Wall mounted back rest

A nice add-on for my stools and dining area. I think the pictures are self explaining.

Pictures

Publish date: 2015-10-16

Stool with storage

As a replacement for my broken chairs in the dinette I built four simple cubic stools with a storage compartment. It is a very simple design, still I think it is nice to look at. One stool did cost me about 43€ (new machines, tools and time not considered).

Materials for one stool

• 4x Glued laminated beech 450x400x18 mm.
• 2x Strip of pine wood 400x14x14 mm.
• 1x Press board 364x364x5 mm.
• 1x MDF (or press board) 400x400x18 mm
• 2x Concealed furniture hinge.
• Spray glue for padding.
• Synthetic leather.
• Foam (10 mm, RG 35/50) for the padding.
• Fleece (100 g/m²) for padding.
• Adhesive felt.
• Wood oil.
• Wood glue (express).
• Sandpaper (Grain: 40,80,120,180,240).

Tools

• Circular saw.
• Eccentric grinder.
• Electric drill.
• Screwdriver.
• Hand saw.
• Bar clamps (min.440mm).
• Sponge for wood oil.

A short how-to build

If you not familiar with circular saws, glueing wood, etc. better inform yourself and practice before you start!

• Cut 4 boards of the glued laminated beech right-angled.
• Glue together the boards (picture 1).
• Cut the two pine wood strips and glue them to the box (picture 2).
• Cut the press board for the bottom plate and glue it into the box (picture 2).
• Cut out the cover plates for MDF or press board and round the edges a little bit.
• Drill the holes for the hinges with a center bit.
• Align the hinges,mark the outline and pre-drill the screw holes (picture 3).
• Sand the box (it might be a good idea to sand the inner sides before glueing the boards together).
• Use the sponge to apply the oil outside (and inside if you want) and let it dry 1-2 days.
• Add some felt at the bottom corners (picture 2).
• Upholster the cover plate (pictures 3-5).
• Attach the hinges to the cover plate.
• Attach the cover plate to the box and align it properly.
• Done :-)

Pictures

Publish date: 2014-12-15

Optical bench

To be able to continue with the Super8 project, I have to determine the focal length of the various lenses I got (hoping that at least one meets the requirements). So I build a simple optical bench. Thanks to the simple g-code generator, the effort to manufacture the holders was quite minimal.

The bench basically consists of:

• An aluminium profile 20x60x500mm.
• A projection plane at one end.
• A light source holder on the other end.
• Various lense holders.
• Some mounting brackets.

Pictures

Publish date: 2014-01-18

Vertical planter

Searching the internet I came across some sites about urban and vertical gardening. I liked the idea so I was going to give it a chance.

Review #1

After two months I can say, that this project is a success.

In this configuration, no additional watering pipe in the middle of the big one is needed. Typically I water from the top and let it seep through the soil. The last three pictures show the growth of the different plants.

One drawback: The soil shrinks and settles to much in the tubes and it is hard to keep it moist enough especially in summer.

Update - Hydro culture

To solve the problem with the dried out and settled soil in the tubes I am going to test the contruction with hydroculture.

I substitued the soil with clay granulate (2-5mm), added a small water pump and two pipes to pump up the water to the top of the two plant towers. At the top, I drilled 1mm holes into the water pipes sealed the end and formed a circle. A timer switch turns on the pump 4 times a day for 5 minutes which is enough to provide every little plant balcony with enough water (with out any plants yet). Check out the latest pictures for details.

Materials

• PVC-U tube (without flexibiliser!), diamater 160mm, length 1000mm.
• Outdoor paint (to protect the PVC pipe from UV-light)
• Mini immersible water pump (6V-12V)
• 12V power supply
• Programmable timer switch
• Small water pipes (dia: ~4mm)
• Clay granulate (2-5mm)

Tools

• Hand saw.
• Single saw blade.
• Standard hole saw.
• Power drill.
• Paint brush.
• Hot air gun (preferably with thermo control).
• Espresso cup.

Picture gallery

Publish date: 2013-06-09
Last update: 2015-10-16

Mini greenhouse

Fresh herbs are much more tastier than the dried ones and this little greenhouse extends the time of my herbs harvest.

The greenhouse is an add-on to the plant trough and can be removed quite easily without any tools. I used my cnc machine to manufacture the round corners of the pillars since no round pillars with the needed radius were available in the DIY market.

ToDo:

• Add a rain pipe to collect water.
• Add a fastener for the roof.
• Add the possibility for better venting.
• Remove the sticking out screws of the roof hinges.

Picture gallery

Publish date: 2012-10-16

BMW Z3: Replacing the interior door handle

Since the basic repair instructions are available on the internet, I only want to give a hint about how to deal with the plastic bolt of the handle. This plastic bolt needs to be melted to form a kind of a rivet.

Howto:

• Attach the new handle to the trim (tighten the two screws).
• Heat up an air gun to approx. 200°C.
• Carefully heat up the plastic bolt (only the bolt) with the hot air gun until you recognise a glaze surface of the bolt.
• Take a tool of your choice (I used the end of a thick hex wrench) and press down the bolt and wait approx. 30 seconds before release. Done.

Publish date: 2012-02-27

Links

PCB2CODE - Gerber to g-code converter for isolation routing

GitHub - Powerful collaboration, code review, and code management for open source and private projects

python.org - The Python programming language

editra.org - Editra A Developer's Text Editor

eclipse.org - An IDE for C/C++ developers

Unicodetables - ASCII + Unicode tables

Last update: 2014-04-27