Battery Sorting System

 

I previously used boxes and plastic bags to hold batteries after they had been sorted. I also made a battery dispenser box to hold the usable AAs. But they were taking up a lot of space on my desk. So I decided to start over and make a battery sorting system. There is a tube for each category which funnels the batteries into bins on the shelf below the desk. I used a 2 1/2 inch hole saw to make holes in a strip of pallet wood. Luckily it was the right size, because the hole saw arbor was stuck and I couldn't change bits. I think the hoses are a type used for vacuums. The ridges make interesting noises when batteries are sliding through them. All the bins are stored below the desk, and I can see when the recycle bin is full and needs to be emptied. 

USB Arcade Controller

Last year for my math class, the homework was mostly online. I made lots of typos because I pressed the enter key too soon or pressed other buttons around it by accident. So that gave me the idea to build a giant numeric keypad with a joystick. My dad said I just wanted it for gaming, and I realized that was an even better idea (but don't tell him I said that).

I was inspired to build with arcade buttons because I work in an arcade. I ordered a kit for a 2 player arcade controller with 10 buttons per player. This gave me a lot of parts to work with. The controller board was not compatible with any of the programs I tried, including Minecraft or Roblox, so I decided to use the Makey Makey board I had bought at the Radio Shack going out of business sale.

For the box, I used a box from an old satellite DVR donated by a neighbor. It is made of thin painted black steel. For the joystick center holes and smaller button I was able to use a step bit to drill the holes. Unfortunately, my step drill only goes up to 25mm, and I needed 30mm holes for the larger buttons. I looked for another way to drill the holes. My grandad suggested a chassis punch, but I didn't have one. I tried the 1 1/8" hole saw that I already had, but it wasn't sharp enough. So next I shopped around for either a larger step bit or a bi-metal hole saw. I wanted either a tool that was in my budget, or a set that I could use for other projects in the future. I ended up getting a 1-1/8 inch bi-metal hole saw.

The left stick is WASD and the right stick is mouse, the lower two buttons are space, the top 2 buttons are click, and the middle button is G.

Electric Soap Dispenser

Electric soap dispensers are not a new idea, but this one is unique because it is made out of an old inkjet printer. My neighbor was getting rid of some printers and saved them for me to take apart. The roller pump was designed to handle 6 different colors of ink in an inkjet printer. I washed out most of the ink residue with clean water, but there's still a tiny bit that the soap will remove eventually. I connected all the inlets of the channels together with irrigation t-fittings. 

I added a bottle to hold liquid soap and connected it with tubing from a Keuring. It has an AC adapter built in so it doesn't use batteries. Then I added a pushbutton switch. When I press the button, six drops of soap cascade from the nozzle block onto my hand.   

Starrett Key 🗝 Caddy

I have a bad habit of leaving my drill press chuck key randomly on my work bench. I tried tying a string to it and that failed when it got caught in the chuck and flung. I searched for a spare key but couldn't find a compatible one. I spray painted the handle neon yellow. I tried making the handle longer and wrapping it in colorful Duck tape. I even posted a note on the door to remind me when leaving the workshop. None of this worked, and I still kept losing the chuck key. 

One day, I went to the animal shelter thrift store in Austin and found a Starrett key caddy. It's designed to clip onto your belt to hold keys (like car keys). I mounted it on a custom bracket where the original key holder was and zip tied the chuck key to the retractable chain. It worked perfectly! When I let go of my chuck key, it goes up and puts itself away.

Here's an Amazon Affiliate link to the key caddy: https://amzn.to/3fpItMh

Network cabinet

I built this cabinet to hide the wires near the network, phone, and TV jacks. I used IKEA "wood" cut into strips on a table saw. The cabinet door is also from IKEA, and matches the other furniture in the room. I made sure to have plenty of ventilation by leaving gaps at the top and bottom of the door as well as at the back. I measured the temperature inside, and it was just slightly above ambient.
This cabinet blocks the annoying light from the network equipment in case someone wants to sleep near it. It will also keep dust out.

Before organizing the wires

Building the cabinet was the easy part. The hard part was doing the cable management. There are 3 boxes, 3 AC adapters, a power strip, a phone splitter, 3 phone cords, 5 ethernet cables, and a coax cable. It took lots of Velcro straps to keep the cables tidy. It would be nice to have shorter ethernet cables that don't need to be looped.

After organizing the wires (and adding an additional box and AC adapter)

Teabot Cord Replacement

When I first built my tea robot, it had an 18 inch long 14/3 SJT cord. I decided to replace it with a 5 1/2 ft 16/3 HSJO cord because the short cord annoyed me.

The old short cord

There are lots of types and sizes of cords that I have learned about. Here's a website I found that has a good guide to cord types:
 https://www.interpower.com/ic/designers/designing-for-export/guides-and-charts/ULCSA-Classification-of-cords.html

The new longer cord

Several of the parts I have added to my tea robot recently have been recycled from a device I took apart. The large water tank, one of the water level sensors, tubing, and cord are all from a neighbor's broken Keurig that I wasn't able to repair. The problem with it wasn't electric or electronic- the pod chamber just wouldn't stay closed. Even if I had been able to fix it, it was annoying because it wasn't compatible with reusable pods.
One water level sensor turns the pump on when there's not enough water in the upper tank. I made a second water level sensor for the lower water tank out of metal skewers (since the probes needed to be food safe), separated by a piece of plastic to prevent short circuits. When the tea robot senses that the lower water tank is empty, it disables the pump and a pink LED lights up to let me know to refill it.

Pink LEDs are rare in most products, but they are becoming common in grow lights.

Torque Wrench

When we cleaned up my grandparents' duplex, we found some old tools. My grandpa had moved them twice before that, but then couldn't take them with him to assisted living. At that point, he wanted us to store the tools for him in case he moved back to a house again later.

What I noticed first about the torque wrench was that it was still in the box. Some of his tools were in toolboxes, and well used. Others were rusty or mixed up in the bottom of a plastic bin. There was even a screwdriver that appeared to be melted by a solvent. The torque wrench, on the other hand, was in pristine condition.

At the time, I didn't need a torque wrench. I kept it because I knew it might be useful. Last weekend, I finally got a chance to use it. I replaced the differential fluid in our pickup truck. The fluid hadn't been changed more than once in 100,000 miles. I used my impact wrench with a new 3/8 drive 1/2 inch impact socket to remove the differential cover. Then I drained the old fluid into a drain pan. It didn't look too bad, but was definitely time to change it. I used a premade gasket to seal it. I used the torque wrench with a 1/2in drive 1/2in socket to tighten the bolts in a star pattern to 30 ft-lbs of torque. Then I refilled with the recommended fluid and put the fill plug back in.

Making a Knife from Scratch- Second Attempt

This is my second attempt at making a knife. This time, I used part of a dishwasher door bracket for the metal blade. I beveled the correct side for right-hand away cutting use. I also made the bevel angle more acute. It’s still the same basic square shape as the last one, but like a mirror image. Just like the previous version, I used scrap cedar that I picked up at either Lowe's or Home Depot. I used my angle grinder to cut the blank and to rough grind the bevel. Then I used my strip sander to sharpen the blade and round over the handle. It’s not the sharpest knife because I am still honing my honing skills. It’s good enough for opening boxes and carving balsa.

More Teabot Upgrades

I have made a lot of changes since my last post about 6 months ago. I replaced the servo motor with a waterproof one. I added a start button with a "breathing" light effect programmed through the Arduino. Then I upgraded the heat sink to make room for the button's MOSFET. I descaled the coffee maker part, and it made such a difference that I had to reduce the heater time so the cup wouldn't overflow, without reducing the cycle time. I replaced the switch cover with a waterproof one that has a sideways lever.

New blue servo motor

Green flashing start button

New main power switch

After all those changes, I used it for awhile. And then changed it even more! I salvaged parts from a neighbor's broken Keurig. I added the 90 ounce water tank which means I don't have to refill very often. From the Keurig parts, I also used a pump, output check valve, and the water level sensing pins from the heater tank. I have a MOSFET to turn the pump on when the sensing pins are above water. I attached an MDF base so it's easier to move the whole thing. And last, I added labels to make it easier for my mom to understand the purpose of all the switches.

pump, valve, and tank

Programming port

Making a Knife from Scratch- First Attempt

I made this boxy carving knife out of a piece of metal that might have been part of our old doorbell. I used my angle grinder with a standard grinding disk to get the rough profile, then a flat sander on my drill press to get it closer to final. Then I used my "strip strop" (my band saw converted to a strip sander, with a worn cloth sanding belt) to finalize the edge. It is not the sharpest knife, but it's the first one I've made from scratch. The handle is made from scrap cedar that I picked up at Home Depot or Lowe's. I used my strip sander to round over the corners of the handle. Considering that my budget was zero, I think it turned out pretty good. The main mistake was that I ground the edge on the wrong side. I picked that side because it was more ergonomic to grind, but it turned out to be a left handed knife. This knife can be used for opening boxes or carving if you are left-handed. It is sharp but not pointy.

Quadraphonic UTAU Cover

One of my hobbies is mixing music with computer generated voices. So far, I have started with UST files that other people have created. These files describe the length, pitch, and pronunciation of each note. I created this mix of Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two) using UTAU software. Vocaloid is another type of software that is used for this, but it costs $500 for the base software plus $100 for each voice bank. So creating this song mix with Vocaloid would cost $900. Instead, I am using UTAU which is free with mostly free voice banks.

For this quadraphonic mix, I used four characters with different voices- Waltt, Ken Shippai, Alice 16,  and Daronavo Odalakian. I put one on each channel. Audacity only supports 2 channels, so I downloaded a new audio editor, OcenAudio, that supports plenty of channels. I set up the mix so that it sounds like a different character is singing from each corner of the room. This fully takes advantage of my speaker system.

Quadraphonic systems have largely been replaced by more advanced surround sound, so there isn't much quadraphonic music available to download. There's not even much surround sound music available, and it isn't supported by Youtube. If I upload my music to Youtube, it will be converted down to stereo (2-channel). If I put it on Google Drive instead, the integrity of the file is preserved. To get the full experience you must have a surround sound system (quadraphonic, 5.1, 7.1 etc.) You can download it or play it in newer browsers such as Chrome and Edge. Please ask before reposting.
Here's the link to my wav file:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Ia0jza4F4fMdphNz7FHNxe5EL9CWK5AW



Sources:
I got the UST file from Amzsie here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXWbO5SjgGE

Strip Sander Light

Several years ago, I got a glass-cutting bandsaw from my grandpa. He hadn't used it in several years, and unfortunately the blade broke the very first time we tried it. I tried to convert it to a regular bandsaw, but then I found out that the belt had rotted. It burned through a new belt, so I superglued it back together a few times. Then I tried some alternatives such as a vacuum cleaner gasket. Somewhere along the way, the regular saw blade broke. The glass cutting blade was at least $80 to replace, and the regular one was about $20. So it sat on the shelf for a while because I didn't want to keep spending more money on it. Finally, I decided to use a roll of cloth-backed sandpaper to convert it into a belt sander. I superglued the ends of the fabric together. It has held up quite well, completely wearing the sand off the cloth before the sanding strip breaks.

The next modification was mounting it to the workbench so it wouldn't shift around. I put it next to my drill press, and I was using the light from the drill press above. But this was awkward. So next, I decided to add a separate light to it. I used an led desk lamp from IKEA. They seem to only have a smaller USB version now. Here's an affiliate link to a similar one on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/2UoUmLg
To mount the light I drilled 2 quarter inch holes the right distance apart and made a quarter inch thick wooden spacer with the same hole pattern because the base from the original light was thicker than the sheet metal of the sander's box. Then I screwed the light in with some small machine screws. My dad suggested changing the switch. So then I found a toggle switch with an led. I drilled a half inch hole to mount the switch.
I installed an outlet inside the box of the strip sander so it wouldn't need an extra plug.

Quadraphonic Surround Speakers

I watched a video on quadraphonic sound. It's like the surround sound of the 1970s. Most surround sound systems these days are 5.1 or better.
I have collected a few too many speakers, so I decided to put another set to use. I already had two 4 ohm speakers on the sides of my computer monitor, and I decided to add two more on the other side of the room.
I purchased a 2x20W amplifier and installed it on the front speakers. The rear speakers are now using the old amplifier that used to be on the front speakers. The front speakers are used more so they needed a more efficient amplifier. the 2x20W class D doesn't need a heat sink. the 2x15 class A/B needs a heat sink and fan.
I used a 22 gauge 4 conductor wire running under the rug to the splitter box. I used an 18 gauge 2 conductor wire from the splitter box to the rear speakers. For the splitter "box" I used a section of wood from a peach tree with a 2 1/8 inch hole drilled in it.

I tested this setup with Minecraft. It was interesting to have the sounds of different Minecraft animals coming from different directions.  Hearing the ender dragon behind me was the most impressive.

6 pin PCIE to XT60 Adapter

Since I am going to college soon, but I'm not planning to bring my solar battery box, I will need a different way to power my computer speakers. They use about 24 Watts at max volume. My dad suggested using an AC adapter, but I don't have one of that level. Buying one would be too expensive. I was inspired to use my computer power supply because I have seen that arcade games do the same thing. Arcade games usually have Molex connectors- lots of them. I do not have any Molex connectors on my power supply but I do have a spare 6 pin PCIE connector. So I made an adapter to power my speakers from my computer power supply. That is a 6 pin PCIE to XT60 adapter.

Layered Resin Necklace

I made this colorful layered resin necklace for a friend.

I mixed EasyCast resin and hardener with small amounts of laser printer toner. The colored toner powder was from an old color laser printer that a neighbor gave me to take apart.

I tested two or three batches of resin before the final design. The first test was single color batches to see how long it took to be firm enough to add a hook or to unmold. The single color tests turned out perfect, even though I didn't follow the directions exactly. I was supposed to mix the resin in one container, remix in a 2nd container, and then pour into the mold. I used small plastic hotel shampoo bottles for the molds.
The second test batch was with two color layers. I poured the blue layer first, waited a few hours, and then poured the yellow layer. Unfortunately, I didn't wait long enough and the yellow(now green)  layer sank to the bottom while the blue layer rose to the top.

Based on these results, for the final version I waited at least 8 hours for each layer to set.

Big Air Pressure Gauge

I bought a giant air pressure gauge at a garage sale. I bought it because it looked cool, but I didn't know what units it was. It turned out to be standard psi. I removed the faceplate and cleaned the glass, but I chose to leave the rust on the case.

I had to buy a splitter from the air tool section of Lowes because they were out of stock in the plumbing section.  This one turned out to be better because it had 2 female ends and 1 male end. I have the main air flow going through the straight section and the gauge on the side with the male thread. I used a small hose because the air flow requirement of the gauge is zero.

 I mounted the gauge to a shelf in the garage next to the air compressor. Now I can see it while standing at my workbench.

I used a piece of Betaduct to hide the excess hose. The Betaduct, which is a UK brand of control panel trunking, was recycled from an old AV cart I took apart at work.

Monitor Stand

In a previous project, I made a stand for my computer speakers. The speakers are mounted to wood, with a white base that matches the desk. Then the monitor stand would sit on top of the white base. This was nice but took up too much desk depth and made it hard to do homework.

I thought about mounting the monitor on the wall, but I didn't want to make holes in my green screen wall. So I decided to add a metal mesh panel to the back of the speaker stand. I don't know what the mesh was originally designed for because I rescued it from a neighbor's trash. I used a cordless jigsaw with a blade designed for cutting steel. (Worx Axis, Amazon Affiliate link: https://amzn.to/2TY1rmm) 

I had to drill or enlarge holes in the mesh for the speaker bolts, speaker wires, monitor screws, and power cord. I also had to cut a slot for the monitor cables. Then I used Harbor Freight pink grinding wheels with a rotary tool to smooth and deburr the cut edges. They did the job but wore out way too fast.

My dad was skeptical at first and refused to help. But after I finished he agreed that it looked good. It looks almost as good as wall mounting, but it's even better because I can move it anywhere with the desk, and run the cables behind the mesh.