diy

Not for any real purpose yet but I think it would be a fun project and could help us get used to using secure communications outside of our phones. Does anyone have experience setting one up? Also there was a guide posted somewhere on Lemmy recently that I am having trouble finding if anyone could share.

Not for any real purpose yet but I think it would be a fun project and could help us get used to using secure communications outside of our phones. Does anyone have experience setting one up? Also there was a guide posted somewhere on Lemmy recently that I am having trouble finding if anyone could share.

this is the handiest I have ever felt

someone had already posted the shape online so it was really simple

I think the title says it all but if needed - I'll edit this. Of course I googled but I got nowhere. Google results were total shit. Google won't help me if I don't know the exact name for that fucking thing. It's a very stupid design choice. Five regular old push buttons would be so much better.

About an hour ago I managed to stick it back on but I'm nearly 100% sure it's going to fall off again in week or two if not far sooner.

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Edit

I don't mean part of the unit itself. I mean just the thin plastic cover over the buttons that's ~3mm thick.

I've been taken by a fey mood, not gonna lie. You ever be researching two different current hyperfixations, then reach a magical point where they suddenly intersect? That's where I'm at right now with hydrolysis and gems. I've been looking into building a machine to split water into oxygen and hydrogen for cutting stuff, because it turns out they're piss easy to make. Pretty simple so far, this is stuff some people learned in high school chemistry (not me, i never got past math). Hydrogen hot, add oxygen to make hotter, I at least know that from welding.

Then I find out that back in 1902, they figured out how to use just such a device, in conjunction with a special, also-shockingly-uncomplicated furnace, to grow huge corundum gems very quickly. That was also when I found out that corundum is a real thing and not a magic metal from skyrim. Apparently rubies and sapphires are the same thing, both corundum, just with differently colored trace minerals. Corundum itself is clear like diamond and almost as hard, 9 on the Mohs scale. So what's it made of? Just fuckin...aluminum oxide. Yeah, the stuff that's like 40 bucks for a 20 pound bag to use in sandblasters. 10 bucks for 2 pounds of the really pure stuff. It turns it into a big slug or rod of pure, genuine ruby or sapphire called a boule.

So my economy brain kicks in and I start looking up how much these boules go for online. One thing about these boules is that most of the time, you gotta split them in half lengthwise as they cool, so they don't shatter. This is how they're sold, as halves. Looking it up, a sapphire half-boule about 2 inches long goes for about 60 dollars. Sapphires seem to trend more expensive, probably as a result of lab rubies being more widely used industrially. One gemcutter on youtube (who was very nonplussed about this technique and coping about the literally microscopic differences in the resulting gems) said almost derisively that these boules can be grown in an hour or less. At that output and that price, what we have is a machine that takes cheap oxides and turns them into 2 dollars per minute.

And if I can eventually power the hydro machine with a solar panel, I'll be producing sapphires and rubies from nothing but oxides, electrolyte, water and sunlight

But wait, there's more! I have a small little electric jewelry furnace already, which while not suitable for conversion into a corundum furnace, is suitable for annealing the gems, cooling them slowly so the tension releases and they dont crack. So if I get this shit built, I will also have the built-in capability to produce massive, optical-quality gems. Also, being able to completely dab on every family holiday and gift-giving occasion for the rest of my life sounds nice.

So fuck it, why shouldnt I:

-Construct a hydrolysis machine

-Construct a verneuil furnace that is fueled by the hydrolysis machine

-Become a corundum dealer

-Invest the money into China

-???

-

Actually don't tell me why I shouldn't, I'm looking for encouragement in my alchemists journey

This post is about milk paint. I am currently in the tail stages of constructing my first piece of furniture, an antique inspired tool chest to hold my small collection and keep it organized and free from dust. The layout is largely based off of the anarchist's tool chest by Christopher Schwartz at lost art press, and is available free to download, only I am doing the plywood version which is available as a YouTube series as well. You can catch it here:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOUEnRdBNW4PsmAENQb-Y9UzrHnXzUjqc

Anyway I have been moving forward with a mix of hand tools and power tools depending on my mood or needs at the time, and being a beginning woodworker have left my share of tool marks, plane tracks etc, and of course a very healthy amount of wood filler. Any gap in joinery caused from being slightly out of square, or tearout when drilling countersink holes etc, I patched with filler and moved on, knowing the chest would be painted and nobody would be any the wiser.

Here is where milk paint enters the picture, in particular casein paint. One of the things I wanted to try was to finish the chest using an undercoat of red milk paint covered with black milk paint then finished with wax. Unlike modern plastic paints, these paints are less durable and wear through with time, the rationale being that as the chest is used the most frequently touched areas show the black wearing away with the red revealed underneath. This is a popular finishing technique particularly for antique inspired chairs.

I ordered casein powder and picked up borax from the local hardware store and ordered oxide pigments online. They are not hard to find. I made the binder, mixing the 5 parts casein to 2 parts borax in 18 parts water and heating to 140 and holding overnight. This is added to 3-5 parts of pigment and diluted with water for use.

You can see the grain of the wood really clearly in the OP pic. It shows the paint on a test piece where half is covered with a heavier first coat as there was more pigment in the mix, then a lighter second coat where the paint was watered down to stretch it for a second coat. Using this material I can get a range of different colors, depending on the application. Now the interesting part. This paint shows EVERYTHING. It absorbs into the grain and reveals the underlying texture, and highlights every imperfection. The tool chest looks like absolute shit. And I love it.

Here's a photo of some plane marks left behind and accentuated by the milk paint:

The end result is something that has unequivocally been created by human hands with attention and care (if not skill lol). You simply won't get this finish from a factory.

And my absolute favorite part? It's completely nontoxic. I painted the relatively large tool chest in my enclosed garage, in the winter, no fumes to deal with. When I spilled a bit on my pants I scrubbed it out with soap and water. When I am finished, I can pour the whole lot down the sink without worrying about introducing VOCs into my water supply! It's milk and borax!

I am from this point forward no longer using commercial paints for any but the most durability critical applications. No more waiting for household hazardous waste day, no more painting with a respirator with the garage doors wide open in 30 degree weather. Paint doesn't have to be toxic waste!

Next I will build a step stool for my little one and plan on finishing with milk based oxide paint. I can rest easy knowing that if she chews on it she will be safe. For that project I will also be investigating the use of homemade hide glue as an alternative to modern, plastic glues. It can be made with gelatin and salt. I've even heard of people using gummy bears.

This is one of the cooler things I've done and I wanted to share it with y'all. It really makes me reflect on what we've sacrificed in the name of "convenience" and "durability"

My rental unit has a gas fireplace that's controlled by remote. The remote fell about 3 feet and the LCD shattered. The remote is still functional, the screen is just cracked and bleeding. Replacements cost $100 and I'm on the hook for it if my landlord finds out. Haven't been able to find any cheaper compatible remotes either.

Any thoughts about how I might be able to track down a replacement LCD? Is it even worth it? The LCD seems pretty specialized.

I looked up how to build a ladder and this how stuff works post was a top hit.

What the fuck is going on here. I have never seen anyone stand on a ladder like these 2 dudes. Is this an acceptable way to use a ladder????

so bored i wanna close my eyes and dream awake

hi comrades update poooost

it's been a bit. three months or so since the last post. this project is deeply near and dear to my heart and it's not abandoned but there was a bit there where i fell off the face of the earth and i wanna fill in that gap.

i've been off and on for the past three months, but for the past two weeks in particular i've been on. i made a commitment to myself to spend time on this before work - this is my most valuable and reliable time slot in a day - and i've been reliably making updates every single day i haven't had a prior obligation. it's a habit now. i've been deeply personally turbulent lately, much more for better than for worse but in ways that really take most of my awake time - except this before work slot. wouldn't want to spend it on anything else.

the posts dried up for two reasons - one, the development recently has been feeling like the last leg of a marathon. nothing new is really happening, there's no news besides that i'm closer than i was last time, and there's nothing notable to report until i actually dot the final i and cross the final t and then i buy one and i get it in my hand. two, writing the posts actually took a lot of time - i was finding a few hours per week for sphynx time, and post-writing became one or two of them, because i care a lot about documentation and presentation and communications. that's kinda not sustainable. my fix for this has been taking things to matrix. sphynx has a matrix room now. i find it FAR more sustainable to bang out a couple quick 30 second messages when i finish up a work session than writing a post aggregating all of those every week or two. if you want know if/when/how i'm still working on the project, you can either check the git logs, which is where most of the work will live, or join the matrix room for more interactive and human readable updates (and even a place to hang out??). DM me your matrix handle for a link ✨

as for technicals, here's a brief summary of what i've done since the last post:

• implement some additional safety features, including but not limited to top-level current limiting diode to prevent overcurrent, inline resistor to also prevent overcurrent, and a parallel bleeder resistor to prevent the probe being weird inbetween pulses
• replacing parts that i spec'd from the JLCPCB extended library with basic library parts - each time i do this the sphynx gets $3 cheaper.
• in general, getting all parts at least in the extended library so that you can order a sphynx, not even own a soldering iron, and get to using it. this has involved a lot of part swaps, some which are moving targets - spec a part, find it on JLCPCB, replace it, do other stuff, come back, it's out of stock and you have to replace it again. very frustrating.
• updating PCB graphics - better knob indicators, better labeling, paring down unnecessary test points and jumpers and other junk, etc.
• probably more but i'm forgetting

realistically, this is the last post until i have the sphynx lite RC2 in my hand. as it stands this is likely my whole work sesh for the morning but i dearly love you all and you deserve to know what i'm up to and this was a good use of my morning. thank you for everyone who's been following. let's talk soon.

What did I expect from a $50 chair, but now it works.

18th century joiner plane. All it needed was a little flattening, and sharpening of the iron and chip breaker. It takes a beautiful shaving now.

I am working towards building my own workbench. When I moved in there was one in the garage already but the top is MDF, and it's way too wide at like 5 feet. I hate that I can't walk around it or reach the other side, it gets mad dirty back there.

I am going to make a fore plane next, but before that I need to make floats. Then I will be all set.

We have these 2 paver steps that are awkwardly tall. I'd like to add 2 steps to this by adding another layer of pavers to the lower step here, then adding 2 steps going off of that.

Would it be a bad idea to just lay the new steps directly on the existing ground level patio steps?

I've seen mixed guidance on using construction adhesive vs just polysand. Any thoughts on that?

I bought a cheap router at a flea market and thought it would be good to do some shop shelves as a learner project. These are the rails for the shelves that slot into the legs with lap joints. I was going to drop some 2*4 spreaders in to the top and cut the grooves on the wrong goddamn face and now I have to redo them, and of course, don't have the material so I have to go to the fucking hardware store now

Diy rule of thumb, take the time estimate for completing a project and multiply it by 3... Or 12 lol

Some people collect stamps, some people collect baseball cards. I have realised that I collect spices. My small spice cupboard is full of jars, bags and bottles of different spices and it is a giant mess. I always have to take ten different things out of the cupboard to get what I want. It is annoying and takes a lot of time.

I would like to have some boxes to put inside the cupboard. Then I could just take the box out, get what I want and put it back.

I could buy some plastic organising boxes and be done with it but there are many spices and the cupboard is small so I can't afford to lose any space. I need something that fits snuggly in the cupboard so I have to make it myself.

I would like some good ideas on how to make the boxes. Ideally they would:

• Be made of thin material not to take up space
• Be strong enough to hold a box of salt or a bottle of soy sauce.
• Be easy to clean, or at least able to withstand being wiped with a damp cloth
• Be easy to make without access to a proper workshop
• Be cheap

I don't know if any of this is possible. Thin wood would be nice but it can get quite expensive and would need more time and tools than is feasible for my situation. Cardboard covered with something moisture resistant would be easy and manageable to make but I'm not convinced about it being strong enough or about if it is able to withstand cleaning. It would be cool if you could make custom-sized plastic boxes but you can't do that, right?

I need a couple fans for my hot end, the bearings on one of the fans on my current one are spun. Anyone have rec’s for a brand that makes quality fans? I don’t mind paying for something that will last more than six months of semi-regular use. I’ve burned thru lots of cheapies and I’m tired of replacing them.

This is a really cool project he's been working on for a while. I love how he's keeping it extremely low tech too.

Today, I set up a fixture in the dining room and it took some 5 hours from start to finish. Not even really sure where all the time goes it just sloops away. Doing it with my friend who is a builder with some electrical experience. She's giving me a good rate but it's going to add up to do the whole house.

Context: I got it in my head that I really REALLY wanted a doorbell. I have light switches by my frontdoor (shown in image), and a porch light directly opposite them. Because of the placement of the porch light relative to the light switch, and some tapping on the wall, I could tell that the space above the switch was hollow, and I assumed that my electric lines passed through that way. I have a doorbell transformer that I need to install - I figured I would open up a space to the left of the switches for a box where I would install the transformer. Well, I started cutting out the drywall when I discovered that nope - that's where my electric lines are (I damaged the jacketing on the cables, but I should be able to fix that with some ~~shrinkwrap~~ heatshrink jacketing, I think). So I broke open the hollow space, found that once upon a time, there were electric lines there, but they've long since been cut. So, at the least I now know where I will install the transformer, and should otherwise be able to get this doorbell installed.

My question: After I've finished the install, I don't know how to close up these holes I've made - or more specifically, I'm not sure what product is right for the job? I imagine some sort of plaster? Or mortar?

Mostly for familiarizing myself with the tools. I don't think i need to print anything but PLA and PETG to start with

edit: i bought a bambu labs a1 mini