Plastic Herb Planters
Do you have a pile of plastic containers you never use? Put them to work by creating a plastic herb garden paradise. It’s a great way to recycle your plastic, plus it puts fresh herbs at your fingertips.
Drill
Non-Pesticide Patio Pest Control Device
How to fabricate, out of mostly recycled materials, an ultraviolet nighttime bug trap, since ultraviolet light attracts most insects. Tired of nighttime critters and drowning in bug spray? Try this blacklight device to control mosquitoes and other nighttime insects.
The Drill Rod, the Drill-Powered Mini Bike
Run a mini “Electric Punk” bike faster (and funnier) by powering it with a big, bad cordless drill.
Two-Can Stirling Engine
The Stirling engine has long captivated inventors and dreamers. Here are complete plans for building and operating a two-cylinder model that runs on almost any high-temperature heat source.
Corrugated Glow
A friend of mine recently finished a deck remodel, whose highlight (literally) is a transparent corrugated roof that diffuses sunlight in a delightful way. This inspired me to find some way to continue that glow after sunset, in the form of a lantern illuminated by tea light candles. There are many colors and styles of […]
2×4 Planter Boxes
A local Sonoma County tradition is the Occidental Farmers market. It is every Friday evening, and this Friday was my first time attending. Surprising to me was the large amount of farmers selling not only fresh product from their farms, but also a lot of starts. I walked away with some winter squash, pumpkins, zucchini, […]
Marble Adding Machine
Computers add binary numbers constantly, but we never see how. This elegant machine does the math using glass marbles. I started building marble track machines years ago using Lego. I experimented with all sorts of crazy ways for the marbles to descend. One was a rocker that shunted a stream of dropping marbles one-by-one to […]