Your guide to DIY electronic, woodworking, camping projects and more
Posts tagged diy
Make your own Compost Bin
014 years
For those concerned with the environment, this is a easy DIY project that can yield a beneficial and fast return and can put recycled materials to use. You stop throwing away food and other items that will quickly break down and you gain free, natural fertilizer for plants.
Here’s how to make your own compost bin:
1) Find a plastic storage bin (at least 18 gallons – this could be a recycled garbage can, or other container you already have)
2) To ensure thorough air flow to your compost so that it can properly break down, drill or punch holes throughout the container – 1/4 inch holes every 1-2 inches would be fine, but there are no hard rules here
3) Throw in your compost materials– kitchen scraps, weeds, trimmings, etc. Smaller pieces will breakdown more quickly, so chopping up the compost is recommended.
4) Be sure to adjust the wet/dry ratio so that the compost isn’t too wet or too dry. If you notice your compost seems too moist, adjust the consistency by adding shredded newspaper or saw dust.
5) Place the bin out of the way on a couple of bricks to ensure proper ventilation.
6) Continue to add compost to fill the bin and adjust dampness, turning or shaking the bin daily.
7) After about one month, you can run the compost through a sifter or chicken wire and harvest the final compost.
There you have it–your own free, natural fertilizer, ready to use on your garden.
Instructions on How to Use a Swanson Speed Square
014 years
Today, we’re taking about the Swanson Speed Square
The speed square is a rafter square, miter square, try square, scribing guide, protractor and, perhaps most usefully, a good saw guide.
Instructions to use a speed square:
As a Saw Guide: You simply hold the speed square base against the lumber and align the guide rail on your circular saw (being sure to keep your hands clear of the blade) to make clean straight cross-cuts.
As a Protractor: Simply hold the base against a flat surface and find the desired angle marking.
To Find Rafter Angles: The primary use is to find the angle for rafters. Calculating the correct angles for a rise to run ratio is simple with trigonometry, but the speed square eliminates the need for a calculator. First, set the pivot at the edge of the board. Next, rotate the square around that point until the edge of the board aligns with the mark you want on the common scale. Mark a line along the ruled side of the square.
The speed square also makes quick work of hips and valley rafters– same method as for common rafters, but use the Hip-Val” scale.
To scribe parallel lines: An often overlooked feature is the scribe feature. The tool provides a set of notches 1/4 inch apart. Set a pencil in the desired notch and slide the square along the board to mark a parallel line.
Be sure to pick one up before your next DIY woodworking project.
DIY Weather Monitor Forecaster and Recorder
014 years
Okay, this one’s intense, but the result is stunning. Do you like weather? Do you like to know the forecast and keep track of barometric pressure changes and temperature. Here is a spectacular DIY creation – a DIY Weather Recorder: http://www.qsl.net/ve2emm/pic-projects/wter_rec/weather.html
How to make a PIC-based electronic combination lock
014 years
Here’s an awesome DIY electronic project for those of you who know some PIC programming. Based on the 16F84 PIC microcontroller, an 8-bit microcontroller in the PIC family from Microchip, this project makes a simple DIY circuit that checks for combination of button presses to perform an action, such as unlock a door. With slight modifications this project should be adaptable to the more widely available 16F88 with integrated oscillator. There’s also a newer version for the PIC 16F628 with an optional lcd output.
Check it out at: http://jap.hu/electronic/combination_lock.html.
If anyone tries it out, let me know how it works out and anything you learn in the process.