2007 is coming to and end. Have a Happy New Year.
I’ll be back on January 2nd with great new DIY articles.
Cheers!
Archive for December, 2007
Happy New Year 2008
December 31st, 2007Coat Hanger Helping Hands
December 29th, 2007
Simple but useful, these helping hands will do when you need help keeping your projects in place when you need a steady hand to help you. Even better than a real hand, you can use these for stuff you wouldn’t want to do near fingers: spray painting, soldering, etc.
Coat Hanger Helping Hands [link]
Slacking, part two
December 28th, 2007Still working on that cube. I have to redo a couple of dice because I made some mistakes with the polarities. Also, I cut mu pinky with an xacto knife. It’s ok though, just a bit bloody.
Slacking
December 27th, 2007Sorry I didn’t get around to posting tonight. I was working on a Rubik’s cube made of dice and magnets, not unlike this one.
I’ll post some pictures of it and my thoughts about the construction process once I’m done.
Do It Yourself Mold making
December 26th, 2007
A sales rep from Freemansupply.com has posted a bunch of instructional videos that show various techniques used to build casting molds using various chemicals. Although they suggest to use a specific brand of products, these videos would still be a great visual complement to any mold making instructions.
Do It Yourself Mold Making:
- Making Rigid Molds with Fast-Cast Urethanes [link]
- Urethane Rubber Molds [link]
- Simple Silicon Rubber Molds (no parting line) [link]
- Mold Making – Mass Casting Complex Parts (with parting line) [link]
- Mold Making with Clear Silicon Rubber [link]
- Surface Casting [link]
- Epoxy Laminating Systems [link]
DIY iPod DAC modding
December 25th, 2007
Here’s a great tutorial on how to make your iPod sound better by modding the analog data path after the Digital to Analog Converters. Basically, iPods are made to drive the shitty little white ear buds – not proper headphones like the ones in the picture. I do in fact own a couple of pairs of Grados. Some SR-225 for my computer and SR-80 for my iPod (they have a 1/8″ jack).
Basically, the mods involve replacing certain cheap components by some higher grade ones. While I haven’t tried this myself, I don’t have any difficulty believing that this makes a huge difference. I’d say go for it!
DIY iPod DAC modding [link]
Merry Christmas!
December 25th, 2007I’m taking the day off! See you on boxing day!
Why don’t you use up some of your free time and make something today!
DIY Marble Magnets
December 24th, 2007
These marble picture fridge magnets thingys make great stocking suffers. Useful too, to stick on the fridge or on any metal surface, such as a file cabinet. They keep papers from flying everywhere or just be used to decorate your cube. The marbles you need for this project are very easy to find. Try home decoration shops (people put them in jars to decorate) or gaming stores (they are used as tokens in many board games). As for the magnets, you can use any small magnet, really, but the best would be to use rare earth neodymium magnets (not rare heart as Ive seen in a store). You can easily order them online if you don’t have any.
DIY Marble Magnets [link]
Green Gift Wrapping
December 23rd, 2007
This is yet another gift wrapping post. This one focuses on reusing old newspapers (or this morning’s newspaper) to wrap gifts.
Wrapping gifts with newspapers is a great idea considering that most wrapping papers are produced overseas, with little or no recycled content, and are used to re-package something that’s already packaged! The general idea is to wrap the gifts as nicely as you can. If you wrap them sloppily, they won’t look good. If done properly, you can make a statement and feel even better about giving.
Remember the 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Something that isn’t consumed never needs to get Recycled at all. Whatever you do, recycle all wrapping papers. Keep and reuse gift bags and nice wrapper decorations, such as ribbons. It’s as easy as putting them away for next year instead of tossing them. You’ll also save a trip to the store come next holiday season.
Green Gift Wrapping [link]
