First I put together my cabinet and added some LED grow lights with a built-in timer, and a humidifier in the bottom. The whole point is to keep my rain forest plants happy, which like things warmer and more humid than the normal conditions in my apartment.
I embedded a handmade ornament inside made from sheet metal. The little dumpster fire is revealed as the candle burns. I was inspired by PyroPet candles.
I had the idea that I should be able to 3D print a mold for liquid wax to make this candle. See, the melting temperature of the wax (~60 degrees C) is way lower than that of the PLA filament (~185 degrees C). I had made soy wax candles in the past, so I pulled out my candle making supplies and did some research online.
Soy wax is much too soft to use for casting– it won’t pick up fine details or hold its shape after demolding. My research suggested beeswax and paraffin are more suited to molding into freestanding pillar candles, but that beeswax is notoriously sticky, making it more difficult to remove from molds. So I chose to start my experiments with paraffin wax.
This project is a pair of bedside shelves made from maple and epoxy resin. This wood has a bunch of beetle holes in it, some of which I filled with silver wire as an accent. Let’s get started.
I love this backpack. It’s waterproof, which is great for city commuting by any method, and it holds a lot of stuff, but can take on a smaller profile when it’s mostly empty. I bought mine in 2015 and use it for everything from day-to-day laptop toting to overnight trips, and I even sometimes use the top flap to strap something big and awkward to it, like a bag of plush stuffing.
I keep a pack of these antibacterial wipes in just about every bag I have. They’re great for wiping away germs after using the subway railings, or for sanitizing your airplane tray table. I also use them to disinfect my phone.
You never know when you’re going to need a small bit of strong cord! I made a tutorial for these paracord zipper pulls a few years ago and attached one to every jacket and bag. Not only are they effective as zipper pulls, they can be untied to become a useful length of strong cord.
I recently got my ham radio license, but without an antenna on the roof, I’ve got to be outdoors (preferably up high) to make contact with other hams. This 8-Watt radio is ubiquitous in the ham community because it’s small, affordable, easy to program. I did upgrade the antenna to get better performance.
If you want to get your ham radio license, I recommend checking out Ham Radio Prep’s excellent courses. Get 20% off at hamradioprep.com with code BECKY20.
When I teach electronics prototyping to design grad students at SVA, it’s useful to have some small parts on hand to demonstrate with and lend to my students. I love this double-sided parts organizer for transporting small things like switches, sensors, LEDs, and small microcontroller boards.
This project makes use of a 12V battery, like you would use for a vehicle, for charging USB devices in case of a power outage or camping trip. It’s as simple as affixing a USB car charger to the battery. After Hurricane Sandy, I was without power and used an inverter/battery setup at home, but it was huge and heavy. This project revisits the concept with a smaller battery (meant for motorcycles/ATVs) and DC-only charging.
I’ve also created an optional 3D printed battery topper to cover the battery contacts and hold the USB ports. The design is available on Tinkercad so that you may modify it to fit your specific battery and USB charger.
The compact design makes it easier to transport and store. There are many situations where this device could be useful:
power outage
camping
off-grid living
Supplies:
12V vehicle battery (I used one intended for a motorcycle/ATV) such as this one
I love being in my studio, whether its shooting a tutorial, using the workbench, or just attending a conference call. Since moving to NYC in 2003, I’ve always had to make do with a smaller-than-ideal workspace, except for those two years I lived in Arizona. Here’s a trip through workspaces of my past, starting with college.
I shared my freshman dorm with three other students. Four desks, four beds, four dressers, four NYC college freshmen women. I ended up doing a lot of my art school homework in the dorm’s study room or at the house where I babysat. But the furniture was the same at my next place:
The first space in NYC I had to myself was a single-off-a-suite I lucked into via the student housing lottery. The dorm was on Union Square West, just a few floors of the otherwise-privately-residential building above Blue Water Grill. (I’ve heard it has since been converted back to regular apartments and is no longer a New School dorm.) Since my bed was lofted, I could take over the whole floor with projects. Continue reading for the complete history of my workspaces:
We’re renters in NYC who needed some more storage space beyond what our kitchen cabinets and closets could provide. This guide details the construction of our storage cabinet solution, made entirely of 3/4″ plywood. The design has 12 shelves, one of which we left open, which can be used for a cat tower or fish tank.
Organizing the clutter, finding stuff you forgot you had, throwing away junk, and cleaning your workbench can be fun and satisfying if you have a label maker. I recently overhauled my workbench storage for small parts and tools and want to share some of my process with you. Whether you’re into electronics, jewelry making, home improvement, or all three (+more) like me, hopefully, you’ll find something useful here.
I got my small parts drawers at Fry’s Electronics in Phoenix over a decade ago. I have the big red version and a smaller set too. They have mounting holes on the back so you can hang them from the wall. My small black ESD parts drawer set was from an old sampler of ESD cardboard products, but here’s a similar one.
When you go to organize your drawers, group them loosely based on the activity they are associated with. I have all my electronics parts up top and the lower drawers are for more household or crafty type projects. All the switches are together, all the IoT boards are in a row, the toothpicks are near the glue, etc. It’s not an exact science.
To make use of the small drawers, you really need a label maker!…
Label Maker
A label maker can really help your organization efforts pay off! What good is all that shuffling if you can’t remember where anything is? Hand-drawn labels aren’t ideal because they are hard to read from far away and hard to read if you weren’t the one who wrote them.
If you have access to a desktop printer, you can also print labels out on sticky paper or precut labels.
Consider adding special touches to drawers you use frequently, like a colored sticker or special symbol on the label. Part of my parts optimization is helping my partner find things too, and it’s easier to describe a drawer if it is unique-looking. “Where are the tiny screwdrivers?” “Low down in the middle, pink sticker!” Then I don’t have to interrupt what I’m doing to show him where something is.
Small Tools Storage
To make tools easy to reach when you need them, consider multiple locations for small tool storage.
A magnetic bar meant for kitchen knives hangs above my workbench, which has a wooden shelf storage system of its own. Nearby, a plastic tool caddy attaches to the front of my parts drawers. I also keep tools in the drawers of my jewelry workbench, and larger and less frequently used tools in a toolbox on a shelf nearby.
Since my workbench is actually a jeweler’s bench, I also have some small tool storage by way of a shelf/organizer add-on that has bars for pliers, a few drawers, and sectioned areas for different size tools and accessories (though it’s designed to hook onto the back lip of the desk).
Thanks for reading about my small workbench tool and parts storage!
If you like this project, you may be interested in some of my others:
A shelf for my drives! Take a peek behind my computer, and you’ll find a stack of external hard drives and a mess of cables. I keep a piece of fabric in front of this area to help keep dust out, but it’s far from perfect and takes up a lot of horizontal desk space.
My goal with this project is to free up this space while creating a new safe home for my drives, where they could get fresh air without clogging up their fans with sawdust or anything else.
