Toothbrush Organizer

Here is my system for keeping my toothbrush and toothpaste organized.  If each part was separate, it would take up a lot of counter space. My electric toothbrush is normally on the charging dock, which I mounted on the drawer pull. The toothbrush charging base also holds the toothpaste and the tube squeezer. The tube squeezer was meant for adhesives and sealants but works great for toothpaste.  The cord runs in one drawer, through the cabinet, and out through the next drawer. The pipe cleaner pulls the excess cord into the cabinet so it doesn't dangle on the front of the cabinet. 

Mom says this is interesting but the counter needs to be cleaned. I don't think this is related to this project but for some reason Mom wants to mention it anyway.

tooth paste

tooth brush

tube roller

View of the drawer from below with pipe cleaner bracket.

Lego EV3 Vehicle

Griffin designed a vehicle with his Lego EV3 set that uses motors, gears, and the touch sensor. It uses components from other sets including most of the gears and wheels. Griffin does not like to build the projects in the book. He always likes to invent his own.

Griffin started by building a car with the programmable brick and a set of wheels. His dad says this part isn't constructed very well, and he agrees but doesn't care. The main car is followed by a trailer with the other large motor and the medium motor. The medium motor spins a set of small gears on the back. The large motor spins a rotating brush which also moves up and down through a gear system. When the touch sensor is activated, the drive motor does 5 rotations backwards, then stops. The medium motor runs 5 rotations, then stops. Then it plays some sounds and charges forward at full speed until it hits an object with the touch sensor again.

Swamp Cooler

I got the concept for the swamp cooler from a video I watched on Youtube.  I wanted a window air conditioner but it uses too much power. The smallest one I found used around 600 watts and 5 amps.  My swamp cooler uses less than 30 Watts. In the video, they used a different type of cooling pad, a different color of bucket, and clear tubing. They also put the water in the bucket first which I think was a stupid idea because the shavings from drilling holes got in the water. 

My swamp cooler is made from a 5 gallon bucket. I used a 2 inch holewsaw and a power drill.  First I tried a 12 volt cordless drill. It worked but not very well. Then I tried a plug-in drill and it worked great. The mess from the wood fibers combined with the plastic shavings looked like frosted shredded wheat :).  It uses an aspen pad which is shredded wood. It looks better in person than it did online. The fan was 4$ . I recommend using a low voltage fan. It isn't designed for damp locations but the risk of shock is low because it is only USB 5 volts. It operates sort of like a computer fan. It appears to be a brushless motor. The tubing was a scrap from my pond project. The part I used for the plug for the easy drain came with the pump for the pond. I added hot glue to make it seal. I used condensate from our air conditioner for the water. Usually most of this water gets sent to my pond through a long garden hose. My bucket only holds a couple gallons of water- I haven't measured exactly.

This project cost less than $40 to build. An air conditioner would have cost at least $120. I could cycle the pump on and off to save power and heat. It does not work as well as an air conditioner. But it works well for the price and energy consumption. To measure the temperature I used a Nubee nub8380 infrared thermometer with laser. The laser thermometer is the easiest way to measure the temperature and it has a back-lit screen. Last night I measured 87.1 input and 79.2 output temperature. Today I measured 91.2 input and 83.1 output. The humidity is 43%.

I made a video about this project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HanHUI48CdY

easy drain

Interesting Battery Cover

I found this interesting battery tab on a Kodak camera. It takes 2 double AA batteries or a specialized camera battery (CRV3). I think it is cool because it prevents the double AAs

from making contact when installed backward. The tip on the positive end of the battery will sit in the cutout so that it won't make contact.

Drill Light

I recycled an old 12 volt cordless drill into a light fixture. I used an IKEA Hemma cord and a Touch&Glow dimmer. The drill light can mount onto a tripod. I repurposed the screwdriver bit holder to hold the end of the cord for storage. I labeled it with a 65 watt maximum because I forgot the actual maximum wattage the of the lamp holder inside and the Touch &Glow. My favorite bulb to use in this fixture is a 65 watt reflector bulb. It also can use any dimmable light bulb. The Touch&Glow is the "brains" of the operation giving it 3 levels of on-ness. It has 2 sensor areas, one where the drill's trigger used to be (now a wad of aluminum foil) and another is a copper strip on the top. The copper strip is foil for stained glass. Signals from the top sensing area go through the base of the light bulb on the way to the neutral tab of the bulb holder. Each time you touch either sensor, it goes to the next brightest setting or if it's already at the brightest setting it just turns off.