17 thoughts on “Hackaday Links

  1. I like that idea with the muffin tin. Last time I took apart my boss’s Dell Insipiron laptop to replace one of the screen hinges, I ended up with quite a few screws left over. And that was after I dropped some into inaccessible cracks and crevices in the case.

    i’m going to make one of those hard drive belt buckles, and the first girl who takes it and likes it will be the one for me. :)

  2. I work on laptops as a job… and I have found what I think is the best way to not lose screws.

    Here goes:

    Grab a stick on label, we have the kind that go in dot-matrix printers, any kinda label that goes on that wax paper stuff will work, including cd labels….

    Then, peel it off by peeling the paper from the label, so the label will stay strait when you get it off the paper (also a trick thats good for cd labels in general)…

    Then, lay it non-sticky side down on the table or workbench. Every time you take a set of screws off for say “keyboard”, take a ball point pen or fine tipped sharpee and write “kb” on the label (it wont’ stick to the pen very much at all)

    Then stick your screws on the label head down. Even hitting it off the desk w/ your hand will hold the screws. Just draw a dividing line every time you get to another part… like “display”, “cpu”, “motherboard”, etc… Works like a champ every time, even if you have to keep it apart for a few weeks.

    Good luck, sorry for the essay.

    -Tired2
    evanmj@gmail.com
    #hackaday on efnet

  3. Why not match the HD buckle with an ide cable belt?

    Also, similar to the muffin tins, get some masking tape and stretch out a long length with sticky side up on the table. Then stick the screws down in order. If they’re going to be out for a while, you can stick another length of tape over the top as well.

  4. another thought, if youre going to use a cupcake tray, you could also use an icecube tray. If you have an ice cube maker, you probably have some empty ones, and if you don’t, then your bastard friends probably didn’t fill up yours, so there should be some empty ones in the freezer… little better on space, and you get just as many or more slots.
    -tired2

  5. i have lots binders from school laying around my room, and i have a binder for each project i am working on. i tape the screws to the paper i keep in them, and write where they go to next to it. very secure, easy, and neat to just be able to open to a specific page and see what goes where

  6. That hard drive clock is pretty spiffy! I’m seriously considering replicating that one, maybe using a split level approach (make 2 cuts in the top platter. Use one of em as outlined in the article for minute / second, but the other one would be wider – and let us see down to the second platter, where a partial cut is made (to make a shorter hand for the hour) which lets us see through to the bottom platter. Light it seperately on each level individually and you’ve got a shorter hour hand. Of course – the synchronization / timing system (photogate) would be trickier – maybe attaching a spur to the middle platter that sticks out beyond the others and having the photogate watch for it rather than a hole?

  7. I know someone’s mentioned the masking tape method which I use but I’d like to add that you can also add a label beside the hole that you took the screw out of with the tape. Especially handy when taking appart laptops as the variety of screws you see, also saves you writing descriptive labels for each screw / set of screws.
    Then again, you could combine this idea with the muffin tin / icecube tray. Add a label to each of the cups.
    This post will interest no-one and I appologise, I’ve just had too much coffee today.

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