Monthly Archives: March 2011

How to Make a Hole in the Middle of a Golf Ball

Posted by on March 31, 2011 9 comments

If you’ve ever tried to make a hole in the middle of a golf ball, you know this can be a difficult task.  With the right fixture, however, it can be pretty straightforward.

Safety Note: Be very careful when drilling golf balls.  Be sure to at least wear eye protection as with any shop operation.  Liquid core balls are especially tricky, as they are under pressure and have been known to spray hazardous liquid when pierced, so avoid this type.

Why would you want to put a hole in the middle of a perfectly good golf ball, you might ask?  My reason was to make a “ladder toss” set for my own amusement, but maybe you would like to attach a golf ball to the top of furniture or make a golf ball ornament.  Possibly you’d really like to screw your friend’s (enemy’s??) drive up by hollowing out the inside of a ball…  The possibilities are endless!

Thinker golf balls

"What shall I do with my balls?"

So how do you put a hole through a golf ball?  Probably most of you, upon reading this, thought about using Read more »

Draftsight… Limited 3D capability?

Posted by on March 23, 2011 5 comments

I have used Draftsight at work for several months now alongside my installation of Pro E.  Although I don’t do any “creation” of parts with this package, I generally used to open .dwg files from vendors or colleagues.  It’s done a very good job with the 2D files that I’ve been opening, but today I got send a 3D .dwg file that I assume was made with AutoCAD.  To my surprise, Draftsight opened it up with no problem!

Here are some views that it generated, illustrating that you can pan rotate the image as you please:

Draftsight 3d capability

First view

Read more »

Capacitor Safety for Cameras

Posted by on March 21, 2011 1 comment

Capacitors are fairly common components when it comes to modifying/breaking electrical components.  However, they can be quite dangerous.  According to “repairfaq.org“,

“While accidental contact with capacitors on a 3.3 V logic board isn’t going to result in a shocking experience, this is not true of many common types of equipment including TVs, computer and other monitors, microwave ovens; the switchmode power supplies in some VCRs, laptop computers, camcorder battery chargers; electronic flash and other xenon strobes; laser power supplies, and many other consumer and industrial devices.”

camera partially disassmebled

Disassembled ==> Could be bad...

Most people familiar with electronics should know to be careful around TVs, but what many people wouldn’t think about is the smaller things, especially electronic flash devices.  Quite a bit of power is required to use a flash, and as such, quite a bit is stored in a camera’s capacitor.

I did an article about triggering your camera with an air freshener, which should be Read more »

Swiftpoint Mouse Review- Good, but worth the Price?

Posted by on March 19, 2011 1 comment

swiftpoint mouse in boxSeveral days ago I received a Swiftpoint Mouse from Amazon. Although these are not cheap, around $75 $69 for the one listed including shipping, I had read some reviews and was eager to try one out. Some reviews I had read said that larger hands may have a hard time holding this mouse for long periods of time without cramps. At 6 foot 4, I’m a large guy, so buying this sight unseen was a bit of a risk.

After using this mouse for a couple of days, I think there is some truth to this, especially if you’re going to be using it on a flat surface. Your hand is forced to twist to the right and down somewhat, which ergonomically is probably pretty good for most people. If your hands are very large though, it pushes the outside of your hand into the desk it’s sitting on. However, if it is sitting on the bottom of your notebook’s keyboard tray, there is naturally some space for your hand to twist. Using the mouse on the keyboard tray works better than I expected, and is actually pretty comfortable.

The other drawback to this mouse is Read more »

How to Make a USB Key Fob

Posted by on March 13, 2011 5 comments

PNY attache thumbdriveA little over a year ago, I came up with this idea to attach my thumbdrive to my keychain (no, I don’t think I was the first to do this).  Specifically, a PNY brand “Micro Swivel Attache 4 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive” was what I wanted to attach.  As you can see from this image from Amazon.com, the thumbdrive in question does actually come with a lanyard to attach to your keychain.  Unfortunately, it is a thin string with glitter all over it.  It’s attachment to the silver base could also be suspect.  Besides not being many people’s style, it looks prone to breakage, possibly loosing all of your precious data.

A better solution, in my opinion, is to make Read more »