Personal Projects

This project has been a real life saver for our family, it pulls multiple google calendars to show our daily obligations. I used a Raspbery Pi computer mounted to the rear of a spare monitor, then made a custom hardwood bezel. It also displays the time, a weather forecast, and inspirational quote of the day. Since this image I added a tracker for the air quality index, since our area tends to deal with wildfire smoke at the end of summers.

The Before step of most of them involved joining, filler, high build primer, and a lot of sanding. 

One of the skills I have picked up and developed is low pressure molding of urethane and silicone parts. This example is a prototype for a cable overmold, with an embedded circuit board. I have also molded platinum silicone sculptures. When you're designing your own parts, then molding them yourself it really drives home how important it is to properly consider manufacturability and tooling requirements.

My Kids are deeply into the competitive swim life. As a result they are constantly tracking their personal bests, improvements, and goals. For each of them we created spreadsheets to track their times across every event and meet they do. Note: the color and line-types were set collaboratively by the child. 

After some internal remodelling, I had spare material and built it into a customized workbench. The table height was customized for my stand height, with a shelf to put the circular saw outfeed level with the upper surface. Reclaimed heavy duty kitchen drawers were used for fastener storage, and heavy duty casters ensure smooth easy rolling. A few coats of urethane turned the MDF surface into a proper work top.

This was a fun project, using a purchased model and instruction set to build an RC car from scratch. I sourced the components, printed the structure, and assembled and wired it at home.

I'd highly recommend it as a learning experience, that produces more than just fidgets: Link

After buying myself an FDM 3D printer, I became interested in post finishing them to improve surface quality and potentially indulge deep nerd tendancies. I ended learnign a lot about the process of turning rough prints into smooth finished products, as well as the processes for creating specific layered paint effects.

An Iron Man Helmet was one of the first helmets I made, and as such learned a ton of lessons. The facemask was removable via implanted magnets. I combined this with a custom chest repulsor with embedded Blue LEDs for Halloween one year.

After making a few helmets for myself, a friend's son requested a Boba Fett helmet after an off-the-shelf costume came with a face-only mask. It was an interesting learning experience. Most of the ones I had made previously were inteded to look like new, but Boba Fett's look is intentionally dirty and gritty. This added a new layer of post processing and distressing.

I converted a reclaimed microwave cabinet into a 3D printing enclosure with switched mood lighting, noise isolation, and video/temp monitoring.

Just about every piece of furniture in my home is modified or refinished. Ikea offers low cost unfinished solid wood versions of many of their offerings, and we have leveraged that to create a customized cozy result at a fraction of the cost. Plus, it's given me an excuse to get an HVLP paint sprayer and invest in proper wood working tools.

While it is not much of discrete "project" I find great joy in cooking, baking and general food preparation. I took a class in culinary arts years ago and it truly sparked a lifelong passion for cooking good food. The image below is a recent cheddar baguette.