A Fox Family Came To Visit
Here are a few pictures of a gray fox and four pups that have been hanging out in back recently. The pups were a lot of fun to watch, and they stayed for an hour at least. They were *very* active…
Category Odds & Ends
DIY $3 Scrap Wood PCB Clamp
I’m still not fully convinced of the wisdom of a wooden soldering station clamp/vise, but it’s been serving me well nonetheless. It’s my DIY PanaVise! Why buy something if you can make it yourself, right? 🙂 The frame is made…
Wooden Pig Craft Project
We ran across a picture of a little pig online and my little girl fell in love with it, so we grabbed a sheet of paper and tried to make it. Here’s how it turned out. Below the photo is…
Electronic Component Abbreviations
Here’s a list of common abbreviations for electronic components on circuit boards (PCBs). AE Aerial (antenna) B Battery BR Bridge rectifier C Capacitor D, CR Diode DSP Digital signal processor F Fuse FET Field effect transistor IC integrated circuit J…
Grasshopper Pirates Fanwear
If you happen to have a soccer team called the Grasshopper Pirates, then this fanwear is for you. If you don’t have a soccer team with that very specific and unusual name, then you might want to wear this stuff…
The Pied Piper’s Magic!
Come read the latest exciting release from JEF Press in this illustrated thriller by Jacob. “It’s a real page-turner!” exclaimed the author’s mother. “You’ll be on the edge of your seat until the surprise ending,” suggests his father. According to…
Fixing/Tightening the Flash Mount (Hot Shoe) on a Canon Digital Rebel Camera
If the hot shoe (flash mounting point) on your Canon Digital Rebel camera is loose, then your flash might not be stable on the camera or operate properly. It may not be immediately obvious how to fix it. This video…
Unboxing the Dorel 8″ Pocket Coil Twin Mattress
We took a chance on this $129 inner spring mattress from Walmart. It came vacuum-packed, flattened, rolled up, and stuffed into a bag. The packaging was so unique I decided I’d better set up the video camera so people would…
$2 Hot Wire Foam Cutter
Here’s a hot wire foam cutter that I made from scraps, following a general design I saw in Make magazine a couple years ago. I picked up 20 feet of 30-gauge nichrome (nickel chromium) wire on ebay for $2.09, shipping…
Rubber Band Gun
Okay, let’s get some parenting concerns out of the way first: I believe that a rubber band gun is probably one of the safest ways to teach a kid a bit about gun safety, partly because it actually shoots something…