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Vocus

#1735578 13-Mar-2017 10:30

The chair is together but it's ended up rather higher than it was :P a bit too high if I'm honest, since my feet cannot touch the ground when I'm on it.

So I have to figure out how to lower it. The shaft on the hydraulic strut which holds it up has a shoulder which rests on a thrust bearing, then the bottom is held in place by (essentially) a circlip.

I may be able to drill out the base a little, find a slightly larger thrust bearing and weld it in place further up the shaft, or thread the shaft and use a nut to support it and one to hold it in place at the end, then cut off the excess.

It's very comfy and stable, so I am pleased with the result, once I lower it a bit it will be perfect! It's SUPER heavy - I picked an office chair with a heavy cast base deliberately so it wouldn't be tippy.

Some shots/videos (reverse chronological order):

Spinning! (instagram)

Welded up (instagram)

Fit up (instagram)

Point of no return (instagram)

jimbob79

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#1735605 13-Mar-2017 11:05

I'm quite proud of my latest IoT arduino project. It's IoT fart box. I can now remote control my son's fart box over the internet.

GZ does'n seam to like embed youTube videos.

https://youtu.be/2-6hVZdL8tQ

[Mod edit: MM - it does, look - I did it]

ubergeeknz

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Vocus

#1735630 13-Mar-2017 11:26

@jimbob79 ~~video won't play :(~~ Brilliance.

jimbob79

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#1735640 13-Mar-2017 11:35

ubergeeknz:

@jimbob79 video won't play :(

Click on the link. Seams to work now.

Rikkitic

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#1743732 19-Mar-2017 10:34

This did not start out as a project but I am so chuffed with the result that I can’t resist sharing it.

I bought a little mini-keyboard/trackpad device for one of my streaming computers. I really like these but they are cheap and not well-made. I have already had a previous one go bad but I was hoping that was just one-off.

After a few weeks the new one started generating random characters. I thought this was probably due to some kind of chip failure but I decided to take a look anyway and opened it up. The keys are formed by a membrane that pushes down on the switch contacts. These are little conducting circles inside circles printed onto the circuit board, with a space between the outer and inner circles. When the key is depressed, a little switch button pushes down to complete the contact. At first I thought I was getting random keystrokes because of the different effects on my browser and other software, but eventually I realised that the problem was confined to just the down arrow key. I remembered that this seemed to be on a hair trigger even when it was working correctly. Now it was just repeatedly generating keystrokes on its own.

The little contact buttons for all the keys are embedded in a thin, sticky layer of paper-like material that adheres to the circuit board. After some experimenting, I realised that the buttons had to be precisely lined up with the contact circles to close the contact between the inner and outer rings. If this was off even by a little bit, the key either wouldn’t work or would produce random results. The down arrow key was initially on a hair trigger because the contact spacing was off and the button was almost making contact all the time. Eventually the air gap shifted slightly, and it started connecting continuously even when not pressed. The problem was the alignment of the sticky layer containing the buttons. This must have been very slightly off when originally applied.

I carefully peeled back some of the adhesive layer containing the arrow key buttons and tried to realign it, but without success. Finally I cut part of it out with scissors so I could position it independently of the rest. This took several attempts as the alignment is really critical, but eventually I got it close enough.

The unit is now back together and all keys functioning correctly. I have to say I am impressed with myself.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

jimbob79

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#1747651 25-Mar-2017 18:13

This project has taken me a bit longer than expected but that's just me being lazy.

Corner self made from a Rimu Door cut in half. The shelves is made from old Rimu studs from my own home.

LED lights stealthed under each shelf. I have an cheap ebay wireless LED controller to be able to control the brightness.

Video is action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC_4iL_Cfro

DarthKermit

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#1760412 10-Apr-2017 20:03

A friend of mine who runs a cat rescue group asked me to make her a hutch that can be used as overflow space for mumma cats and kittens. She has this old bird aviary outside and I've whipped up this to house a cat or two.

I made it to her design requirements. It has a hinged lid and will be insulated between an inner and outer layer of plywood with pink batts for warmth. The top part is 500 mm tall by 600 mm deep to give an idea of scale.

mdf

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#1769003 22-Apr-2017 19:20

I built a couple of work benches for my garage out of some old off-cut kitchen bench tops, J-frame, and cheap plywood. I was inspired by @mcraenz's torsion box design.

Required materials:

Cutting the side panels to size using my new plunge/rail saw. VERY happy with this particular purchase.

Drilling lots of pocket holes. All the serious woodworkers on youtube seem to look down on pocket holes, but I found them really useful. Because of the angle, you never have any screws going straight down the grain. I also was able to use much smaller screws (38mm) and was pleasantly surprised at the strength of both the pull together and how robust the joins are. This is actually the second bench I made; the first one I made used nails in more places but I was much happier with the screwed mark 2 version.

Glue up / screw down part 1. I need more clamps.

Part 2:

For those of you paying close attention, yes, I did manage to cut all the legs 100mm too short! After some effing and jeffing, I decided I could get away with adding 100mm blocks as the torsion box design would hold it all together well enough. Hopefully I won't live to regret the decision not to cut whole new legs.

All done! You can see the mark 1 version in the background, already covered in junk.

It's even level! And only a tiny bit of shimming required too:

I'm super impressed with just how strong the torsion box design is. Basically there is zero wobble left and right because the two sheets of plywood on either size resist any kind of expansion. This is even with without the backing bit of plywood. My original plans actually called for another horizontal brace on the front, but having seen just how stable it is, I decided not to bother. I intend to add drawers to these for all my stuff, but that will be a project for another day.

EDIT: Grrrr, BBCode forum doesn't seem to like google images. Will fix shortly.

EDIT 2: images should be fixed now.

blakamin

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#1769006 22-Apr-2017 19:30

mdf:

EDIT: Grrrr, BBCode forum doesn't seem to like google images. Will fix shortly.

Dying to see it... I rearranged my garage last week.

Had an old kitchen bench top that I cut and screwed to what was the previous-house-owners cut-off saw bench that I cut in half and "L" shaped, so I could fit my 36" roller tool cabinet into the space.

Jase2985

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#1769074 22-Apr-2017 21:31

@mdf pictures dont seem to be working? why not upload them to geekzone? or at least a known working image provider?

mdf

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#1769123 23-Apr-2017 08:36

Right, well *that* was an epic fail. And now I can't even edit yesterday's post. Quoting myself:

mdf:

I built a couple of work benches for my garage out of some old off-cut kitchen bench tops, J-frame, and cheap plywood. I was inspired by @mcraenz's torsion box design.

Required materials:

Cutting the side panels to size using my new plunge/rail saw. VERY happy with this particular purchase.

Drilling lots of pocket holes. All the serious woodworkers on youtube seem to look down on pocket holes, but I found them really useful. Because of the angle, you never have any screws going straight down the grain. I also was able to use much smaller screws (38mm) and was pleasantly surprised at the strength of both the pull together and how robust the joins are. This is actually the second bench I made; the first one I made used nails in more places but I was much happier with the screwed mark 2 version.

Glue up / screw down part 1. I need more clamps.

Part 2:

For those of you paying close attention, yes, I did manage to cut all the legs 100mm too short! After some effing and jeffing, I decided I could get away with adding 100mm blocks as the torsion box design would hold it all together well enough. Hopefully I won't live to regret the decision not to cut whole new legs.

All done! You can see the mark 1 version in the background, already covered in junk.

It's even level! And only a tiny bit of shimming required too:

I'm super impressed with just how strong the torsion box design is. Basically there is zero wobble left and right because the two sheets of plywood on either size resist any kind of expansion. This is even with without the backing bit of plywood. My original plans actually called for another horizontal brace on the front, but having seen just how stable it is, I decided not to bother. I intend to add drawers to these for all my stuff, but that will be a project for another day.

mcraenz

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#1769139 23-Apr-2017 09:32

Nice work! Looks a lot tidier than my version! What kind of tracksaw is that? I've been thinking about getting one.

Help me build a better way of doing politics in Aotearoa New Zealand

political.nz

richms

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#1769166 23-Apr-2017 11:04

mcraenz: Nice work! Looks a lot tidier than my version! What kind of tracksaw is that? I've been thinking about getting one.

I think I need one too, all my attempts at clamping a bar down and using the circ was have had the bar bow, or else the saw wander away from it.

Richard rich.ms

mdf

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#1769173 23-Apr-2017 12:01

richms:

mcraenz: Nice work! Looks a lot tidier than my version! What kind of tracksaw is that? I've been thinking about getting one.

I think I need one too, all my attempts at clamping a bar down and using the circ was have had the bar bow, or else the saw wander away from it.

Yep, amen to that. Doesn't help that my circular saw is particularly rubbishy. The blade arbor has enough flex that if you went wandering, it was really hard to force it back straight, it just wanted to follow the pre existing cut.

The saw is a Toolshed house branded one. I'm pretty sure it's actually Maktec / from the Maktec factory, since (a) it fits Makita rails and (b) is almost identical in design to the Makita SP6000 (clearly not up to the build quality of the Makita, but awesome for DIY stuff).

Normally retails for $400 ish, but I got it on a cost +5% or similar sale for $280. Then paid almost that much again for two 1.4m rails. I've also seen deals for buy it and get a rail free, which works out basically the same cost.

Works *soooo* well. Ripping down (or worse, cross cutting) ply on the table saw when I don't have someone to help almost always ends in suboptimal results / disaster. With this, you just line up your rail on your cut line and away you go. The rail has rubber bottoms so resists sliding; I don't even both clamping it.

About my only criticism is that it has a depth scale which seems particularly inaccurate. You really need to line the saw up with the edge of your stock and check the depth manually.

Edit: adding criticism.

jimbob79

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#1769285 23-Apr-2017 17:12

This is my Raspberry Pi Kitchen Dashboard. It's been along time in design and production, working on it on-and-off for many months. The frame is made from recycled pallet wood.

Currently is using a Pi 3 which is a bit overkill and I think Raspberry Zero 'W' will be better suited.

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