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RepRap - 3D Printer Tuesday, 01 November 2011 23:39 Here's my journey of building a Reprap 3d Printer. Took about two weeks to get to the point where I was printing and I am still tweaking things to get good prints but it's working well enough to share :) Read the Full Story
Homemade Bandsaw Bearing Guides Tuesday, 23 August 2011 14:15 I wanted to upgrade my bandsaw with some bearing guides. Now my bandsaw is an old Craftsman model and I really wasn't looking to put a whole lot into it, heck I only paid $50 for it in the first place! So looking around I see that Carter makes some for like $170 - what!?! for some bearings? psshhhhh I'll make my own for like $20 :) Read the Full Story
Homemade Power Drive Wednesday, 01 June 2011 20:43 Using a Parallax Propeller Proto board and an Easydriver stepper driver from Sparkfun AND a Pololu Stepper Driver - I've built a home made power drive for my lathe / mill / drill - Check it out! Read the Full Story
Timing Pulleys Tuesday, 31 May 2011 14:12 I am working on a project for my Enco Mill Drill Lathe - it's a Power Feed driven by a Parallax Propeller and EasyDriver - part of the project involves making some Timing Pulleys to hook it all up! So this post is about the Timing Pulleys! Check out some pictures and videos! Read the Full Story
Latest 4th Axis Monday, 16 May 2011 13:21 I just realized that I've never uploaded anything about my latest 4th Axis that I've thrown together - so here are some pictures and a video about it! Read the Full Story

Backyard Workshop is a site for my various hobbies, including my homemade CNC machine, Reprap 3d printer, metalworking on my Enco 3-in1 machine, woodworking, aluminum casting, electronics, and more! I have forums and a community area where you can upload your own picture gallery, have your own blog, or start your own discussions too!

Please check out the most recent projects above and below you can find my blog posts. On the right there's a list of my most popular posts, or using the menu you should be able to find all that I have on here. if you have any questions - feel free to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Check out my photo galleries and free downloads, and there are a few things in my store that you may want to buy :)

Jamie

Jan 25 2012

First off - I've never considered myself an engineer - I'm a hack at best LOL but the website EEWEB contacted me about doing an interview, and while I think that I'm insulting the previous - real life engineers, I decided to do it :) Here's a link to the interview and you should check out the website there - tons of good stuff!

What else is going on in the workshop? not a whole lot lately - I've been making some hobbed bolts and selling them on ebay and making some more movie props (can't disclose what just yet) :) and I have been working a lot on the computer trying to further grasp the MVC framework development in C# - so I haven't been in the garage a whole lot really.

What's on my radar? I want to make a homemade DIY MIDI foot pedal - I checked a few out and they are way too expensive for a cheapo like me, so I'm going to make my own - This project will probably involve everything I have (CNC, electronics, microcontrollers, etc) so it'll be a nice project and I'll make sure to document it all and take lots of pictures! :)

Jamie

Dec 24 2011

Here's an update for you!

I printed the parts to make a wobbler engine on my Reprap 3D Printer!

Here's a few pictures and a video of it working!

Dec 09 2011

I am ordering the Lego mindstorms kit for my son, although I will probably be playing with it as much as him! and I plan on posting a review on the "toy" as soon as I get a chance - so stay tuned!

Nov 23 2011

Just a quick update - the Rerap project is printing consistently now! - so now it's time to tweak and tweak here and there (and to print some upgrades) :)

it's printing well enough to print some upgrade parts so here's a look at the first "official" parts off of the printer! This also marks the first official multiplied printing - printing 4 parts at a time!

As usual - if you have any questions (or need any parts printed) email me This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I will soon have parts for the reprap in my store! To start I plan to sell some hobbed bolts made on the lathe, and also some aluminum timing pulleys made on the lathe and 4 axis CNC. After that I will probably sell some complete extruders (including hobbed bolt), and after that we'll see! :)

Nov 09 2011

Hey Everybody!

Just a quick post / update... I uploaded a new site design today - hope it's better than the last, it seems to me to be better anyway.

The Reprap project is going well, I am working on getting my heated bed installed and getting ready to start printing my first part in ABS plastic! I also spent a little time starting to wire tie all the wires (pictures coming soon!) and also mounting the electronics on the frame, so hopefully by this weekend I'll be set! I still need to find a permanent home for it in the workshop, right now it's sitting on the CNC machine and I'd have to move it to CNC anything, so that's not going to work in the long run...

In other news, my band has finished producing our first music video :) if that interests you check it out here: High Tonight

Ok that's it - I said it'd be quick ;)

Jamie

Oct 14 2011
I have been following Ron Thompson's Reprap build and I tried to resist the temptation to build one myself, but it's just too cool :) So I have ordered a Reprap Prusa kit and will start my build shortly! So stay tuned for a build log from me too! Don't know what a Reprap is? It's a 3D printer - meaning it prints 3D plastic parts! Check it out...
Jamie

Oct 05 2011
Well at least I'm getting to it every month! :) I would like to post more often and I really should - Ok I'll try harder next time...

 

What's been up? Well I took a new full time job, so my afternoons in the garage have halted... Everything has to pretty much happen on the weekend now, but that's OK - keeps me more focused!

 

This past weekend I finished up a "Wishing Well" project for my niece who is getting married. Of course I had to involve the CNC machine somehow so I made them a sign that they can put on the wall or mantle later on :) The well was made using regular ole woodworking techniques and the sign was designed in Vectric Aspire.







Another small project I've been working on has been some Disc Golf Tags. I guess the players wager these on different holes on the course and the guy that has the most tags has... well he has a bunch of tags (and bragging rights) I don't get a chance to do aluminum "parts" much so it's nice to reassure that I can make stuff in aluminum :)







Speaking of aluminum - here's a hint at a big project I've been working on with Daryl from Texas Steel Props and Armory. It's going to be a replica Xena Chakram! It measures like 10 inches wide and about half an inch thick - without a doubt it's the largest aluminum piece I've made! Look for a post on the whole project soon!







In some "Graphics" news... I am still working on a "Military Drop Ship" Animation for Dustin Hawkins. He is working on a new Ikari series, and it's for that :) Check out the Facebook page and get involved! I am making and animating the ship in Maya, and compositing in Nuke.







I think that's a pretty good update! so that's it for now - hopefully I'll keep my promise and will update before next month! :)
Jamie
Sep 05 2011

I took the opportunity of the long weekend to get some much needed reorganizing done. I built some new shelves, split my "ultimate workbench" in two pieces, and did some general organizing and clean up.

I loved the workbench but it's really just too big for my garage and since I didn't put any casters in the middle, it was sagging and so rendered the middle part for using the chop saw useless. So I basically cut the thing in two and I'm using the one half still for the table saw, and the other half is now an "Assembly" table.

Since I was loosing the storage that the workbench provided, I decided to build myself some new shelves, really taking up the whole available space on the wall - it's WAY better now and the shelves were pretty cheap to build.

Without further ado, here's some pictures of my newly organized workshop :) (it won't stay this clean for long!)

Aug 31 2011

Hey Guys! I haven't posted anything in my "Software" section in a long time (Even though that's what I DO every day) and I thought I should start to share more Smile So here's an app that I wrote, that I use to schedule my paychecks and bills - check it out and you can have it for FREE! Cool

The problem I have is that I get paid every two weeks and my bills are monthly. This app lets you forcast out all of it in one nice grid and totals things along the way. You can instantly see if at any time you're account is negative becuase the line will turn red, and you can also mark items that you have paid, but have not cleared, and those turn green so you know not to pay them again.

It's very simple and super useful!

Read more...

More Articles...

  1. August Already?
  2. July Update
  3. Already June?
  4. April Updates
  5. Videos are Down
  6. Solidworks
  7. Threading and Yard Work
  8. New Blog Format
  9. New Tools and a New Category!
  10. February 2010 Update

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