It's not junk if you can make stuff with it!!
I’m a retired US Navy veteran, pancreatic cancer survivor, and lifelong maker who spends most of his time in the shop creating things—and doing my best to stay out of my wife’s way. I’ve never been good at throwing things out. If something looks reusable, I keep it and eventually turn it into something new. …
I seem to be always chasing down a resistor color code calculator online, never thinking to bookmark one. Of course you’d think I’d remember the colors after all these years of tinkering eh? I’ve added a Resistor Color Code Calculator to the site that is simple and easy to use. It quickly calculates resistor values, …
If you work with PVC pipe you know what a pain it is to heat it up to bend it if you don’t own an expensive commercial heater. Save yourself time and money doing it my way instead of those painstaking tricks you’ve seen on YouTube. My instructions will show you how I built an …
Please help keep the lights on in my shop, check out my eBay listings for more one-of-a-kind creations and help generate interest for the eBay algorithm! Every piece you see is handmade by me in my home workshop—no mass production, and no two items are exactly alike. You may notice small imperfections here and there—that’s …
This time I show you how $20 builds a simple battery charger that can recharge just about any battery you have, including Alkaline, Ni-Cd, Ni-MH, and Li-ion cells — correctly and effectively. No expensive parts, this is a budget-friendly, beginner-safe build using easy-to-find components. Perfect for DIYers, preppers, tinkerers, and anyone tired of throwing away …
Can you really recharge alkaline batteries? Yes—you can, if you do it correctly. In this video, I show how the circuit board from a common solar path light can be used as a simple, low-current charger for alkaline AA and AAA batteries. We’ll talk about why alkaline batteries need to be recharged at low currents …
A quick follow-up on my last post. There were a few things I mentioned I thought I’d clarify a bit like color changing lights, flickering candle light, & more… Click on the picture to see my YouTube video…
Today let’s make a simple inexpensive decorative jar or bottle night light that captures your own personality rather than a generic mass produced one you might buy at the store. It’s a decorative night light for any room in the house, a child’s bedroom, or even your bar or patio. This particular setup can be …
In my last post/video I showed you how to modify dollar store solar garden lights (puck) to use color changing and flickering candle LEDs for use in recycled candle jars. This time let’s look at using Mason Jars for the same purpose but let’s hide the solar light inside the jar instead of mounting it …
In my last post/video I gave a quick explanation of how solar lights work and what you can do to improve the voltage to run color changing led’s and flickering candle light led’s. Let’s put that bit of info to practical use by creating our own solar jar light for the deck, patio, or anywhere …