Homemade Portable Bandsaw Stand - Cut off & Vertical

In this video I built an aluminium stand to attach a portable bandsaw too, which can be used in conjunction with a vice as a cut off saw or raised into an upright vertical position to be used as a typical bandsaw, and when necessary removed to be use freehand. 

I got my hands on this bit of kit for £50 and it's as rough as they come.  It sounds quite coarse but will save me having to cut large stock by hand.  The aluminium all together cost be about £25 whilst I had all the fixings and scrap sheet of ply. 

Initially I wanted to be able to cut various angle from the top but realised to do this, the chopping tilt had to be above the blade rotation.  I made it the other way which means the only adjustment I can make is to at 90 degree cut.  As it is now, any rotation to the left or right would mean the edge of the blade would make contact with the material to be cut instead of the teeth.  I don't plan to make any compound mitre cuts, so will focus on true square cut.  And in any case I could always rotate the vice.

For now I used a cross vice which I clamped down to hold a piece of mild steel box tubing when testing the cut.  It seems quite accurate but I am hoping to build a vice.  I will also make a larger detachable bed for the upright position, a means of clamping the saw while upright and maybe a spring to slow the drop while using it as a cut off saw.

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Self watering vertical garden with recycled water bottles

Here how i made my vertical vegetable garden, starting from used big water bottles as planters. An automatic watering system keep the right moisture, collecting water in excess, using power from pv panels and a little wind turbine (vawt)The green wall is composed by 72 water bottles cut and placed upside-down on a wooden shelf. 
Two independent  water reservoir are present: the main is placed on the side of the building and composed by eight 200 liters barrels linked together, for collecting rain water. The second one is composed by three plastic "new jersey" street barriers, that can contain 80 - 100 liters each, placed under the shelf.
The circulating system is composed by two 12v pumps, powered by a hybrid power system, a vawt turbine in conjunction with two 10w pv panels.
Energy is stored in a 12v car battery via charge controller and a timer regulate the watering cycle (at this moment the set up is 1 min at 7 am and 1 minute at 7 pm.
Water is pumped from second reservoir to the top of the shelf, into a PVC pipe ( Dia 4 cm) where i drilled eighteen 3 mm holes (one for each planter of the first row). After moisten the first row, water go down to the rows below until go back to the starting tank.
With hand activated valve i can refill the second reservoir with rain water from blue barrels.

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3D Printed Vertical Ball Launcher

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  Favorite video 3D Printed Vertical Ball LauncherThis video shows a prototype 3D printed "vertical ball launcher" printed in ABS plastic on an UP! 3D printer. It is designed such that when you push down on one side of a lever, a piston on the other side moves up and comes into contact with a ping pong ball, which is then launched into the air.

This was designed with the intention of working 3D printing, CAD and engineering design into a middle school science unit on force and motion with a very introduction-level, qualitative approach to topics like position, velocity, acceleration, gravity etc. At the basic level, the device provides a fun introduction to 3D printing for students and a cool way to launch a ball into the air (and then track its trajectory using a camera), instead of just throwing or dropping the ball. At a more advanced level, students who have been introduced to CAD can modify the source files to try and improve performance - for example, changing the lengths of the levers or the geometry of the piston section. Students can also experiment with different methods for driving the lever - for example, a rubber band or a solenoid connected to one end, or a motor driving the central shaft.

Note how using "puzzle piece" style connectors allows you to print much larger objects than would fit on the print tray in a single run (the UP! has a print volume of roughly 12x12x12cm). The design could be modified to laser-cut and snap/glue together the majority of the structure instead of 3D printing, especially the truss-like supports. With a little ingenuity you could probably laser cut the entire thing, although this would be more difficult for the round parts.

STL files can be downloaded from Thingiverse: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:98130.

Tips for 3D printing: Cylindrical surfaces will generally come out the highest quality if they are printed with their axis oriented vertically. Some of the larger parts take a while to print on the UP (8+ hours) so it may be easier to start a print job before you to go bed and let it run overnight. You can put more than one part on a print tray at a time, just make sure they aren't overlapping. Note that you will need two of the "pin.stl" part, two "side.stl" parts and one of everything else. I can't guarantee that the tolerances for the snap-together parts will be perfect - this could vary on different printers. If your parts are too big to fit together, you can sand them down or shave off some plastic with a hobby knife. If they're too small and wiggle a bit, you can use glue to secure connections. I printed this on an UP! since I had access to one, but it should work on other similar consumer-grade printers like the Makerbot or Cube (no guarantees though).
This is more of an open-ended design challenge than a step-by-step Instructable. If you're used to 3D printing singular solid objects, this could be a good introduction to printing functional devices with interlocking, moving parts. If you're just looking for a fun physics or engineering challenge (for yourself, your kids or your students), then there is plenty of room for improvement in this design. Either way, have fun - and if you wind up making your own, be sure to post links to pictures and/or videos in the comments section!

Credits: this ball launcher was designed at the Cornell Creative Machines Lab in collaboration with the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia.
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Vertical Garden

I moved from a house with a huge back yard to a place with a pretty nice sized balcony.  As much as I love to garden, space was going to be a challenge as well as dealing with potted plants.  I needed my herb garden (because, who doesn't NEED fresh herbs?) but I had no desire for little pots to be taking up ground space.  Solution...build UP!  So here is my lovely vertical garden made from an upcycled wooden pallet, some recycled pots, and metal wire.  The entire thing ended up costing me about $30.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

At least 1 wooden pallet
As many pots as you have plants/seeds
Potting soil
Metal wire (i used 100lb wire)
Wire cutters
4 wood screws
Screwdriver
Outdoor paint in your favorite color
Paint brush or small roller

If you purchase small flowers or herbs from your local nursery or garden center, you know they always come in terrible, cheap, black plastic containers.  So, first thing first...make it cute!  Get different pots of different sizes and colors, throw some potting soil in there and transplant your baby plants to them.  If you are starting from seed, this will bring color to your garden from day one!  The different colors bring life to any garden.

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