Make more.
Tag: make
Make Your Future. Make Your Life.
Make your life. Make your job. Make your career. Make your family. Make your fantastic big sandwich. Make your axes, hatchets, tables, oversized work shelves, and a cabinet that fits perfectly in one spot. Make your workout, bike routine around the block, and health goals. Make your Thanksgiving turkey outside with the kids. Make your place a home. Make your friends. Make your time matter, and give it away. Make the three piece suit you bought from a second hand store your first project. Make your daydreams entertaining, no matter how weird, wild, and fast that slide goes. Make your first impression stick with a firm handshake, eye contact, a genuine smile, and repeat their first name. Make your slice of this world colorful where you find it gray, songful where you find it silent, warm where you find it cold, all the while remembering that in the end, it’s a rental.
Saw this on a Skull & Spade poster after watching a frame build for it.
2018 Maker Faire Detroit
Yesterday I went to Maker Faire Detroit again with my brother, since we had such a good time last year. Unfortunately we were both very disappointed because it was almost exactly the same as last year. Same vendors, same makers, same companies, same activities. Everyone’s booths were even in almost the identical locations as last year. Guess we won’t be going back next year. 😦
Walnut Bandsaw Box
My buddy Kevin told me about a local shop that sells woodworking tools, supplies, and wood so we took a ride out to Barn Door Lumber Company a few weeks ago. While looking through their scrap pile, this butcher block cutoff caught my eye. It was roughly 1.5 x 6 x 23 inches.
I had bought a 10″ bandsaw (RIKON 10-305) not too long before and hadn’t used it yet.
I thought it would be a fun project to chop up this piece on the table saw, glue it into a large block, and then create a bandsaw box. That’s when you create a box out of a block of wood by only making cuts with a bandsaw. Seemed like a good project to get my feet wet. My sister’s birthday was coming up so it would also make a good gift.
The first thing I did was square up the edge.
Then I sliced 5 pieces. I’m still learning a lot and forgot to set a stop block on my sled, which would have helped with getting pieces that were exactly the same size. The order of operations and remembering little tricks like that are what I’m struggling with the most on this woodworking adventure.
I glued each piece.
Quickly realized I only needed glue on 4 pieces. I told myself the last two pieces would just get a really good bond. Then I clamped everything together.
Of course I forgot to flip that last piece around so that 2 glued sides were facing each other. The glue side ended up facing out and I put 3 clamps in place before remembering. So I backed off the clamps and added a piece of parchment paper.
After squaring up an edge on the table saw I was ready for some work on the bandsaw. Or so I thought…
After another trip to the table saw I finally had my block of wood. I was ready for the bandsaw!
I quickly found out the blade that came with the saw wasn’t up for the job because it couldn’t make the turns I wanted. I got everything cut but there were several mistakes. Learned a lot though and had fun with the project.
Making Things in 2017
It was late in 2016 when I started getting into electronics and this summer I started buying more tools and converted most of my basement into a workshop. Here’s a recap of my 2017 posts related to making or fixing things.
January
February
March
April
- DIY Spliced USB Cable
- Electronics by Number
- Using a 74HC74 Integrated Circuit
- Using a 555 Integrated Circuit
- Combining 74HC74 & 555 Integrated Circuits
- Set Mac Volume to a Specific Percentage with an Alfred Workflow
- Infrared Hacking
- DIY Farmers Walk/Carry Handles
- Phone Keypad Hacking: Part 1
May
- Phone Keypad Hacking: Part 2
- Phone Keypad Hacking: Part 3
- HackerBox #0018 – Circuit Circus
- Fidget Spinners
- Phone Keypad Hacking: Part 4
June
- Multiplexing 7 Segment Common Cathode Displays on a Raspberry Pi
- A Raspberry Pi HAT
- 5V Relay Module – Part 1
- A Quick Multimeter Fix
July
- Dad’s Bear Hunt
- Wire Loop Game
- 5v Relay Module – Part 2
- CB&J&B
- HackerBox #0020: Summer Camp
- Home Fixes
- DIY Overhead Camera Rig
August
- Kacilia Tru-Align Body System
- RBT 1911 Pull Back
- Updates to Home Assistant Projects
- Sound Card Oscilloscope
- Counting Types of Days in PHP
- 5v Relay Module – Part 3
September
- Recipe: Crock Pot Pork Chop Rice Casserole
- Designing a Speaker in SketchUp
- Resurrect a “Dead” Power Tool Battery
- Upgrading a Used Table Saw – Part 1
- Cutting a Cove With a Table Saw
October
- AdaBox 005: Break For Pi
- DIY Cyclone Dust Separator
- Upgrading a Used Table Saw – Part 2
- Eagle No. 66 Oil Can
- Homier Distributing Company BDM 5 Drill Press Restoration
- Walls Be Gone
November
December
- Shop Lighting
- Basement Bathroom Upgrades
- Quarterly Maker Box #MKR08 by Adam Savage Part 1
- Burnt Cap
- $10 Bathroom Floor Upgrade
- Bacon-Wrapped Smokies
- Quarterly Maker Box #MKR08 by Adam Savage Part 2
- Fixing a Simple Button & LED Circuit
- Pi-hole Port Update Helper
- I Made an Escape Room
- Making a Bluetooth Speaker
Wow, I did a lot of experimenting, failing, learning, and accomplishing in my “free time” last year! 2018 should be even better when I combine the new skills I’m acquiring with my list of project ideas.
Sound Card Oscilloscope
Earlier this year I came across an old Make post about building your own oscilloscope. I messed around with it a little bit at the time, but I didn’t have the necessary potentiometers, so I set it aside. Then the topic came up again when the tutorials accompanying HackerBox #0018 made use a 3.5mm audio breakout module and some PC oscope software. So in my next Digi-Key order, I got the pots I needed and I picked up some cheap test leads on Amazon. It’s several months later, but I got around to building my own sound card oscilloscope.
First, a couple of notes…
You’ll definitely want to read through the Make post to get familiar with the project. As mentioned in their guide, there really isn’t any good oscope software for the Mac like there is for the PC. With Audacity, which is what I used, at least you can see the signals in wave form.
I spliced an old audio cable. There are several different styles of 3.5mm connectors, but if you’re doing 2 channels, you’ll want to make sure you your cable has the tip, ring, and sleeve.
A lot of MacBooks only do mono microphone input. Several Mac bummers in this build! It wasn’t easy, but I found a USB adapter on Amazon that does stereo mic input (most of them only do mono). It’s pricey at almost $30 for something I’m not even sure I’ll use after this build.
Enough of that, on to the build…
I added the LEDs to my build as a visual reference a signal was coming through, but they can be left out, just like in the Make build. If you’re interested in the Fritzing I showed in the video, head over to sound-card-oscilloscope on GitHub. Whenever I’m soldering up a final project I prefer to have the Fritzing for reference instead of looking at my prototype, which typically has a lot of extra wires hanging around. Having a nice clean diagram helps me from making mistakes.
I also found another guide on a site called Home DIY Electronics, which I didn’t end up following.
If you have any questions or build your own version of this, let me know in the comments.
2017 Maker Faire Detroit
On Sunday I spent almost 6 hours at the Henry Ford Museum for Maker Faire Detroit. It was a great venue for it because attendees had access to the museum as well.
Maker Faire is a gathering of fascinating, curious people who enjoy learning and who love sharing what they can do. From engineers to artists to scientists to crafters, Maker Faire is a venue for these “makers” to show hobbies, experiments, projects.
We call it the Greatest Show (& Tell) on Earth – a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity, and resourcefulness.
Glimpse the future and get inspired!
It was inspiring to see all of the makers and I had a blast geeking out.
Other posts about the event…
Nick Momrik 