with and give as gifts. Our complete list of projects is updated regularly on our projects page. You can receive free updates by subscribing to our newsletter.
Yes, our projects are completely free! We are supported primarily by revenue from sponsors. The best way to ensure that our projects will remain free forever, is to make purchases from our sponsors. Whenever you make a purchase through our site, you pay the same amount, and we get a small commission. One of our primary sponsors is amazon: whenever you buy something from amazon, please use the amazon link on our homepage or the box on the right. Thank You!
There is no catch - we provide free project plans. Come back often to see the updates or sign up for our free newsletter so you can be updated when new plans are added to this website. We are supported primarily by revenue from sponsors.
The best way to help is to spread the word: tell your friends and colleagues about our site. You can email a friend right now! Whenever you come across a project that you think someone else might be interested in, let them know. Another way to help us out is to visit our sponsors' sites by clicking on their links. Some, but not all, of the 'buy' links that we list in many projects direct you to online retailers who give us a small commission for purchases made.
Our terms of service agreement has its own page. A link to it is included at the bottom of most of the pages on this website.
In keeping with our philosophy, we perform all of these tasks in-house. Although there certainly are some areas that a contractor could do better or faster, we abide by the do-it-yourself standard and revel in its benefits.
We have and continue to add a wide variety of projects that vary from simple projects to those that will challenge advanced make-it-yourselfers. Each project includes a description of the difficulty. These are usually good guidelines, but you should always read through the entire plan before beginning. Occasionally, you may want to consider a project that is above your current 'level' to give yourself a challenge: you may be surprised at what you can create! We also recommend that you read through project plans even if you do not intend to complete them: you can learn about different techniques and also get new ideas.
Our wide variety of projects include simple inexpensive projects and complex expensive ones. For details on each project, read the description thoroughly. The included cost estimations are in U.S. dollars but please note that they are very rough guidelines only; for an accurate estimate you will need to contact suppliers for the items on the materials list.
Each project's description includes a time estimation. The time it will actually take an individual make-it-yourselfer, however, is dependent on many variables: availability of tools, materials, experience etc. Our time estimations are intended to be used as rough guidelines only. We urge you to slow down, enjoy the process of what you are doing, and to create the best possible item you can; it may take a bit longer to make, but you will appreciate the quality forever.
The tools required to create our projects vary as much as the projects themselves. Some require nothing more than a flat surface to fold paper on, whereas others require a complete workshop. We are committed to offering a wide variety of projects and if some of the projects are impossible for you to complete due to lack of tools, please be patient, because less tool-dependent projects will be on the way. Also, we urge you to read through all of our project plans even if you do not plan to complete them - you can learn new techniques and get inspired for ideas of your own.
We dimension our plans in both the English (imperial) and metric units. All metric dimensions are put in parenthesis immediately after the English dimensions. Note that the metric dimensions are not necessarily direct conversions from their English counterparts. If, for example, the plan asks you to cut a sheet of plywood in half: the English dimension would be to cut along a 24" line because the sheets are typically is 48" wide, in metric countries, though, plywood is usually 120cm wide, so of course we would give the cutline as 60cm which is not exactly 24".
If answers to your questions are not included in the plan itself, you can email specific project questions to this address.
We love to get project ideas from our users. To submit your own idea please visit our suggestions page. Due to a variety of considerations and a very long pipeline of upcoming projects we cannot include all submissions as future projects. Please note that all submissions are subject to our terms of service.
We have a very strict standard for inclusion into our project library. Before documenting any of our plans we consider all of the following: uniqueness, safety of construction, safety of finished item, ease of construction, tools required, cost of materials etc. For more information see our design philosophy essay.
We get most of our ideas from our staff. We are obsessed with interesting, unique and ingenious things and we constantly keep an eye out for sources of inspiration. We also love traveling and have found that unique ideas can come from anywhere. In the last few years, members of our staff have been to all of the following countries: Croatia, Germany, Israel, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand. Our users are also great sources of project ideas; they span the entire globe and from that diverse base, we receive many excellent ideas that vary from rough concepts to polished ideas. To submit your own idea, please visit our suggestions page.
At uniqueprojects we focus on providing our users with unique project plans. To keep our endeavor afloat, however, we occasionally work on side projects and as we progress, we post them on our other projects page.
To unsubscribe from our newsletter, visit our newsletter page and follow the unsubscribe instructions.
To change your email address, simply subscribe with your new email address and then unsubscribe with the old one.
We have tried to keep our website structure as simple as possible. The navigation links at the top and bottom of each page connect you to all main portions of the site. You can search for projects by visiting our projects page where they can be sorted by clicking on the column headings.
You can mouse over (position your mouse's cursor without clicking) most images on our site for a description or title of the image (you can try a mouseover on the green play button in the following paragraph). It may take a second or two for the descriptive text to appear.
Each plan has a overview section at the top of the plan page. It includes basic information including a brief description, estimated time to complete project, level of difficulty, materials cost etc.
The project plans are organized into steps to make it easy to progress through the project. Background information is provided in the final step of each project.
The majority of the content on this website is designed to be handled with widely available web browsers including Mozilla, Netscape, Opera and Internet Explorer. To view the animations available for some of the projects you will need the free Flash Player. Follow the link to the download site and follow the instructions to install it on your computer. Other projects may require the Acrobat Reader which you can also download for free by following the link.
We love to hear your ideas, opinions and suggestions; please submit them on our comments page.
We have a very extensive list of essays regarding philosophical issues that may be of interest to our users. If you are so inclined, take a look at our philosophy page.
Did you really expect to find an answer here? We have tackled enough difficult issues on our philosophy page, this question is a bit out of our league.
|projects philosophy faq|