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Category Archives: Projects
Stage Lighting Model
We are refurbishing on a 1/2 inch to the foot scale model of the Little Theater at Midland Center for the Arts (Midland, MI). I’m working on a stage lighting model. The basic components are: The functionality is: At this point I have eight instruments printed and assembled, and basic program and run mode working. […]
Posted in Projects
Tagged as: 3D Printing, model, Raspberry Pi, stage lighting, theater
Tool Cabinet
I don’t know about you, but as I buy more tools I end up with more boxes, containers and packaging . Time to build a tool cabinet. Here are my design rules Nicer than a plywood box but, Not fine furniture Use standard dimensional lumber (I don’t have a planer or jointer) I did some […]
Posted in Projects
Sander Replacement Part
My friend Scott managed to blow up the inner disk of a rotary disc sander. The challenge is to replace it with a 3-D printed part. I’m guessing the probability of success is very low. A lot of effort went into shock mounting on the original, and a printed part will be brittle. Also it […]
Posted in Projects
Tagged as: 3-D printing, replacement part, sander
Lathe Upgrades
Recently I’ve been working on a couple of upgrades to my old Craftsman (Atlas) 6 inch metal lathe. One thing I never bothered doing on the lathe was single point threading, because the lathe had manual change gears and I didn’t have a good enough reason to get into tearing down and setting up the […]
Posted in Projects
Tagged as: DRO, Electronic Leadscrew, lathe
Radio Knob
When we moved – four years ago – one of the knobs on my classic floor model radio was lost. Time to fix it. Usually the way to do this is with a resin casting, but I don’t have the materials for that, and a hundred dollar investment in all the stuff I would need […]
Posted in Projects
Tagged as: 3D Printing, Painting, Radio Knob
Covid Shutdown Projects
Besides the usual home and garden projects, here are some of the things I’ve been working on during the shutdown. I mark March 19th as the beginning of the shutdown for me – it was my last day in the Midland Center for the Arts Scene Shop. I was alone that day, working on the […]
Posted in Projects
Solar Monitor II
Installed and working. I designed and printed the case. Installed and started monitoring via Adafruit IO I have a few software enhancements in mind. Ability to turn the boost charger on from the web for example. Also there is a strange phenomenon happening each morning. The voltage goes low enough to trigger the boost charger. […]
Posted in Projects
Tagged as: solar plant
Solar Panel Monitor
It’s been cloudy enough this winter that the solar plant charging has not been able to keep up with demand. Short days and new consuming devices contribute to the problem. I have had to use a trickle charger to keep up. I’d like to automate this process so that the back-up charger comes on when […]
Posted in Projects
Tagged as: controller, Electronics, solar plant
Builder’s Plate
In my youth I ‘ahem’ obtained a locomotive builder’s plate from the locomotive graveyard in the Fair Haven yards of the New Haven Railroad. It had a corner broken off, so I never did anything with it other than haul it around for fifty years. I got to thinking that maybe 3d printing offered a […]
Posted in Projects, Stuff
Tagged as: 3D Printing, Builders Plate, locomotive
Playing with IOT
I got a few ESP microcontrollers – ESP32 and ESP8266. These are Arduino type micros with Wi-Fi and (optionally) Bluetooth built in. The ESP8266 is actually the basis for the Sonoff controllers. This means you can control the micro from the internet, and by extension the Amazon Echo or Google Assistant. I chose Adafruit IO […]