200Litre (50Gal) Vacuum Cleaner Pre Filter / Drum

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I have been replacing the insulation in my crawlspace and its ‘blown in’ kind of insulation called ‘Insulfluf’ made from powdered recycled paper and boric acid to make it fire retardant.

I found that while I could physically put a lot of it into bags with a dustpan, there was always going to be little left overs that wanted vacuuming, but I would always fill up my vacuum cleaner back in seconds. So to give me more vacuuming capacity, and to put a large drum vacuum into my shop I experimented with cyclonic bin vacuums a bit before settling on this. Its really simple design and was made out of cheap things.

 

 

 

50 Gallon Drum Pre Filter Vacuum Cleaner

 

 

 

The filter works using simple pressure management, in the large drum there isn’t enough pressure to suck all the particulates up into the screen so they fall to the bottom. but outside of the drum the pressure runs through thin pipes and hoses so is strong enough to suck up sawdust and insulation like a normal vacuum cleaner.

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macOS Sierra – filevault failed unable to encrypt the core storage logical volume or Invalid Request

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Most users who encounter this probably have an issue with the core storage volume; but for me the issue was that there were no local users able to unlock the disk. It took a while as there was not a a very helpful error or anything in the logs.

no-visible-admin-users

 

error2

In my situation had deployed an image using DeployStudio which created the local admin user as a hidden user and was trying to get Profile Manager to work but kept getting stuck on the FileVault, none of the logs had anything useful in them, just things like

 

geodMachServiceBridge

com.apple.preference.security.remoteservice CoreStorage conversion failed with mainError: -69886; detailError :0

The fix was to simply add a new local user and then enable it to unlock the disk.

Pool Vacuum Cleaner build

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I bought a little 2000L pool and it quickly built up a load of dust/dirt on the bottom of it and the cheap pump it came with didn’t seem to be doing much, So I looked at what I had in the garage and figured I could make my own pool cleaning system. I realized the gist of the crap was settling at the bottom so I made a quick ‘Vacuum Cleaner’ type arrangement with some PVC piping and tubing, a pump I use for brewing beer, and some odds and end I picked up from the hard ware store.

Pool Vacuum cleaner DIY Build

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Spot Welder out of an old broken microwave

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Recycling a transformer out of a broken microwave, I built a small spot welder using almost completely recycled parts.

Bits
Bits
Spot Welder from a Microwave
Spot Welder from a Microwave

Part 1 – Microwave Disassembly

Part 2 – Modifying the Transformer and testing the theory

Part 3 – Collecting the parts and preparing the case

Part 4 – Putting the chassis together

Part 5 – Electrodes and Wiring

Part 6  – Final wiring and assembly

Low Temperature Low Cost Circular Film Light

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With any project I do it is important to have nice photo’s that are in focus and well lit. I occasionally dabble in stop motion and other film as well as just the projects you see on this site. Lighting is something I have always had difficulty with and never spent any time trying to resolve. Occasionally I use a work light but I find them annoying to set up and they get very hot and difficult to work with.

Total Cost $28

Beer Brewing Cabinet

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When home brewing beer its important to keep a constant and cool temperature. I like to aim for around 19 degrees C (66F) for ales. (references) and 4 degrees C for Lagers but in New Zealand the general yeasts sold or packaged with kits for lagers are really ‘lager style’ top fermenting (ale) yeasts; also I don’t have the budget or equipment to go for a lager style ferment anyway.

So I wanted to build something that would smooth out daily temperature variations and could potentially have some temperature management (eg peltiers in the summer, incandescent light bulbs in the winter) to assist in smooth and appropriate temperature management. Click here or on the picture to see more

Chain oiling system

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While I was waiting for some more sealant to dry on another project, I decided to finish up something I had been thinking about for a while: A motorcycle chain lubrication system. I dont like using the spray, or oiling it by hand with a rag much. So I built a system that you could attach to the bike, put some oil in, go for a ride to the end of the street and back then take it off again.

Oil on chainMotorcycle chain oiling system