Category: Projects


Project of the day: CNC Mill Electronics

Filed Under: Geekery, Projects by Verne — Leave a comment
February 22, 2012

I’ve finally been able to make a little time to work on my CNC mill/router project.

I have a dedicated controller PC built from three old PCs. Older desktops are best as they don’t have all the power saving features that interfere with real-time processing and control. It runs Ubuntu Linux 10.04 LTS from LinuxCNC.org. The OS comes as a live CD that you can try out to make sure it will work with your hardware before you commit to installing it. It installs a basic system that has everything you need to run a CNC machine with EMC2 (control software). It’s also free, which is pretty great!

The controller hardware and motors are from Xylotex. I have a 3-axs controller and 425 oz. motors. I tested the software and hardware out today. Below are the results:

The next step is to build the actual mill table. This will probably wait until warmer weather arrives.

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Project of the day: birthday cake!

Filed Under: Food, Projects by Verne — Leave a comment
February 20, 2012

Here’s J’s birthday cake. It’s vanilla white cake with peanut butter frosting. It will be devoured shortly.

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Past project: bell bottoms

Filed Under: Projects, Sewing by Verne — Leave a comment
January 19, 2012

Here’s a set of jeans that needed to be patched. They wear out around the belt loops and the back pockets. I figured I might as well add some bell-bottom goodness to the legs while I had the sewing machine out.

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Project of the day: starter replacement

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January 17, 2012

Meet the bane of my existence for the last two days. It is the starter from my late-model Saturn s-series.

It had to be towed home. The drive was too slippery to push it into the garage, so yesterday I suited up and wrestled with it.
After 2.5 hours and a bout of freezy, panicky claustrophobia, I called it a day. Everything was together except for the last bolt. I fooled with that last bolt for an hour. It was tucked up out of the way and not visible. One had to have arms the size of a small child with the strength of a gorilla to get it.

The snow melted enough to push it into the garage, so this morning I gave it another go. I got lucky and hit it on the first try. Then I took the kids swimming. :)

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Past projects: N-scale train terrarium

Filed Under: Art, Projects by Verne — Leave a comment
January 14, 2012

I’m going to start posting some of my projects that were completed prior to my website update.

This is a terrarium/micro-train layout built on an industrial machine gear and covered with a cloche from a defunct anniversary clock. Not photographed is the working street light that I later added. Alas, the fern has now passed on to its next incarnation (as has the moss), but I have purchased a replacement that is awaiting installation.

 





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Christmas presents: Stripey silliness

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January 12, 2012

This is a set of flannel-backed items I made this year. In increasing silliness, we have a set of spats, two colarettes, two pair of thong panties, two sets of ridiculous pasties, and lace-up-ass undies. Make certain you can handle the answers if you ask questions.

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Christmas presents: berets!

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January 12, 2012

Here are a couple of berets I sewed up for K for Christmas as modeled by D and J. They’re both reversible. The top one is made of wool felt on one side and a poly microfiber on the other. The bottom one has velvet (the good stuff) on one side and wide-wale corduroy on the reverse.

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Christmas presents: felted slippers

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December 24, 2011

Massive quantities of felted thrift-store wool sweater slippers. All lovingly sewn. They’re quite warm!

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Christmas presents: quilts!

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December 24, 2011

Here are a couple of quilts I made for Christmas gifts this year. Nothing fancy. They’re all machine sewn, although I’m pretty happy with the edge binding. Finally found good instructions on how to do it correctly.

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Christmas presents: giant knot!

Filed Under: Art, Projects, Weirdness by Verne — Leave a comment
December 22, 2011

Behold! The largest knot I’ve tied to date. For the record, it’s Abok #2218. It has 50 points of intersection. The boys each wanted one for Christmas. I have one more to tie. They take an hour or so to do.

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