DIY

IMHO way too big to be usable, but it is an interesting experiment of what can be done with off-the-shelf components.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/814898

All photos

youtube: Cuban Ingenuity

youtube: Cuba's DIY Inventions from 30 Years of Isolation

We drink a lot of milk and I have been collecting these bricks with the idea that there would be a usable function like isolation. But I slowly come back from that plan. the plastic inside will breakdown after a while I would think and there is no structural support of these packages. If I keep it empty, mice can nestle in it and filling with foam prevents from curing...

I am a bit out of ideas. Now i am thinking of using as insulation but then as a flat package. It will require only more milk drinking though 😅. maybe you have some ideas to reuse these cartons?

While there are a lot of exciting electric vehicles finally coming to market, many of us feel nostalgic for the fossil cars of our youth. [Mihir Vardhan] restored his grandfather’s car with an unusual gas-to-EV conversion.

While this conversion starts in the usual fashion by pulling out the gas engine, [Vardhan] takes a different tack than most by not just bolting an electric motor up to the transmission. Instead, he and his crew removed the head and pistons from the petrol burner and bolted the electric motor to the top on an L-shaped bracket. Using the timing belt to transfer power to the crankshaft, there is no need to figure out additional motors for the A/C compressor or power steering pump, greatly simplifying implementation.

This channel is sharing some impressive DIYs. They got great content. However I’m still saving up just so I can build this hydrogen powered engine. Also, easy-green hydrogen is potentially right around the corner now with metal hydrides and CFEs giving a new significant competitive advantage.

Looked pretty easy on YT, just looking for a second opinion. The pessimist in me is worried what might happen if the groove I cut the the brickwork to install it into is not straight enough. What else could go wrong?

I've been saving glass bottles and jars to recycle into utensil containers, paint rinse cups, vases, candle holders, windchimes and whatever else. At this point i could break half of them and still have plenty. I have a glass bottle cutter and the stuff to sand down the cut rims afterward. (I read somewhere that the sanded rims are fragile and it's best to heat the glass rim with a propane torch, but i dunno if i'm up for that.)

I'm thinking about how to turn these plain containers into nicer items, ideally so i can keep saving my bottles and recycling them into gifts. I've read about engraving glass with a rotary tool (which i own, with plenty of diamond bits, and i've engraved on metal), and the only other thing i know of would be using armor etch, but i'd have to hand cut the stencils and it sounds tedious and messy.

I don't know how concerned i should be about the glass shattering as i am engraving. I have glass cutting oil, or do i need to rig up some kind of tub with a water drip to engrave in? I know glass dust is a problem, too. I've waited until summer to start this project so i can work outside, at least until i get the feel for it.

Has anyone engraved on glass or done a similar decorative project with recycled bottles and jars? Or just a project with cut down containers? How'd it go? What did you make?

https://anarchosolarpunk.substack.com/p/offgridinternet

It helps to have your name permanently engraved on valuable tools, but engraving is difficult. Rob shows an easy and inexpensive way to label your steel tools permanently.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curiosity_Show

The Curiosity Show is an Australian educational children's television show produced from 1972 to 1990 and hosted by Rob Morrison and Deane Hutton. The show was produced by Banksia Productions in South Australia for the Nine Network. 500 episodes were produced across 19 seasons. Clips from episodes have been archived on YouTube for preservation.

Might be a kid's show but some absolute classics here, in an easy to ingest format.

What plan resources do you use? Ive built a couple of icreatables firewood sheds and not bad. Just looking for other leanto type shed options

I remember seeing a wiki awhile ago (possibly on the r/solarpunk subreddit?) that was dedicated to providing people with open source furniture. Primarily they used a laser cutter and cheap plywood for ease of use. The end goal was to create public spaces that were easy to set up in the communities. For the life of me I can't find the original wiki! I'd love to rediscover it as I'm moving and will finally be able to work on some of the projects. Does anyone know the website that I am talking about?

A small solar power system to run a LoRa water temperature sensor year round. Here's some pretty graphs of the data:

https://www.kaedon.net/mitigomish/watertemp

This is a project that's been running for almost 2 years now. Everything is still working with very little down time! The solar power system is way overpowered for what it's doing, but I wanted to make sure it works through the dark winters.

The temperature sensor is at the bottom of a bucket in the ground, because the water level gets pretty low in the winter and I didn't want the ice to destroy the temperature sensor when it drifts.

Any thoughts or suggestions for improvements are welcome!

This is DIY repair, not project.

Had some nasty MDF damage. Instead of looking for replacement parts ar sending table to indefinite storage, decided to fix it. I hope this will be useful to someone.

(compiled from the Wikipedia page on jugaad)

• DIY (US)
• jugaad (India)
• hack
• frugal engineering
• kludge (US)
• bodge (UK)
• urawaza (裏技) (Japan)
• tapullo (Italy)
• tǔ fǎ (土法) (China)
• Trick 17 (Germany)
• gambiarra (Brazil)
• système D (France)
• jua kali (Kenya)
• Number 8 wire (New Zealand)
• ’n boer maak ’n plan (Afrikaans)
• izenzele (Zulu)
• iketsetse (Sotho)
• itirele (Tswana)

I wrote this for !zerowaste but it kind of feels like a better fit for diy.

https://i.imgur.com/oBgXyBW.jpg

I don’t have any in-progress pictures of this one, but it’s such a simple design I doubt you'll need them. I responded to a post on the local Everything is Free page where a guy was cleaning out all the lumber left under his porch. At the end of the week he had a dumpster coming and anything that hadn’t been taken he would throw away.

I loaded up my car with what I could fit, but there was this big roughcut 2x12 plank that looked like it had been used as scaffolding (paint marks and boot prints). It was too long to fit in my car but he was renting a chopsaw with the dumpster, so he offered to cut the board to length when they showed up and set it aside for me. So I was able to go back for it (ever since, I’ve brought saws, a tape measure, a square, and a marker with me whenever I pick up lumber). I asked him to cut it to a six foot length, and he even saved the extra for me, which worked out well because I made the rest of the bench out of it.

After having spent some time restoring fancy furniture, I wanted to try something more rustic. I cut the leftover material into three pieces, two legs/sides, and one square piece to cut in half diagonally for support. On the two uprights, I cut a decorative notch in the base, and tapered the sides. I had to use a hand saw for most of this as the skillsaw didn't like the thick plank.

https://i.imgur.com/akUnIBT.png

I nailed down through the top into the legs, then flipped it, put the 45s in place and drove screws through the angled surface into the legs and the underside of the bench. Then I drove screws in from the outside of the legs, and nails through the benchtop.

I gave the benchtop and sides a very casual sanding, just to knock away any splinters and rough spots, and urethaned it so it would last longer.

It's not as pretty as some of the things I've made, but it's strong, and simple, and was made out of wood I got for free and screws/nails/urethane I already had.