Year: 2022

Rebuilt The Deck

Over Memorial Day weekend I took a few extra days off and rebuilt the deck.  Most of the decking decking had rotted to the point of no longer being safe to walk on. I had to strip the whole deck back to the bare structure, replace a few rotten joists, and then add new deck boards, railings, lattice, and azalea bushes. It was a LOT of work, but I think it looks pretty good! In a few months I should be able to stain it - once the pressure-treated decking has had a little more time to fully dry out so it will accept the stain.

Avacado Tree Update

Here's an updated photo of the avocado tree I planted from a pit about two years ago now. It's probably almost 4 feet tall at this point, and is no longer just a single stem with leaves - it's finally starting to branch out like a tree.

Lixie Clock

Years ago I built a one-digit Lixie clock that's now in my office at work. But I've always wanted to build a full six-digit version (with seconds), as that is way more interesting to look at. Now with the laser cutter for etching the acrylic and my new knowledge for making PCBs, this project idea finally seems ready to translate into reality. The photo on the left is a proof of concept of a single digit. The photo on the right is all of the various parts I've been working on to build the six-digit version.

Peach and Plum Seedlings

Last fall I saved the pits from some peaches and plums to see if I could get them to grow. For those fruits you have to 'stratify' the seeds in the refrigerator for several months in order to get the seeds to sprout. I just checked on them a week or so ago, and low and behold they were sprouting! I've since moved them to the windowsill and they are 3-4 inches tall already. Once they get big enough I'm hoping to harden them off and plant them outside.

Batch of Mugs

I've been working on a batch of mugs lately - this is a set of twelve that I threw last weekend and I'm waiting for them to dry. One or two have some cracking on the handles where the lower part of the handle connects to the mug body. That seems to be the spot that I always get some cracking - I need to figure out a better plan for trying to avoid that. I think some experimentation is in order.


Word Alarm Clock v2

This is version 2 of the nightstand-sized version of the word clock that I've been working on. You can see version 1 on the left, and version 2 on the right. As you can see, I definitely achieved my goal of making it a lot less deep! The new one is slightly less than an inch and a half deep. I redesigned the circuit for the new version to eliminate the separate Arduino and switched to board-mounted buttons (instead of the panel-mounted buttons the old one used). I also changed the way I did the light-separation grid to make it less thick. All of those changed made a huge difference in the size, as the first version was almost three and a half inches deep.


Under-Workbench Storage

I built this narrow drawer cabinet to go under my electronics workbench, to give me a plan to keep some frequently used tools near at hand, and to give me a place to stash in-progress projects when I want to get them off the bench. The body is cherry, and I painted the drawer fronts black for some interesting contrast. It's only 10 inches wide, but the drawer are pretty long so it actually holds a fair bit of stuff. For some of the drawers I also used the laser cutter to make some sliding trays to hold the many small items I use a lot when populating boards.

Word Alarm Clock

I've been working on trying to come up with a version of the word clock I build that is in a smaller form factor - something more of the nightstand-sized variety. This is version 1. It still doesn't have a wooden enclosure around it, but it's definitely much smaller. This one uses a pair of PCBs that I designed and populated myself - one for the LED layer, and one for the rest of the circuit. It's still a lot deeper than I would like though, so I've been starting to plan for a version 2.


Sitting Lizard

I recently made this little "sitting lizard" for the shelf above my monitors at home. He's made from an aluminum wire armature and Super Sculpey oven-bake clay. I think he's cute - it looks like he's just kicking back and soaking up the sunshine.