New magic wands: White Oak (with acorn) and Mahogany. 
8 Likes
Relocated to a new work location and found the lighting over my desk unsatisfactory. Knowing I had most of the bits needed to make a LED lamp, I set to work hacking it into existence using…
- LED strip (4000K 3528 high density) 24", 2
- Aluminum extrusion, 24" (9/16 x 11/16 x 1/16 U channel I believe)
- Flexible dry-erase board
- More aluminum extrusion for the support (some custom piece I got for free destined for greater use, however its purpose evades me)
- 2.1mm right-angle leads, 2
- 2.1mm bulkhead jacks, 3
- 12V DC / 1A power supply
- SPDT toggle switch (only need a SPST but for some masochistic reason I wanted to break both the positive and negative)
- 18ga stranded hookup wire
- Copious amounts of heat shrink
… Off …
… On …
In context.
For a project that took about perhaps 72 hours from conception to completion, I’m fairly satisfied. It lights up the left side of my desk to a satisfactory degree. I could have executed a little cleaner - shorter leads from the LED bar, cleaner cuts on the reflectors/diffusers, shorter overall reflectors/diffusers. Oh, and I probably should have tested the reflectors/diffusers first since my assumption was they’d reflect more and diffuse less.
I think I spent more time drilling out the 1/2" - half inch! - holes in the support bracket than anything else since Tanner’s did not have more … diminutive … bulkhead mount 2.1mm jacks.
11 Likes
Making pillows using videogame 8bit artwork from all of the flannel strips I’ve been cutting. The first fully assembled panel:
8 Likes
Most of this construction has been in my home lab, but I did do some work at DMS, so I think it counts.
3 Likes
The auxiliary input on the radio in my truck was damaged. It had very little solder on the joints and the jack ripped off the circuit board. There, I fixed it! Didn’t even have to whip out the duct tape.
The radio unit itself had a bunch of these crazy tiny bolts with traditional hex heads. I used some small needle nose pliers because a 5mm driver was waaaaay too big for them. That was 90% of the time it took to make the repair.
7 Likes
That is very awesome! What map formats does it use?
Sample piece for the Jeweling metals class I’m doing this Saturday. An easy decoration for a knife blade.
5 Likes
@AlexRhodes is there right now. The stream is live.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/live/makerspace-organizers-meeting-nation-makers
5 Likes
I built a tracking device for $20 using an Oak (ESP8266) from this project: TOWL - Telemetry over Opportunistic WiFi Links
It connects to open wifi networks and then sends it’s position as a specially crafted DNS request (to bypass login/splash screens).
Here’s a test run I did, the blue dots were real-time updates (live access to a wifi network) and red dots are stored updates that were sent later.
I’m going to make version 2 with a SparkFun ESP8266 Thing, LiPo battery and case.
8 Likes
My my how fancy a pinewood gets born
1 Like
I used the resources on this page for getting started:
http://www.50k-or-bust.com/Kobo%20XCSoar/Kobo%20XCSoar.htm
The Kibo software is stored on an internal SD card on the motherboard. I bought a 4GB micro SD card and cloned the original before overloading the XCSoar software. By using a cloned drive and keeping the original intact this should allow me to revert to the original if I accidently screw up the SD formatting.
The maps are in CmapTools Exported Concept Map (XCM) format. Custom maps can be easily made for new areas. Details here:
Switching maps between areas is slow (takes several minutes) because they are post-processed on the device when selected, but restarting with the same map as last time is peppy.
Live edge maple plank countertop (fireplace mantle). I added some walnut bowties on the crack at the far end.
From the scrap material I made an endgrain cutting board.
16 Likes
Awesome! Can you teach a class on this?
There’a been talk of an end-grain cutting board class. There would be others more qualified than myself given that this was my first one.
I’ve been wanting to redo the pivot pin on this clapper box, the original was just drilled with a 1/8 bit and used a 1/8 brass pin. It worked good enough but was intentionally undersize as a practice run and there was a just detectable bit of play. I used the old clausing drill press (how to move the head on that thing up and down?) with a 3/16 reamer i bought and put in a larger steel pin now. No more play!
Also made some simple shaft collars, and tried to make a threaded coupling nut to attach some flexible light stems together, but turns out its a fine metric thread so was a bust. Off to ebay in search of cheap taps! Some good quick projects to get some experience working with the DMS lathe.
But the main thing accomplished this month was to take the classes in woodshop, lasers, 3d printing, woodcarving, lathe, bridgeport and get familiar with the space! I thought all the classes were great, they are well thought out and cover a lot of ground and really are a great introduction to their respective tools. Hats off to the teachers. Going to gather up more projects hopefully later this year, and keep an eye on the training schedule for some other things I’d like to take, and hopefully see you guys around! Cheers
3 Likes
On the left side of the body, back by the column is a hand crank to raise/lower the head. It has he directions labeled in sharpie.
I saw that but wasnt getting anywhere. There were two nuts near the column the vise handle would fit on, are those locks that need to be undone? Tried that too but no luck. Maybe just not enough oomph I saw the base ring around the column flexing and didnt want to push it.
There is likely a lock, but it wasn’t locked when I raised it yesterday, so I didn’t have to track it down.