The Gizmologist's Lair

Projects

1/5 Scale Sherman Tank:

• 1/5 scale Sherman Tank!
• Tank Plans are now available!
• Tank Showroom - folks who are building the tank!
• Pneumatic Cannon

Electronics: - New!

• LED light for Soldering Iron - New!

Metal Casting:

• Mixing Green Sand
• Making Molds with Green Sand
• The Coffee Can Furnace
• Melting and Casting Aluminum
• Stovetop Metalcasting

Minilathe and Metalworking:

• A Homemade Surface Gauge
• A Homemade Drill Press Vise (includes plans)
• Minilathe Carriage Lock
• Minilathe Lead Screw Hand Wheel
• Minilathe Milling Attachment
• Minilathe Tachometer
• Minilathe Boring Bar Holder
• Minilathe Tailstock Modification

Miscellaneous Projects:

• Plywood Chair
• 375-Watt Coffee Can Stove
• Hot Wire Foam Cutter
• Building a mixer/tumbler/mill
• Motorized Bathtub Boat
• 6" Disk Sander
• Vernier Watch
• Camping Kitchen/Cartop Carrier
• Homemade Infrared Night Vision
• Play Houses for the Kids
• 2"=1' scale (Barbie scale) Doll House

Homebrewing:

• Homebrew Recipies
• Homebrew Notes and Tips
• How to clean the inside of a carboy

Slide Rule Collecting:

• Concise Slide Rules
• Hemmi Slide Rules
• Keuffel & Esser Slide Rules
• Nestler Slide Rules
• Pickett Slide Rules
• Lawrence/Acu-Math/Sterling Slide Rules
• Other Slide Rules
• My Own Slide Rules
• Manual Attack Computers
• Adding Machines
• Perrygrafs
• Books, Manuals, Instructions, etc
• My Wish List
• Links and Resources

Other:

• Frequently Asked Questions
• British MkV R/C Paintball Tank
• Homemade Paintball Gun
• How to Make a Decent Sign
• Projects I'd Love to Do
• Chainmaille
• The Gizmologist's Lexicon
• Genealogy
• Java Applets
• Computer Graphics
• Requiem for my Lab Assistant
• How to Cook a Huge Pizza
• The Gingery Lathe
• Benchtop Vertical Milling Machine
• Equatorial Mount for a Dobsonian Telescope
• Tree House

Sources for Parts:

• Surplus Center my favorite.
• SmallParts.com gears, sprockets, springs, tools...
• McMaster-Carr Supply sells everything.
• Grainger.com sells almost everything.
• Phoenix Manufacturing Company, a source for pulleys and belts.
• American Science & Surplus, a good source for wheels, bearings, etc.
• Harbor Freight, lots of (cheap) tools, VERY slow shipping.
• Enco machine tools, fast shipping
• Alumilite casting resin and moldmaking materials.

Resources for Tinkerers

The Gizmologist's Notebooks:

• Notes on Drawing a Pentagon with a Compass
• Notes on Spur Gears
• Notes on Calculating Roots
• Notes on Non-Refillable Gas Cylinders
• Notes on Change Gear Setup
• Notes on Tapers
• Notes on "Guestimation"
• Notes on Laying Out a Parabola
• Notes on Laying Out an Arc Without a Compass
• Notes on LEDs
• Notes on Stereography
• Notes on Bearing Nomenclature
• Notes on Continuously Variable Transmissions
• Notes on Pulleys and Belts
• Notes on Chains and Sprockets
• Notes on Motors
• Notes on Batteries
• Notes on Nuts and Bolts
• Notes on Metals
• Notes on Fusible Metals
• Notes on Tracked Vehicle Transmissions
• Notes on Conic Frusta (tapered tubes)
• Notes on the Development of Curved Surfaces
• Notes on Pipe
• Notes on Liquefying Air
• Notes on Repeating Decimals
• Notes on Rope Power Transmission

Off-Site References:

• Exam Preparation Materials by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES).
• Lessons in Electric Circuits by Tony R. Kuphaldt et al.
• A Guide to Filing a Utility Patent
• Notes on Design and Analysis of Machine Elements by Douglas Wright. This site is simply awesome.
• Bolt Science, more than you ever wanted to know about bolts.
• Copper Tube and Fitting Manual includes dimensions, pressures, etc
• United States Patent Database
• Martindale's Reference Desk: Calculators On-Line
• Metric Conversions courtesy of Wiha Tools.
• Animated Engines
• Animated Virtual Mechanisms by Brock Institute for Advanced Studies (Java required)
• Animated Clock Escapements by Mark Headrick - check out his eBook, too.
• Henley's Twentieth Century Formulas, Recipes, and Processes at ChestofBooks.com
• How to Draw a Straight Line at The Cornell University Library: Historical Mathematics Monographs
• Kent's Mechanical Engineer's Pocket-Book, 1907 Edition, at Openlibrary.org

Heroes

• Science Hobbyist site by Uber Gizmologist Bill Beaty.
• Richard Feynman, a sheer, unmitigated genius.
• Red Green, "any tool can be the right tool!"
• Rube Goldberg, the American Heath Robinson
• W. Heath Robinson, the British Rube Goldberg.
• Schlock Mercenary, my favorite web cartoon.

Largely Irrelevant Random Quotation: