Projects

Replacing The Cord On My Circular Saw

I’ve owned the circular saw that I have now for quite a long time, and it still performs well. It has seen a lot of use, and...
Making A Low Cost Microphone

For video, audio quality is as important, or even more important than video quality. At least that’s my opinion now. In the ...
Ceiling Camera Mount

A little more than a year ago, I bought a wireless lapel microphone set that consists of a small transmitter and a receiver. The r...
Making A Panning Camera Slider

Unlike many of my recent projects, I really didn’t have this planned. It was more or less a spur of the moment idea that dev...
Building A Wooden Gantry Crane For Video

First off, I want to say thanks to Nick Ferry for the inspiration to do this. I had seen other, more simple versions before, but i...
Making A Camera Dolly

In two recent videos, I used a homemade dolly to pan the camera while I did the work. This is a technique often used on TV and in ...
BBQ Fix-Up by Don Heisz

Don Heisz is the author of Offcuts, a weekly article on the lighter side of woodworking. Featured here is my main summer cooking u...
An Ax to Grind for Christmas by Don Heisz

Don Heisz is the author of Offcuts, a weekly article on the lighter side of woodworking. I like to get John something interesting ...
Making An Automatic Load Sensing Switch

This is another project that I’ve been meaning to make for a while, and with my change to localized dust collection, I figur...
Design And Build A Guitar Preamp

For solid state guitar amplifiers, the preamp is probably the single most important part. It shapes the tone and often adds distor...
Making A Rotary Tool Drill Press

This is a project that I’ve wanted to do for some time: a drill press for my Dremel rotary tool: I made a fairly basic drawi...
Active Three Way Speakers Project

This is an older project, one of my better audio-related ones. Some of the photos are not great – the majority were taken wi...
Compact Transmission Line Speakers

My idea was to replace my unscientifically designed (but reasonably good looking, and reasonably good sounding) rear surround spea...
Homemade Printed Circuit Boards

The ability to make your own printed circuit boards is a real boon to the electronics hobbyist, in so many ways: No more waiting f...
Class A Amplifier

The K10A is a 10 watt class A amplifier with a 12AX7 twin triode for the input stage. It runs on a single polarity supply, with th...
Making A Wooden Vise

When you’ve spent more than half your lifetime working in construction, you’re bound to see a few of these: It’s...
Wooden Kant Twist Clamp

I believe I first saw this type of clamp while watching Frank Howarth’s excellent woodworking videos, and immediately though...
Making Wooden Bar Clamps

“You can never have too many clamps” – so true. Often, we only need two or three at a time, but occasionally the...
Making A Quick Adjust Steel Bar Clamp

I’ve wanted to make an all steel clamp for a while, and the recent long reach clamp strength “competition” betwe...