Joel writes in with an awesome new LEGO blog…“Nextbrick, a just-started blog about construction toys with a heavy emphasis on Lego. There are just a handful of posts up at the moment, but enough that you should be able to get an idea of what we’re aiming for–short, fun blips from the world of Lego, two or three times a day.” Link. Also, if you have LEGO projects you want to post about, check out our forums – if there’s is enough interest we’ll provide a section for LEGO.
If you have natural gas at your house, consider using this detailed FAQ to convert your grill from propane.
Create your own cross stitch projects with your own digital images or photos. Dark Lilac’s counted cross stitch chart generator will calculate a pattern as well as a stitch count and color chart. As long as your uploaded image is scaled to the exact size you want (1 pixel= 1 cross stitch), the final stitch chart will be calculated accordingly. You can also check out the recently uploaded cross stitch charts like this cartoon dog. Link.
Pramode C.E. writes – “With a low-cost general purpose microcontroller like the PIC16F628, bits and pieces of cheap, commonly available electronics components, and LOTS of code, you can build many interesting `toys’ and hook them up to your Linux machine – a really great learning experience for the hardware hacker who wants to learn Linux, or the Linux hacker who wants to learn a bit of hardware. This article describes how I went about building my temperature-sensing project – amateur Linux/hardware hackers might find some of the ideas useful when they start building things on their own.” Link.
Rheslip made his own CNC machine – “I looked at a bunch of designs and decided to try a fairly simple 3 axis machine as my first effort. The idea was to use a Dremel tool for the cutting head and use the machine to engrave aluminum front panels for my guitar amps. As it turned out the machine isn’t accurate or rigid enough for that. A dremel just has too much slop in the bearings for accurate machining. The machine will do a reasonable job machining soft materials like plastic and soft woods, and it does quite a good job of plotting PCBs. I haven’t tried drilling PCBs yet but I’m pretty sure it’ll handle that too.” Thanks Star! Link.
Richard writes “Here’s how to make a gas forge cheap from a large tube and an old hoover vac. See other examples of cast bronze I’ve created with this “flying turtle” forge, also how to create a nail gun from an old fire extinguisher. The techniques and tools illustrated and their application to the handmade object are as valuable to the modern foundryman as they were to his “Holistic” forefathers of the late 1800s.” Lots of plans, how-tos and projects. Link.
Greg from DIY live wrote a good starter article on “…the ten most needed tools for the beginning Electronics DIYer. This is not an all inclusive list, and there are other important tools, but this is a good starting point for anyone interested in starting to play with circuits, and doing their own mods.” Link. Also check out our gift guide from 2005, lots of stuff to get you started there on the cheap…
