My DIY projects out there for the curious souls to see.

Recently I had a few weeks off and during that time I finished one of my longest lasting projects - the 30€ 3D printer. During that time I got interested in CNC stuff and since I'm so budget minded (courtesy of my empty wallet) I started thinking of ways to make CNC cheaper, better and more available. This might seem like a far stretch but to me it was actually pretty doable. First I started out with what I want my build area to be, 10x10cm seemed pretty good and should work well for what I'll be doing with it. So I took a piece of paper and started drawing what I want my little plotter to be, the 10x10cm build area being the first thing I drew. You might notice that there's a 2x2cm square, that's the bit that will be moving around the whole build area with whatever is mounted to it. When designing most of my projects I just wing it and make whatever looks nice, I can then refine the design into something more sensible. The 2x2cm square was extended to 2x3cm to leav...

I've been doing more and more projects where I need smooth linear motion and there are many ways to achieve it, but for small projects things like 12mm precision ground hardened steel shafts are a bit much. I have a small and light CNC project going on and I need a smooth and straight shaft for the linear motion. Something like a 3mm shaft from a CD/DVD drive would have been perfect if not for the fact that, for what i'm doing right now, they're too short. So I started thinking up ways of making the shaft out of something. It had to be readily available, preferably something I already had, something straight and relatively precise. With "3mm shaft" still in my head I quickly remembered that I have a pack of 3mm electrodes and from what I remember those are pretty straight, so I went to my garage and came back with a few 3mm electrodes along with some 2mm electrodes. Taking a closer look at them they do seem very straight, this might work out but I had to figur...

One.....two....three....four..... Four months is quite a hiatus but never the less my university stuff is done and I can finally enjoy my summer holiday. Recently I got the idea to make a short shifter for my '96 SAAB 900 ( 2nd gen ). At first I did what anyone would do and went to the Internet to see who has done what, and since I'm very budget minded I only looked for DIY mods. I did find a good one where a tube was used to raise the plastic bushing off the shifter housing and also sliding the pivot ball up the gear lever by however much you raised the plastic bushing. To me this looked like a great idea and I immediately went looking for a suitable tube. That's where I was met by the first hurdle. I couldn't find a tube of suitable size. I did, however, have a sheet of 2mm stainless steel. The idea was to make a tube out of the stainless steel and then proceed as usual. The problem I came into was that rolling the tube was not that easy, making the ends meet an...