Archive February, 2013

Fron and his stirling engine powered car

25 February, 21:00, by Verdi Tags: , , , ,

Fron came in today with his awesome little gas powered toy car. It uses a stirling engine to propel itself and looks to be made entirely out of day manufactured parts.

Thanks Fron for bringing in such a cool toy!

Breaking news: Tools in the shop now have faces!

25 February, 20:07, by Verdi Tags: ,

Due to a rash set of attacks around the shop, many of our tools now have faces. The exact number of victims affected in this feat of sillyness is currently unknown but it will assuredly continue until the giggles stop. The following contains images of tools who have given their lives of serious use up for your pleasure. A reminder that these photos may be graphic.

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Edit: I think we may have found the source of the supply. I’ll update you if we make any more progress.

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Diodes DIYode

22 February, 21:40, by EvaB

A while ago,  Ken Brown and I worked on a portable sign to promote DIYode at two events in the same week.  It was made by etching our logo into an acrylic panel, and setting that panel onto a strip of LED tape in a wooden base.  The sign has gone on to several more events, where it has drawn eyes from far away.

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It adorns our window at night, where the reflections from the lights wash up the blinds.

Thank you Ken Brown!

Jimmy Kesting of Led SteelBox

18 February, 23:24, by Christoph Kesting

I’ve just finished watching ‘It May Get Loud’.  A documentary where three guitarists meet and converse and play.  Jimmy Page is one of them.  The Edge the other.  I grew up learning what emotions were while listening to Zeppelin in my end room in our log house in the country.  My first girlfriend gave me a copy of Joshua Tree, the best album of U2 to date by then.  I grew up learning what love was while listening to U2 and recalling my first kiss.  Behind the barn, and I was on the second rung of the ladder.  She was firmly on the ground.  She being taller & I being thirsty for a kiss.

Page & Edge & Jack grew up on guitars.  They pursued sonically their art.  I grew up amidst felled logs & I pursued kisses.  And now?  Now what it is to be a man?  What is it to  live in the fury of life & be with life like we may now?   To create.  Its art, baby.  Time to loose the mitts & crank the bolts to 11.

PS.  The next BoXshop we”ll be cranking U2 & Zeppelin.   boxshop 3 was solutionary photo

BoxShop this Saturday Feb.16th

15 February, 09:04, by Christoph Kesting
  

 

There's a Boxshop this Saturday in the shape of a heart shaped box.

There’s a Boxshop this Saturday in the shape of a heart shaped box.

This Saturday at 11am – join us as Paul leads us in framing the roof of the Box.  The lumber is in.  The nails are pointy.
CK will be leading the ‘cut the opening’ team, where the goal will be to cut the largest most daunting hole into the box yet.  Why?  For the 10 foot wide patio door.  There will be food and music.  Friends and lessons’ learnt.  Boxshops are free & kindly sponsored by a local media company.  Breaking boxes to make lighter homes – lets (un)box together.   (519)831-1012 for more info

DIYode saved me $2000. Thanks!

14 February, 21:58, by Mark Zander

My wife and I have had an AEG front loading washing machine for about 14 years now. It’s been a great machine. Very energy efficient and very quiet.
Not too long ago it started to get noisy. First a low rumble, then louder. I became increasingly loud with each load. Until it was so loud you could hear it from the street!

“14 years”, I thought. Pretty good for a washing machine. Then I looked at the prices of the new washing machines! How much!
Don’t even talk to me about the cheap ones you will find at the big box stores; PAH! I’m not that rich that I can afford to buy cheap…
So I set about seeing if it was something i could fix.

I took the machine apart and very quickly found the problem. Broken seal on the shaft had let soapy water seep in to the bearings, displacing all the grease.
My first thought was to repack the bearings with grease. So I did. Then put it all back together again. Well it was loud but not half as loud as before.
I did not think that just repacking the bearings with new grease would solve the problem. But it would buy me some time to investigate if I could get spare parts.
Finding spare parts was a little bit too easy. Damn you Google! The hardest part was the price of parts. They wanted $150 for 2 bearings and a rubber gasket. Well this had better keep the washer going for at least 5 more years!

The parts soon came. I took the washer apart again, then SMACKED my head and swore! %$#@! I had forgotten that bearings are pressed in to place. You can’t just remove them with a wrench, or a hammer. What I needed was a bearing press.

JUST A MOMENT! Someone just recently loaned DIYode a small 12-ton shop press!

Since I am a full member at DIYode I just took my bearings down to the workshop and used the 12-ton shop press to press out the old bearings and press in the new ones. It didn’t take more than 15 minutes! Another 30 minutes to put the washer back together and everything works!
I was pleased to have clean underwear again; the wife was pleased she did not have to sit at the laundry anymore.

Pressing in a new bearing!
Pressing in the new bearings with DIYode’s new ShoP Press

08 February, 20:42, by Christoph Kesting

boxshop pushed to next weather (because normal winter conditions are here!)

Have Seat, Will Race!

07 February, 20:50, by Mark Zander Tags:

I’ve had a life long love of cars and racing them. I’ve often dreamt of owning a nice sports car just to bring to the track on the weekends.
I can stop dreaming now. Cause the computer based racing simulators today are just as good of an experience as any sports car I will ever afford.

Building my own racing seat to go with rFactor as a computer racing simulator has been on my mind for years. So long in fact that I’ve dragged the passenger seat of a 1993 Honda Civic around with me since I junked it in the early 2000’s.
I finally had the time to build up something that will fit the bill. Here’s what I came up with :

Racing Seat 4

Here are some more photo’s.

There are still a few things I need to do before it is finished. Find a large enough monitor, mount the PC and paint it.
But it works pretty well as is.

I did not have any formal drawings before I built it. But it is very much based on a few existing Racing seats out there. Here are some links that helped me and may help you out.

http://insidesimracing.tv/forums/topic/4661-isr-diy-rig-1-the-deathmobile-wood-rig/
http://www.ricmotech.com/store/diy_chassis_plans/rs1_diy_sim_racing_cockpit_plans
www.thewayiplay.com/mainforum/index.php?topic=443.5
http://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=259376

Come by during the DIYode Monday night openhouse (8pm-whenever) and give the seat a try!
If anyone is interested in making one of these for themselves, leave me a comment.

Jump In!

05 February, 19:33, by EvaB

There are many fascinating projects on the go and being started at DIYode all of the time.  Here is your chance to jump in and help!