Machine Your Own Guitar: Another awesome DIY guitar project to add to the “how to build a guitar” list – this one is a bit more complex, using tools that you’ll likely only find in heavy duty workshops (mill, band saw, drill press, extra long drill bits). But for someone who has access to their high school/college/work workshop, the write up steps you through all the instructions in a very clear way.

The shape of the wood slab forced the guitar to be designed in a way that you don’t see often, with the grain perpendicular to the strings. I love the unique way that ends up looking, but can be a bit dangerous as the tension from the strings put a lot of strain on the grain and can cause cracking/breaking.

Because the creator already had a neck from another guitar, he was able to make this one for about $100 – but says that using better wood and electronics would bump the price up to the $450-$600 range. Still, a very decent price for a custom, sweet looking guitar.

Materials:
- Approx. 1.5″ thick hardwood slab, large enough to accommodate your design
- Prefabricated bolt-on guitar neck
- Double coil humbucker pickups ($33 for two on eBay)
- Tune-o-matic bridge ($12 on eBay)
- String tail-piece ($6 on eBay)
- Jack plate ($3 on eBay)
- 1/4″ mono jack
- 2x knobs ($3 each on eBay)
- 2x 100k audio-taper potentiometers (pots)
- Les Paul rear plate ($6 on eBay)
- Strap pins
- Sacrificial piece of 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick plywood
- Wire
- Solder
- Triangle wood wedge
- Large sheet of paper
- Wood conditoner
- Wood stain
- Urethane wood finish
- Paint thinner
- Cloths
 
Tools:
- Mill
- Assorted mill cutters
- Assorted Forstner bits
- Mill slot-clamps and assorted clamping bars/rests
- Drill press*
- An extremely long 3/8″ drill bit
- Band saw**
- Sandpaper
- Sanding block or palm sander
- Wood rasp
- Soldering Iron
- Bubble level
- Pencil
- Protractor
- Mallet

Bike projects are awesome. And it doesn’t get more awesome than this: a home-designed and built mega-fat wheeled bike. Capable of traversing soft sand with great ease, this thing looks like it will take you just about anywhere.

This crazy vehicle was created by Instructable user marple200, who describes the project as a combination of wanting to design and build a bike, and to learn to weld. He handled both in one of the best ways ever.

The two big challenges with his design were creating forks to fit the oversized tires, and engineering a system to allow the chain to reach the gear outside of the tire. The wheels on this beast are from a Yamaha ATV, and the frame is pieced together from a existing bikes. The issue of the forks was created using some rigid electrical conduit pipe and scrap pieces of bike carrier racks found in a dumpster behind a bike store.

The drivetrain issue was sorted out in a pretty novel way: a jack shaft/transfer hub. The pedals drive a chain that is mounted to a raised gear behind the bike seat. The gear turns a spindle that stretches to the outside of the tire and is connected to a second gear on the rear wheel. All of the mounts are creatively sourced pieces of donor bicycles.

The write up is a good example of the capable and creative abilities of the bike’s inventor. It’s one of those projects that gives me that awesome inspired feeling to drop everything and get into my workshop. I’m itching to get that bike trailer sound system started…

Extreme Fat Tire Bicycle on Instructables.

One of the fun capabilities that the CHDK hack for Canon point and shoot cameras enables is super fast shutter photography. By snapping the shutter at 1/10,000th of a second (or faster), you can freeze moments that are imperceptible to the human eye. Speeding bullets, balloons popping, or one of the more common shots, splashing water.

Once you have a camera that can stop time, you need a way to tell it exactly when you want to do so. Instructables users SaskView has created an awesome solution to that problem by building a laser trigger that causes the shutter to actuate when the beam of light is broken. What’s more impressive is that he’s sourced most of his parts from a 99 cent store – this is truly a lost cost/high return project.

Laser Triggered High-Speed Photography – More DIY How To Projects

Materials
I got the following at my local Dollar store (each item was actually $1.25: talk about misleading advertising!) Laser pointer Door chime USB Cable Magnets Clamp Shelf brackets Mini-tripod Self-Adhesive backed Velcro Small picture frame (for the plate glass insert) Eye drops (for the dropper bottle. I poured out the contents as I believe anything purchased at a dollar s…
 
The Camera
You’ll need a Canon camera because we’re going to temporarily modify its firmware using the Canon Hacking Development Kit. CHDK is loaded onto the memory card inside the camera, allowing us to override most of the camera’s functions, turning a cheap point and shoot into a highly adjustable way-cool time freezer.Currently there are 47 Canon cameras that CHDK will work wi…
 
The Circuit
At the bottom you’ll see a link to a pdf containing the schematic. To trigger your CHDK enabled camera we’ll be using the USB remote function. In this case we have to use it via the ’syncable’ method, which is lightning fast compared to the normal USB remote. The syncable remote also operates differently. It triggers the camera on the falling edge instead of the risin…
 
The Laser
The laser pointer has a momentary switch but I wanted a slide switch that would allow the laser to remain on without me holding the button. The Dollar store magnetic door chime not only had the slide switch that I wanted, but also it used the same kind and number of batteries that the laser does. This was cheaper than buying just a switch from an electronics supplier. …
 
The Drop Rig
Below is a photo of my setup. Some pieces of wood and some steel shelf brackets clamped to a TV tray. The laser is mounted with the magnets on one of the brackets, and the photodiode on the other. In between and slightly above I’ve velcro’d the eye dropper bottle filled with milk.
 
CHDK Settings: Enabling Synchable Remote
In order for the USB cable remote to work, you have to enable it. With CHDK installed on your camera go into the Main Menu and at the very bottom you’ll see Miscellaneous stuff. Enter that menu and at the very bottom of it you’ll find the Remote parameters menu. In that menu set Enable Remote [.] Make sure there is a dot inside the square brackets, meaning it’s enable…
 
CHDK Settings: Extra Photo Operations
Now go into the Extra Photo Operations menu at the top of the main menu and set: Disable Overrides [disable] Include AutoIso & Bracketi [.] Override shutter speed [1/10000] Value factor [1] Shutterspeed emun type [Ev Step] Override aperture [5.03] Override Subj. Dist. V [350] Value factor [1] Override ISO value [80] Value factor [1] Force manual flash [.] Power of flas…
 
Adjusting the Camera Settings
Normally you would be triggering an external flash, while the shutter is open using a cable release with the camera in ‘bulb’ mode. Once the flash goes off, you let the shutter close. This requires the room to be darken because the shutter will be open for many seconds. In this setup you can have the room lights on because the flash and shutter are triggered at the sam…
 
Adjusting the circuit
With your drop rig in place mount the photoresistor to one of the steel brackets and the laser on the other one. Adjust the position of the laser so that the droplets fall through the beam. Adjust the position of the photoresistor so that it’s illuminated with the laser. Power up the circuit. LED1 will light up, indicating power. Before we begin using the eye-dropper,…

Third party manufacturers that want to make iPhone/iPod charging devices have to agree to a secret hardware setup that will allow the devices to work, and promise to not disclose what components and specifications are needed to make a charger work. Engineer/hacker/braniac Ladyada (of adafruit.com fame) disassembles a few charging devices to investigate the exact resistors used, and how a wall charging device (AC) differs from a battery charging device.

Read more of her notes and explanations about USB charging, the differences in iPhone chargers over the last few generations, and a great photo of the innards of an iPhone wall jack.

Adafruit sells a variety of electronics kids: Arduino supplies, breakout boards, power supplies and more.
If you want to build your own battery-powered Apple charger, get the adafruit MintyBoost kit here.
Two other fun and hilarious electronics kits from them: Tweet-a-Watt and the Digg Button Kit.

One part of the video of particular interest is the soldering blower unit that Ladyada uses. Designed to allow for the teeny-tiny components to be soldered or removed safely instead of being bashed with a blazing hot metal iron tip, this thing melts the solder with hot air, so you can then safely manipulate it as needed. She uses the Hakko 851 hot air soldering station – it’s not cheap, but I think I need to get one of those things.

The 851 hot air rework station is ideal for soldering and desoldering small surface mount chip components, heating heat-shrink tubing, and other local heating operations.

• adjustable temperature control from 100°C to 540°C (212°F to 1004°F)

• ultra-light setting for air volume control

• ESD safe by design

Four cylinder Honda Civic Hatchback doesn’t have enough “get-up-and-go” for your tastes? Maybe it’s time to upgrade to a Steve Saunders-esque V8 Corvette. Or maybe you want to drop some serious cash and get the 16 cylinder Veyron (with its four turbochargers). But no matter how many cylinders it has, your car won’t ever be as cool as one powered by a turbine jet engine.

Typically thought of for airplanes, helicopters, locomotives and army tanks, turbine engines have some interesting advantages over internal combustion: lower weight, increased horsepower and torque, and you can feed them almost anything – the ones I’ve played with were filled with kerosene, diesel, and anything else highly flammable we could find in the garage. They’re reasonably simple machines, mechanically less complicated than a car’s gas engine. But they also come with an hefty thirst, and generate crazy amounts of heat.

For the past ten years, Michael Davis has been building his own turbine jets from parts that he sources online and in junkyards. Based around a standard automotive turbocharger, Davis spent about $150 and four months to get his first unit up and running. His site follows all the trials and errors of building a jet engine this way, and serves as a good guide for anyone interested in playing with loud, powerful jets in their back yard.

Combine his site with this Instructable about building your own jet engine and you should have the full recipe for putting together the ultimate noisemaker.

Now, the fun part. Back in the early 1960’s, Chrysler focused a lot of resources on creating a viable turbine jet engine car. The high point of their push was in 1963 when they released 50 cars to a group of “average” people for real world testing. The results were good, and according to the car’s wikipedia page, the cars logged 1.1million miles over the testing phase and only had 4% downtime. But, hilariously, they were described as sounding like giant vacuum cleaners, a negative point that helped kill the program. Ultimately and unfortunately, the whole program died during the government bail out in the 1970s.

Chrysler also produced a promotional video for the turbine program in classic early-60’s style. Check out the proving grounds they test their cars on – that’s an unusual amount of winding dirt trails for your “average” Chrysler driver, right? If it still exists, I would love to bring a few cars there to test out myself.

Other turbine engine cars pop up from time to time, most recently a few weeks ago on eBay when someone was unloading a Boeing T-50 powered Porsche 928. Complete with flame throwers from the hood of the car. As my pal Steve commented, you have to wonder how long you can drive that thing until the windshield melts… Regardless, it sold for $12,000 – although it was originally listed at $20k.

1982 PORSCHE 928 WITH A BOEING TURBINE ENGINE

TURBINE ENGINES RUN FINE ON DIESEL

POWER STEERING

POWER DISK BRAKES ALL 4

HEATER AND DEF….(BLEED AIR TO HEATER CORE)

NEW PAINT

NEW WHEELS 18″

JVC FM AND CD PLAYER WITH REMOTE

FLAME SHOOTER

17 MPG

OVER 160 MPH

365 HP

700+ FOOT POUNDS OF TORQUE

IT’S A DAILY DRIVER AND A SHOW CAR

USE TO BE NEW

AT LAST AN AIR COOLED 928

Vinyl records have a unique place in the world of music media. Aside from their warm analog tone, vinyl is the only popular medium that is nearly impossible to create or duplicate at home – something that can’t be claimed by cassettes, CDs, DVDs, and certainly not mp3s. Not to be an apologist for piracy, this inherently creates more value for recorded music than using an easily reproducible medium (be it physically or digitally) does. But as we all know, digital is the present and the future, and I am not complaining about that at all; one look at my iTunes playlist and you’ll know what I mean.

Now, if you haven’t seen the exact process in how records are created, you might be surprised at how much manual cooperation is involved. From inspecting the metal pressing discs and the lacquered masters, to centering the disc for hole punching, you’ve got sweet old ladies who are meticulously making sure your music will sound great. And the actual assembly process, even with automation, is like something you’d see in a Detroit auto maker’s factory: heavy hydraulic equipment pressing hot platters into precision shapes, rotating slicers, and vacuum-assisted label placers.

You can watch the whole process happen, courtesy of Discovery’s “How It’s Made” – part two is where things get interesting.

(also, if you like these DIY projects make sure to add me on twitter and subscribe to my RSS – thanks!)

A while back, the site qj.net ran a piece on how to “pirate” a vinyl record using normal silicone casting materials. Sadly, the link is broken, but thanks to the Wayback Machine, I’ve pulled the archived copy up and am attaching it here for posterity:

Posted May 14, 2006 at 06:49AM by Anna S.Listed in: Misc. Gadgets

So you thought you’ve pirated everything huh?

Step 1

Using the wooden strips, make a box around the glass plate. Seal off the edges using the window cement. Make sure everything is air tight.

Step 2

Place your record inside the box making sure that the portion to be copied is facing upward. Squeeze in some window cement to mark where the hole in the record is.

Step 3

Mix the silicone (Smooth On OOMOO 30 or OOMOO 25) for about 3 minutes before pouring in to the mold.

Step 4

Pour in the mixture. Start from one corner and let it fill-up the mold to about half a centimeter. Make sure it’s even. Let it dry for 6 hours.

Step 5

Peel off the silicone from the cast. Cut off the excess using a cutter.

Step 6

Pour the liquid plastic (Smooth On Task #4) on top of the silicone cast.

Step 7

Make sure that nothing spills over the round form. You can also brush off any air bubbles that might occur.

Step 8

Carefully loosen the plate from the silicone form. Using a drill press, bore a hole through the center of the plate. You can use the silicone form as a template to make more copies.

There you have it. Your very own pirated record.

(QJ translated this from the German site Zeit.de, also unavailable except via archive)

How well does this work? To be seen… the next step is to rip a vinyl record (pretty easy to do using a USB turntable), then cast a copy of it using this technique. Rip the copy, compare waveforms and look for any major discrepancies. That’s today’s project.

These links come from the music blog/record label I collaborate on: Sneakmove.com – we have put out a few vinyl records of our own. If you’re into limited edition 7″ compilations featuring unique songs from amazing bands, you should take a peek at our catalog and help support independent music by purchasing a collectible record or two.

I’ll give a “DO IT Reader’s Discount” to anyone buying Minicomp 2, Minicomp 3, or the Languis/MMC split CD: $4 each. Click the album cover below to order with the special price.

Anodizing is a process that builds up a very thin but strong protective layer on the surface of a non-ferrous metal. It is achieved using chemical/electrical oxidization, and is most commonly done on aluminum , but occasionally also seen on titanium, silver and other metals. If you’ve ever seen one of those blue or red Maglite flashlights (and I’m sure you have), you’ve seen anodized aluminum. The color comes from dyes that are used after the anodizing process to give it color before sealing the surface layer tightly.

Although aluminum anodizing is often done for large-scale commercial uses, the process is reproducible for smaller home-brew projects using easy to find chemicals and containers (like plastic coolers). The best set of DIY instructions around come from Ron Newman – he has a detailed breakdown of each step, and even sells the solutions and kits to get you started. Here’s a simple overview:

• Soak aluminum part in cleaning solution
• Etch part in caustic lye solution
• Desmut (done if etched or for certain aluminum alloys)
• Connect part to positive electrode of power source, with cathode (negative electrode) submersed in anodizing solution. Submerse for one hour.
• Dye
• Seal part using nickel acetate sealer

Of all the steps, the most involved is setting up the power supply to charge the solution and cause the anodizing process to occur. A battery charger is a simple tool that can work here, although Newman’s writeup says to use a somewhat pricey rectifier to help control the current to the proper level to get decent results. Other anodizing pages such as from Steve Mass and Bryan Pryor suggest that the battery charger can be difficult to monitor and control – they prefer using a dedicated DC power supply instead.

Caswell plating sells supplies for anodizing – check with them for materials.

Computer-choppers.com offers custom anodized Mac Mini cases.

On a larger, industrial scale, full factories are used to anodize oversized pieces of metal for building purposes. The general process is the same though.

Now, lets say you need to remove the anodizing for some reason or other (perhaps you don’t want your paintball gun to look like a pink and blue easter egg anymore). The system is pretty straightforward:

You can strip off the existing anodized layer from any anodized part by placing the part in a caustic solution for an hour or so.  Just mix a few tablespoons of lye and water in a plastic container.  Wear eye protection and rubber gloves for this procedure!!  Place the part in the solution and monitor its progress.
 
The Lye will dissolve the old anodized layer, about .001″ thick.  It takes a while for it to start breaking through the layer.  It’s a little slow at first.  The first ten minutes or so not much action will be seen.  Bubbles and smut will rise up as an indicator of its progress.

Or, you can use a parts washer like this video shows:

And, as mentioned above, you can use this technique on other metal types. Here’s a demonstration of anodizing a bar of silver:

Finally, one more page with a full rundown on the anodizing process: DIY aluminum anodizing

Now, go anodize some stuff! Car parts, bike parts, water bottles, pizza peels. Let your imagination run wild, just like the wild colors you can use.

This is a low-cost, easy to follow project that appeals to all of us who have wanted to sound like a guitar god at some point. Delay pedals are a staple effect of so many musicians these days. Take U2’s The Edge; his sound is almost entirely based on the use of delay.

The Instructable for this project goes light on the actual electronics, but fortunately many more detailed writeups exist already. The case for it gets more attention, and you can tell – it looks professional.

One note that is made in this interesting piece by RG Keen on the economics of pedal building – if you’re doing this to try to save money, don’t. Cheap delay and effects pedals can be bought new for as low as $20 – and used for even less. But there is a real value in building something yourself, so make sure to calculate that aspect in as you prepare yourself to embark on this project.

My schematic is largely (read: almost entirely) based upon Casper Electronics’ EchoBender pedal, which is in turn largely based on Tonepad’s Rebote 2.5 Delay pedal, which is in turn, more or less, based upon the example schematic in the PT2399 datasheet. Having breadboard all three, I personally can not hear a significant difference in sound between the Casper Electronic version and the one on Tonepad, which some people say is superior sounding (the one in the datasheet just sounds flat). The nice thing about the Casper Electronics version is the inclusion of a feedback pot, which gives a really full sound to the echo effect.

You will need:
(x1) “BB”- sized Steel Enclosure
(x1) PT2399 Echo Processor
(x1) TL072 low noise op amp
(x1) LM7805
(x3) 100K potentiometers
(x1) 50K potentiometer
(x1) 5K potentiometer
(x1) PCB
(x1) DPDT stomp switch
(x1) SPST toggle switch (SPDT okay)
(x1) Power jack (with cut-off)
(x2) 1/4″ mono jacks
(x5) Knobs
(x1) sheet 1/16″ santoprene rubber (McMaster-Carr 86215K22)
(x1) sheet 1/8″ cork

capacitors:
(x1) 100uF
(x3) 47uF
(x1) 4.7 uF
(x6) 1 uF
(x3) 0.1 uF
(x2) 0.082 uF
(x3) 0.0027 uF
(x2) 0.01 uF
(x1) 100 pF
(x1) 5 pF

resistors:
(x2) 1K
(x11) 10K
(x2) 15K
(x1) 100K
(x1) 510K
(x2) 1M

Koshari is a traditional dish from Egypt, one that tastes so good I can’t stop eating until nothing is left. The dish has many parts, all of which are pretty simple but combine together for complete deliciousness: Rice/lentil (referred to as koshari), spicy tomato sauce, macaroni, garbanzo beans and fried onion.

Here is the recipe to make the best tasting koshari I’ve had so far. I’ve based the approximate measurements off of the video I took of Magda and Sandra demonstrating how to cook the dish (very special thanks to both of them for taking the time to let me film this and feeding me).

Ingredients:
Koshari:
Large yellow onion, chopped
1/2 cup corn oil
1lb Lentil beans
2 cups basmati rice
4 cups water
1 tablespoon plain tomato sauce
1 glove of garlic, crushed

Sauce:
(2) 16oz cans  of tomato sauce (video says 6oz – was meant to say 16oz)
1 tablespoon corn oil
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon cinammon
2 tablespoon white vinegar
1 green chili pepper or 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

Pasta:
1lb macaroni, small size (elbows)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper

Garbanzos (topping):
1 can garbanzos, drained and rinsed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon garlic pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Instructions:
Koshari:
- Begin by soaking the lentils and rice in water for about 30 minutes (separately). You don’t want the lentils to get too soft, so don’t over-soak them.
- Chop the onion coarsely – about 1/2″ squares. Put in large stock pot, add corn oil so the onion is covered. For one onion, this was about 1/2 cup.
- Heat on medium-high, stirring regularly. Cook until darkish brown, about 15-20 minutes. Watch closely as the onion goes from dark brown to burnt very quickly.
- When finished, remove onion from stock pot with slotted or perforated spoon. Place onion on paper towel to drain. Keep oil in pot.
- Add one clove crushed garlic to the oil.
- Stir in four cups of water and one tablespoon of tomato sauce.
- Add lentils when the water begins to boil, cover and cook until lentils start to soften (about 20 minutes).
- Once lentils soften a touch, stir in rice, cover, and continue to heat.
- Finished once water is soaked up and the lentil/rice mixture is soft and fluffy.

Sauce:
- Crush five cloves of garlic, put into saucepan with a tablespoon of corn oil.
- Heat on stove, medium-high.
- Add 1 to two tablespoons of white vinegar and two 16oz cans of plain tomato sauce.
- Thin sauce with 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water.
- Pinch of salt, pepper and cinnamon to the sauce.
- Chop a green pepper and add to the sauce, or use red chili flakes
- Cover, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for 20 minutes

Pasta:
- Boil water in large pain
- Add one pound small macaroni shape. Elbows work well.
- Cook slightly longer than the directions call for – you want the pasta to be soft.

Garbanzos:
- Drain and rinse a can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
- Mix in salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder
- Sprinkle with lemon juice

Prepare by making a bed of the rice and lentils, add macaroni on top, coat with sauce (the sauce is my favorite part – that vinegar/cinnamon addition makes it so tangy-good), top with garbanzos and fried onions. Serve with a nice cucumber and tomato side salad.

Serves six. Or one, if I’m there.

As noted in my temporary pizza oven writeup (and reiterated in my “Pizza Obsessives” interview by Slice – check it out!), making an effective pizza oven can be as simple as stacking blocks. Use a quickly made jig to build an easy brick arch roof, and screw a couple pieces of angle iron around it to hold everything together. That’s it – pizza time, all the time.

The ease of the design was demonstrated recently by Thomas Niccum, who used my writeup to reconstruct his own oven. Total time from construction to eating pizza? 10 hours – and that includes transporting a pallet of cinderblock into the back yard one by one.

Niccum was kind enough to send detailed notes and photos of his build. They’ll help you put one together, too. Maybe this weekend – it is summer, after all.
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