Building A Stationery Organiser

More of a tame project today. I had no way of properly storing my stationery in the lab so why not make a desk organiser from wood? I also decided to make it into a video showing how I made it, it also gave me a chance to show of my new video intro. 

For those of you who haven't realized yet, the Halfcorp YouTube channel is where I post videos on the lab and all of my projects. The videos will cover projects and creations in much more detail then these blog posts, so if you interested please watch the videos, dont just read the blog posts. That being said, small things such as building shelving are not important to warrant their own video, hence a blog post is made instead. Expect bigger projects, much more videos and even more blog posts over summer!

High Current Transformer (Teaser)

My friend from university came down to the lab today and so we decided to do a small project. Making a high current transformer has been on my list of projects for a long time so I thought why not have a go at it today.

The high current transformer is the opposite of a high voltage transformer (the things I usually mess about with). Instead of long blue arcs, it creates showers of hot sparks as hundreds of amps flow though extremely thick cables. There is so much current being pumped out of this transformer its enough to melt metal!

Unfortunately, this post is just a teaser of what is to come. When I get time, the transformer will be put into a wooden housing and be used as an arc welder so I will be able to weld metal together if needed for future projects. When that is done, I will make a longer post with a video and more pictures showing this crazy powerful device in action. So keep your eyes out for that.

Building A Table And More Shelving

Finally the blog is back up to date! Posts from now on should be roughly posted around the same time the events discussed actually occurred (instead of my archiving all the Christmas pictures and only posting them during Easter which is what I have been doing if you didn't already realize).

Over the Easter break I have completed a large number of odd jobs in the lab that have been on the to do list for a long time and help bring the lab closer to a finished state. These include essential maintenance to the power cabinet, mounting the 16a socket, fixing lamps, taking apart appliances as seen in the previous post (also I got gutted a vacuum), fixing other things that were broken and finally, sorting out storage.

 As more storage is defiantly needed, I invested some time into making another set of shelves for the storage area. These shelves are smaller and will be used to store electronics as currently there is no dedicated space for that. I also made a small wooden shelving unit to go under the main work bench to store equipment. Finally I needed to return the table I was currently using for storage back to where I got it from which mean I needed to obtain another. Since I had some spare work surface material lying about, I decided to make a table!

The thick wooden beams I have so many of once again proved extremely useful and made the table very strong. A mixture of well positioned screws and hot glue made this an incredibly well built structure even by my standards. The finished thing is just a strong as something you would buy from IKEA and is perfectly level, not wobbling at all. Overall I'm very proud and happy with the quality of this build and am surprised I managed to make something so well using all recycled materials.

Here is how the lab looks now with the new additions. I also took this time to organised all of the remaining scrap wood to make finding any particular piece easier when I need to make something else.

Washing Machines, Microwaves And CRT's

Over the past 2 or so years, I have slowly accumulated a large collection of electric appliances that I intend to gut for parts. But as the past 2 years have been so busy with college, exams and other projects, I never got round to taking the devices apart. Now that the lab is in order, over Christmas I finally got down to extracting what I needed and getting rid of all thew scrap metal cases which of course, increased storage space again in the lab.

This mass tech genocide involved 3 microwaves, 2 CRT TV's and even 2 whole washing machines. I also took this time to desolder the flyback transformers and other useful components from the CRT circuit boards I obtained many years ago; actually if you scroll back enough through this blog you will find the post where I obtain them =).

So many more useful parts were obtained from these devices: 2 giant AC motors, flyback transformers, relays, synchronous motors, capacitors, tons of reusable wiring and of course, some nice juicy microwave oven transformers! Who's ready for some more high voltage fun?

Building Shelving

Storage has always been a massive problem for me. There is never a time where the amount of things I have decreases, why would I be throwing away projects, tool and equipment if they all still work fine? The lab addresses this issue as it is large enough to provide ample workshop space as well as plenty of storage space. However, it was very important that I utilize the space well. To do this, I designed and built multiple shelving units to accommodate everything I had to store. 

The problem of storage is not simply fixed by packing as many shelves as you can into the space available. Many of the things I have to store are too big for small shelves, but conversely making all shelves too big would waste space where my smaller items are being stored. To add another variable to the mix, I have to also take into account my future projects and equipment and think about how much space I will need to allocate for them.

I thought about this for a while until I was happy with the amount of shelving available, what sized objects could be stored and if there was enough space for future acquisitions. Here is what I designed and built:

The lab was so full of stuff over Christmas (as the shelving was being made), I had to cut the long beams of wood outside which was particularly difficult with snow on the ground. I had to wait until most of it had melted which unfortunately delayed progress.

Here is what the lab looked like towards the start of January 2018, the shelving was populated and the lab interior was really taking shape.

Overall I'm very happy with how the shelving turned out. They are very strong and sturdy, they can hold my weight and don't wobble about in any way, a near perfect solution to my storage situation. But as you can see from the pictures, the shelves are full so more will need to be made in due time.