Mick's Projects

House Renovations - Laminated Flooring

2010-09-21T21:17:00.000+10:00

Laying the flooring in the bedrooms..

House Renovations - Concrete Grinding

2010-09-21T21:10:00.000+10:00

The concrete slab had to ground back to remove the tile cement, we are puting down a laminated floating floor so it has to be smooth.

House Renovations - Robes

2010-09-21T21:07:00.002+10:00

WE closed up the single door robe in the main bedroom and opened it up on the other side into the 2nd bedroom.

House Renovations - Master Bedroom Robe

2010-09-21T21:06:00.002+10:00

Building the 4 sliding door wardrobe for the main bedroom.

House Renovations - Removing tiles

2010-09-21T21:02:00.001+10:00

Removing more tiles...

House Reovations - Kitchen

2010-09-21T20:59:00.001+10:00

I've been renovating my house the past 4 months..
Here are the shots of the kitchen so for, we have just received the cabinets and they are all in, we are now waiting on the benchtop and some of the doors.

Good site to check out

2010-09-08T21:14:00.000+10:00

Here is a link to a brilliant site I often check for updates, he is a model builder from Italy.
Check out his page at http://kostructor.altervista.org/index.htm

Cheap DIY Mill Enclosure

2010-03-31T20:38:00.000+11:00

Something else I might need to make, from:
http://www.ixen-cnc.com/2007/11/cheap-mill-enclosure.html

In this video, I'll be showing you how to make an enclosure for your mill using acrylic.

The design and dimension for the mill enclosure can be downloaded here. Draw the template onto the acrylic sheets and cut it using the following power tools or scoring tool.

Download another mill enclosure details here.

Assemble the various parts using acrylic glue. On top of that, you can use silicone glue for extra bonding strength.

The front cover can be mounted to the enclosure using acrylic hinges.

Feel free to download the templates to make your own mill enclosure and please post me your comments or queries if you have any.

Leadscrew cover for your Sherline mill

2010-03-31T20:36:00.000+11:00

Something I need to make, taken from

http://www.ixen-cnc.com/2007/10/leadscrew-cover-for-your-sherline-mill.html

In the following video, I'll be showing you how to make a leadscrew cover for your Sherline mill. A text version is also available below. You can also see more miscellaneous videos about this topic here.

In this article, I'll be showing you how to make a leadscrew cover for your Sherline mill. A video is also available above.

First, we'll make a bellow cover using a thin sheet of plastic. You can also use tracing paper. The template for the bellow cover can be downloaded here. Stick the printed template onto the plastic sheet using double sided tape and cut out the shape of the template. The original design of the template came from this blog.

Fold along the horizontal lines in alternating direction. After that, reverse the fold from the outside edges until the zigzag lines. Then, make creases along the zigzag lines. These steps will make the actual folding much easier.

And now comes the tricky part. Fold the edges so that it forms a right angle using what is known in origami as the “Outside Reverse Fold”. Repeat the same steps for all the edges on one side first, and then move on to complete the other side. And there you have it, a complete bellow cover. You’ll need to make two of these to cover both ends of the leadscrew.

Next, we’ll make the mounting plate that will hold the bellow cover. You can make your mounting plate out of aluminium, plastic or even cardboard. The template for the mounting can also be downloaded here. When using cardboard, stick the printed template onto the cardboard and cut out the shape of the mounting plate.

Finally, attach the bellow cover and mounting plate to your Sherline mill. The easiest method is to use double sided tape. I recommend using the “3M Scotch Permanent Double Sided Tape” because it will not come off easily. You can also attach the bellow cover and mounting plate using screws if you don’t mind drilling holes to your Sherline mill.

Feel free to download the templates to make your own leadscrew cover and please post me your comments or queries if you have any.

DIY RC Lawnmower

2010-03-15T19:42:00.000+11:00

Interesting R/C lawn mower build.

Find out more at the website

Adam Savage's Blade Runner Blaster

2010-03-11T20:51:00.000+11:00

Adam Savage's Blade Runner Blaster: "

Mythretirer Adam Savage has a post up this morning on that one Boingy blog about the latest in his lifelong series of personal replicas of Deckard's handgun from Blade Runner. There's more shots of the build as well as pictures of the original prop and two of Adam's earlier replicas. The very first one uses the famous contoured handgrip from Italian toymaker Edison Giocattoli's TG-105 'Super Thur' ray gun, which also appeared in a prop from Joss Whedon's Firefly.

R2-D2 build video

2010-03-10T20:58:00.002+11:00

An interesting build blog.

R2-D2 build video: "

Have you ever wondered what exactly is involved in building a working, radio-controlled R2-D2 robot replica? This vid documents the two-year process of Victor Franco, of Southern California, and his friends building an R2, mainly from scratch-built parts of varying materials, including wood, styrene, resin, and aluminum. He also used some parts provided by members of the R2 Builders Club. Nice work! [Thanks to Chris James and Michelle Iva Cook Hlubinka!]

Victor Franco's Blog

Car Pc - Cover

2010-02-27T00:45:00.000+11:00

The Cover to cover all 3 boxes was made from a 12mm sheet of MDF, the first image shows where the sub goes, I made a raised ring to give the Sub cone room to move. The back material is a cotton fleece stretched over the entire shape and then fibre glass resin was used to stiffen it up. On the sections with holes I applied some fibre glass mat to give it more strength, once it was all done I covered it with carpet.

Car Pc - Sub Box

2010-02-27T00:41:00.000+11:00

The sub box was made like the other 2, except where I could I used wood to give the box more density and the fibre glass back I put a few extra layers on it, also to thicken it up.

Car Pc - Amp Box

2010-02-27T00:39:00.000+11:00

This is the Amp box that was constructed the same way as the PC box.

Car Pc - All 3 Boxes

2010-02-27T00:29:00.001+11:00

Here is another old project from about 2 years ago, I made 3 fibre glass boxes for the back of my car (2006 Ford Falcon XR6T Ute) one to hold a Sub, (8" Rockford Fosgate, left over from my old car), the centre box to hold the amp and the last to hold a car pc.

The PC is a P3 GHz, 512MB Ram and powered but a M4- ATX power supply, a purpose built 12v power supply designed to run in cars.

I will show pictures of each box in following posts.

Car Pc - PC Box

2010-02-27T00:14:00.025+11:00

This is the PC box, it's made from fibre glass with a black tint put into the resin.

The rear curved section with moulded in the car and then removed once dry, the flat front and sides were layed up on the flat laminated board so once dry I could remove it then it was all glued together using a resin and talc power mix (about 50:50 ratio) this forms a thick glue that can be used to glue the sides together and then sanded back. It isn't a good method if your putting your fibre glass box through any stress as it will crack along the glue line, but for simple box it will be fine.

I glued in a cut up piece of the PC box so I had attachment holes for the motherboard.

Once it's was all sanded down, I covered it with a thin automotive carpet that conforms well to curves.

Fiberglass Mac

2010-01-14T00:30:00.000+11:00

This is a project a friend (Eddie) want to do, he is doing his fine art's degree and for one of his pieces he wanted to do was a plaster cast an old mac computer. I suggested we make a fibreglass mould to pour the plaster into.

Here are some of the photo's from when we started. It had to be a 4 piece mould, with the bottom staying open to pour the plaster.

On this day we made both the sides, we gel coated and then fiberglassed it. Eddie then finished off the rest of the sides in his own time..

I will get some photo's of the finished parts.

I have worked with Eddie on a few of his projects, mainly doing CAD work for him and advising him on how to go about the build, I will show some more of his work along the way.

Record Weight

2009-12-26T20:32:00.000+11:00

Here is a record player weight I turned up for a friend a while ago, it's made from 2 pieces of aluminium screwed together.
I would have liked to have made it from one but it was made from scavenged material and they were the 2 biggest bits i could find with a large enough diameter.

CNC - First Cut

2009-12-20T19:19:00.001+11:00

I've made the first actual cut with the CNC router, actually cutting this time and not just with a pen.
I took a 2mm cut into pine with a V bit and it went pretty well, I thought play I have in my Y axis rails would produce a poor cut but it turned out ok.
The cut was just one of the demo programs in EMC2.

CNC - Electrics

2009-12-15T19:45:00.003+11:00

Here are some more photo's of the electrical box, I have wired in the limit switch wires and properly secured all the plugs on the back of the unit. I still have one hole to fill in the back (the big one in the middle) i'll have to get some more 2mm aluminitam for that.

CNC - Router Mounted

2009-12-14T22:25:00.002+11:00

A quick photo of the router mounted.

CNC - Limit Switches

2009-12-14T22:20:00.002+11:00

I've done a little more work on the router, I've mounted the limit switches. I took the pictures before I finished off the wiring.
I changed the placement of the switches on the X and Y axis from my original plans, I didn't like the way I had them. This way if they over travel a little more it wont damage the switch, the old way I had them mounted, if it over travel it would run into the switch and possible damage it.
In the picture you can see the X Y and Z axis switches, the X and Y are both adjustable.

CNC - All on

2009-10-25T22:40:00.002+11:00

This is pretty much what it looks like now, except for some part that are now painted.
ATM I'm working out the electronics, all the motor's are working and moving except they don't have a lot of power so I'm tring to sort that out.
I will post some photo's of the electronics and some video's of it in action soon.

CNC - Z Axis Assy

2009-10-25T22:29:00.003+11:00

Here are some photo's of the Z-axis assembly.