How to level the bed of a Solidoodle 3d Printer

I'm sure that there are plenty of other printers that can be managed in the same way, but these instructions are based on the process that I've used to figure out how to level the bed of the Solidoodle 2 printer.

To start with you can leave the printer on and you can use the software called Pronterface to move the extruder about, but I do think it's easier to just hit the button in pronterface labelled motors off, and then move the print head about by hand. you won't damage the printer this way, but still be careful!

The first thing to do I guess is describe how the bed it put together.

There is a flat platform on which the bed assembly is mounted, on the underside of this platform is a series of nuts. going into these nuts are bolts that obviously can move up and down in the nuts.

The bolts are threaded through the metal bed and into the bolts.
Between the bolts and the platform that the bed sits on are some springs, these ensure that the bed in pushed as high as it can go on the bolts, so when the bolts are adjusted in and out of the nuts, the bed moves.

There is 1 bolt at the back and 2 bolts at the front.

To start with push the extruder head to the centre and back of the platform.

This is where you're going to alter the front to back level, Adjust the screw that's in the centre at the back until the platform is about the width of a credit card away from the platform, (in fact use a credit card). turn the screw anti clockwise to make the bed higher and clockwise to make the bed lower.

On the Solidoodle 2 you need to use a 2.5mm hex wrench to alter the bed.

Once the level at the back of the bed has been set move the extruder head to the very front and right corner of the print head, this is where you'll set-up the left/right tilt of the print bed.

Once you've adjusted this screw so that the printer head is about 1 credit cards width from the printer move the extruder to the left most side of the front and adjust that side.


Why credit card.
I'm suggesting setting the print head about a credit cards width during the process of levelling the bed because if you aim straight for 0.3mm and the front is slightly higher the first thing you're going to do is scratch the kapton tape when you move the print head from the levelled back to the much higher front.

Having slightly more space between the head and the bed allows you to see that the head is getting closer before it's too late.

Setting the bed height.
Now that you have the bed level you need to set the bed height, to do this the Solidoodle company suggest using a thin piece of card, like a metro card.

However, I think that if you have a set of feeler gauges you should use them, use the 0.3mm gauge.

Home the head in the X and Y axis (which put the head slightly off the bed, now home the bed on the Z axis (this will raise the bed)

Hit the motors off button so that you can move the extruder around.

Carefully move the extruder towards the bed.

If the bed if much higher than the extruder (and trying to move the print head over the bed won't work as the print head will just hit the bed then you need to look to the Z-stop screw at the back, turn it clock wise to make the bed home to a lower height.

Ideally you should have the bed ship with a Z stop set that the extruder won't hit the bed when you hit Z-Home for the first time.

In this case you can move the extruder to the middle of the bed, hit Z home.
insert your gauge in the gap.

If the gap is to big, move the Z-stop screw on the back wall of the printer anticlockwise. then press home again until you have the correct gap between the print head and the print bed.

The Workbench/shop stock list

I've had enough of posting lessons for a little while so I'm going to post a little commentary.

back to a subject visited earlier in the year, the what tools should you buy list.

So far I looked at some very basic Electronics tools:
http://ah-screwit.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/workbenchshop-stock-lists-electronics.html

As that post says, this was prompted by an article on Hack a day that was asking for comments on what are essential workshop stocks.

There was a £60 spend on the very basic electronics workbench and roughly £130 spent on woodworking tools (well you really should make nice cases for your projects!)

So of the original £600 budget I still have around £400 to spend.

During the course of introducing components I've suggested making a logic level indicator
http://ah-screwit.blogspot.com/2011/07/logic-level-indicator.html
This will save you a whole load of time making the circuit over and over and money, it's much cheaper to make this than to buy it.

So far on the list of stuff that you really should have in your workshop/workbench we have:
multimeter
soldering iron
Iron  stand
breadboard/choipping board/work surface protector
solder sucker/braid
breadboard
Clamps
Saw
Tape measure
Square
Marking Tools
Hammer
Punch
Chisel
Drill
Drill bits
Screw drivers
Safety Gloves

So lets start adding to that list.
By now you must have figured out that there are a few tools that are rather specialised, (solder suckers can only be used for sucking up molten solder) whilst other tools seems to be able to complete a variety of tasks with no ill effect. -as well as being able to solder a soldering iron is also a really good tool for burning wood, (that's if you're into creating wood burning drawings.

I've realised that there is a pretty essential item missing from the list.
Pliers
A decent set of pliers will include both needle nose and bull nose pliers.
If you're doing Electronics then you'll want a small variety, you'll also want a set of side cutters.
If you do bead craft then you'll mainly be interested in needle nose pliers, and side cutters.
Large work (and metal work) will likely require larger pliers.

A lot of needle nose pliers and have wire cutters built into them, and can also be used for holding nails as you begin to hammer them (saving your fingers!) three uses in a single tool. you should definitely get that!
A set of small pliers
http://www.maplin.co.uk/5-piece-miniature-plier-set-31557
this 5 piece set has bul nose, needle nose, end cutters, side cutter and curved needle nose.
£12.99 can't go wrong.

I think that takes care of all the change from the first £200 and gives you a pretty full tool box capable of working with both wood and electronics.

But lets look at expanding that...
As much as when you're starting out you clearly won't just spend £200 right off the bat on new stuff for a hobby. that list is very far from an exhaustive list of the kind of stuff you;re going to want to have around when you start to get seriously involved in the (very rewarding) world of DIY stuff, or hobby making and fixing.
now we'll start looking at some more specialist tools, these are the kind of non-essential stuffs, but also the high price items, this is where the money starts to disappear fast! so this is also where you may start to specialise. (As you may have gathered from the wide variety of lessons and projects in this blog I'm rubbish at specialising, for the tools I have, to buy new would be thousands, even buying some second hand at car boot sales etc I've probably spent thousands!

Wood Working
If you are into wood working, this is the time you need to start considering some real power tools.
if you cut a lot of boards then you will probably want to invest in a Circular saw (£50), a set of long straight edges to use as a fence when using the circular saw (this could just be a long length of wood) you'll probably want to finish the edges and corners of wooden box projects with rounded or moulded edges, or inlay router detail, so you'll want a router and a set of bits (£50) if you ever want to cut out objects that are not straight you'll want to consider getting a scroll saw/jigsaw (£50) finishing project sanding large table tops by hand isn't great, you want a power sander, maybe even more than one, a belt sander for really ripping into a course surface (£50) and a sheet sander for more detailed work (£50) if you ever plan on doing DIY that involves say hanging a door or making rough timber smooth then you'll likely want a power plane (£50)
now you have £100 of that £600 budget left. if you;re doing big wood working projects, you'll likely need to bolt something together one day, so you'll want a ratchet set (£30) and you're going to need somewhere to work, a couple of folding "workmate" benches, which are about £30 each.

that's £600 gone. (£200 in previous blogs and £400 on those last tools)

now you can comfortably make small electronics projects and do some very nice woodworking projects. even with £600 spent there is still no table saws pillar drills, the planner is hand held, not a table. the more "into" making things you get, and the more your skill develops, the more tools you will inevitably buy.

Electronics
Lets assume thatyou want to specialise in electronics. and want to cover a mix of analogue and digital projects.
First tool you're going to want is an oscilloscope, these can be had from eBay for as little as £20, for an old analogue scope. but can also go right up into hundreds or thousands for digital storage scopes. you can get scopes that attach to your PC. this isn't the place for talking about how to chose a scope. but right now we;ll budget about £100 for a scope. that will be a reasonable new scope, or a great second hand scope.
You'll also want a function generator for giving your circuits signals that you control. that again will cost you about £100.
You're also going to spend around £50 on good leads and probes to connect them all together.
You should consider getting a microcontroller development board. I mainly use PIC chips from Microchip a programmer for these costs around £20 for a generic one.
You may also chose AVR or similar programmers cost around the same, you could also just buy a single chip development board, the arduino costs about £20, but why buy just that board when you could get a programmer for the who AVR range from Atmel for a similar price?? my pickit2 programmer also programmes a variety of EEPROM chips.

you now have £130 change.
but you're now making some big circuits, one breadboard isn't cutting is, you need more.
you also want components, LEDs resistors, crystals resonators for the chips, capacitors, the chops that you are using. a set of draws to keep components sorted (£30). that £130 will disappear fast!

Metal Working
I haven't posted many metal working projects just yet, that's because they tend to be big, and bulky, taking lots of time and space. metal working is also a pretty specialised and expensive arena to be in.
that £400 change you have from the initial lessons.
welder £100 - £1000 (don't buy a sub £100 welder) and the only welder you'll get that is good for that money is a stick welder. (useless for sheet metal work) (I'll call this £200)
a big vice (£50)
a big blow torch (for brazing) (£50)
a set of hammers and dollies (£50)
a decent leather bag (£25)
brazing supplies (£25)

Fabric / Textiles
Textiles is an amazingly rewarding crafting experience. don't be suckered into thinking it's girl stuff and easy because it's just not!
You're going to want at a minimum some pinking shears, (they cut those non fraying jaggered edges)
needles, threads.
if you're doing big stuff a dewing machine is a must, (basic machine will set you back £100, avoid any one called mini or travel sold for around £30, they are rubbish.
however, most of the expense of your textiles crafting supplies is going to be materials cost. fabric is just not cheap!


Auto Mechanics
Gone are the days of having just a single set of cresent spanners and a flat head screw driver.
today if you want to work on a car you need some serious equipment.
the old stock tools are still needed.
Feeler guages for checking plug gaps and valve clearance (£10) 
Spring Compressors (£50) 
Circlip Pliers (£10)
Pressure gauge (£30) 
Rachet and spanner set (£100) - yes seriously a hundred beer tokens. go to Halfords, get their 200 piece professional set, it's expensive, but it's got pretty much every socket you;ll ever need  and is guaranteed for life, if you ever break a socket you go to a store with the broken socket, (that are all embossed Halfords professional) show them the socket and they replace it. you don't even need a receipt, all their professional stuff is guaranteed for life. tell them you lost the recipt but still want then to honour the promise, (clearly that's a UK only thing) if you're not in the UK then consider your nearest large tool supplier who are happy to put crazy guarentees on quality
A set of torque wrenches, (small medium and large) (£100)
a drain pan, (for catching oil) (£10)
a good trolley jack (£50 - £100)
Ramps (£50)
axle stands (£30) - seriously get Axle stands, I was working on my car the other day I heard a creak, I rolled out from under it to check out the noise, five seconds later the car fell of the scissor jack, the brake disc/rotor that was ten seconds before right above my chest was now on the floor.
well that's actually £500 spent, (though you may find what's called a lifting kit including ramps and jacks together for a good price, but I've still not included any diagnostic gear fault code readers. (the code reader I have for my car is a specialist Peugeot one that I need to have a dedicated laptop for as well!)

It's when you get seriously into the hobby that the serious money starts to be spent!

Logic Level Indicator

To breakup the lessons a little bit more I'm going to publish a write up of a tool that I made whilst I was at university.

When I was at university we used to program Motorola 68HC11s in either Assembly or C. The development boards that we used in class had 4mm connectors on them allowing us to connect boxes containing switches, or lights, or DACs to the chips using simple instrument leads with 4mm plugs on them.

So I made my own logic output board,
The board consists of 16 inputs, and 16 LEDs, to help identify there, these are coded red and green.

The board is powered by a five volt supply, and has an LED to signify that voltage is present, and a Zener diode to help make sure that the supply voltage does not exceed 5V.

In general you cannot rely on a digital output to have enough current to power an LED.

So I'm using a chip output to turn on a transistor, that transistor is then arranged as an emitter follower, that amplifies the current output from the chip, and provides enough current to light the LED.

How and why this circuit works is covered in the entry immediately prior to this.

The circuit is that simple circuit, and it's repeated 16 times

At the bottom of the board there are two ten pin connector, these are 8 logic inputs, and a + 5V supply rail, and a 0v rail.

So I can attach my PSU to this logic indicator board (using the voltage inputs and 4mm plugs), and use the board to power my circuit, with nothing more than a simple ribbon cable carrying the supply and signals.

Here are some more pictures of the board, with a probe attached to one of the inputs, and showing a voltage applied to the pin inputs also.

The board powered up:

Logic high applied to an input:

And showing the pin inputs:

so the complete schematic is as follows, this is only one side, but just repeat on the other side.

Whether you decide to put a 5v zener diode across the supply, or an LED to indicate that the device is on, is up to you.

The actual connectors are attached to the board by a loop or wire attached, and soldered into the board, then to hold them a little more securely they are also hot glued to the board.

Craft Lessons: Wood finishes -French Polishing

There have been a flurry of electronics lessons recently, and I thought that it'd be nice to cover a craft subject again.

So, in this lesson I'm going to cover French polishing.
The reason that I'm writing this lesson now is that I've done a big project that involved French polishing, when I write that up I just want to be able to say, I French polished, and link to this lesson rather than write the whole method in the project write up.

Equipment
For this you're going to need;
>A lint free (preferably cotton) cloth, -lint free just means a cloth that doesn't have bits that come off.
>Some mineral based oil, (I used baby oil)
>Something to polish.
and last, but by no means least, Some French polish!

French Polish
There are two ways to get French polish.
Either, you need to buy shellac flakes, and some alcohol, then you need to dissolve the shellac flakes in alcohol, then store it in an air tight bottle, (so that the alcohol doesn't evaporate), you'll need to have some practise to find what quantities of shellac to dissolve in what quantity of alcohol.

The alcohol you need to use is either de-natured alcohol, or methylated spirit.
you use around a half gallon of spirit for 1 - 2 pounds of shellac.

What you need to do is measure out your shellac into a large pot, then add your spirit. Leave the mixture to sit, stirring occasionally until all the flakes have dissolved, you then need to filter the mixture to remove any stuff that's not shellac.

Or, option 2, buy a can marked French polish, that's already been mixed and filtered etc.

Which is what I do.

When I say that you want something to polish, make it something nice, because this polishing does take a lot of work!
also it only really works on natural woods, plywood at a push, but will not work on MDF, hardboard or chipboard or any other kind of particle board.

Making a rubber
Before you can start applying the polish, you need something to apply it with, you need something to rub the polish on with, and this is called a rubber.

Basically, a rubber is a lint free cotton cloth, folded and twisted into a shape that gives a flat edge (called the sole), and inside of this there is a wad of material, (either more cotton, or cotton wool) that you apply your polish to to act as a reservoir for the polish.

Here is how to make one:

Take two squares of cotton, both about 12" square.

Lay one piece flat, and ball the other one up, and put it in the middle.

Now, loosely fold in the edges.

When all the edges are folded in, twist the corners together, pulling tight on the ball of material in the middle to make a firm yet spongy surface that is flat (ish), it should be spongy like a medium rare steak is spongy (when you press it, not eat it).

Charging your Rubber
Now you want to unfold it, and apply polish to your reservoir then bundle it all back up again.

You want polish to be available in the sole of the rubber, but you don't want to pour in too much polish that the whole thing leaks uncontrollably, so pour a little polish into the wadding in the middle then press the rubber onto a surface to start to squeeze the polish through the material down to the sole of your rubber, if you find that there is not enough polish inside your pad, you can always add more. -easier to add more than take any way.

Shellac is quite sticky, and you'll find that as you apply the polish that the rubber doesn't exactly snag, but does become difficult to move across the surface of your work piece, this is where the mineral oil comes in. you should smear some oil onto the sole of the rubber, to do this I just put a few drops onto the lid of the container that I keep all the polishing cloths in and then just dip the rubber into the drops that are on the lid.

Polishing
At this point you have your rubber, you have it charged up with polish, and a little oil to help it glide, now you need to start polishing.

To start polishing you need your work piece to be held steady, if you're working on something that's flat, then just put it on a table, you don't need to clamp it down, if you're doing something more complex, then you might need to hold the work in one hand, whilst polishing with the other.

Now, I learned to polish by readying guides on-line and watching videos, so it is possible to learn that way. But it's sometimes confusing when getting started as to know what to do.
Some guides will tell you to start with a skimming motion, others suggest a circular motion to start and call this grain filling.

You can do what works for you, either applying polish and moving in small circles, to fill the grain, or using long straight swishing motions. I prefer the latter, it takes more time to start, but I find the finish to be superior, and find that I don't need to sand the surface between coats to remove blotches as there just are no blotches.

So, this is what works for me, If you find a different method works for you better write it down in your own blog/site, feel free to leave a link to it in the comments.

Starting to polish
First you need to have prepared your wood, by that I mean it's clean, it's been sanded, it's smooth it's been dusted to remove any saw dust.

Now you need to imagine an old grandfather clock with a pendulum,
you are going to swing the rubber at the work piece, with about the same pace as a clock pendulum swings, start from slightly above one side of the work piece, swing down and across the wood following the grain of the wood, then come smoothly off the end.
You should see a smear of the French polish on the wood. but this wet looking smear is mostly spirit, and it will evaporate, leaving just the tiniest coating of shellac.

The strip of white wood is about 1 1/4" to give you an idea of the scale of things here, the trail of polish is about 4 - 6" long and the total arc (from where my hand started to where it ended up must have been about a foot,) as I said, go at the same pace as a clock, so that sweep takes about a second, (you can apply polish in both directions too.)

Proceed to do this all over the wood, so that there is a really thin coating on the wood, then go over it again. Do not try to build up too much coating at this stage.

Drying and hardening
At this point the hard shellac finish is on your work drying, but as the spirit/solvent is still evaporating out of the polish it's still quite soft, if you try to build up the coat too much and too soon you actually pretty much end up wiping off the polish that you've just put on.

So at this point put the rubber into a plastic pot, that seals (to stop it drying out), and go have a cup of tea or coffee, come back in 30 minutes and repeat the polishing in the same long streak pendulum motion.

More drying and hardening
After you've applied this second round of the step one steps you should have about 4 microscopically thin coats of shellac on your work piece, at this point it should have a dull sheen, but won't have a high gloss shine like a piece of fine antique furniture.

At this point you should leave the polish to dry overnight.

Grain filled
That first stage of polishing was filling the grain of the wood, now that should have been done you can move onto a more random polishing technique, moving the rubber in small circles, and figures of 8 across the work piece, again, building up the polish little by little, allowing it to dry, coming back and applying another coat, then leaving it to dry.

If you start on a Monday and apply a couple of coats of polish each evening, allowing those coats to dry to the next day, by about Thursday this is what you should have accomplished.

(I didn't polish the corner at all so that you could see the difference between polished and unpolished wood).

And by the following Monday
you should see this:

Again the top corner isn't polished at all, the other half from the picture taken on Thursday received no more polish, the bottom half (that's so shiny it's difficult to photograph, has a full week of polish.

It sounds like a lot of hassle, but remember this is a small piece so it's actually just half an hour a day really. (actually this small piece was a part of a much larger project, so it did take quite a lot of time, I didn't polish everyday, so some coats cured for longer than others).

Comparing the polished wood to unpolished wood is below, (I stood in the way of the light so that it didn't reflect so much.

The finish
Your work should now have a shine a sheen and a deep lustre to it.

French polishing gives a durable finish, it's water proof and quite tough (after all the original spirit is properly evaporated), however it is still solvent in alcohol, so if you're thinking of making a bar, French polish probably isn't the most appropriate finish!

The polish that I used was an Amber polish, this means that the shellac flakes that made it were amber in colour, and as you can see, it has stained the wood. Shellac comes in a variety of hues, to if you're mixing your own, be sure to mix enough to do the job in one batch, don't assume that you'll be able to get the exact same mix again later.

If you're buying from a shop, be sure to make sure that if you have to buy more than one can, that you buy the same colour polish!

The Workbench/shop stock lists. Woodworking (Beginners list)

Just as with the Beginers Electronics Bench I'm writing a list of essential tools for a beginner woodworker.

Just the same as electronics, this is the list of stuff that you'll need to get you started. I'm assuming that you're looking to build small things, by small things I mean enclosures for your projects, hifi speakers, pictures frames or small boxes etc. This list of tools will enable you to build a huge project like a tree house, or a wooden bike, but before you embark on any project like that you need to not only have the basic tools, but also the ability and practice to use them. (there's that word practice again, yes, working with anything and creating anything is a skill, to develop skills you have to work at them. that's the difference between first year/grade and final year projects, you've spent years practising by the time you get to your final year so you've got more knowledge and more skills.)

Anyway, this list should get you started.

A clamp
There are many different kinds of clamps, G clamps, C clamps, sash clamps. clamping devices come in all different shapes and sizes.

The reason that I put a clamp at the top of the list is because I believe that this is the most important thing that you want.
Your project might only be gluing two bits of wood together, unless you want to sit all night holding the bits together by hand, a clamp is essential.

You can also use a clamp to hold a piece of material to a surface as you cut material off of it.
(it's much easier to cut through something when it's held steady!)

You can get an idea of the variety and kinds of clamps available by looking here;
http://search.diy.com/search#w=clamp

As a starter set I'd say that you couldn't go wrong with buying a cheap set of three C clamps. they come in different sizes enabling you to work on a variety of projects sizes.

Cost £5 (total cost £5)

A Saw
You've got a way to put things together, now how about a way to take things apart?

Saws come in all variety of shapes and sizes, and are used for different things.
your average hand saw costs less than £10 and has a blade that can do cross cut (cutting through the grain of the wood), or rip cuts (cutting along the grain of the wood.)

If you plan on making only big things, then a large 9ppi saw is probably all you need that'll rip through wood quite fast, if you're planning on making much finer stuff (furniture for example) you might want a saw with finer teeth, perhaps 14ppi.

What's PPI? PPI means points per inch, it's the amount of teeth on a saw inside of one inch measured along the blade. it's as easy as that.

Saw teeth rip through things by wearing them away, the more saw teeth that there are in a given inch, the finer the teeth will be, and the cleaner the cut that they make will be, though the longer it'll take to get through the material you're cutting, as it'll rip away less material on each pass.

the picture on top represents a 7ppi blade, the one on the bottom a 14ppi blade, the 14ppi blade is clearly much finer.

As a starter, I'd recommend that you get an all purpose hand saw like this
http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9676731&fh_location=//catalog01/en_GB/categories%3C{9372015}/categories%3C{9372043}/categories%3C{9372176}/categories%3C{9392049}/specificationsProductType=hardpoint_saws

Cost £3.50 (total cost £8.50)

There are of course different saws for different jobs, a fret saw is used for cutting shapes as the blade is very thin and can turn corners.
A coping saw has a round blade and can cut up, down and side to side.
A tenon saw has a metal bar that re-enforces the top of the blade to make sure that it doesn't move of flex. As with most tools, different saws are suited to different jobs. I don't recommend buying them all at once, but certainly if you have a specific job that requires a specific tool then you should buy that tool.

Tape measure
Ok, so you can hold your work piece still now (clamped to the kitchen table), and you can cut through it, but how will you need to know where to cut?

Get a tape measure.
Cheap tape measures might lack a cool feature like being able to lock the tape out, but they work just as well at measuring stuff. So just grab a cheap one.

Cost £5 (total cost £13.50)

Square
So now you know where to cut, you'll want to draw a line on the wood that you're cutting, of course you want to make sure that your line is perpendicular to the edge, not going off at an angle, so you'll want to use a square.

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=11247668&fh_location=//catalog01/en_GB/categories%3C{9372015}/categories%3C{9372043}/categories%3C{9372176}/categories%3C{9392047}/specificationsProductType=measures/specificationsSpecificProductType=squares

That set I've linked to has a L shaped piece of metal that you can put on top of a piece of work (where you can't get to the edge) and line up the work with the square, and a thing that is like a ruler, with an adjustable piece of metal on it, the adjustable piece of metal slides in and out allowing you to set it a distance from the end, it also has 90 degree and 45 degree edges.

Cost £10 (total cost £23.50)

Marking
I have of course assumed that you already have a pencil, or a pen to mark your surface with.
this is your choice, you can buy those big square carpenters pencils (and get to feel really manly as you sharpen them with a knife!). You you can go to a pound shop and buy a pack of regular pencils, and a pack of chunky markers, and a pack of fine markers. (for a pound per pack.)

Cost £3 (total cost £26.50).

Hammer
Used the world over for making noise.

There are many many different types of hammer. I've got more than 1 hammer, (cross pein, ball pein, claw, club, rubber).

I'd recommend that you get a few different types of hammer too.
I'd really recommend a 12oz ball pein hammer (the one that looks like it has half a ball on the opposite side to the flat side.)
a 4oz cross pein hammer, sometimes called a pin hammer (the really light weigh one that has a flat chisel like looking part opposite the hammer surface.)
and a 16oz Claw hammer, (the one with a curved surface opposite the hammer face for pulling out nails.)
These hammers will cost £5 - £10 each they all have different uses.
The smallest cross pein hammer is used for fine work, like hammering in veneer pins into some work.
The ball pein is actually more of a metal work type hammer, but I tend to find that I use this the most as the weight of it feels right to me.
The claw hammer is the heaviest and can be used for much heavier work, (driving in big nails). Personally I find that, even though there is only a 4oz difference between the ball pein and the claw hammer, that added weight makes the hammer more unwieldy, and less suitable for fine work. If the hammer is unwieldy then it's harder to control, and you;re more likely to hit your fingers.

Cost £30 (total cost £56.50)

Punch
No, not the drink, the tool, it's basically just a metal rod that you use for pushing nails below the surface, or driving nails to the surface in places where you don't want the hammer face to have any chance in coming into contact with or marking the work that you're doing.
You can just use a really big nail, but since a set of five of these (in different sizes) is only £6 (on DIY.com,) you may as well get the right tool for the job.

Chisel
This is one of those things where you'll really get what you pay for, but also one of those things where good tools cost good money.

For a start I'd recommend (from diy.com) the B&Q value set of three chisels, there are three different sizes, and they are sharp when you buy them at least.
Basically these are good enough. Chisels do get blunt, so you may want to consider a sharpening stone too.

When I first started out I bought the B&Q value set, and used these until they were pretty blunt, you'll know when they get blunt because they become difficult to work with, they don't cut well, require more force, slip more (read between the lines here, blunt tools are difficult to work with, and will slip around on your work piece, i.e blunt tools are more dangerous than sharp tools.) Anyway, later on, when the chisels needed sharpening, I bought a different (better) set, that came with a sharpening stone, That set was more expensive.
I sharpened my value chisels, (which was good), and now I have a set of cheap chisels that I'll happily use for rough work, or work that might hit a nail or something, and a set of nice chisels that I'll use then I know that the wood I'm dealing with it good.

Cost £7 (total cost £63.50)

Drill
I covered drill in my how and where to buy tools and materials post before, the drill you want will really depend on the work that you want to do.
If you're only ever drilling softwood in a garden shed with no power, then a battery drill is ideal.
If you want to drill into hardwood for long times, then you really want a mains powered drill. If you plan on drilling into walls, you really want a hammer drill.
The type you need depends on what you need to do. and the brand you get also depends on what you need to do.
As I've said before, professionals buy DeWalt drills because they are dependable, that tool will likely outlive the person who buys it. They cost a lot, but to a professional they don't cost as much as numerous trips to the hardware store to buy a new drill (because time spent in the store is not time spent on the job.)
If you can afford professional tools, (like DeWalt, or Makita) then by all means go buy those tools. If you find them on sale then you might want to buy them (but even at half price they are often four to five times more expensive than the drill that I normally use).

For most, all you need is a choice between normal drilling and hammer action, and variable speed (so if you only pull the trigger a little it goes slowly, pull it all the way in then it goes fast).

I bought my drill from Aldi, for about £15, but to be fair, they aren't sold there all the time.
so I'll say:

Cost £30 (total cost £93.50).

Drill bits
Once you've bought a drill you'll want a set of drill bits.
there is a difference between wood, metal and brick drill bits, but you should be able to find a set with an assortment of sizes (3mm = 10mm) and functions for around £20

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=11407674&fh_location=//catalog01/en_GB/categories%3C{9372015}/categories%3C{9372047}/categories%3C{9372200}/categories%3C{9392077}/specificationsProductType=accessory_sets/specificationsSpecificProductType=mixed_sets
that's a link for some wood, brick and metal bits for £10.

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=11537590&fh_location=//catalog01/en_GB/categories%3C{9372015}/categories%3C{9372047}/categories%3C{9372200}/categories%3C{9392077}/specificationsProductType=multi_purpose_drill_bits
that's a much bigger set for £35, and includes hole saws that let you cut out big holes in wood, you'll never find a 2" drill bit., but a 2" hole saw lets you cut a 2" hole which is useful of you're making a set of PC speakers or similar.

Cost £20 (total cost 113.50)

Screw Drivers
For electronics, you probably want a specialist miniature tool kit, (the screws on an iphone for example are PH00 whilst most mini screwdriver sets only go down to PH0.)
For wood working you'll want just a normal set of screw drivers, probably in the range on 3mm flat blade to 10mm flat blades, and the same with Philips head screw drivers too.

I'd recommend either buying a set of screw drivers, I got a set of 30 brand new from a carboot sale for £5 in a range of sizes and blade types (Flat, Philips, Torx), or you could go with a screw driver with changeable bits (so the same screw driver body is used).
You can get ratchet screw drivers (these can save a lot of wrist ache having to take the screw driver out of the screw head, line it up, insert the driver into the screw head turn and repeat.)

A ratchet screw driver with changeable heads costs around £12
http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9285164&fh_location=//catalog01/en_GB/categories%3C{9372015}/categories%3C{9372043}/categories%3C{9372176}/categories%3C{9392042}/specificationsProductType=sets

Cost £12 (total cost £125.50).

That's pretty much a basic tool kit right there, it'll let you tackle a variety of tasks from the big to the small, and can all be kept in a reasonably small tool box in a corner, or under the stairs.

I'd hoped to keep the costs as low as possible, and certainly buying tools second hand for yard sales or car boot sales can save a fortune. I do not recommend buying second hand chisels, or saws, or drill bits. They will already be blunt. and as I said earlier blunt tools are more dangerous than sharp tools, they also make a mess of your work.

On the subject of dangerous.
You can't do wrong with buying a set of "rigger" gloves (thick material gloves) to protect your hands, (from both your tools and splinters).
There are no loud tools listed here, but if you are using loud tools ear defenders are dirt cheap and you should use them, if you'll be creating dust, or working in a dusty environment a dust mask is a great idea, if you've got long hair then buy a hair band.

When using a chisel, you should only push the chisel away from you, never towards your body or towards your legs. Never balance work on your lap whilst trying to put screws into it (a screw driver to the groin is going to hurt!)
When planing wood (a plane wasn't listed) always plane away from yourself, Basically, the sharp end of the tool should always travel away from your body! the only exception to this is when using a spokeshave or draw knife, these are meant to be drawn towards you. (carefully!)

Probably the most important thing I can say is take your time.
If you rush things then you either ruin your work or ruin yourself, when I was younger, I thought I could cut through a piece of metal faster by just moving the saw faster, all that really happened is I ended up slipping and performing my own surgery on myself with a hack saw, exposing your bones isn't fun.

Converted ATX Power supply

Recently you could be forgiven for thinking that this had changed from the idiots guide to puttin' shit together, to the opinionated guide to how you should have done your projects, or the idiots musings and bad teachings.

I'm definitely going to continue the tutorials because it's actually quite fun to write them, and I'm finding that as I go over the ground again, I'm re-remembering some stuff that I'd completely forgotten about. But this post is right back to the core of why I even started this blog, and that's to share something that I've made.

Firstly,

There's your warning, but if you can't figure out for yourself that there is an element in danger in modifying anything that plugs directly into the wall then you should probably stop reading now and go elsewhere.

Theory
The theory for this is so simple, I have a power supply (a computer power supply), and I want to turn it into a bench power supply, so I pretty much just need to cut off the wires that aren't needed, and attach the appropriate plugs to the wires that are need!

How it works
The computer power supply maker has done all the hard design parts for me it's a switch mode power supply, mains supply and as it's switching faster, the transmission of the energy inside the ferrite core, basically that means that inside the power supply is switching on and off at a very high frequency, this is much faster than your 50Hz s of the transformers inside is more efficient, more efficient means that you're not generating as much heat, and not as much energy is wasted as heat.
A traditional power supply, would require an absolutely huge iron core surrounded by pounds of wire to be able to get the same kind of output power that a switch mode power supply (SMPS) gets.

Why it's important
The high frequency is important as that's what allows the supply to be so efficient. The fact that someone else made it is important because it means that you can make this supply inside a single afternoon.

If I was designing my own SMPS, I'd probably need to research for at least days, if not weeks, I'd need to source components. Create circuits to sense the output voltage and adjust the input if necessary, it'd be a lot of work, yet I can turn an old supply from a broken PC into a perfectly reasonable bench supply in a matter of hours.

Simple experiment
Before even breaking out the screw drivers, or plug in the soldering iron. I took a look at the computer power supply unit.

There is a big plug with either 20, or 24 pins on it. inside all these pins there will be a single green wire, with a black wire either side of it.

Using a small bit of wire I pushed it into the pin connected to the green pin, and one of the black pins from either side. The fans spun into life, and voltage could be measured at other pins.

You can just use the supply like this with no further modification, inserting your bit of wire to turn it on, removing your bit of wire to turn it off.

On the side of the case there was a table that telling me what colour wire carries what voltage, and what the limits of the current capabilities are for each voltage. this made it a whole load easier that searching for a pin out on-line for the ATX plug to know what pin was what.

Converting a power supply

Parts and tools required
>an old computer power supply
>a screw driver
>some terminal posts
>Wire cutters
>A switch (push to make locking switch)
>A LED
>A 10mm drill bit
>A drill
>A 6mmDrill bit
>Insulated screw terminals -these are not important, you may chose to leave these out
>A 470Ohm resistor
>A soldering Iron
>Solder (flux core)

Taking it all apart
The first thing that I did was take off the lid of the box, The fan is connected directly to the board with no plug to remove it, so I removed the fan from the case lid.
Modifying the part
Lets deal with the lid first,
I knew that in the lid i'd need to put a switch (basically in place of the wire that I had before),
You might want (I did) a nice LED to tell you that the supply is on.
I also wanted to put plugs that to connect the wires to in the lid.

I chose to mount my plugs in two columns, (2 x 12v, 2x 5v, 2x3.3v and 2x0v) as these are the voltages that I'll use the most often, then I have one plug for -5 and -12, as I'll use these less often.
As it happens, banana plugs are usually stackable, so you won't really loose an functionality just using a single row of connectors.

When I looked on the inside, of the power supply, I saw that there were basically two sides, one side has big heat sinks in it, and the mains plugs next to it, the other side is fairly low profile leaving the top of the case empty. I decided that I'd like to keep my plugs away from the side with exposed mains connectors that the bottom of the terminals might hit, and away from the heat sinks for the same reason

I marked out the lid and drill the holes for all the part to go into.
Then installed the plugs, LED and switch (I used a simple black collar for the LED it's called a panel mount and costs about a penny. -you could leave the LED out completely).

I just used a marker pen to write the voltages on the top of my supply, you might use nothing relying on the colour of the plugs to tell you the supply voltage, perhaps you might like to try etching or engraving, or using a label printer, I don't really care, pen works for me, and that's good enough.

Next as I have two plugs for one voltage, I connected these plugs, using a piece of wire running between them.

I also want to add a 470Ohm resistor to one leg of the LED (this is to limit the current that goes into the resistor).

(That'll connect to the 5v rail 5/470 = 0.01A or 10mA, enough to make the LED glow, you might like a bigger or smaller resistor depending on the needs of your LED, it's also 1/20th of a watt, so a simple small 1/8th watt resistor will be fine.)

I soldered leads to everything ready to connect to the terminal block connector.

Finally I was able to stop working on the lid and move onto modifying the actual PSU.

One thing that you'll notice is that the wires are colour coded depending on their job. And there are a LOT of wires that are the same colour, in the supply I used there were about 10 black wires, all 0v, all from the same pad on the PCB!
I needed 3 black wires, could have got away with 1, but three was good (one for the power button, 1 for the LED and 1 for the output plug).
I really only needed 1 -12 wire, only 1 -5 wire, only 1 +12 wire. and two +5v wires (one for the plug, and one for the LED.

You do only need 1 3.3v wires, but in addition to the thicker wires you must keep the very thin orange wire, this is the sense wire that determines what voltage is being generated, and regulates the supply, without this wire your supply can float.

Anyway, I cut away the wires that I didn't need (that I could get to)

I couldn't get to cut the red or yellow wires, so I'm going to tie these off later in some spare terminals on the connector.

Putting is all together
So I'm now in a position where I've thinned out all the wires that I don't need, and I've trimmed all the wires that I do need to about four or five inches long so that I have plenty to work with.

Now I striped back the wires, and attached them to the terminal block.

It doesn't matter what order you make the connections in, just that black wires connect to ground, terminals, and the negative side of your LED, also that there is a black wire attached to one terminal of your switch.

You want the green wire to attach to the other leg of your switch, and a red wire to attach to the LED for your "on indicator".
Yellow wires are alwyas 12v, Orange is always 3.3v, Red is always 5v, minus five and minus 12 however do not appear to have a set colour scheme, and as such may vary.

The colours were written on the outside of the supply I used, you may have to poke around with a multimeter. or look for an ATX pinout and just select the correct wire from the plug.

Once all the wires were connected I attached the fan to the top of the case again, and put the top of the case onto the bottom. as I said earlier, make sure that the bottom of your sockets do not touch the metal bits inside. Also make sure that no wires are touching the heat sink where the insulation could melt, and that no wires or the large terminal block is getting in the way of the fan.

Now I measured The output voltages using a multimeter.

Since I'm always seeming to run out of power outlets, I chose a power supply that lets me get mains power out as well so I can daisy chain equipment together.

Costs
This is not the cheapest project in the world, but it is cheaper than buying a power supply with the same amount of usable outputs, regardless of whether those outputs are of a fixed voltage, or five variable voltages. I had everything either in my parts box/junk bin so this really cost me nothing.

There are 10 4mm sockets, these are 20 pence each from Rapid Electronics
http://www.rapidonline.com/Cables-Connectors/Connectors-Single-Pole/4mm-Connectors/4mm-Sockets/63893
(total cost £2)
The Square Single pole single throw switch cost 36 pence.
http://www.rapidonline.com/Electronic-Components/Switches/Push-Button-Switches/Square-push-switches-1A/30275
(toal cost £2.36)
LEDs cost around 9 pence (or less) (when you buy them in bulk).
here's one for 6 pence http://www.rapidonline.com/Electronic-Components/Optoelectronics/5mm-LEDs/Low-current-5mm-LEDs/29336
(total cost £2.45)
Resistors cost even less than this when bought in quantity.
http://www.rapidonline.com/Electronic-Components/Resistors-Potentiometer/Carbon-Film-Resistors/CR12-0.125W-Carbon-film-resistors/65192

65 pence for 100, seriesly people stop shopping at Maplin/Radioshack

Rapid cost 65 pence for 100, (or ~ half a penny per resistor).
Maplin cost 25pence per single resistor. (50 times more expensive).
http://www.maplin.co.uk/components/resistors/metal-film
If your project requires 3 resistors, it's cheaper to order on-line and have 97 spare/left over!

(total cost £3.10)

Now comes the expensive part, if you don't have a spare power supply laying about, (and don't have the resourcefulness to find one for free), then you'll have to buy one. for the princely sum of £7.86!
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/20083

Total cost £10.96! Much cheaper than any other power supply that I know of. in fact we're really knocking on the cost of a single voltage wallwart cost here, which has a lower power capacity and only 1 voltage output (which may or may not be adjustable!)

Alternatives, -and Why I didn't use them
This is something I started when I wrote up the red light torch, there are so many ways to crack an egg. So my way is not the only way, just the way that I chose on that day.

Spring terminals:
Spring terminals are useful if you're doing a lot of breadboard work, without a breadboard that has power terminals, but practically everything I've got is set-up for 4mm banana plugs, my multimeter, the power terminals on my breadboards, crocodile clips connect to 4mm plugs. Spring terminals may well have been cheaper, and indeed wouldn't require me to buy 4mm plugs to go with them, but since I'm set-up for using 4mm plugs it makes sense to use them

Binding posts:
Yes, these are just like 4mm sockets, except that you can also attach bare wires and screw them down, making them a whole heap more versatile. The only reason that I didn't use these is that I didn't have any in my parts box, and I did this project one evening after the shops were closed.

Directly soldering the leads:
I could have missed out the terminal block connector, and indeed the first time I made this supply I did. without that chunky connector however there are two things.

The wires that you can't cut off at the board end up loose in the case, you can wrap them in tape, but it's a bit messier than being able to put them in a spare space on the terminal block.

The first time I built this supply I soldered straight to the plugs, I broke that supply, and it was quite a PITA to remove all the old connections to put new connections on it. if I ever need to change the actual board again I can just take the case lid as I did this time and bolt it to a new supply just cutting and stripping the few wires that I need to use.

Sandbar resistor
Instead of just a locking switch on the green "power on" line, you should use a resistor on the 5v line to apply a load to the circuit that'd sense that it's on. That's the "proper" way of doing it.
I didn't do it like this because...
1> The sandbar resistor has to be a high power resistor, tied to the case for cooling, this seemed like it's take a lot of space inside the already cramped case, and is a part that's going to increase the idle power consumption of the power supply.
2> My supply works without it, so I'm not too worried really.

External plug-set with ATX/Molex connections
In the theory section you saw that it's possible to turn the supply on with nothing more than a piece of wire, I could have kept the supply as is, put molex connections on my projects, of I could have just made a board with my 4mm sockets arranged just as they are where the power supply just plugged straight into it.

The good side of this is that I wouldn't have had to open the case at all. So if you have a skittish partner or parents then you may wish to go this route. (If they aren't happy for you to plug things in after you're taken them apart and soldered bits to them!)

On the other hand, I think that you'll end up with something a lot messier.

About and regarding tools and materials (ten tips.)

My tool collection is reasonably impressive. there is surely many hundreds of pounds, if not thousands.
It's not as complete as my fathers. that's for sure, (I'm missing a full sized pillar drill, bench grinder, lathe, table saw, table planing machine), but then I'm also clearly a few years behind him, and have time to keep collecting...

So here a few observations that I've made about tools and parts...

1, Tools are expensive, quality tools even more so. -but good tools, or good enough tools needn't be.
now I'm torn on this, for two reasons, I bought a B&Q value drill, it's ok, but it's not particularly strong (800w I think), it also has no speed control, so it's not particularly useful. It did only cost £10 though...
I've got a power craft drill, that's a little more powerful, with variable speed and only cost a little more something like £13 from ALDI.

does it hold up to a professional DeWALT drill, I doubt it.
will it stand up as well as a dewalt drill? I also doubt that.
will it last as long, probably not...

BUT, I can buy the £13 drill from ALDI 20 times over before I've spent as much as buying a single Dewalt drill, (which if I drop from a height would break just as easily!).
I'm already nearly 30, If my ALDI drill lasts 2 or three years, then I'll basically be able to keep buying cheap drills until I die, and still have spent less.

Basically, spend your cash wisely, sometimes the cheapest is not the best buy.
sometimes the most expensive, is not the best buy either.

2, Parts are expensive, but not if you know where to look.
do two searches now, open ebay and search 1hp motor on ebay, you'll see that 1/4 watt motors start at around £30, with up to £100 for a single phase 1hp electric motor...

now do another search, HP Watt conversion. you'll find 1hp = 746W.

now go read point 1 again, now point two... read until you notice that I can buy a drill that's got more than a 1ho motor in it for £10, or I can buy a 1/4hp motor for £30, a 1HP motor from £50 - £100.

the lesson here, sometimes cheap tools are good for a maker, they let you have a part that's cheaper than buying a retail.

if you buy the drill you get,
(a 3 pin plug) -retail £0.59
a length of flex -retail ~£1
a 3 jaw jacobs chuck searching ebay lists those as around £5.99
(so we're already over half the price of the thing!)
then you've got a motor. AND a small plastic gearbox.


3, Go into shops looking for tools, but don't necessarily buy tools.
Both ALDI and LIDL stock tools that are a decent price, and decent quality, their stock sale lasts about a week and you get a decent tool at a decent price (see the drill above).

When I bought the drill for example, I wasn't starting a project that required a drill, I just knew that in the future I would want a drill (that was better than my B&Q value one). so I bought it.

Next time I did a project that needed a drill ALDI weren't selling them any more. so I'd have had to go to B&Q or wickes and spend twice as much for the same quality drill.

Go into a hardware shop for a browse, you don't have to buy anything, and if you feel weird about doing that, choose little things, buy some carpenters pencils (for when you're working with wood), or a scribe (for when you're using metal), if you see a decent offer on a tool, buy it! even if you don't need it at the moment.

The same goes for tool boxes. I got a tool box with two draws and a space in the top for £20 from B&Q a couple of years ago, it was full of tools too (which did kind of upset the idea that I'd fill it with tools). it was on sale, and less than half the price of simillar tool boxes from the halfords next door.
I bought a rolling cabinet with a five draw box to go on top from LIDL for £60 (some £200 cheaper than similar set-ups in Halfords.


4, When you're in a hardware shop check the sales bins.
B&Q have little orange baskets that they fill with stock that's either end of line, or damaged packaging.
I've got tons of jig saw blades for less than half price before I looked in a bin.

Brazing rods in B&Q came down from £3 for a pack to £0.50 a pack, (so I took a lot, and a mixture of brass for working with steel, Aluminium for working with aluminium, and a different brass allow for working with copper). I've got something along the lines of 60 packs (I spent £30 on £180 worth of materials.

5, with some things there is no difference in quality
I have "value" tape measures, set squares steel rules, the value that they save is not in the size of the unit. my ruler isn't shorter because it was cheaper!

6, Go to Poundland, that's where I got my hack saw £4 saving on the B&Q value price, it's where I got a set of rasps from, it's where I got blades for my hacksaw, where I've bought vice grips from etc. It's your choice, you can go to a DIY store and buy five tools and spend £25, or go to Poundland, but five tools and spend £5...

7, Go to car boot sales, my router came from a car boot sale (it's a fairly decent black and decker one too) -from their pro range. it works perfectly.

I've gotten hammers, spanners and clamps from car boot sales, the price is pretty much always negotiable and if you don't think it's sufficiently lower than the price for buying it new, then walk away. go and buy it new.

If you're buying from car boot sales, do check that the things look like they'll work though, I bought a belt sander, electronically it works fine, but is missing the belt tensioner, so the belt just stops rotating when you try to sand anything. -if i'd opened my eyes and looked properly I'd have saved some money. (I'll strip it down and scavenge the motor, but it's hardly the point right!)

car boot sales and charity shops are good for fabrics if you're making anything with textiles, (as an example I bought a whole roll of flame resistant sofa covering, this will be the inside of a seat one day, and will also be the head liner on the roof of the car I'm restoring.

I bought a five draw A4 filing cabinet (the sort that do on top of desks and take paper laying flat the draws are about 1.5 inches tall) £5 or £10 from a car boot sale.
I have a much larger 15 draw one, given to me.
and found four sets of the same sort of filing cabinet (but with 3" draws) and six draws on gumtree to whoever could take them away.

so 8, look on gumtree. and free cycle.

I use these as a tool box, (a draw for metal tools, a draw for wood tools, a draw for screws, a draw for bolts, a draw for blades) (32 draws in total as I gave two of the 6 draw units to my dad),
they are not tool boxes, but they work well as tool boxes.

larger filing cabinets work well as power tool storage as you can stack quite a lot inside them.
steel cupboards make great component storage (you can put draw units inside and on the doors).

Don't be afraid to get things for free, something that cost you nothing is great.

Also don't be afraid of getting tools from ebay, (but don't expect to be able to return them!).


9, keep everything.
I might be a bit of a hoarder (in fact a selection of my stuff was once pictured in a PC magazine of what a person with too much stuffs house looks like!

but seriously, keep things that you think you have a use for.
just yesterday I was raiding my parts bit for screws from a computer case, without them at hand I'd have had to go to Maplins and buy some.

I just re-used some chromed steel rods (that strangely came from an old PC case), without them I'd have beeing buying steel from B&Q.

don't keep what you don't have to though.
as an example, when I built a tab welder, I was scrapping loads of PC's at work at the time, I took (de soldered) hundreds of capacitors from main boards, then threw the main boards away. I couldn't use the surface mount components. keeping 20 broken computers? that's have been silly, (even if I know that I'll probably want flat steel sheets in the future, and could have used the cases).

it's not going to hurt you to keep a stock of materials, but be realistic. in my latest project I've been working with aluminium, and saving as many of cuts as I can, simply because I want to do some casting (this is even on my to-do list). but don't save what you won't or can't use, don't keep what you can't store, and don't expand your store to the size of your house, because it's just messy, you'll end up dying alone amongst the piles of broken DVD burners that you were hoping to scavenge lasers from "one day"!
you can melt down milk bottles to make rep-rap materials, but don't keep endless supplies of old milk bottles, either melt them down or throw them away!

and number 10...
The most valuable tools that you have are your hands/eyes/ears/lungs protect them.
that means knowing how to use tools, keeping your fingers away from spinning blades, or behind the sharp point of a chisel.
and keeping your fingers from under the foot of a sewing machine.
holding work in a vice rather than in your hand and drilling into your hand.
if means after cutting metal, you should use a file to clean up the edges, don't leave them sharp, they will cut you!

It means tying back long hair. before going near spinning machinery.

That means ear defenders, dust masks, eye protection (either clear goggle or specific wavelength blocking with lasers, I reccommend auto darkening welding helmets, the ones from halfords are the cheapest ones I've found and they are good.

looking after yourself means wearing long sleeves whilst welding, (the uv from the arc burns you).

It means not drinking, or doing drugs and making stuff with dangerous tools. (the results are worse when you're wasted anyway. better to just enjoy being wasted and continue the making another day.

As you may have guessed I learned all these bits of advice the hard way, I did them wrong first. Sometimes hurting my hands, sometimes hurting my wallet.

Electric Arc Welder

Having just published a post, I was just reviewing my projects to-do list...

After many hours of on-line searching I've found that whilst it's possible to build an arc welder it's neither easy nor cheap!

to buy one from a shop costs about £100.
to buy one from a car boot sale costs about £10.

I've bought one at a car boot sale.
I plan to convert this to also be useful as a TIG welder as well. (though this won't be useful for aluminium unless I can design a HF start circuit).