Your most recent project for "fun"

My current engineering project (house painting doesn't count) is some giant illuminated glass ornaments for Christmas this year. Or next year if I don't get busy.

Excellent! Nice to know there are some other artists out there.

I just hate the way some people think science/engineering is the opposite of artistic.

They are both very creative....

Show us a pic' when you finish it!

Del

Hi, I made this sculpture for my wife's birthday. Project before that was a battery powered golf trolley made of plywood, it is lighter than than the commercial ones and folds up nicely. I got the motor and wheels of the internet and built the rest myself. I had fun with the speed control and battery charger as I hadn't desgined anything switching such high currents...or used a gel battery before (I only ruined 1 battery folks!)...I'll post a pic if anyone is interested. I told one guy it was a genuine art deco one which I'd refurbished which he believed! (I did tell the truth later!) It still gets comments from other golfers!

I'm trying to get close to your sister DeDe!!!

Looks like the current avatar is in practice.

No. Just excited!!!

rcetiognoin pmlorebs ? .

Sir

Huh? All I know is I have to go really bad!!!

You're already 'well bad' as we say in the ether (that's what sirk says anyhow).

Creating a coil linked to a transformer, then using it to zap insects trapped in a plastic container placed inside the coil to see what the effect of very high magnetic fields on insects would be. Interestingly, they always seem dazed at first, then dry and shrivel up a day or two later.

NOW THATS REAL SCIENCE DAM THOSE INSECTS AND ALL THEIR KIND

Sounds crazy, but they might be starving. But, who knows. Get the right wavelength and you could microwave insects.

Or why don't you just pull their wings off.

Sunny weather and a magnifying glass is cruel. However, sport is a different matter.

My most recent fun project was for an elderly friend of mine.

He has this tiny keyring gun! it is fully functioning and only an inch long, I will see if I can post a picture of it.

The barrel locks and opens for a tiny 0.05" diameter cartridge to be loaded, the barrel is clear and the trigger works!!!

He is a local retired business man who made his millions in the family business where he picked this gun up...

Anyway, he asked me if I could make some ammunition for it...

I thought what fun! and so mixed up some nitrating acids and made some explosives... Remember this is England and you're not supposed to play with nitro or gun cotton etc...

So having made a tiny amount of nitro and gun cotton I made some gelignite, a tiny amount in a tiny tube formed the cartridge.

I made a video of the test results in case the cartridges were too powerful and his gun blew up!! But no it worked a treat! the noise it made was GREAT!! So he was a happy man again....

John. (boy was that fun or what?!!)

Cool !

Is the velociy high enough to do permanent damage or does it just leave a welt?

I just made blanks for him to use to scare off people...

I doubt if the barrel would be strong enough to withstand the force to propel anything harmful, he did break a matchstick up and we fired it with that as a projectile, but it didn't go far

Here are a few more pictures of it, I'm sure it was made of silver and must have been a 100 years old...

Hi Electroman:

I have one of those pistols, in the original box, along with 2 ramrods and 2 rounds of pinfire ammo in the original storage capsules. It has the words "Made In Austria" on the top of the hex barrel in English. (You'll need a magnifying glass.) I brought it back from Naples in 1953.

If you look in the mouth of the round, you can see that it's sealed with a lead (?) disk that probably disintegrates upon firing. To fire it, you load the round with the pin protruding through that slot in the top of the chamber. It did make a very satisfying BANG, but I doubt if my remaining 54 year old rounds would still fire. I won't be trying them anyway.

Thank you for the nostalgic reminder.

DickL

My current project is a digitally controlled stepper motor driven focusing mechanism for my astronomical telescope.

Why such a complex focusing device I hear you say, why not just turn the knob manually?

Well when you add a camera to the telescope it needs to be focused differently than when you are viewing something directly through an eyepiece. However, with a digital camera the small images that are displayed on the camera's screen are not of sufficient resolution to know it the telescope is correctly focused. By driving the focusing mechanism with a stepper motor you can keep track of where the focusing mechanism is by counting the number of steps the motor has been driven through. Once you know where the best focus is for the camera you can then easily drive the motor to the exact position required by just stepping it the appropriate number of steps to get it to focus for the camera.

Oh and by the way, since I havn't corresponded with you before welcome to CR4.

Wow cool.

Thanks btw

Hi Ahuja2010,

masu exemplifies the ' don't do it be halves ' approach on CR4 .

I am somewhat frivolous ( and happy to be so ! ). In a few months I will apply information from the current Challenge Question (and other CR4) threads to create a direct to water Solar heating system.

Welcome to CR4 and enjoy - It's a goldmine of great information.

Since everybody is posting pictures of their project here are a couple of the photographs that I took of the Moon on 12^th April this year. It was a test with the camera stuck in place with blue-tack and a guess at the focusing.

This image shows the southern hemisphere of the moon. The crater with the dimple in the middle is called Pitatus and is on the edge of the Sea of Clouds.

This image is of the northern hemisphere and the crater that is clearly visible near the center of the photograph is called the Bay of Rainbows and is on the edge of the Sea of Showers. The Apollo 15 landing site is roughly where the © symbol is in the upper right hand corner of the image.

Considering the crudeness of the mounting and focusing the image quality should be fantastic when I get it properly mounted and focused.

Terrific pictures masu !

I can't resist observing the similarity to your avatar. You could be the 'man in the moon' (as long as it's not made of cream cheese )

Are you keeping an eye out for Vesta? Got any pictures?

Once I get the proper camera mount and enclosure my next target is Jupiter which is currently fairly close and quiet brilliant. I was watching it about a fortnight ago and while watching over the period of about 15 minutes one of its moons came out of being eclipsed. The result was a moon appearing where there had been nothing a few minutes before.

Uranus is one of my future targets as well but this isn't that simple as it is not visible to the naked eye and finding it can be tricky.

One thing that is being watched with great interest is a star called η Carinae (Eta Carinae). The image at right shows η Carinae in relation to the southern cross and Rigel Kentaurus. If you can see the Southern Cross from where you are then you should be able to see η Carinae.

η Carinae is a super giant which is about 100 times the size of our Sun but is part of the Milky Way and relatively close at about 100 Kly. It is highly unstable and has been varying in magnitude greatly since it was first catalogued by Edmond Halley in 1677. The interesting thing is that it is similar to and has been behaving exactly like another super giant in another galaxy. Late last year the other super giant star ceased being a star and became SN2006gy when it blew itself apart and became the most violent and brightest supernova ever seen. Unfortunately for Earth its distance masked it brilliance and power.

Normally the Milky Way has a supernova every 50-100 years and we are currently about 300 years overdue for one so you can imagine why everybody is checking η Carinae whenever they can. If it dose turn into a supernova then, where it is visible, it will be considerably brighter than a full moon and only be outshone by the sun. You will be able to read by it at night and it will be clearly visible during the day. For a couple of weeks it will produce more light and energy than all the remaining stars in the Milky Way combined and will likely be the most violent and energetic events in the history of our galaxy. So for all those in the Southern Hemisphere and southern regions of the Northern Hemisphere whenever you look at the night sky have a look for η Carinae and see if it has decided to self destruct.

The night sky is a fascinating thing and far more dynamic that most people realize and while it's a help you don't need a super powerful telescope and expensive equipment. Many things can be viewed with the naked eye and the addition of a pair of binoculars will more than double what you can see.

I am relative new to armature astronomy but it is an incredibly fascinating subject that can really draw you in. Since I am learning it all from scratch and fumbling through it my usual hap hazard way I thought it might be a good theme for a CR4 blog. The An Engineer's Look at the Future of Energy blog is currently taking up a fair amount of my time but when it finishes towards the end of the year what do you think about me turning it into an astronomy for novices blog? The idea would be to show what I have learnt from scratch each week from an engineer's perspective and discuss what can be done without spending mega dollars.

I envy you Masu.

Up here in the Northern hemisphere not much is happening at the moment, I've been an amatuer astronomer since I was 15, but it was only aten years or so ago that I bought my first telescope, I thought of getting a large one for the faint objects but my main problem is the constant light pollution in England.

Even at midnight and early morning the wretched street lights just blot out any fine details, living in a desserted area with few light producing towns and with clear air is my next dream location....

John.

John , take heart.

I live on the SE coast of England and can see zilch at night (Patrick Moore must be really annoyed with his observatory in Sussex) . I am lucky enough to have friends and family in Scotland. I kid you not , the night sky is mind blowing. My usual stay is a remote glen 10 miles from the nearest minor road . No town for 1 hours drive (that's a long way by UK standards folks). If I wasn't already flat on my back to look at the night sky better , I would keel over on a glance. First time I saw it that clear I stood rooted to the spot for an hour without speaking. I'm not an astronomy fan or expert , but you'd have to be a few screws loose not to stand in awe of something like that. Any astronomy fan in the UK should take a trip to our own version of the outback - it's mind blowing. Stars almost completely fill the sky.Wow.

That's how I remember reviving my interest in astronomy Kris...

It was about 10 years ago and I visited somewhere in the Cotswolds I think, it wasn't perfect but as you say, it reminded me of how full the sky is when there are no lights for miles and your eyes have adapted to the dark...

Back here in Dunstable, all you can see is the major planets over the roof tops etc...

Scotland sounds just perfect....

John.

John , you've really got to take your telescope for a holiday if it's portable. Your head would fall off in awe. If you rent a car up their the sleeper train is ace - best regular service in the UK ( I was amazed when i saw the comfy buffet car with freestanding chairs and pleasant staff ! Sorry non-Brits , the joke is something you have to live with to understand). As a bonus you get views of Ranoch moor you can't get from any road access. Very 'civilized' start to the day. You could go really nuts and go further where you could also bag the aurora (I'm told you can occasionally see it from Fort William latitude , but getting further obviously gives you more chance).

If you have like-minded mates you'd have a terrific time up there. I'm sounding like a sales rep ! Put it on your list of things to do . Kris

And if it happens to be a gamma-ray burster, well put your lead-based sun screen on, kids! Not that it will do much good.

The southern cross?! Are you nuts!!! I remember as a kid figuring out how to use the coordinate system with my telescope to track down things in the sky. I also remember the sudden shock of discovery when I attempted to dial in one of Magellanic clouds, and noticed that the scope was pointing down at the ground to a spot about 20 feet away from where my scope and I were standing. Oh.

Until recently I lived on the southern outskirts of Adelaide South Australia and the night sky there was quiet breathtaking. I am currently living in Sydney but on the coast so at least half the sky is free of lighting from the ground.

Some years back when Halley's comet last visited I was in Darwin on one of my many business junkets to the Northern Territory. I struck up a friendship with the flight crew that were due to fly me home the next day. The captain organized for me to fly in what is called the instructors or check pilots seat for the trip home. On a 727 the check pilots seat is directly behind and slightly to the left and above the pilots seat so you get a really good view of what is going on. The flight left Darwin for Adelaide at 03:00 (3:00 AM) and took a little over three hours. At about the half way mark you are pretty much over the center of Australia and at that time of the morning there is nothing else in the air so the pilot shut of as many of the lights as possible and got permission to stooge about the sky for half an hour trying to see Halley's comet. After about half an hour we gave up and opened the bar instead so we never saw Halley's comet from 30,000 feet but still it was a real hoot. Sadly you would have about as much chance of doing something like this toady as finding an honest lawyer or politician and that is a great pity and huge step backwards.

Arrival at Adelaide was also interesting as it was scheduled for just before dawn but at 30,000 feet dawn is considerably earlier than on the ground. Just before commencing our decent into Adelaide the Sun rose in the east. As we descended the Sun it then set in the east only to rise again as we walked from the aircraft to the terminal. Back then Adelaide had no covered boarding facilities so you literally walked across the tarmac and climbed the stairs to board or disembark an aircraft.

The sky in central Australia is truly breathtaking as you can literally find places that are hundreds of kilometers from the nearest light and over a thousand kilometers from the ocean. Being so landlocked and far from the ocean gives you very still clear nights that produce stellar viewing that is truly hard to beat.

The telescope I have is what is called a Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope and while this type of telescope is limited in size they have a couple of big advantages. Firstly they are sealed which protects the mirrors from condensation, dust and dirt which can damage the surface. My telescope has a focal length of 1,900 mm and if it were a normal reflecting telescope the whole arrangement would be pretty close to two meters long. With a Maksutov-Cassegrain however, the physical length is considerably shorter than the optical length and my 1,900 mm telescope comes in at just under 500 mm long or about ¼ of the optical length.

All this makes them ideal for use as portable telescopes and when I have a little more experience I intend to take it on some junkets to places that offer better viewing opportunities. Of course the camera will go as well and I will post the pictures on CR4.

Excellent...

Sadly you would have about as much chance of doing something like this toady.

How true!

When I was a young lad my Mum would take us to the railway station where we would watch the steam trains, the drivers would let me up onto the footplate. A little bit scary when you are just 5 or 6 yrs old and they open the firebox door!

No chance nowadays!

Hi Masu,

I haven't built my project yet. It's all in my head at the moment since it has to pass out of my pocket first before it becomes reality.

I've been thinking of getting one of those PC cameras, those things we use to call people over the internet. I'm going to mount it in a telescope so I can snap photos or videos of the night sky using my laptop (which I haven't bought yet ). That way, I can store the pictures to the hard disk immediately; I can snap pictures at intervals as in time lapse photos; I can shoot videos of meteorites; maybe I can also use the laptop to control the telescope mount and follow an object as it moves through the sky.

The laptop's going to be the first acquisition. My company's selling one as second hand but the accounting manager's out of town at the moment. Then I'll buy the camera (not too expensive) and finally the 'scope. That might take some time.

Hey V-man,

Don't bother with the web-cam thing, there are lots of CCD cameras designed to go where the eye piece goes. Some are B&W, others are full color - and the prices range from around a hundred dollars to wherever. The software packages that comes with these are really good, too. You can take a whole bunch of pictures of the same object really fast, then use the software to overlay all the shots to get really good light levels without the tedious long time exposures needed for film. Of course, if you're after something really faint, they allow you to do long exposers, as well. You can also get CCD cameras fitted with Gen-3 night vision. And all this stuff connects to your laptop. There are several good programs out there that when combined with a telescope that has GPS capabilities (not that expensive), allow you to click on a place on a star map, and your scope will slew right to the point.

Thanks vermin. 'Learned something new today.

I'll have to check how much those things cost though. My budget's practically non-existent for this thing, which is why I'm going for the real cheap things and just hope for the best. When things get better (might even make some money out of this), I can upgrade to something better.

Vulcan,

Check out this link: http://www.telescopes.net/store/index.php?document_id=2600&category=7110

By no means is it the end-all-be-all for astronomy. Do your google, too. If you go here check all the tabs on the top of the page. I'm sure that you can find places that can beat these prices. Enjoy.

vermin

I know someone said not to do this, but I beg to differ. There actually is a group called QCUIAG dedicated to doing just this. You can modify some web cams to take long exposure pictures for as many seconds as you want. A long exposure will yield a way better image than stacking possibly can. You can buy the adapters to screw onto web cams that will let them work with a telescope. You can download the software to do image stacking and many other processing tricks for free. I have done such a project where I modified a camera and added a thermoelectric cooler. The cheapest long exposure camera for astronomy I have found cost around $400 and is really just a modified web cam. To get anything higher resolution you can expect to pay $1000 or more. You may find something that is cheaper but it is likely just a web camera someone repackaged and is selling with stacking software that you can get for free. At some point I may do a write up about it in my blog Workbench Creations. So if you are on a budget and you aren't afraid of a little soldering then you could make your self quite a nice astronomy CCD camera.

Thanks frank. This is great stuff. Hopefully, I can get everything I need within the year and get cracking.

Hi Masu...great pics..

So much light polution here I can't see any of those dotted lines or text in the sky!

Or is this just 'cos I'm in the Northern hemisphere ?.

(PS what would the sky be like around that cubic Earth you drew up a while back!!!!)

Del

LOL @ Del.....

John

I don't know about the sky , but 'space' would have a similarly defined extent.

masu - you may have dug yourself a hole. I hope it's square and not oblong !

I gnawed threw the neighbor's base board and ate all their cookies, then filmed their reaction. Suckers!!!

Is this the neighbours ?

'Trust no-one' - fine , but MIB come in pairs.

Hi gang!

Do we maybe need a thread for planned projects (armchair projects)?

Or will it just spoil 'em having everyone else on the case?

Even on a sunny day I eat a lot of toast and drink a lot of tea!

(well I am English old chap!) Soooo, I was toying with the idea of a solar kettle....flash heat enough for a cuppa, lots of probs (and danger there) but good potential power savings?

Just can't imagine the solar toaster though!

(The chocolate teapot wasn't a success)

Del (how do you like the mk2 avatar?)

Hey - new avatar ! I already forgot the old one.

A solar toaster sounds cool , especially in the UK. A few years back the French built a huge reflective mirror focusing the sun on a point. I don't recall the project name or even it's purpose , but it's a start. The rays could be collected and spread to an appropriately sized beam. Well 2 actually , 1 for the brew , and another for toasting function. The French would clearly not have done this because they have baguettes and don't even know what tea is. A croque monsieur just wouldn't work . I do like French bread and chicory coffee , but that's beside the point. Could enough heat be focused in an English country garden. I think so , but some kind of scrolling beam (or toast rack ) may be required. One of those rather clever 'storm kettles' could be deployed for the tea - just lob in stale pieces of French bread. A rodent pedalling a treadmill could connect to a gear in order to raster-toast the bread . Do you think people will get annoyed if I suggest this as a challenge question ? There may be dispute over the brand of tea .

LOL ^ 3

I run a blog on CR4 called Workbench Creations where so far I have featured some projects I have done. If you have a project that you have completed and would like to feature it in my blog, then let me know so I can set you up to do a post. I set up the blog because I wanted to share my and others projects with the CR4 community. The only limitation is that I would like the featured projects to be completed and working, as I don't want to lead others into a project that may not work.

I have many many projects I have done, two projects I am currently working on and a huge list of ones I plan on doing in the future. The two I am working on now are a large (about a 5 gallon bucket size) rock tumbler/ball mill, and a large blender for making mixed drinks by the gallon. I have seen a design for a blender that used a sink garbage disposal but for sanitary reasons I didn't want to go that route. My blender is going to be more like an industrial sized and powered hand blender.

Here is a link from another forum that i thought would fit nicely in here. The guy has some incredible fabrication skills to say the least!

Building your own car! from scratch.

http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4020

That is mind blowingly impressive!!!

But..

What else has he done? ... (JOKE)

Beaker!!! Where have you been?! I remember when you disappeared behind the Iron-Curtain, What have you been up to?

Also, why in the concept drawing is the steering wheel on the right and in the wire diagram the steering wheel is on the left? Is this a message? Do you need rescue?!

Wow , he's good. Wonder if he started like this ?

I would think a Japanese business man, but then again, only the English... Two islands off the coast. Both populated with nut-cakes!!!

I'd like to think he was a Brit , but look carefuly at where he cycled ! Plus he doesn't appear to have any brakes. I found a whole bunch of such gems by following a link to death. I think I wound up at modernmechanix . Yup , I just checked. Enjoy.

I think the term "Home Made" says it all. Where ever they got that picture of a bicycle to splice in, they sure weren't thinking of safety.

Not to mention the British guy running out of the trailer after he spills burning Sterno all over his lap while trying to heat his kettle.