Did you ever try to weigh a spool of filament on a small kitchen scale? If you lay it flat, you can’t see the scale’s display. If you try to stand it up, it rolls off the scale. This simple jig is designed to solve that problem. With it you can stand the spool of filament up on your small scale and easily read the scale.
I designed a thread stand to be used with thread cones and cross-wound thread spools (for sewing machines that don’t have horizontal spool pins). To make the stand a bit more substantial, the base can be filled with something heavy, like sand, lead shot, or bearing balls. The conical spool cap has two diameters: wider for bigger spools, and narrower for smaller ones. To make it you need a 3D printer, some glue, and 12-gauge steel wire for the center pin and the arm.
I designed an all-in 3D printed table saw throat insert. It features changeable dovetailed zero clearance strips that are easy to make from 1/4″ birch plywood. The insert allows full range of movement of blade and splitter (height and tilt angle). It has leveling feet for perfect alignment with the table surface, a safety tab, and fine fit adjustment screws. It can be printed on most common household 3D printers. While it is tailored for my particular table saw, I’m hoping that the design can be tweaked to fit other left tilting saws.
I designed a snap lid to be used with the box from the Cascade Platinum dishwasher tabs. The original lid that comes with the box is very flimsy and has a weird split design, which makes it hard to reuse. The 3.8 L box, on the contrary, is very sturdy, and I wanted to be able to reuse it for storage. This 3D printed lid is designed to fit it snugly and features snap tabs that grab the snap collar on the box.
I designed a simple 3D-printed mount that allows me to store my wood lathe chucks on the wall or any other vertical surface. I mounted mine on the wall of my wooden lathe stand. The mount is designed for 1″ 8TPI thread, but if you like the idea, it should be very easy to design the same mount for other spindle sizes.
I have been making scrub caps for hospital nurses and doctors, and thought that I’d share my pattern. I’ve refined this pattern from these two Youtube videos: DIY Scrub Cap by Lea Goes Green and Scrub Cap by Larissa Fontenot. I have improved on the two above patterns, to:
This is a quick design that requires no ribbons and consists of only three details. I prefer this single-layer design to double-layer reversible ones because it is lighter, more breathable, and quicker to make. Finally, the design features two buttons on either side to attach the elastics from a face mask.
I have delivered 20 caps to one of the hospitals, and the feedback I got was very positive. The size fits everyone and the button placement was described as just right. The nurses preferred lighter-weight to medium-weight cotton fabric.
The new-to-me Singer 411G came with spool pins in a horrible state. One was broken, the other one was sitting askew. A quick web search reveals that each pin consists of four parts – the actual pin, a rubber spacer, a plastic washer, and a spring nut. Replacing it requires removing the plate with the information on decorative stitches. The best description of the process and a list of alternative solutions can be found on this page. If you want to keep your machine close to original condition, then you can stop reading my article right now, and head over to the above link. I dislike the idea of replacing the bad design with the same bad design; I wanted steel spool pins.
If you haven’t watched the videos on lock bumping, raking, and picking, do that first before reading the rest of this post. The executive summary is that unless you have expensive high security locks on your doors, the chances are that it’s really easy to unlock your lock without a key within seconds, and not leave a trace. But you really need to see how easy it is to believe it. When changing the locks on my house, I was wondering what I can do to make it harder to open them using a bump key. Turns out that you can cheaply modify off-the shelf deadbolt to be significantly harder to bump or pick.
Last winter I switched to using studded Schwalbe Marathon (HS 396) tires for winter commuting, and I have been wondering whether I can set them up tubeless. My reasoning is that I really don’t want to deal with a puncture in the winter. For one, road side repair is pretty much out of the question because my fingers would freeze off and the patch would probably not adhere in sub-freezing temperature. Considering that I usually dress fairly lightly when I cycle in the winter, the prospect of pushing my bike home is not very appealing.
I urgently needed a new rear wheel for my winter bike, and ended up buying an Alex Rims SX-44, the 29″ variant. This is clearly a budget disc brake wheel priced fairly low, but from the description it seemed like a no-nonsense wheel with decent components. My goal was to set this wheel up tubeless with Schwalbe Marathon studded winter tire (HS 396). Below are some facts and thoughts about this wheel.
