My Project a Month Blog Begins

I have been a DIY guy since I was a kid. I've never really mastered any of my attempts at building things, but I enjoy the challenge. Growing up on a steady diet of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics from my brothers stash, I dreamed of having a big shop and creating all these gadgets of metal and wood. I am however disappointed that I don't have my jet pack as Popular Science/Mechanics said I would, but the tabletop computer has become a reality.

Today, the PS/PM magazines are mere shadow of what they use to be, but the slack has been taken up by specialty magazines, such as the various woodworkers magazines and metalworking magazines. Right now my favorite is Make Magazine which is PS/PM from the old days on steroids.

Check back whenever you get a chance as I will begin to post both old projects and new adventures in my basement workshop.

Thanks for looking.

Eric

Knife Grinder

The grinder is now complete. Except for a nut with a plastic insert and a graphite pad for the platen, it is ready to go.

Specs are as follows.

2 HP motor with a VFD speed control. Make sure you use a TEFC motor as the metal dust/swarf will foul the motor. I found a stainless steel one on Ebay cheaper than a normal one. The VFD is in a NEMA 4 enclosure. In order to make the motor variable speed you need a three phase motor hooked up to a VFD. The VFD takes single phase 220v to 3 phase 220v.

The motor is 56c frame with feet.

I have two grinding setups. A flat one that tilts and a dedicated 8" wheel. I also have a 2" wheel for the handle.

A tool rest. The grinder is set up to tale the standard 1 1/2" tool post found on a KMG grinder.

The metal frame kit was found on the Bladeforum.com forum in the classified.

Now all I have to do is make a couple knives.

Knife Making

Last year, I decided I needed to make a couple marking knives. As usual I searched the web and stumbled on a new hobby of knife making. As you know the guys motto on hobbies, is "Every project needs a new tool. " Or every hobby needs a lot of tools.

I have made about a half dozen knives, but was using a small grinder. A kit was offered on the Bladeforum.com classifed and it was off the races. So without any further adieu, here is the Eerf knifegrinder.

Matt's Turn

My 12 year old is also a tinkerer. I think he has more artisitic ability than I'll ever have. This year while on our family vacation, we went west to Yellowstone and Mount Rushmore. After we visited the Crazy Horse Memorial, Matt decided he wanted to learn to carve.

I started him on the first project I ever did, a dove. He spent a weekend carving about 6 of these, so he would have "An army of doves." He has also carved a polar bear and is starting on a bird.

One of his school projects was to make 3 gifts for the nuns' bingo night at the convent. As the original dove pattern was to be on a cross, he decided that this would be his gift. I'm sure the sisters will really enjoy his handywork.

Meet Mr CMOY

Last winter, I finally joined in the crowd and bought an Ipod. I was disappointed with the earphones, so I upgraded to a set of Shure earphones. This led me to the Headwize forum. Since I have this DIY thing, I began building compact headphone amps. The guy who started this was Chu Moy, who published a simple opamp headphone amp and started many a hobbiest on their merry way. There are many versions and upgrades to this amp in both the elctronics end and also the cases. The standard case is the venerable Altoids box. I've built about a half dozen of these amps from both point to point methods and also commercially made pcbs. I also constructed the patch cord from silver coated cables with TFE insulation, but that is another post.

Cmoy under the hood

I've showcased my 3 favorite Cmoy amps. The first point to point Altoid amp was my first attempt. I spent an entire Sunday afternoon getting this together including troubleshooting. the larger one is also a Cmoy amp with an 18 volt power supply and a crossfeed circuit-hence the two additonal switches. The last Altoids amp was built form a PC board I bought from a guy on Ebay. It also includes a rail splitter power supply and a bass boost circuit. I don't need the boost for my regular headphones, but the Shure earphones could use the help.

I also have completed a SOHA tube headphone amp, but you will have to tune in next time to see this one. Also on deck is a class A Tube headphone amp and a Dynaco 70 upgrade.