Introduction In our old flat, we had control over our heating from our phones: I’d reverse engineered the RF control protocol used by our Salus thermostat. I never got round to blogging about that, but the code is available here. Now we’ve moved, we wanted the same control. The new boiler is a “Baxi 600”Continue reading “picotherm: Controlling an OpenTherm Boiler with a Raspberry Pi Pico”
Category Archives: Projects
Power Monitoring with a Raspberry Pi Pico
We had a smart meter installed last year. It’s kinda useful to observe long term power usage. However I really wanted to be able to see more detail; like turn off this device, what happens to the power usage? I didn’t find the wee standalone meter module thing that came with it very useful. Luckily,Continue reading “Power Monitoring with a Raspberry Pi Pico”
Turning Bowls
I bought a “luxury selection of exotic wood blanks” from ebay to try turning some bowls. Some of them worked! Bowl 1 + Bowl 2 These were a success, although I think bowl 2 is better from a shape and finish point of view. The groove I’ve cut into the bottom is how you holdContinue reading “Turning Bowls”
Afternoon Experiment with Veneer
A friend, Sandy, suggested trying laser cutting wood veneer (he has plans for a complex design). However, I’d not tried that before, and it sounded like an interesting idea. I’ve often watched people on Youtube restoring veneer, for example, the excellent AT Restoration. I ordered some cheap samples of veneer from Amazon, and, when theyContinue reading “Afternoon Experiment with Veneer”
Hardening Steel
I was watching some of Uri Tuchman’s excellent videos, and he mentioned making his own tools; sounded fun, and I now have a garden I can safely try that sort of project in. Kinda fancied making some sort of engraving tool; mainly for the fun of making such a thing. I ordered some 8mm springContinue reading “Hardening Steel”
Lasercutting Lathe Toolbox
One problem with the lathe is I now have a whole set of chisels lying around the place, which is kinda annoying. I spent yesterday designing a quick tool support to attach to the lathe bench in Fusion 360 as usual: I cut it on the laser cutter out of 5mm MDF: Unfortunately I madeContinue reading “Lasercutting Lathe Toolbox”
Wood Turning Lathe!
I’ve always wanted one of these. When I was wee, we went on tour round England visiting various relations, and I remember being very impressed with a lathe. I’ve no idea which relation it was, unfortunately, but I do remember the lathe. I decided to order one from the UK rather than direct from China,Continue reading “Wood Turning Lathe!”
Making a Hammer
Nicola bought me a present for my birthday: a hammer making course at Athelstaneforge! I really enjoyed it! It was a pretty intense few hours though: hitting chunks of hot metal with a sledge hammer to shape the head, followed by grinding and polishing it, and finally adding the handle. Would very much recommend it!Continue reading “Making a Hammer”
Two Wee Woodworking Tools
I used a few offcuts to add some new woodworking tools: Plane Stop I bolted a length of the construction timber to my bench with some “star nuts” and spare M10 carriage bolts. The idea is you put one end of the thing you’re planing against it so it can’t move. Japanese Sawhorses More offcutsContinue reading “Two Wee Woodworking Tools”
Restoring a Table
I’ve been watching a lot of restoration on Youtube recently: AT Restoration, Hand Tool Rescue to name a couple. I thought I’d give it a go: there’s an old side table that’s been in the family for ages: at some point it seems to have been slightly incompetently covered with thick white gloss paint, butContinue reading “Restoring a Table”
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