Author: admin

Working from home means two computers fighting over the same desk. KVM switches are not very affordable if you’re using anything more than VGA for your displays, but there are a bunch of cheap devices that will just switch your USB input devices and that is good enough for me. The only drawback is that most have the physical switch on the box itself, which means you need to have a whole bunch of USB cords sticking out of the thing in all directions within reach on your desk. I fixed this with some wire, a switch, two LEDs, and a piece of steel.

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This works pretty well on the desk, and the block is nice and heavy so it stays put.

Steel and pine

I got some new PCBs in the mail and remembered that I want a Stickvise.

Amazon’s delivery dates for prime are all over the road now that we’re in full crisis mode (nearly a month instead of 2 days), so I just made one up. Main thing I did differently was used “bobbins” instead of jaws, they seem to work just fine and I can think of one situation they will work better than straight jaws: round things. The rod is 3/8″ and overall it is 4″ wide. The PCB held in the photos is 4″ square.

There’s that saying that copying is the sincerest form of something something… thanks for having a good idea! The price is reasonable and I would recommend buying one if you don’t have all the materials laying around (and time to spend). I dig the way they encourage folks to make their own and modify the thing, what a cool way to be.

This is a simple thing that you can use to hang power tools on your wall. It’s designed to hang the tools upside-down by their handle/battery and has room on top to use as a shelf or hold your battery charger. They also can be connected together to hold many tools, either with glue or some #6 screws and nuts. I used this as an excuse to try out Freecad, the parametric model file is attached to this post. Detailed instructions if you’d like to make one are here on Instructables.

Attached are some drawings for the cylinder base, cylinder head, and valve cover gaskets for a Sears compressor. This fits the model(s) with a 2.750″ bore – check out the photos to see if they look right for you. Mine was originally on a gold/brown colored tank that said “Paint Sprayer” on the side. I found the original gaskets on mine were made from material that was .025 thick – I grabbed the closest thing on my shelf and made these up on the laser cutter.

I was having some trouble with belt slip and funky sounds so I took the pump apart to see what was up. Expecting a broken valve or wasted bearings, all I found was some goop. I cleaned it out, put it back together, freed up the check valve on the tank and I’m back in business.