11 December
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In Electronics, General, Hardware, New Toys!, Robotics
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Way back in the mists of time, I mentioned how we had laser scanners in the CVRG (one of which was mounted on Dagda for a while). We used the SICK for a long while, which is a block of steel that’s pretty adept at toe crushing, only scanned through a partial circle and was enormously expensive (and later we acquired a 3D scanner which was even more expensive but could at least do 360 degrees). That was fifteen years ago though.  Meet the modern version:  The YDLIDAR X4, evolved from roomba sensors and possibly a knockoff of a slightly more well-known sensor. Weighs next toRead More →

14 October
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In Desk Shelf, Woodworking
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So looking at the pieces of scrap I was practicing on yesterday, I see that the power-cut dovetail has a consistent angle but the edges are anything but sharp and there’s a problem with blowout: While the hand-cut version is messier but holding: A bit more practice would clean that up. It’s slower, but it leaves you with all your fingers, which is a plus. The back end broke out because of short grain: But you can see that the gaps aren’t as bad at the back end due to the angle being inconsistent. There are a few different hand methods to cut the jointRead More →

13 October
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In Desk Shelf, Woodworking
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So after weeks of not getting to the shed at all because of work and feeling pretty guilty for that, I finally got out there for a few hours today. The next step in the project is the sliding dovetails – the main desk surface shelf has been cut to the right angle, the sides are both shaped, the top shelf and middle shelf are both ready to have the angles cut but I want to get the sliding dovetail for the desk surface done first. And since I’ve been away and am now rusty, out with a bit of beech scrap to try toRead More →

28 September
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In General, Science Fiction
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Yet another diversion from the desk (where I’ve done almost all of the basic shaping and am ready to start cutting the sliding dovetail part which is the complicated bit). This is a floor mat: They’re cheap, they’re foam, they go together like a jigsaw, and they’re being sold everywhere (including the local car parts and doo-dads shop halfords near us) for very little money. And they’re EVA (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate) foam and are the base material used by cosplayers for a lot of costumes and props (that’s the grown-up’s word for “toy”): Yes, that’s a 9 foot tall hulkbuster Iron Man costume made entirelyRead More →

09 September
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In Desk Shelf, Shelves, Woodworking
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So I was really just at a low energy setting this weekend, and it was one of the first rains of the coming winter and even just looking at the shed was making me tired, but I have been wondering about something with the design of Calum’s shelves/desk thingy, which is whether or not to put a backing board behind/between the top two shelves. It’d stop stuff falling off the back of those shelves, give a larger contact area with the wall, and stiffen up the whole carcass; but it’d change the look of the unit quite a bit and the joinery might get complexRead More →

03 September
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In New Toys!, Tools, Woodworking
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So I recently had a birthday and bought myself a present that I’d been thinking about for a few years but had been putting off because spending a chunk of money on a small thing is usually painful and if you’re not going to be doing something long-term, a bit of a waste, but I finally convinced myself that this making stuff thing wasn’t a fad, so after some advice from the pros I went off to one of my usual sources for new tools and bought… A red box! And inside the red box… What can only be described by Herself as “a ruler thatRead More →

02 September
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In Desk Shelf, Woodworking
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So I decided to go ahead and shape the front curve today, since it was going to be awkward to cut and might be noisy so it’d have to be a weekend job really. Why is it awkward? Well, the plan is to make the first rough cut with the bandsaw and then to get down to the line with the compass plane and the board is long enough that swinging it around through the bandsaw inside the shed would be awkward and would probably need the door open and the plank sticking out at some point. See what I mean? There’s not enough roomRead More →

01 September
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In Desk Shelf, Woodworking
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Not much time in the shed today, but enough to make a start. First, new toys! So some catches to help with the mod to the Dewalt extraction hood (I think I have everything I need for that now, I’ll get to it soon), an incredibly cheap handplane ($4.30 from Aliexpress delivered) which is more to play with and laugh at than to seriously try to use as a tool, and two interesting tape measures. Both of those are small (1m and 2m) which is handy for using in the shed, and I’ve just wanted to play with them for a while now ever sinceRead More →

25 August
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In Desk Shelf, Locker, Tools, Woodworking
With 3 Comments

So, been sick. Children, they’re basically walking petri dishes that deposit germs on you. Anyway, back to it today. And nothing fancy, nothing terribly skillful, just milling timber to rough thickness. Retrieved the mitre saw stand I bought from lidl a few weeks ago out of the attic, set it up, and mounted the Dewalt to it, spent a while faffing about with the mounting screws discovering that I’d fastened it down using the screws that are for adjusting the infeed and outfeed tables that are built into the thicknesser and had to re-mount it (turns out the thing won’t mount to the lidl standRead More →

25 August
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In Food
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So I think I’ve gotten the pizza recipe down to “yeah, this’ll do” levels. Looks good after two minutes in the oven… And a good crumb structure and base. Grand. Recipe: I usually make enough for four pizzas at once. In the bowl of the stand mixer… 325g warm water (40C if you want to get all fussy about it, “not hot enough to kill yeast” if you don’t) 10g of yeast 20g of honey And give that a quick stir with the whisk and leave it sit for ten minutes so the yeast wakes up and starts its thing. Now add 500g flour madeRead More →