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I could imagine something with the can almost vertical on top of a spring, or between two springs, one above and one below the can. Strings stiff enough to make the resonant frequency similar to hand shaking, so 2-3 Hz. At the resonant frequency, even small agitations will be added up by the springs, resulting in large movement. (Think kid pushing another kid on a swing.) The paint in the can will act as a dampener, so a certain size agitator will be required. Off-center wheel under the bottom spring driven by a drill, maybe.

There seems to be one exception to my rule about "Don't try to cut steel with woodcutting machines."The "Diablo D0748CF STEEL DEMON 7 1/4 inch 48 Teeth Metal and Stainless Steel cutting Saw Blade CERMET II Carbide" is supposedly up to the task.https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KWQJB6Y/It is rated for up to 5800 RPM, which means many woodcutting machines can handle it. Just don't handle the saw as if you were cutting wood though - everything I wrote about using a straight edge and cutting slow still applies. My guess is that some of the negative reviews at Amazon come from people who were not aware of this.I have not tried this blade myself, but for less than $30 it is certainly worth a test run.

He did not abuse the saw as much as you would think based on the title and the intro :-)The only thing he did "wrong" was to cut thicker metal than the saw was rated for, and I am very happy he did, as it shows what the saw is capable of.I would use a straight edge even for the two initial cuts he did in 3/16". Without it, the back end of the blade is rubbing against the steel, slowing down the cut, making the edge uneven and wearing the saw blade more than necessary.I am guessing he may also be overheating the saw motor on the long cut. The user manual describes how much material you can cut before you need to give it a break to cool down. They actually recommend to keep the saw running while cooling down, as the fan will cool the motor faster.And I totally agree on the he…

He did not abuse the saw as much as you would think based on the title and the intro :-)The only thing he did "wrong" was to cut thicker metal than the saw was rated for, and I am very happy he did, as it shows what the saw is capable of.I would use a straight edge even for the two initial cuts he did in 3/16". Without it, the back end of the blade is rubbing against the steel, slowing down the cut, making the edge uneven and wearing the saw blade more than necessary.I am guessing he may also be overheating the saw motor on the long cut. The user manual describes how much material you can cut before you need to give it a break to cool down. They actually recommend to keep the saw running while cooling down, as the fan will cool the motor faster.And I totally agree on the hearing protection. I hardly do any work without some form of hearing protection. I use noise cancelling headphones for light work and proper earmuffs for heavy noise. That allows me to listen to music or the radio while working instead of listening to noise.

There are also videos out there where they kept the existing motor and just added an extra belt and pulley to slow down the saw.

Good Instructable, here are my 2 cents: I have mostly stopped cutting metal with abrasive tools after I got my hands on good metal cutting saws. The exception would be metal that is harder than what the saws are rated for.Saws provide cleaner cuts with little to no heating, and the parts require much less work afterwards.Aluminum, brass and other soft metals can be cut by good wood cutting machines. If you want to know if your chop saw is good enough for soft metal, put a good wood cutting blade in it and cut a piece of wood. If the cut edge of the wood looks like it is polished, the saw is good enough. Then just buy a non-ferrous cutting blade of the right size for the saw and you are good to go. Carbide wood cutting blades can cut these metals, but it pays in the long run to buy the rig…

Good Instructable, here are my 2 cents: I have mostly stopped cutting metal with abrasive tools after I got my hands on good metal cutting saws. The exception would be metal that is harder than what the saws are rated for.Saws provide cleaner cuts with little to no heating, and the parts require much less work afterwards.Aluminum, brass and other soft metals can be cut by good wood cutting machines. If you want to know if your chop saw is good enough for soft metal, put a good wood cutting blade in it and cut a piece of wood. If the cut edge of the wood looks like it is polished, the saw is good enough. Then just buy a non-ferrous cutting blade of the right size for the saw and you are good to go. Carbide wood cutting blades can cut these metals, but it pays in the long run to buy the right blades for the material you are cutting.If the wood edge is rough, even with a good saw blade, the saw is wobbling or vibrating too much. If you try to cut metal with this saw, those vibrations will both rough up the metal you are cutting and damage your metal cutting saw blade. Over time you will spend more money on replacement blades than you would by getting the right saw in the first place.Don't try to cut steel with woodcutting machines. They run too fast. The main difference between wood cutting and steel cutting machines is the speed. You can sometimes see people converting wood cutting band saws to steel cutting by reducing the speed of the blade. This works if the conversion is done well.Clamp down everything as much as possible, both the tool and the material you are cutting. You want the energy of the tool to be used on cutting, not on vibrating stuff and breaking expensive blades. For the same reason, always use cutting oil, even when using a hacksaw. If the steel or the saw blade heats up, the saw may bind, requiring even more force.The carbide blade "cold cut" saws mentioned in the list at the end of the Instructable are wonderful tools if used right. They cut steel like butter. A hand held tool like the Milwaukee circular saw will necessarily wear blades faster than a miter saw, but clamping down a straight edge and being careful not to let the saw wander will allow the saw to produce clean, straight cuts with almost no heating. Not cheap, but worth it if you need it. It really saves time. I don't regret getting mine.Video by someone really going out of their way to abuse this saw here:

I did something similar to heat up the kiddie pool when the kids were small. A much smaller pool than this one, though. The pool had a white bottom to keep it from overheating. When I first filled it up, I put a couple of black garbage bags on the bottom to retain more solar heat. Some rocks to keep the bags from floating up. Once the pool was warm enough, I removed the bags.Leaving the black plastic bags on the top did not work. The plastic gets hot, radiates heat back and does not transfer much heat to the water. When they are under the water, any heat absorbed by the bags gets transferred to the water immediately.

I did something similar to heat up the kiddie pool when the kids were small. The pool had a white bottom to keep it from overheating. When I first filled it up, I put a couple of black garbage bags on the bottom to retain more solar heat. Some rocks to keep the bags from floating up. Once the pool was warm enough, I removed the bags.

As long as the "uv protected box" actually is blocking the UV light properly, this will be safe. (Wear UV protective glasses and test the light coming out of the box with some fluorescent material to verify that there is little or no UV coming out.)

Molten lead is way too hot, the glue would melt (and possibly burn) instantly.

I know this question is a year old, but I am adding an answer in case in case anyone else get the same problem."When running voltage through the coil and testing it, it seems that the electricity will only flow when the wire is touched at the very tip,.."This is correct. The wire used for coils and transformers is coated with an insulating layer of enamel to prevent the coil windings from short circuiting. The windings may look like plain copper, but they are actually insulated wire.If you want to solder the ends properly, you have to remove this enamel near the end. It is best to sand it off or scrape it off, it can also be burned off. (Some low temp insulation will melt/burn away when you use a hot solder iron, the tougher stuff will not.)

Well, looking at the results hidden in the files, the mechanical parts are what are currently most interesting here. The scan results from using the using ToF sensor contain too much errors to be useful in the current state. I do not know if this can be improved further, or if this really is the limitation of this approach.It will be very interesting to see the results of using a camera + Raspberry Pi for doing 3D image capture as mentioned above. This platform could also be useful as a starting point for a laser scanner.

..and "duck tape" is the original name :-)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duct_tape"Duct tape was originally known as "duck tape" because it was originally made out of cotton duck fabric and was said to repel water like the back of a duck."

Great job!As you are making this yourself, you have one more option if you want to split open a nut without damaging the bolt:Make a 2nd chisel, this one blunt.Use the first chisel to cut trough the nut, (almost) as far as the threads of the bolt.Then use the blunt chisel to pry the nut open without touching the threads.

Umm..Did you do the calculation?The speed of sound in air is much lower than the speed of light you use when calculating for RF. 343 m/s is the standard value. If 1/4 wavelength is 1 in, a full wavelength is 4 in, which comes out to about 3.4 kHz. Right in the audio spectrum.In any case, if they get a good enough result without doing any additional changes to the box, there is no need to add more work.

This type of lens could be an option.https://www.instructables.com/DIY-Adjustable-Fo...(Not sure if this would require adding cooling to the lens liquid to avoid cooking the lens...)

Quick and dirty way of making something similar: (The result will of course not be as nice as this, but you get a working tool much faster.)- Buy a cheap set of lathe tools with decent handles. Amazon have some that cost less than $20 for an 8-pack, shipping included. Or use some old useless tools you already have.- Remove the temper if necessary. Cheap tools may be untempered already.- Grind away the cutting edge and whatever other metal you want to remove.- Drill and thread a hole.- Mount the carbide bit.Done!

Done wrong, you could blow up a battery with a spot welder. (As you could with the soldering method shown in this instructable.)Done right, it is safe.Battery spot welders are designed to connect both contactsof the welder to the same side of the battery, so none of the welding currentgoes through the battery. The current only goes through the metal at the end ofthe battery.Each side of the battery done separately, of course. Do a search for “battery spot welder” on this site and youfind several DIY designs.

Good advice on the screws.I found a couple of tables here showing screw diameters and pilot holes for both straight and tapered drill bits:https://www.boltdepot.com/fastener-information/Woo...https://www.boltdepot.com/fastener-information/Woo...Another option that removes the problem of pre-drilling completely, are self drilling structural screws.My favorite screws for these kind of projects are now the screws made by GRK Fasteners. They are expensive, but are real time savers. They are much thinner (for the same load bearing capability) than regular wood screws, so I have had no problems with them splitting wood.Home Depot and other stores carry themhttps://www.homedepot.com/s/grk?NCNI-5

Even if they did file a patent for it way back when, it would be expired long time ago. Someone further down mentioned buying this 50 years ago, patents last only 20 years. After that everything is in the public domain.

My 2 cents here:I built a similar setup in my garage, using old laptop power supplies as the power source. (I modified the supplies to output slightly more than 12V, so I got the right amount of current for my strings. I also added wiring to avoid voltage drops along the length of the strings.) This created some interference on my garage radio, as the LED strips act as a large antenna for the noise coming from the switching power supplies. So I have to add additional filtering, the PC supplies were not designed for this purpose. (And my radio is right next to the lights.)Possible solutions for those who get similar problems:-Listen only to strong radio stations ;-) (or use WiFi radio). I am currently at this stage when using my lights, the following is on the to-do list for when I have to…

My 2 cents here:I built a similar setup in my garage, using old laptop power supplies as the power source. (I modified the supplies to output slightly more than 12V, so I got the right amount of current for my strings. I also added wiring to avoid voltage drops along the length of the strings.) This created some interference on my garage radio, as the LED strips act as a large antenna for the noise coming from the switching power supplies. So I have to add additional filtering, the PC supplies were not designed for this purpose. (And my radio is right next to the lights.)Possible solutions for those who get similar problems:-Listen only to strong radio stations ;-) (or use WiFi radio). I am currently at this stage when using my lights, the following is on the to-do list for when I have too much time on my hands.-Add extra RF filtering to the DC power. RF chokes and RF decoupling capacitors will be the right medicine here. Place the filters as close to the power supply as possible, noise should always be treated as close to the source as possible.-Use a better power supply. If you have one of the old fashion, heavy, transformer based power supplies available, you get the noise on the mains power frequency and nothing on the RF bands. The led strings are way to short to act as antenna for mains mains power frequencies, so this will not be any worse than the noise from the DC power itself. Make sure you get true DC, though. Some older "DC" power supplies are rectified AC with poor filtering, so the voltage has a strong AC component. This is OK for many applications, like car battery chargers, but not for LEDs. Too high voltage, even for just a short amount of time, is the one of the best ways to reduce the life of your LEDs. (Heat is the other one, but that it not much of a problem for these LED strings.) And be aware that many of the 12V power supplies used for halogen lights are 12V AC, you need a rectifier, decoupling caps and a voltage regulator to use these for 12V LED strings.-If necessary, add RF shielding to the LED strings. Start by shielding the DC cable between the power supply and the LED strings if the cable is not already shielded. (Laptop power supplies are usually shielded already.) The shield should be connected to the shield of the power supply at one point (and one point only) if the power supply has a shield. Connect to 0V (or GND on the DC side) if not. Adding a layer of aluminum tape behind the lights should reduce the radiation from the led strings. The alu-tape should be connected to the cable shield (again, at only one point). This can be done more elaborate by also adding insulating tape over the strings (unless you use strings that are already insulated) and then an additional layer of alu-tape over that, (not covering the LEDs themselves, of course), effectively creating a Faraday cage. Small holes in the shield to let the light out will not decrease the efficiency of the shield significantly at these frequencies. Just make sure you get good metal-to metal contact between the two layers of alu-tape, the glue on most of these tapes is not conductive and can create gaps in the shield.

The internal wiring in the strips is thin, so there is significant voltage (and light) loss in the far end of a long strip. I run extra wiring parallel to my strips and connect it to the strip every meter or so.