The Happy Tinkerer - Making Homemade Devices For The Fun Of It

Written by Alan Detwiler


I've always liked to make gadgets and gizmos that have some function, either useful or not so useful. It started withrepparttar simple things that many kids make - slingshots, a simple bow and arrow, a toy boat. Occasionally I made more involved items such as a canoe and a dune buggy. Then there wasrepparttar 116107 grass hut - 12 feet across, octogonal in shape, and thatched top to bottom with a thick layer of grass. I built it in a remote location, near a stipmine filled with water. Hauledrepparttar 116108 cut grass in a 1972 Volkswagon convertible withrepparttar 116109 top down. Piledrepparttar 116110 grass high inrepparttar 116111 back seat. It must have taken a dozen trips back and forth from a nearby hay field.

Simple things appeal to me more than costly homemade items. A small project lets me pursue an interest without interfering with other goals. A project with a small amount of time invested seems more like entertainment. Time spent earnestly involved inrepparttar 116112 creation of something designed and made with ones own ingenuity can be quite enjoyable.

So now when I don't feel motivated to do more practical things I often turn to an idea about some device or other that I've wanted to try making but never got around to. I can recall many such improvised devices that gave me satisfaction and enjoyment.

Ideas for things to make come from many places. Most oftenrepparttar 116113 idea comes from some need. I do a lot of keying of text using a computer keyboard. I tend to keeprepparttar 116114 room temperature a bit cool, cool enough that my hands become uncomfortable. I ended up rigging a length of electrical heating tape wound in a large coil-shape to surroundrepparttar 116115 keyboard. Tyingrepparttar 116116 heat tape to a large piece of cardboard keeps it in place. It does a nice job of keeping my hands warm. I can leaverepparttar 116117 room temperature set where I want it. As far as I know, you can't buy anything like that.

Digital camera printers

Written by Jakob Jelling


The digital camera is not meant only for capturing images and storing them onrepparttar computer memory disks. The real effect comes fromrepparttar 116106 hard copy of those fantastic images taken byrepparttar 116107 users, that isrepparttar 116108 printed photographs! In order to getrepparttar 116109 printer copy ofrepparttar 116110 images a very important device necessary isrepparttar 116111 printer. The digital image printing requires a few numbers of components that comprisesrepparttar 116112 total process of printing. This discussion is thus primarily focused towards analyzing and understanding this whole experience of digital camera printers.

Scrutinizing in some more detail, it can be observed that in digital photography some really good and fantastic one-trick-pony printers have filled uprepparttar 116113 market that are exclusively designed forrepparttar 116114 sake of printing digital camera photos. These printers are not forrepparttar 116115 purpose of printing everyday documents, simply because their cartridges and photo paper, that are sold together in single boxes, are not cheap and thereby economic for such purposes. Thus they are solely forrepparttar 116116 reason of gettingrepparttar 116117 images into physical paper with a high degree of perfection and elevated quality. In these printersrepparttar 116118 ink and paper are by and large sold together in single boxes, andrepparttar 116119 average print costs to around 30 to 70 cents. Howeverrepparttar 116120 biggest advantage remains that these printers themselves are inexpensive.

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