ULINE Heat Sealer Strap
I bought 2 brand new ULINE poly bag heat sealers. Both of them came with an extruded plastic strap to keep the handle closed when not in use.
Somehow my kids managed to lose both of them…ARGGG!
So I designed a new one in Sketchup. Super basic design. Printed with ABS with an infill of 50%.
You can find the STL file on my Thingiverse profile: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3000103
Swing Out Peg Board
Needed some peg board above my workbench for tools and junk. But the electrical panel is in the way. So I used some aluminum Tslot materiel and made a frame for some peg board. I got some plastic beg board materiel from 80/20 Inc. Which fits great in the aluminum slot. Then mounted the frame on some hinges, to studs in the wall. The peg board can now swing out and still have access to the panel.
DYI Plywood Cutting Panel Saw
While doing a kitchen remodel in my new home, I did not want cheap partial board cabinets. Real wood cabinets were WAY to costly! So I set out to make my own cabinets.
Got a great deal on 3/4″ Birch plywood at Lowes, it was 1/2 off! But I could not cut it all at the store, far too many cuts. After looking at pricing on panels saws, that was out of the question. So I did a DIY search for one. Found tons of information on making your own. So I borrowed bits from the various versions I found and made my own!
It can rip and cross cut ply wood up to 1″ thick. Even cuts nice and true! I designed the saw holder in Sketchup and laser cut it from 3/8″ acrylic. I used Tslot aluminum, with liner slides for the motion.
FrisBeer Drinking Game
Someone introduced me to this game. And it is HELLA fun! FrisBeer also known as “Polish Horseshoes”. Basically 2 teams take turns throwing a frisbee at opposite teams beer bottle sitting on a pole. Has lots of fun rules, or you can make your own “house rules”. The guys who showed it to me had a 3d printed bottle, with a harbor freight flash light inside. We also used a lighted frisbee. But the bottles he made were not very bright…. so I made my own with a custom LED PCB.
I downloaded a 3D file for a beer bottle, made it 2 sections to house the LEDs and battery. Made the battery compartment for a 9v, with a working battery door and on/off switch! Printed out 2 complete sets with a translucent ABS. The 2 sections are a slip fit male and female. I used some hot glue to keep them together. The main part of the bottle was the absolute max my printer height could do.
I had the PCBs made by expresspcb.com, using their CAD software. It was the fastest turn around I could get, I was going on a trip and wanted to take this with me. Since they do not offer routing with the bare boards level, I centered a .250″ hole and chucked it up in my mini lathe and cut them round with a carbide bit.
Quick trip to Lowes and made the stands out of PVC pipe. I did not glue them together, this way it could be adjusted is the ground is not level.
Pace out a distance for the length between the two pole set-ups. Drink a beer. This distance must be inconsistent with any other distance you've previously used, because no one's ever decided on a distance and who the eff ever has a tape measure anyways?
Next, do whatever it takes to get the poles to stand up. Try pounding the stakes or bars into the ground and putting the PVC over them with a beer. Or pile rocks around your poles, I don't care.
Wrap some empty bottles in duct tape so they don't break. Balance them on the poles. Unlike horseshoes, you and your teammate stand on the same side. Drink a beer. Somebody goes first.
Offence: Try to hit the pole or the bottle. Call "fish out of the water" on somebody if they don't have a beer.
Defense: Without reaching in front of your pole, catch the bottle and frisbee before they hit the ground.
Low Shots: Low shots do not count. How low is low? Yes. Use some electrical tape, maybe. Or refer to gentleman's note below.
Scoring:
2 points - the bottle hits the ground
1 point - you're caught without a drinakble beer in at least one of your hands
1 point - the frisbee hits the ground (a catchable throw isn't caught)
To WIN:
· Games are traditionally played to 12 or 21.
· This "final" score, though decided before play, is typically negotiated higher throughout play, depending on many varibles (e.g. you are not winning).
· You must win by 2 points.
· You cannot win on a dropped frisbee.
Note: This is a gentlmans' sport; thus any disagreement regarding a play is to be ruled, and typically conceeded, by the team that stands to gain.
Yukon Cornelius Halloween Ax Prop
I dressed up as Yukon Cornelius for a Halloween party, since I have red beard. I had everything I needed for the costume except for the Ax. I went all over town looking for one that was close to the show. Couldn’t find anything!
So I 3D printed one! Simple layout in sketchup. Used a 1/2″ PVC pipe for the handle. Then some brown spray paint for the handle and some silver hammered spray paint for the ax head.
Sketchup PlugIn: “Dimensions Info” – Displays the Model Dimensions for X Y Z
This plugin is based on the work of Jim F!
His plugin worked fine, but I wanted to tweak it a little bit for my need. He used an “Alert Box”. Therefor the text of the model dimensions were not copyable to the clipboard.
So I modified the plugin for use a HTML Box to display the dimensions. I also color coordinated the axis measurements for there respective colors (R,G,B)
Download the file from my GitHub
DIY DeWalt Flashlight LED Upgrade
My trusty 18V DeWalt DW919 gooseneck flash light is quite dated by today’s standards. It still has the OEM bulb.
I went to use it the other day and WOW…was it dim. The battery was fully charged, so I know it wasn’t that.
So off to the internet to find a way to make it LED, and bright! After searching for a while I couldn’t find anything good and low cost. So I dropped the idea.
While laying in bed one night, not being able to sleep, it came to me!!
USE A OLD LED POD AS THE LED SOURCE!
The next day I dug through the shop and found a single LED pod. Took it apart and the flashlight…then BOOM!!! Hella bright LED Dewalt flashlight!
The LED board is aluminum, so I mounted it to a 1/4″ thick chunk of scrap I had. I drilled and tapped the aluminum to match the mounting holes in the LED board. This should be good enough for cooling. The LED pod works off voltage from 12v-24v. So the 18V DeWalt is perfect. Had to trim the corners of the reflector to fit inside the flashlight housing. The soldered the leads to the bulb contacts.
The whole thing took about 20 mins to put together.
I am going to cut some acrylic and use some LED collimators. to make a new lens, and make it even better!
DIY Drain Clog Cleaning Stick
You have most likely seen these on TV or at a hardware store. It’s a stick with barbs to clean your sink drain.
They cost about $3+. And the instructions tell you to throw it away when you are done. I hate throwing money away! 🙁
I have cleaned them in the past, but it is a real pain.
I went to the hardware store to grab one, needed it that day. Took one off the rack and had an brilliant idea! Use a long zip tie as the stick, and save a TON of money!! $$$ WINNING $$$!! It take about 2 mins to make barbs down the sides of the wire tie. I used a smaller wire tie as a loop handle at the top.
WORKS LIKE A CHAMP!!!
The cost of 24″ long zip ties are $6.50 for 15pcs. That works out to be $.43 EACH. Now for $.43 I will throw it away! 🙂
Plus you have the added bonus of having the zip ties for other uses/projects!
One way I would make the next one is to heat the razor a little to bend the barb out a more.
Be Careful not to slip and cut yourself!!!
UPDATE: 3D Printed Yoda Bust
Here is the finished product. I had a good friend of mine painted it.
If I had to do it again, I would sweat the bust with a acetone vapor. Just to make it a little smoother.
Troubleshoot LEDs With Multimeter
We put up some Christmas lights on our house. These were some cheap LED icicle lights. That night I noticed some of them were not working. So I grabbed a few of the LEDs and notices that one was bad. As I jiggled it, others came on. I pulled out that LED, and it had a broken leg. I thought I would just solder a new leg on. But upon closer inspection of the bulb, it had NO cathode or anode marking. The only way to tell would have been that one leg would be longer then the other… but one was broken off. DOH! So, I was not sure what direction to put it back into the holder. I can up with a way to test almost any LED with a multimeter!
My Fluke multimeter has a “Continuity Test”. It makes a BEEP when the 2 probes are a dead short. Is this mode the probes have a small amount of voltage on them. So if you take the black probe and touch it to one leg of the LED and the red probe to the other leg, the LED will light up. If it does not, swap the probes. If the LED lights up, then you can see what leg is cathode or anode by the red (anode) or black (cathode). Since the voltage is very low on the probes, there is almost no likelihood of destroying the led with reversed probes.
This works great for small SMD LEDs too. I had a mixed up pile of re, blue, and white 1206 SMD LEDs. Using this method, I was able to sort them very quickly. Also works for testing LEDs in circuit.
