How-to - The Drafting Table

DIY Telescope Project

This post is about a project I have planned for the next several months (or longer), to try to build my own telescope. I'll try to write a follow-up post to share how it turns out. My goal is not to build a high-quality telescope, but rather one that can

3D Printing

3D Printing as a Service

I've been waiting to receive a parcel so I could write this post, and I just got it today. In a previous post, I mentioned that I wanted to try an online 3D-Printing service. The part that I wanted to print was relatively large, so there was the factor of

3D Printing

3D-Printed Cactus Pot

This post is about one of my recent 3D-printing projects. Cactus I like having plants in my apartment, but anything that requires frequent attention would have a difficult time surviving under my care. I thought cactus would be a nice fit, due to their ability to withstand periods of water

Computer

7 Excel Functions and Features to Know

In this post, I thought I'd share some tools and features in Microsoft Excel that I've come across over the years. This post is not intended as a comprehensive tutorial on any of these features; rather, it can be a starting point for learning more about the ones that sound

3D Printing

New Bookshelf

I recently made a new bookshelf for my room and wanted to share the design. I came up with the design myself. It is built around a single vertical post (a cedar 4x4, 4 feet long) instead of the more common structure where side walls bear the load. Here is

Water

Calibrating a homemade probe

This post is a continuation of the previous one on making a homemade probe for dissolved solids in water. Here I explain how I calibrated it after I got it working. After printing off a new probe tip, I soldered some speaker wire to pieces of metal with an area

Water

A home-made probe for dissolved solids in water

Conductivity is a commonly-measured parameter in water. For example, I measured it in my thesis and it is being measured in the Disappearing Rio Grande Expedition. This post is about my first attempt at making a home-made probe to measure this parameter. I've wanted to try making some DIY water-testing

How-to

Getting Started with Bitcoin (in Canada)

If you've been paying attention to the news recently, you've probably been hearing more and more about Bitcoin. I wrote this post for people who want to gain some first-hand experience and give this cryptographic currency a try. The examples and discussion are focussed on Canadian websites and applications. Try

3D Printing

Making a Mould with a 3D Printer

This post is about using a 3D printer to produce an intermediate component—specifically a mould (or mold, if you prefer)—rather than directly printing the final product. I wanted to try doing this because it combines some of the advantages of 3D printing (customizability, accuracy) with some of the

3D Printing

A 3D-Printing Workflow: From Idea to Finished Product

This post is an example of the complete process of making a 3D-Printed object, starting with the initial idea and design, through to actually having the finished product. It's based on making a replacement knob for the oven in my apartment—a useful application for a 3D printer. Note that

3D Printing

Writing an .stl file from scratch

The .stl file format (see also) is used for 3D printing and similar fabrication technologies. The files are normally created as output from design software, but I wanted to try writing one by hand since they are human readable (actually, both ASCII and binary versions are allowed by the file-type