Professors from Carnegie Mellon and the School of Art Institute at Chicago resurrect a centuries-old tool, the camera lucida, as the NeoLucida, which allows you to trace your environment or subject onto paper by hand.

Nitecore SENS AA flashlight! For Christmas I have a new addition to my EDC (everyday carry) loadout… or rather, I’ve been getting into EDC lately. Is it a coincidence that I haven’t been intentionally preparing for the apocalypse? jk

This tiny thing throws out 120 lumens — enough to light my living room — and is about the size of my middle finger and gets 2 hours at that intensity with one AA battery. It’s durable, waterproof, has grippy knurling, and sports a classy brass ring.

I made a little paracord keyfob for it too ^_^ just to have something to hold on to while pulling it out of my pocket.

Also starring in the picture is an old Winchester tactical pocketknife I’ve been carrying every day lately. I got it at boy scout camp 6 years ago. It’s rather thick, the steel doesn’t hold an edge, and I’ve grown to not like the partial serration. The Spyderco Delica is currently in my sights though, so I’ll get that sometime soon.

You might be wondering what happened to the DIY/maker/tinkerer in me in the past couple months…

School took over that for awhile. I needed to cut back…

But also in the past couple months I’ve been working on bikes, sparsely, a couple times a week. My dad snagged a great deal for a 1998 Schwinn Homegrown, the frame on which is supposed to be indestructible, a ‘classic’ mountain bike from its time. And I’ve been determined to make the best out of it.

So… I

• cleaned it with a power washer
• tuned the brakes
• tuned the gears
• freed the @#$@#$@#$ stuck seat post with a ridiculously overkill contraption… it worked
• drilled out the (reallllly nice and light aluminum) rims to accept schrader tubes
• changed the tires from commuter to proper mountain bike tires with a center rib for less rolling resistance on the road (might change that still if I’m going to ride more trails around the area… alum rock’s slopes totally made me slip)
• bought a bike computer to keep track of distance/time

• …and… this past week I changed the fork from a yellow Rockshox Judy SL to a black Rockshox Judy Race (more travel/durable). This has been one of the most frustrating and exhilarating experiences I’ve had to deal with so far. So after swapping the cracked, blown out top caps on the Race with my SL’s, I took the whole thing apart and cleaned everything, then changed the damper oil.
  OEM the v-brakes were mounted with some tight !@&#*&@#$@#$@#$@#$@#$ thread lock onto the old fork… I stripped the screw with everything i tried — from regular allen key, to torx wrench, to diagonally fitted flathead. And then pulling advice from a forum, I took a blowtorch, heated the screw for a good 20 seconds, then rapidly cooled it with ice, the expansion and contraction of which hopefully freed up the thread lock. Then I dremeled out a slot in the screw to use a flathead (the allen part was completely mangled), took an impact driver drill and worked the crap out of that screw. And that worked. It was the greatest feeling ever. I felt like I could tackle anything. LOL

Forgot to upload this video when uploading all my creations :)

Next to my ukulele, I think I’m proud of making this the most. And yet it stands in the corner of my room next to my clothes collecting dust… faithfully ready.

It’s a 6 foot longbow made “legitly” as you would say (shaping with rasp and files after cutting it down a little with a jigsaw, tillering it, or flexing it centered on a pole and measuring the bend on each side, shaving off wood to suit, gluing on a handle block and shaping that, then carving nocks, rubbing on an oil/wax, making the bowstring from dacron b-50…). Technically, in the bow making community, it’s a “board bow” meaning that it was carved from a wood board, and isn’t completely rounded or backed with a proper second wood. So yeah. But it’s still considered a real bow.

It took me about 3 solid weeks in my backyard to make (tillering was a week of shave, shave, pull to compress/set bend in new fibers… gah for my frame at the time that was an ab workout) and then during winter break of sophomore year I finished it because my dad finally ordered some Dacron B50.

Specs:

• Made from red oak wood, in a 2” x 7” bought from Home Depot
• Used surform rasp, various coarse and mill files, and up to 220 grit sandpaper to finish it.
• Backed with linen fabric for breakage safety and tension strength with Elmer’s wood glue
• Dacron B-50 (100% polyester strands and high tensile strength), 12 strand Flemish bowstring, beeswaxed
• Pulls about 28 lbs, stands 6 feet tall unstrung.

Yes, I’m a long time LOTR fanatic.

and yeah, in the video towards the end my fingers couldn’t take it (later made leather finger tabs)… and gee i was so short and small. and woah, pajamas xD

Okay, I might as well upload all my projects up to date on my tumblr.

This is a slingshot I made last summer. I was going through a slingshot phase because I didn’t know slingshots could look so pretty. And plus, they’re super handy. And this one was the most comfortable one yet.

Specs:

Laminate slingshot… order is Pine — 1/4” Birch plywood — 1/2” oak plywood — Pine (pine are the palmswells), and it wears 3 layers of a Tru-Oil gunstock finish.

It was a design entirely copied from Nathan Masters, aka Flippinout, on slingshotforum.com.

Unfortunately it was confiscated by park rangers because no weapons were allowed where I was camping. How unsympathetic and unappreciative of a product of skill, meant for non detrimental use. I was just gonna plink cans with it. Geez. Still awaiting a reply from them about when I can get it back :P Sigh. :C I’ve since been out of the weapons (Ahem. potentially dangerous ART. Ahem) making business for that reason.

W00T!!! I can haz electronic music!

My latest project…

In concordance with my very tight budget, experimental hobby (not sure of what music production i want to get into yet…), and tinkering, curious mind… I present a very ghetto MIDI controller made from a PS2 controller (with a $10 USB converter), 10 kΩ potentiometers, wire, cardboard, and wine cork. Total cost = $2.38 for the potentiometers. It sure beats commercial products $50 and up that include keys and drum pads, which I already have.

Basically, the potentiometers (variable resistors) are hooked up to the axes of the PS2. Instead of using the controller’s joysticks to control whatever I want within music software (REAPER, as of now), which doesn’t give precise control over just one axis (4 axes total — up/down left, side-side left, up/down right, side-side right), I’ve basically just hooked up potentiometers to control each individual direction per joystick. PS2 controller signal —> usb —> Multicontrol software (Joystick to midi) —> Reaper.

And yes, the corks are the knobs. The original potentiometer only had a plastic stick to twist. I wanted something more creative and comfortable. Yup, a wine cork.

There are only two shown — as with any electronics project, I can’t get it right the first time… but I’ll buy the right parts next time… but in the end, there will be four knobs total. Maybe even sliders… that would be best.

What does it do? Each knob can be assigned to control volume on a track, wobble/tremolo (a la dubstep bassline >:D), pitch, or whatever else I want it to. Maybe even crossfading between songs for use with DJ software.

YAYYYY!!!!

So if you don’t know already, I’m building a concert ukulele this summer.

I just found out recently that my 9th grade English teacher is a great amateur luthier and she and others on Ukulele Underground are helping me out with materials and advice to build it.

You can follow my progress (asking questions, getting help from other luthiers, my problems) here, but I will also be posting pics and progress as much as I can here as well.

Photo album with progress pics:

Why? I want to test my building skill at something challenging, have a nice portable instrument to bring camping, to play at church, and at school (part of a uke trend… why not build one? haha)

It’s for those who just don’t understand how useful building stuff can be, you can build, not buy what everyone else has! (ofcourseifyouhavetimewhichishardtocomebyifyourereallybusyduringtheschoolyearargghh)