29.5.13

Folding Brew Stand

I wanted a low table on which to set up my brewing gear. It would need to support a couple of hundred kilos and fold flat to the garage wall. Failure could send 100 litres of hot liquid and a variety of electrical power equipment crashing to the floor. Neanderthal design principles seemed appropriate to my levels of sophistication and skill, so I hacked together this clunky hinged table top.


21.5.13

Welder Rehab & Foot Switch

In which I buy an old school welder off the friendly neighbourhood chopper freak, fix it up, make an illuminated foot switch for it (which works although I have no idea how), and start gluing things together with hot metal, badly. Like warty Oscar here.


8.5.13

Lightweight Chicken Tractor

To shelter my chickens I needed a cage that was easy to build, light enough to be moved around the lawn, and that provided a cosy roost and nest box.


16.4.13

April Swag Bags

Thanks to TE Connectivity for their promotion via the Digikey twitter feed. My laptop fits in the backpack perfectly - just right for cycling. I was doubly surprised when Digikey sent me another the next day. But then, I like coordinated luggage. The third one is in the mail, right? ;-)






23.2.13

@YT2095 Magic Mouth v1.0 Build

Yours Truly (@YT2095) is putting together a Magic Mouth v1.0 speech synthesis shield for his Saturday morning project! Just for fun, I sent him one the PCBs I had got back from Seeedstudio's FusionPCB service. He's substituted a potentiometer for the thumbwheel trimmer, and it looks like one last header and the jack socket still need to make it onto the board. It's looking good, John. :)


9.2.13

Cool and Curly Counterflow Chiller

The Magic Smoke Brewhouse is a fine place to chill. Especially since we put together this heat exchange coil for cooling wort.


8.2.13

February Swag Bag: ITead Studio Xmas gift

ITead studio sent Christmas gifts to followers of its Twitter feed. I was thrilled to receive a blue 20x4 LCD display and PCB test card. Thanks guys — and Happy New Year!