Category Archives: Projects

Craft, Hardware, or Software projects I’ve done

Sabertooth Tiger – 3D printing & Painting

Posted on by
Reply

I printed this sabertooth tiger model from Thingiverse # 3931638 and painted it with acrylic paints.

Although not perfect for FDM printing, the 3D print wasn’t too bad, and looked relatively sharp after priming.

I painted on a base coat of dark yellow to brown colors, decided it was too dark, so lightened it up with a few areas of brighter yellow.

Then I dry brushed more brown and orange over the model, painted the rock on the base gray, and added some white details (claws, teeth, inside ears and above eyes) plus some black (for the eyes and above the ears).

You can compare this to my reference photo (which has a lot more orange on it…) to see how well I did.

Stump Spider tabletop miniature — 3D printing & Painting

Posted on by
Reply

I was cleaning out my car and found a small toy plastic spider.   I suddenly realized that if I were to hit it with a heat-gun, I could bend the legs into any pose I wanted.   So I printed out a tree stump from Thingiverse # 3033820 scaled appropriately to be a stand, and bent the spider legs so that it would stand on the stump.   After that, I just had to paint it….
Continue reading →

Cobra tabletop miniatures: 3 color schemes — 3D printing & Painting

Posted on by
Reply

Black, Yellow and Brown cobra mini-figures

I’ve been very happy with this 28mm Cobra model from Thingiverse. Even printed on my low end FDM printer it retains enough texture so that dry brushing works well to accent the scales.   I used a heat gun to rotate the left model’s head 90 degrees in relation to it’s body, and the center model’s tail into a loop so that the three figures look slightly different, but mostly the color choices are the defining differences.

Continue reading →

1977 AMF Alcort Sunfish Sailboat Restoration

Posted on by
Reply

sunfish sailboat inside u-haul

I purchased an old (1977 manufacture date) AMF Alcort Sunfish 14 foot sailing dinghy.   It was mostly complete and almost “ready-to-sail”, except for the broken auto-bailer, and cracked rudder, but the price was right.

Since I had to repair the crack in the rudder, I decided to go overboard and completely restore the entire rudder and tiller assembly. And once the rudder looked nice, I had left-over varnish and decided to go ahead and re-surface the daggerboard as well.

I also added a ratcheting mainsheet block, replaced all of the lines and purchased some necessary accessories (deck cover, beach dolly).
Sailboat in Lake

After the first sail I drained all of the water out of the hull (which MIGHT have already been in there…..maybe….) and purchased a better drain plug and rigged up a solar powered fan to dry things out. If I find water inside after the second sail, I’ll probably be doing some fiberglass hull repair.

You can see all of the details by watching the (multiple!) videos in this YouTube playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmHP4lUqxKmv13lkNpPqG2FbnV9L4aaL0

 

I’ve found that the Better Boat Mini-Paddle fits perfectly into the rear cubbyhole on my 1977 boat.

 

EcoQube C+ acrylic lid

Posted on by
Reply

I bought an EcoQube C+   (3 gallon aquarium/aquaponics system with a built in spot for a few small plants) from a discount deal of the day website (after their Kickstarter imploded…and somebody offloaded the product).   The model I got was the EcoQube C+ UV, which has a small box containing UV LEDS just after the pump, that supposedly keep algae and other bad stuff from growing in the water.

Of course, it didn’t come with the plant growth medium that you are supposed to use in the four little baskets, so I bought some coco hanging basket liner and used a small strip of that in a loop to hold some perlite in the basket to support the roots of some sweet mint.

I noticed that the water was evaporating relatively quickly, possibly due to the large opening at the top. You used to be able to buy a glass cover for the 2 gallon EcoQube C, but it was out of stock, and probably wouldn’t fit the C+ anyways, so I decided to make my own out of 1/8″ clear acrylic.


This view with the protective paper still on the acrylic lets you see how it fits over the tank, and the following photo shows what it looks like when the protective paper is removed.

If you have access to a laser cutter, you can download my .SVG file to make your own: ecoCubeC+cover.svg

Or find it on Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4924825

 

Salvage 2013 Nissan Leaf Modules – 8 year age capacity test: 75-80%

Posted on by
Reply

six nissan leaf modules with capacity test values written on the sides
Back in 2015 I bought a wrecked 2013 Nissan leaf and salvaged it’s 48 battery modules to use in my s-10 electric pickup truck. At the time, the batteries had 18,921 miles from the Leaf on them, (10 quick charges and 775 Level 1/ Level 2 charges) and the leaf BMS reported a capacity of 64 amp hours (98% state of health). [The modules are rated at a minimum of 60 AH new, but most exceed the minimum specifications a bit.]
Continue reading →