Wallythecat

Great story and not at all boring. I found a belt sander can be used cross grain to flatten things out. A straight edge and pencil to mark high spots, and more sanding - keep the sander moving always and repeat as necessary. It is possible to get things amazingly flat this way. I'll do that and follow up with a light dusting of blue chalk line chalk in an old sock to highlight the scratches. Progressively smaller grits and sanding with the grain and chalk in between. When no more scratches show with the blue chalk it should be getting pretty smooth. In automotive work this would be called a "dry guide coat". Same idea, similar (but different) product.

Some years back I was asked to bid a job for the federal government to paint a flagpole. Safety would not allow a flagpole painter to go up the pole. I envisioned (and it never got past that stage) something not so different from what you have built. My idea was a device that would go up the pole and prep the surface with wire brushes. Back down, swap out the wire brushes with paint sprayers that would paint the pole from the top down. I'm no electronics guy, but it seemed feasible and still does. I measured the height through triangulation and it seems like it was about 120' tall. Uncle Sam ended up paying huge bucks for someone to take down the pole, prep and paint it and reassemble it. The demand for a device like this may not be high, but then again, maybe it's time for a pr...

Some years back I was asked to bid a job for the federal government to paint a flagpole. Safety would not allow a flagpole painter to go up the pole. I envisioned (and it never got past that stage) something not so different from what you have built. My idea was a device that would go up the pole and prep the surface with wire brushes. Back down, swap out the wire brushes with paint sprayers that would paint the pole from the top down. I'm no electronics guy, but it seemed feasible and still does. I measured the height through triangulation and it seems like it was about 120' tall. Uncle Sam ended up paying huge bucks for someone to take down the pole, prep and paint it and reassemble it. The demand for a device like this may not be high, but then again, maybe it's time for a prototype. Thank you for the article.

Great idea! Has me thinking about how to do a small bird (specifically chickadee) feeder from PVC. Up north of me a waterworks supply company has a great assortment of cut off pieces of varying sizes of PVC pipe, up to 8" and even bigger. Pretty inexpensive from their scrap pile.

Very nice, a great design and reuse of old propane tanks. I have a friend who didn't ensure all the gas was out and started cutting with a plasma torch. The tank didn't blow, the the flame that came out the valve hole end burned and melted the socks into his feet. Days in the hospital for that one. I remove the valve using a socket I copied from a commercial one and an impact wrench. Some are still very stubborn, but eventually... I fill the tank with water and cut the first hole with a plasma torch and the tank still full of water. Rather be too careful than have feet with argyle tattoos burned in.

Too weird!, I love it. Just received my tooth mold from Amazon, that feels like a quality product. It's in the freezer full of water right now. But further down the road, I'm sort of seeing a Cheshire cat looking thing in my future. I love the inspiration. Thank you. . By the way, Amazon also has fang molds.

For longevity of the tube I would think holes better than the slits. The tubes burn out at the orifice and the more material there, the longer they will last. I have a drill press and that and a v-block make the hole drill easy. For me, this started with my gas stove which ceased being manufactured about a year after I bought it, about 25 years ago. About 8 years into this, the S-shaped burner tubes had just given up. No replacements available. I took the burner out to the shop and realized the tube was nearly identical in diameter to some scraps of steel conduit I had laying around. The tube only seems to burn in the straight runs, the loop ends are just fine, maybe because the heat is concentrated in the straight sections. I cut the bad sections out, drill holes down the condu...

For longevity of the tube I would think holes better than the slits. The tubes burn out at the orifice and the more material there, the longer they will last. I have a drill press and that and a v-block make the hole drill easy. For me, this started with my gas stove which ceased being manufactured about a year after I bought it, about 25 years ago. About 8 years into this, the S-shaped burner tubes had just given up. No replacements available. I took the burner out to the shop and realized the tube was nearly identical in diameter to some scraps of steel conduit I had laying around. The tube only seems to burn in the straight runs, the loop ends are just fine, maybe because the heat is concentrated in the straight sections. I cut the bad sections out, drill holes down the conduit matching the original hole diameter and spacing and welded the two together. Lasted for about 8 years and had to repeat the process. I have repaired gas BBQ's the same way and honestly haven't seen much difference in the life span of stainless vs. the conduit of a similar wall thickness. I don't think it's corrosion the causes the burnout of the tubes. Probably depends on the grade of metal. I figure the galvanizing burns off about as much as it's going to in the first hour or so of burning. Not something I lose sleep over. The savings over the years of keeping these things alive and working fine has been huge and satisfying.

Ingenious! I was telling my wife about your project. I've never used Weldbond, but I just ordered a bottle from Amazon and am looking forward to playing with it. Less expensive there than the box store down the street. Thank you for the inspiration. I can see using your idea in a number of places.

Nice! I can just see my collection of '70's concert shirts displayed already. Great idea and inspirational.

I really like the "After a few hours of frustration, I tried my hammer, but that also didn’t fix it, although it did reduce my options to just one; building a new sensor circuit." At some point it is just better to cut your loses and start over. I never thought of it as reducing options, I had previously just considered it a permanent fix to a specific problem. I have been enlightened. Thank you.

Looks like fun. I just ordered the chips and the pc board. Should be putting one of these together in a couple weeks. Nice simple, useful project for a newbie like me. I've never messed with black pc board stock before. Looks like a good place to start. Thank you.

My Arduino Uno kit showed up a couple days ago and I've been staring at it ever since. Downloaded the software and stared at it for awhile. This sounds like a great starting point tutorial. Hopefully the inspiration I need to overcome that "fear of the unknown" are fear of screwing up. Thank you for the time and energy you put into this.

Elegant!