I made myself a solar powered bike light. Extra space in the box to toss various things, battery is swappable, estimating about 10 min charge to 15 min run time at medium brightness. I’ll probably add a phone charger and some other features, plus tidy up the cables and stuff.
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That’s pretty cool! And it looks like you have room for a lot of battery expansion, too. Lovely clean project, I like it.
Oooh, a fancy light. But more importantly, let us see the bike!
Bike. It’s been great so far, huge upgrade from the ancient bike I used to have. I’ll likely add more weird stuff to it in the future.
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If you want to see more wild shit done using bikes, it’s worth checking out prolific maker Laura Kampf, who has done quite a few bike-related projects.
My favorites include the beer bike, a combination of a hand-truck and a bike -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ4MKhqvz2w
And the foldable sidecar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICoIRy_SFyE
(Which you can see also incorporates two previous projects, a frame-integrated lock mount, and a cup-holder.)
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Dread is an amazing RPG, the problem is that Jenga towers always have crap written all over them. Wasn’t gonna let that stop me
and the Dread handprint before it got broken up.
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So, here’s a post I’ve been meaning to make for a little bit, but haven’t gotten around to.
So, this is an electric planer.
Underneath, it’s got a flat steel foot, and a gap where a wide, spinning blade drum sits, and can be extended and retracted - in the above case by the knob on the front - to adjust depth of cut. They’re used for smoothing wood, cutting rebates, chamfering edges, basically the same stuff as a regular hand plane, just faster and louder. I own one, and they’re both a very useful, and extremely dangerous tool - there’s no safety devices there, due to the nature of it’s operation.
While some of you know, some have already guessed, in the spirit of this video, and as a teachable moment, I have a question: Who has one and nine-tenths thumbs, and took two of his fingertips off with an electric planer?
This guy. (No gore, just bandages)
So, here I am, smoothing some small bits of wood to use as test blocks for the new laser cutter/engraver. Clamped down in my saw table, I’m working away, and the planer hits a knot in the wood, and kicks the piece loose from the table.
Now, there’s a rule in the workshop - if it falls, it lands. Crush your instincts, never catch anything. If it breaks, it breaks - better to break a workpeice or a tool than yourself trying to save it.
As you already figured out, I did not do this, despite knowing better. On sheer instinct, as it kicked loose, I let go of the planer, and jump to catch it. Score, I’m fast, and I snatch it from underneath, right out of mid-air, badass. And that’s when the problem started.
See, when you’re going to catch something unexpectedly, you often will A)move towards it, and B)bring both hands to catch and stabilize it. Normally, this is fine. You make the catch, your hands come together to stabilize, you did it, good times.
Normally, you don’t also have a running electric planer in the other hand.
So, as I’ve been dancing towards, hands come together, vrrt, bad times. In the moment, much like Adam describes, I was just already watching it, knowing what was about to happen. My first thought, as it’s approaching, was “Ugh, this will set the job back.” Adrenaline floods, it happens. Didn’t hurt, only thing I felt was impact, then wetness. Pain comes later. I immediately safe the tool and put it down, and press my fingers into my other palm. I couldn’t bring myself to look, but I knew it wasn’t good - bring a wide surface wound, it was PISSING blood.
There was, I saw after, a distinct trail from my saw table, to the side door I yanked open to holler out and get some help with first aid(since I was rapidly running out of usable hands), and back in to the sink to start running it under some water - I don’t know what I was thinking, but it made sense to me at the time.
Got the bleeding under control, examined it, dressed it(with assistance - between being a hand down, and having adrenaline shakes, couldn’t do it alone) which was sharp and brightly excruciating. Then, I cleaned the planer, put it away, cleaned up, and just kinda sat around feeling shitty about it for a bit with a cup of tea.
In the end, I took broad, even slices off my index finger and thumb, relatively large, and precisely 0.5mm deep, just barely short of muscle, because that’s the cut depth it was set to. The wood I caught out of the air protected the other three. Painful, but ultimately, I’ll heal up - though my finger and thumb have a different shape now, some distinctly flat spots that may or may not fill back in, I’ll have to see how it goes.
Thinking about it now, I get a little wibble in my stomach - like that feeling of looking down off a high ledge, not fear, just that little fizz in your belly. Looking at it the first time after the bleeding stopped, to figure out how bad it was, and how to treat it - since I had to walk the other person through it - that was honestly pretty scary. I didn’t know if it was gonna be a hospital job(which I didn’t want), a doctor job, or if I could do it myself. It could have been much worse, I could have been taking deeper cuts, I could have missed catching the block and hit more of my hand, I could have hit different parts of my fingers.
The lesson here, is pretty simple - complacency will fuck you over. I know better than to catch falling objects, I know better than to take my hand off a running tool. But I did it anyway, following instinct, and got hurt as a result. Anyone, no matter how experienced, can get negligent, make mistakes, or have accidents. Always be careful, be safe, and don’t get complacent, because that’s when you get hurt. And don’t feel bad because it happened - think about it, learn from it, and don’t do it again.
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Heal up homie. That’s a close shave that thankfully was just that eh? Can totally understand the feelings you’re describing with that aftermath. It happens fast. Can drive ya crazy if you think too hard about how the body can work on autopilot without your conscious decision making process being consulted. And as you described it goes both ways. Cause you to grab the spinny blade of death but also kick in the adrenaline and response mechanisms afterwards.
But yeah I’ve been running lathes a lot recently, (one a lot like Savages’ but also the CNC turning center). A lathe definitely demands respect, and will make no bones o’er maim nor murder; but planers are still fuckin scary to me in whatever guise they take.
Thanks mate. And definitely a lot to be thankful for there - if I’d have been taking a max-depth cut, rather than a clean-up cut, I’d have lost the entire tip of my finger down to the base of the nail. If I’d have brought my hands together in a different way, I could have easily lost two fingers, instead of chunks of fingertip.
And it really is fast - a tiny lapse of judgement, and nothingth of a second, snicker-snack. Even as I was watching it happen, I could perceive it, but I couldn’t change it, it was already done bar the doing, one of those moments where time slows down for everything but your brain.
Admittedly, this is more for everyone else than myself, though talking about it does help a little bit with lingering feelings. As much as I know, shit happens, why it happened, all that, I still feel a bit dumb and silly. That will pass. Far from the first time I’ve hurt myself in the workshop, won’t be the last - it’s part of the risk you accept.
But it makes a good moment to show that yes, these things happen, to everybody, and you’re never too skilled or too experienced to fuck up and hurt yourself. If you’re ashamed of your mistakes, especially when they injure you, that’s how you have it happen again.
That’s exactly what happened to my grandfather, he cut his own finger off with a circular saw, was ashamed about it because he made a dumb mistake and paid for it, and then, because he was ashamed and didn’t think about it enough, made the same mistake again, and cut the same finger off, again, with the same saw.
Definitely joining the Lesson Scars collection, along with friends like the scar by my collarbone from where I was testing a new tool design, I didn’t temper properly, and it shattered like glass when it bound, throwing a chunk of hot, sharp steel into my shoulder. You think I’ve forgotten my tempering even once since, you are mistaken.
Though, on the positive side: my grandfather did also cut a finger off twice with a circular saw. Then, my father cut the tips of two his fingers off in a workshop guillotine. And now I’ve taken chunks out.
Therefore, we can deduce by extrapolation that if I have kids, they will get minor cuts on their fingers, and by the time we get to great-grandchildren, their fingers will be impervious to damage. I’m pretty sure that’s how it works.
Absolutely. Lathes(and similarly, mills) demand respect just by their nature. I have a genuine, deep, and abiding fear of lathes - they will happily kill you faster than you know you’re dead. I’ve seen one throw a chuck key into a breeze-block wall - and I don’t just mean “into” as in “It hit it.” But, funnily enough, for that reason, a Lathe is one of the few tools I’ve not had some sort of injury or close call with - I know that fear, and it never lets me forget to check, recheck and triplecheck everything before I set anything moving.
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Oh shit, that is scary AF. Thankful you are mostly OK.
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That feeling is definitely a feeling.
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Certainly not how I expected my day to go. And you know what I did the next day? Pulled out the planer, and just planed down some scrap boards. (Admittedly, clamped a lot better.) Gotta get back on the horse, or you get all up in your own head about it. And yeah, def thankful. It hurt, it sucked, it still kinda sucks and will for a while till it fully heals, but I’m okay, and I’m not missing anything that doesn’t grow back, barring a little pride.
(And not gonna lie, that first cut the next day, definitely had a bit of a death-grip on the planer…)
And like I said - it’s part of the risks you accept. Bad shit can happen, and sometimes, unlike this case, it’s not even your fault, just piss-poor luck. But, if you know and accept the risk, you can minimize it, and keep yourself relatively safe - for example, a Planer is by it’s nature one of the more dangerous power tools, I’ve got a lot of accumulated hours using one, and this is the first time I’ve had any sort of accident or close call.
It’s definitely unique. Not much else feels like it - lotta ways to get it, but nothing else like it. Sort of like the sharp little pinprick tingle of what could be or could have been.
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I’m vlogging my Magnet Juggling Machine rebuild.
So, a favorite machining youtuber of mine, Blondiehacks, made a video about an extremely rad lathe tool I had NO idea existed called a Turnado, which allows you to much more easily do wood-lathe like freehand turning with Metal on a Metal lathe.
And if you just want a pure action demo, here’s a video from the designer/manufacturers.
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I’ve recently gotten into Warhammer 40,000 and am currently in the process of assembling my army and learning to play. I’ve been enjoying painting quite a bit. I chose to build necrons as I am usually a fan of the undead.
For ground troops this is about half the stuff I have as the rest was in a carrying case when I took the photo. Mostly this is painted with some base colors, some metallic layer colors and a little bit of shade.
Today is a public holiday where I live so I took the opportunity to really dig into the process of painting. Took me about 6 hours to complete this C’tan Shard of the Void Dragon.
I bought and assembled the model beforehand of course, as well as buying the requisite colors I didn’t have yet after discovering this guide how to do it by The Painting Coach on YouTube, which I followed to the best of my abilities.
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I love the new Necron models. The C’tan Shard of the Void Dragon and the Silent King are both gorgeous models.
Nice job painting everything up!
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I have so far painted over 3000 points of Necrons, and now I started painting some Salamander Space Marines.
I still have some Space Marine units kicking around that I need to complete assembling (waiting on the new datasheets for weapon choices) and paint, and I am getting the Leviathan box that will be coming out at the end of the month, but then I will probably slow down for the sake of my bank account.
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How I spent my weekend:
This one is for a small competition in Warhammer Stores called Miniature of the Month where everybody gets a free mini and submits it. Since the mini this time is one of the new Infernus Squad who is just perfect for the Salamancers, that’s what I did. Took some extra time with this one polishing it up a bit, at least to what I am capable of. And since the detailed base is included in the mini I also tried my hand on that rather than gluing some material to them like I usually do.
After completing most of what I wanted to paint for Necrons, I am finally cracking into the Leviathan Box I bought. This is the Ballistus Dreadnought included in that which I am going also to submit for a small thing in a Warhammer store. My edge highlighting is in parts not great, but I pass that off as “wear”. I really wanted this one to look good though and did even do things like take some Leadbelcher and picked out the little bolts that are sticking out of the armor plates.
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Gotta love green.
My local GW recently had a campaign where for 10th edition you would build up a new army, pay successively higher point games, 2 games each at 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 points with no requirement of having fully painted models, and finally bring in your fully painted army.
I have only started with the game itself shortly before 10th in Mid April. However, while I don’t think I am a very good painter, I am a very industrous one, having painted over 6600 points worth of Necrons and over 4500 points of Salamanders Space Marines in that time. I decided to bring the full force of my Salamanders to the finishing photo for the above campaign, because a) I have actually painted 90% of it in the three months of the campaign, and b) I think I did a better job painting them as particularly some of my first Necron models need a redo.
Besides the group photo, I thought I should also show off of the Necron army mostly inside their storage container, though they also get a nice showcase in a display case for some of the more lavish models. I also included a picture of my current painting projects waiting to be completed on the table. Not shown are The Silent King, Tesseract Vault and a Horus Heresy Vulkan Primarch, three bigger projects still resting in a storage box that I want to tackle in autumn and winter.
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