Home > Amps, Volts, and Watts

Diagrams and electrical schematics

This particular schematic is from an old tube radio and I thought it rustic to use as a placeholder image for this page. Pretty neat, huh?

SMT Hot Air Pencil

This is an essential tool for desoldering surface mount components. Now in a money-saving home brew version. More...

Hot wire foam cutting

Draw a profile with your favorite CAD program. Grab a block of styrofoam. Run a few amps of electricity through a piece of violin 'E' string, and you can cut precision shapes! You can either spend a fortune and purchase a high priced foam cutting system or you can build one. More...

Homebuilt arc welder

These are the construction notes and electrical schematics on my homebuilt arc welder. I collected 18 dead microwave ovens to build this unit! More...

Homebuilt oscilloscope

Can't afford a real oscilloscope? Need just a simple one for dedicated monitoring applications? Make one yourself out of an old computer monitor or tv set! Here's the basic outline of how I did. More...

Monster Quartz Halogen Bike Light

Yep, you're seeing right--a heavy duty quartz halogen bike light designed by and for the craziest winter cyclists. Move over, Night Sun! This homebuilt light can accomodate up to 100 watts of quartz halogen fire, with a burn time of up to 8 hours. I made mine from readily available, off the shelf components!

An on-board charger keeps the battery topped off. Depending on the ride, I can also choose from a heavy, long running 19Ah battery, or the short-commute 7Ah one. More...

Induction Heating

Wrap a coil of metal around a crucible of iron and steel scrap, and send high frequency AC through it. If you've done your math, you can melt metal this way! The industrial foundries do it all day long. Believe it or not, I first learned about this principle while attempting to convert an old monitor to an oscilloscope! I've done a bit of research on this process and found the patent database a wealth of information, and the information is not new by any means. More...

Homebuilt Solid State Ignition Module

A homebrew ignition system for an old Bolens Husky tractor. More...

USB Hard Drive Hack

If you're geeky enough, the thought has probably occurred to you that many electronic gadgets such as USB-powered external hard drives are probably not as mysterious inside the black plastic case as most would think. Now you can find out... More...