Other Projects

Included on this page are a number of miscellaneous projects.  Please click on an

image for a larger view.

2024 Christmas Ornaments Project:

This year I created two Desktop Christmas Ornaments, for the 6th Annual Turners

Warehouse Ornament Contest and Charity Auction 2024.  The annual charity

auction benefits St. Jude Children’s Hospital, and runs from November 26th through

December 3rd.  Please check the Turners Warehouse website for more information.

The ornaments used a DFRobot Beetle controller card, that is programming compatible with the Arduino

Leonardo controller card.  For programming the Beetle, I used the Arduino IDE version 2.3.3.  The Beetle

card is based on the ATMEGA32U4 device, and the part number is DFR0282.  The software running on the

ornaments changed from version 1.8 in the 3-LED version, to version 2.1 in the 4-LED version.  There’s

an ornament user guide in PDF format HERE, that describes how to use the ornaments.  When power is

applied to the ornament USB cable, the LEDS blink to indicate which software version is programmed on

the ornament Beetle card.  My background is hardware design engineering, so apologies in advance if the

software isn’t very elegant.

The images included above link to various photos of the ornaments that were created.  They also link to

the Beetle hardware design schematic, the design document in PDF format, and the Arduino sketch file

program, that runs on the Beetle controller card.

The ornaments include either three or four white LEDS, that shine through 12mm round faceted Cubic

Zirconia gemstones.  The ornaments are built in five sections, with the top and bottom turned from

Redheart wood, the upper and lower sections in Bloodwood, and the center in Purpleheart.  The top is

split to accept the USB-Micro connector and the Beetle card.  The front of the split top attaches to the

back with four pairs of 1/8” magnets.  The 1-1/2” x 1-1/2” x 3” top is split down the center, and the

insides machined on my CNC mill.  The top is then glued back together with four 1/8” wood dowels for

alignment, to then be turned on the lathe.  After turning, the top is sliced apart again, to allow the

electronics to be added.

All of the CNC milling files used to create the ornaments, were done in Vectric VCarve-Pro version 10.5. 

The VCarve-Pro design file for the 4-LED ornament is included HERE, in case you use VCarve-Pro for your

own projects.

Knife Throwing Hobby:

After watching YouTube videos on No-Spin

Knife Throwing, decided to give it a try. 

Following a review on YouTube by Adam

Celadin, I purchased two sets of throwing knives from DXB-Sport.  One

set of three Drago knives, and one set of three Viserys knives.  These are

very nice heavy duty steel knives about 10” in length, and just under 1/4”

thick.  Both sets are great, but both my son and I prefere Viserys.

I started out trying to throw into a pine plank that I had as a target, with little luck.  So I

made an end grain throwing target out of regular 4” x 8” lumber.  I based the design on

an example April Wilkerson showed in her YouTube video, “Making an End Grain Knife

Throwing Target”.  In this design the blocks that make up the target are not glued

together, and can be removed and replaced as necessary.  My target is somewhat larger,

with five rows x five columns of 4” x 8” segments, each 6” in length.  This results in a

throwing target about 18” x 37” overall.  Each block has a 7/8” hole drilled through as

shown, to pass a length of 1/2” PVC pipe.  Each row of blocks, has a length of 5/16”-18

threaded rod passed through the PVC pipe.  The ends of the threaded rod are secured

with 5/16” over-sized washers, Nylon Lock Nuts, and Cap Nuts.  The first target was made with 2” x 4” x

5-3/4” lumber, but it didn’t hold up very well.

So far, the hobby is providing some excellent light exercise, with lots of walking and bending to pick the

knives up off the garage floor.  I’ve been practicing for about a year now, and am seeing quite a bit of

improvement, though I have a long way to go.  One of the best tutorials I’ve seen on YouTube was

created a few years ago by Samoth Chipmah, “No Spin Knife Throwing Tutorial”.  A nice feature of the

tutorial, is that there is an index in the description, showing at which point in the video different topics

are located.  Making it easy to locate specific areas of the video to review as needed.

Ice Mold for 24 oz. Thermal Glass:

Since I prefer to drink water cold, I decided to

create a stainless steel mold for a large ice

cube for a 24 oz. thermal glass.

Left Image:  At the top of the first image is a

2-1/8” ID x 2-1/4” OD stainless steel tube. 

The HDPE parts in the center were fabricated on my CNC mill.  On the left is a “wrench” to

help in removing the O-Ring base.  In the center is the O-Ring base, and on the right is a

cap to keep a stainless steel tube centered while freezing.  At the bottom of the image is

the 5/16” OD stainless steel tube which creates space in the ice cube for a plastic straw.  I

tried to freeze the ice cube with a plastic straw in place, but the straw was crushed by the

ice while freezing.  So far, the stainless steel tube used for the straw channel works great.

Center Image:  To freeze the ice block, the mold is filled with water, set in a small bowl, and placed in

the freezer.  Shown here is the 24 oz. glass and the ice mold removed from the freezer.  While freezing,

the ice block expands pushing the O-Ring base, shown in the right end of the tube, slightly out of the

large stainless steel tube.

Right Image:  If the ice mold is removed from the freezer and left on the counter for 30 to 45 minutes,

the large stainless steel tube warms enough to allow the ice block to slide out.  After placing in the glass,

it usually requires a few breaths blown through the stainless steel tube, to warm it enough to remove the

stainless steel tube, to replace it with the plastic straw.