Testing my clock

My home made clock-next I have to add buttons so I can set the time then maybe chimes,not ugly electronic one but a relay connected to a little hammer striking a wind chime style tube would sound nice!

PENdulum test (BIC actually)

Here's a short video of my testing my pendulum system out, it's running a little fast so I need make the pendulum longer and the only way to accommodate t in that case is to raise the top and the coil up higher. I've already mover the opto sensor to the back and have a little pin in the back of the pendulum interrupting the beam. Even though the stanley knife bade fulcrum should be pretty well friction free bcz the coils magnetism has to jump a bit of a gap it's not so efficient and those 60 pulses a second are going to eat the batteries! Maybe a solar panel on top?

Video of me playing at Gary's club

About time I posted a video of myself playing here, I played at Gary's Club at the weekend, I think it went well. Anyway here's a couple of videos so you can make up your own mind!
Note I'm playing the Les Pew through the "new" amp and the rotary speaker, the copper gardening tags I found in a hardware shop have made much improved rotating speaker contacts! I wrote the songs too.

Bird's nest wiring!

Something that seems fairly simple in theory doesn't always work out like that in practice. It's certainly put my eye sight to the test! Though the bird's nest lay out is easier to trace than it looks you could hardly call it neat! (Dare I admit wiring is my trade?) Bcz the minute LEDs are small and are easy to destroy by over heating with the iron I decided to only wire one wire to each pin there is still the wiring for the seconds LEDs to be added but as these are larger I should be able to link them daisy chain style to keep down the bulk of the wiring! Oh-and I must order the IC's or it won't be doing anything!

Time - warp. (sorry that's the best I could come up with!)

Inspired by Time Hunkin's web site I thought I'd build a clock (also it makes a change to make something totally non musical)
It will have 132 LEDs _ and five cmos counters fanned out in a star shape in the center.
The outer ring will have yellow LEDs indicating the seconds- middle ring red for minutes and the inner rectangular green LEDS for the hour hands.
Yes a CNC machine would have made a better job of drilling those holes! Think of it as art! I will get them a little better as I glue them it place then fill any gaps.
it won't have a pcb of any kind all will have to be point to point hand wired! I must be mad! I want it to keep time via a pendulum with optical sensor and might add hourly chimes later.

The dulcimer is coming along, the side bending was a little bit of a struggle as I used a large soldering iron to steam them! No they don't want to stay in exactly the right curvature but are now bend easily into place.
I'm held up now as I need to put in an order for glue and might as well buy the finger board etc though my regular luthier suppliers in the UK don't seem to offer anything dulcimer sized!

Tim Hunkin - Engineer - Artist

Does any one remember the TV sries The Secret Life Of Machines back in the late 80’s? Hosted by Tim Hunkin and Rex Garrod it explained the inner workings of domestic and later office equipment through experimentation, stunts and wacky cartoons! I considered this compulsory viewing!
A few day ago I looked on youtube to see if any clips were on it and indeed there where but then I discovered the website where you can (legally) download all 18 shows to keep!
http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/SLOM/
If this wasn’t enough I found Tim’s own website and realised he had been rather busy since that series was made to put it mildly! http://www.timhunkin.com/
What a mine of inspiration not to mention a great way to earn a living! If only I could do a similar thing but with a musical slant to it? !
Sorry the links don't link here ,I've never managed to get them to work.

Dulcimer back and sides

The laminate on the inside of the side panels was damaged from where I had taken the cabinet apart but that was probably because it wasn’t very well stuck down in the first place and half an hour with a chisel had it all removed, what I have left is about 3 mm thick and can’t be described as ply because the grain of two layers of wood go in the same direction so it’s just a layer of birch and something prettier on top. These pieces will become the top and sides of my dulcimer the bottom is what used to be the cabinet’s top so is rather thick 5 ply. Rather than conventionally gluing the sides on top of it I’m going to stick them round the edge this will have the advantage of acting as a former, hide the fact it is ply and save me fitting kurfeling as I have a thick edge to glue to! I have already cut a maple wedge block for the tail and have off cut of rose wood to cap the end. Now I’m thinking about the headstock, I don’t have the wood for the finger board though and I guess it ought to match rosewood or Mahogany would look nice and I think I have some Mahogany in the cabinet/box of that digital amp project that I scrapped. Many dulcimer makers just seem to glue the headstock separately to the end block but I want mine to be extend to that area for strength so I need to make the headstock before I start bending the sides a challenge I must conquer but am not looking forward to! Just as well I have a spare strip to practice on!