I first started seriously researching cosmology because while reading popular science articles on the internet, the dark matter hypothesis kept coming up. They insisted that the only way to explain the fact that galaxies have flat rotation curves out to their perimeters was because there was a dark matter halo […]
Author: Mike
All of a sudden I wanted a welding positioner. It has never come up that I needed to rotate a part and weld on it at the same time, but I started working on a design for such a device anyway, then someone posted one on craigslist. They had […]
I used to entertain the idea that I could play the guitar. I have since abandoned that notion, but I still have all the gear. I had a wah-wah effect pedal laying around and I thought I could use that to control the variable speed on a DC motor. […]
Having a need for a super slow variable speed power feeder, the options are a 3 phase 220v unit with a VFD to control the speed, or a DC unit. Most fixed speed geared power feeders go down to about 6.5fpm, the new DC servo one goes down to […]
To run flooring or any other material that needs to be a consistent width after profiling the edge, the way to do it is to run it through the shaper not pressed up against the stock fence, but to attach an outboard fence set at a precise distance away […]
Some years ago when I started running large amounts of material on the table saw I decided I should get a feeder to improve the process. Mindlessly running miles of lumber through the saw is no fun at all, and the danger of putting your hand into the […]
After having refinished more than my share of staircases the old fashioned way–scraping the old finish or paint off by hand and sanding it with whatever sander I could fit in the confined vertical space of the riser, I was determined to come up with a more efficient method. […]
I pulled up a whole bunch of really nice 1920’s 1.5″ long length select red oak–with lengths up to 12′–the kind of stuff you just can’t get anymore, and perfect for repairs in older homes, because the color of the wood is different than new cut red oak for some […]
I lost my edger wrench, and decided to design my own to solve some usability issues with the one I had. I made a few doodles and decided to just modify a deep-well socket instead of machining something from scratch. So, I bought a knurling tool for the lathe, and […]
I am a big fan of the K&T floor sanders. Some years ago I bought a K&T Blizzard edger, but I didn’t like the handle situation. Its brother the Vega edger has big bicycle style handles that work great for edger while seated on a very low (<14″) wheeled stool. […]