Joey's Blog

DIY Vacuum Forming!!!

January 25th, 2010 by joey | No Comments | Filed in Uncategorized

What do Storm Troopers, and your household vacuum have to do with each other? Storm Trooper costume armor was made (and can be made) using Vacuum Forming.

What is vacuume forming? This…

Vacuum Forming a Cube!

vacuum Forming a dog dish.

Isn’t that the coolest thing you’ve seen all week? But wait! There’s more! Vacuum forming can be done for small things, or HUGE things. Plastic hunting boats are made by vacuum forming a sheet of plastic into the hull. I first saw these about 8 years ago, and at the time, the only DIY one I had seen was large, and would cost $500+ to build. But! My wife and I are going to build a construction toy table (a table for playing with legos / erectors / and k’nex). And, we need some special sized bins, that I’m having a hard time finding for cheap. Then, I remembered vacuum forming, and did a quick search. Low and behold! You can build one for about $20! Using your oven to heat the plastic instead of a special heating element. Yay!!!!

Here’s some more machines for your viewing pleasure.

A professional Vacuum Forming Machine

From all the video’s I’ve watched, and websites I’ve read, people have successfully vacuum formed lots of plastics. My guess is almost any plastic, but the ones I have read about are ABS, PVC, Acrylic, Poly(something or other).

So, here’s a few videos that show some home made vacuum formers. A thorough build is shown in the last video, which is from make magazine video, although I HATE their staples… CHEAP! I prefer this one:

This is my favorite. If they added the window screen like one below, it would be perfect.

Quick Demo

Professional Vacuum Forming with Acrylic

It’s really long, only the first 4 minutes or so are good.

Make Magazine’s Vacuum Former

Tiny Vacuum Former

A Way to get more detail!

By putting a piece of window screen over the pegboard, and turning the vacuum on before you put the plastic down, you get a better forming, with more details.

A New Toilet Paper Holder

January 23rd, 2010 by joey | 2 Comments | Filed in Ingenuity, Life

Ok, so I have hated the way toilet paper holders have worked for a long time. Two hands to change it? The funny way the little springloaded tube thing snaps into place. The awkwardness of getting it out… So, for a while, I’ve just put the roll on top of the bar, in such a manner, that as you pull the toilet paper, the roll rolls against the wall. It works great, and satisfies my lazyness. A few months ago, I thought of a better toilet paper holder… Why not just a single bar that is open on one end? My wife and I bought the parts, and today, after purchasing a drill bit set, finaly put it together. Here is the result.

My Wife says: “I like his feminine voice. He sounds like a drag queen.”

January 19th, 2010 by joey | No Comments | Filed in Infusionsoft, Life

Perry (my boss at work) recently shared a book with me: Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting out of the Box . I was listening to the audiobook last night, and my wife was listening from the other room as well. In several chapters there is dialog between a manager and his administrative assistant. The narrator attempts to use a feminine voice to portray the assistant, after one dialoge my wife came in and said “I like his feminine voice. He sounds like a drag queen.” It was a funny moment, you had to be there I guess.

Anyways, the book is AWESOME. It really opens your eyes to a pervasive problem that managers have, and helps you to get “out of the box”. I kind of wonder if Perry thinks I am “in the box” from the perspective and that’s why he loaned it to me… I highly recommend the audio book version, it is an easy listen.

Sarah and Ben’s quest for a child to adopt…

January 18th, 2010 by joey | 1 Comment | Filed in Life

My friend (and childhood next door neighbor) and her husband are searching for a child to adopt. If you know of a child up for adoption, let them know by leaving a reply here: http://sarahandbenblog.wordpress.com/

They are really really great people. Both well educated, extremely loving, and would provide a healthy stable environment for any child.

The Cereal! (Infusionsoft)

January 16th, 2010 by joey | No Comments | Filed in Infusionsoft, Life

This is one of the many reasons I LOVE working at Infusionsoft!

The Cereal!

This is one of my favorite things. I almost never eat breakfast, probably because I always sleep in, but now I don’t go hungry till lunch. I just get to work, run to the kitchen and grab a bowl of cereal from the cabinet and my stomach is silent.

If you think about it, this is a tiny perk that really shows how much they care. The cost is very small, if you figure one box of cereal per employee per week, you are spending an extra $12 a month per employee. And we don’t consume a box a week per employee, its more like a box a month per employee. So, $3 a month. You figure the average employee makes more than $1k a month, so it is definitly less than a 0.3% increase in employee cost.

iPhone 3Gs Camera Focus

January 16th, 2010 by joey | No Comments | Filed in Ingenuity, really cool

I don’t know how they did it, but Apple made the camera on the 3Gs totally awesome. You can take Macro shots without a problem. Check out this photo of a shirt, taken from 10″ away; you can actually SEE the threads.

The only thing missing, is a zoom, but for that, you just move closer, or further away. It’s not perfect, but it’s still one of the best phone cameras available.

JavaScript Browser Pong!

January 15th, 2010 by joey | No Comments | Filed in Hacks, really cool

JavaScript was once nothing more than a cool toy. It’s uses were limited to things like scrolling status bar, and annoying popups. Today, it is what powers Web2.0. The creative genius at Stewdio in London has used it to recreate a classic game in a new way!

Check it out!

http://stewdio.org/pong/

Avatar and Pocahontas Compared

January 11th, 2010 by joey | 1 Comment | Filed in Ingenuity, funny

I saw this on Failblog today. Very cool. Although the Pocahontas script may have been tailored for this comparison. It is really really similar…. I don’t think it’s a failure, because Avatar is WAY WAY WAY WAY cooler than Pocahontas.

P.S.

Glass Blowing in Tacoma!!!

January 10th, 2010 by joey | 1 Comment | Filed in Fun, Life, Uncategorized, really cool

We spent New Years in Portland and Seattle with Katrina’s family this year. One of the things we did, is a little glass blowing at Tacoma Glass Blowing Studio. It was AWESOME!!! If you are ever in Tacoma, you should definitely do this! There is probably a glass blowing studio near you that may offer something like this as well. Definitely worth the money.

The Blow Tubes

They are kept hot because glass doesn’t stick to cold things.

Rolling The Glass into a cylinder

Heating the glass again

Rolling on the color!

Rolling colored glass into the clear glass

Adding twists to swirl the colors before introducing the bubble

Rolling before introducing bubble

This is interesting, they cool the outside, to ensure that the walls of the glass are consistent. By adjusting the heat in different places, they can vary the way the bubble will expand in the glass.

Introducing the bubble!!

He blows into the tube, and then places his thumb over the hole. The heat in the piece, and in the pipe cause the air to expand, and force the bubble into the piece when it’s small (which is hard, just like starting to blow up a balloon.

Adding more glass

More glass is added before enlarging the piece further

Cooling the blow tube

The blow tube gets really hot since it goes in and out of the furnace and glory hole repeatedly. So it is cooled every now and then with this simple machine.