My version of a Rememberall

This is my version of a Remberall to help you remember trips and places. I though of this well in Santa Monica at the Pier there was a guy there that for 10 bucks would write your name on a grain of rice. I though it was cool and a neat way to remember my trip to the pier but not for 10 bucks. So I though I'll just find a rock to take home to remember the trip. Well I got home and was going to put my rock with the rest of the rocks from other trips, when i started to look at the others and couldn't remember where they came from,so i came up with this idea. You have to love sharpie markers you can use them like duct tape!

So many project under the sun so little time to get them all done

So I was on eBay the other day and was looking for solar panels and came across these VW solar panels. There pretty cool they were going for around $22 - $50. I was wondering where they came from because as far as i knew VW wasn't in the solar business. Well there not, the panels were made by IPC solar for VW to keep there car batteries from going dead well there cars were being shipped from Germany. So the question is how were the people on eBay getting them? Why because there cool and I wanted one to play with for my ham radio emergency power project. So I found some guy's blog like mine and found out if you ask the VW dealer they might just give you one. I asked they said no that they ship them back to VW. Not true! A friend of mine with a vary nice Audi who has allot of work done on his car asked one of the mechanic's at the dealer for me and he produce 2 of them one me and one for my friend.

Arduino-compatible Bare Bones Board

Well i'm diving in to the world of Arduino! I ordered my Arduino-compatible Bare Bones Board from http://www.moderndevice.com/ I receved it pretty fast. This is what came in the mail

Whats Arduino you ask? Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.
Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. The microcontroller on the board is programmed using the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based on Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software on running on a computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP).

Going well so far it's taking shape!

It's alive! Hello world!

The big switch to digital T.V.

I made the switch to digital T.V. for any of you that know me you know I did it on the cheep! I went to the government web site and applied for the 2 -$30 coupons and went out and started to read the reviews on the converter boxes. I ended up picking the Magnavox TB100MW9A .

So now I had the box now I needed a antenna once again I had to do it on the cheep or DYI in this case. By the way this was after I found out any rabbit ears would work, but any of you that know me rabbit ears just wood not cut it. So this is what I ended up with.

the design was from utube it works good but now i need to get it up higher and i need a rotator. if anyone has one that they want to get rid of let me know.

Handy tool you can make your self!

I saw this at one of those old time country stores so i took a picture with my phone and went to work making one. It is made from a miss dig marker flag, I twisted it around a 1 1/2" pipe to make the end then twisted it tight for a few inches. I took a peace that i cut off before i twisted it around the pipe and twisted it around a pencil to make the slider. Then i took it off the penile and slide it over the two straight ends after the twist. then you take a pair of pliers and bend small loops for grippers and that's it your done! now you ask what is it? well take a guess.

Make your own oil lamps for your deck!

I found this one on another blog called (Judy of the woods) she is a bit strange, but she is doing some cool stuff like this oil lamp. It's made from a salsa jar I had and the wick holder is a piece of copper from some house wire the wick is just string. The oil is just veg oil from the kitchen that had gone past it's use by date. I put a link to Judy's blog in my blog list, she has pretty good how to on how to make it on her blog. I will give you a hint though use a bobby pin to pull the wick through. Also another hint if you make the handle to fit in the jar you can put a lid on it to snuff the flame, plus if you want to store it out side it keeps water and dirt out of it.


You can see the difference between the two pictures here, ones out and the others is in the jar. By the way no I didn't fix first one I made another one. There vary handy out on the deck at night.

You can do it with out a handle but if you want to take it out and replace the wick or light it, it's easier with a handle. That's what the tool in my other post the (Handy tool you can make your self!) was for.

Build Your Own Arcade Controls can you say (Tron Spinner!)

A friend of mine got me on this kick to see if i could build my own arcade spinner plus if you had to buy one there $60 to $130 bucks. So here is my prototype












































I used the guts from a ps2 mouse that is what the circuit board and the encoder wheel is from. The rest of it is a metal plate with a screen door baring spot welded to it, with a threaded rod with a nut on each side. The the spinner nob is from an IBM typewriter the encoder wheel is held on by shrink tub that works pretty well by the way. I have no idea where i got the bract from it was a mount for a fan. I have to find a better way to mount it all but it works.

Just an up date on my MAME project

This is where I'm at with my MAME project. For those of you who don't know what MAME is, well it stands for (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) it's soft and hardware for emulating most of the original Arcade Machines. So far I have a prototype of the controls to see how the work with the software here is a few pics.

















The control box seems to be working well. I found an old cabinet to house it all in, I started to strip out the old part out and the laminate off the sides of it that someone glued on.

This is what the cabinet was in it's former life.

Blacksmithing Tools (My Anvle Stand)

This is fairly new peace of equipment in my shop,

I decide to build a stand for my anvil because

the tree trunk didn't work vary well indoors plus it was heavy! and that's before I put the anvil on it. It's made from plywood and 2x6 boards screwed together.

I think it turned out pretty nice.

My first melt (Home Foundry Fun) Vary Hot!!!

The first thing i will say about this its dangerous! You can be burned bad or kill your self! So don't try this at home or if you do I had nothing to do with it you were warned and Darwin will take over. So this is the other half of the story of why i got into blacksmithing i was looking for an easy way of melting and pouring aluminum. I wanted to do some sand casting at home and i didn't have a foundry so this is where I'm at that

Blacksmithing still a vary reverent skill today

I decided to post some stuff on my blacksmithing even though some of these projects were done a long time ago. I think it is a vary reverent and practical skill to have in today's world. I make allot of stuff plus it helps me keep my problem solving skills sharp, on a lot of levels. Here is part of what got me started

This is my forge i built from the plans above it is missing the cast iron plate that covers the hole in the center I just took a cast iron frying pan and cut the bottom off it and drilled some holes to mount and center holes for air it works.

Here are some of my projects