I ran the first machining job with my newly operational Lumenlab Micro CNC robot (did you hear the champagne cork pop?). I say newly operational, since I won’t consider this thing “finished” for a long time, if ever. I anticipate fitting new tools to the machine to do different things for years to [...]

Our discerning judge, Pat Fisher a.k.a. Archibald Drinkwater a.k.a. Vladimir Kerchenko has handed down his decision, and explains his methodology in the following edict:
Pat says:
We Have a Lucky Weiner !
it was extremely difficult to select a winner amongst the many many entries ( um, 13?) in the Fink’s Orange Marmalade label design contest, and we [...]

With not much interest being shown in the design contest, I thought that I might just enter myself. I could really use that chair.
The contest is open for submissions until January 31st.

I had such a ball making grape jelly, that I decided to have a go at preserving some orange marmalade.
One thing that a lot of home bottlers forget is that, just because the jars have cooled and the big awkward pot is stowed, you’re not quite finished. That’s right, you need a label.
For [...]

This year, our third season grapevine finally yielded fruit. 7 lbs! I picked them all at one go, and decided to have my hand at canning.
I followed the first grape jelly recipe that I found on the internet, which basically said to peel the grapes, cook the grapes for a few minutes, set [...]

If you’ve ever ridden latest iteration of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, you will remember how, right before you hit the first drop, you are greeted with the ghostly image of the tentacle-faced Davey Jones creature warning you that “dead men tell no tales”. I certainly did.
The effect uses rear-projection video, [...]

Mark Frauenfelder linked to a really tasty looking “how to illustrate a glass of beer” Photoshop tutorial by Eren Göksel at PSDTUTS the other day. It looked so good, I just had to give it a whirl. No matter how much you use Photoshop, you can always learn a new trick, and Eren has [...]

Jarle Helland came to the U.S. from Norway in 1920 after serving his compulsory stint in the Norwegian Army. To sample the New World, he purchased a Tin Lizzie and drove it across the continent at a time when (I would imagine) his route was scarcely paved.
Jarle was a tinkerer’s tinkerer. A master [...]

What is this about?
It’s about finding an answer to that age-old question, the one that we have all asked ourselves:
What would happen if you shipped 20 unassembled old-timey wooden fishing lure kits off to be finished by a bunch of artists?
It turns out that the answer is CRANKbait! Lures of [...]

Here it is. No. 2 in my BelAir series of retro-feel homebuilt AV equipment (see No.1). I used a surplus copy machine lens to make this opaque projector for use as a drawing aid. (See this post for background info and plans) .

The projector is essentially a wooden box with with a lens, [...]