Recycling Will Be Key To The Electric Vehicle Future

July 15, 2021 by Zoe Skyforest 114 Comments

Electric vehicles have become a mainstay in the global automotive marketplace, taking on their gasoline rivals and steadily chewing out their own slice of market share, year after year. Government mandates to end the sale of polluting internal combustion engine vehicles and subsidies on cleaner cars promise to conspire to create an electric vehicle boom.

The result should be much cleaner air, as generating electricity in even the dirtiest power plants is far cleaner and more efficient than millions of individual engines puttering about the place. However, if the electric car is to reign supreme, they’ll need to be built in ever greater numbers. To do that is going to take huge amounts of certain materials that can be expensive and sometimes in very limited supply. Thus, to help support the EV boom, recycling of these materials may come to play a very important role.

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The Case Of The Mysterious Driveline Noise

July 14, 2021 by Zoe Skyforest 31 Comments

Spend enough time on the automotive classifieds and you’ll end up finding a deal that’s too good to pass up. The latest of these in one’s own case was a Mercedes-Benz sedan, just past its twentieth birthday and in surprisingly tidy condition. At less than $3,000, the 1998 E240 was too good to pass up and simply had to be seen.

The car in question. Clean bodywork is too tempting to resist, even if there are mechanical issues.

The car was clean, too clean for asking price. Of course, a test drive revealed the car had one major flaw – an annoying hum from the drivetrain that seemed to vary with speed. Overall though, mechanical problems are often cheaper and easier to fix than bodywork, so a gamble was taken on the German sedan. The first order of business was to diagnose and rectify the issue.

Characterise, Research, Investigate

The first step to hunting down any noise is to characterise it as much as possible. In this case, the noise was most noticeable when the car was traveling at speeds from 40 km/h – 60 km/h, present as a vibrational humming noise. The location of the noise source was unclear. Importantly, the noise varied with the speed of the car, raising in pitch at higher speeds and dropping as speeds decreased. Engine speed had no effect on noise whatsoever, and the noise was present regardless of gear selected in the transmission, including neutral. Continue reading “The Case Of The Mysterious Driveline Noise” →

A Capable Nerf Launcher Robot

July 12, 2021 by Zoe Skyforest 5 Comments

Nerf blasters are fun to play with, and it’s now possible to even get robotic Nerf launchers you can use to chase around your friends. [Engineering After Hours] wasn’t satisfied with the official hardware, though, so built his own remote control Nerf rig to battle it out in the back yard.

The rig is built around an earlier build from [Engineering After Hours], a skid-steer RC chassis that is nice and tough to handle rough and tumble driving. It’s paired with a trailer attached to the center of rotation of the chassis that makes the pair highly maneuverable.

In order to launch rockets, an air tank on the trailer is hooked up to some piping to launch four Nerf rockets. Charged up to just 40 psi, it’s capable of launching the rounds with plenty of power for play purposes. Paired with a elevation control and a servo to trigger the firing valve, it’s a complete system that can shoot on the go.

It’s a fun build that packs a punch, even if it doesn’t quite have the accuracy or range you might desire in an all-conquering Nerf combat platform. We’d love to see a similar build hooked up to some AI smarts to stalk targets independently of human control. Video after the break.

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Making Teeny Clamps With Hand Tools

July 11, 2021 by Zoe Skyforest 19 Comments

Sometimes you need a small clamp, and sometimes it’s nice to use tools you’ve made yourself. [Neil] from [Pask Makes] delivers on both counts, with incredibly cute little clamps that he whipped up in his own home shop. You can even make them with hand tools!

The first step is to cut out a section of flat steel bar, and then drill a hole in the middle. The flats that form the key clamping surfaces can then be cut using a hacksaw. From there, it’s a matter of cleaning up the resulting blank with a file to take off sharp edges and neaten up the flats.

Drilling and tapping the main hole through the bottom of the clamp is the next job, and getting the hole straight and true is key to making a good usable clamp. The video shares tips on how to do this with even a simple cordless drill, by using a vice and a wood guide to keep things on track. The swiveling nut is then made out of a piece of round bar, and installed on the end of a bolt to create a nice clamping surface. A cute little brass handle is used to tighten it up.

It’s a useful tool, and the video goes on to show how the clamp can be made more quickly using higher-end facilities. While small clamps can be had cheaply, the video notes that making tools is fun and we think that’s as good a reason as any to make your own.

We’ve seen [Neil]’s work before, particularly in the case of this stunning “bladeless fan” build. Video after the break.

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Building A Big Ol’ Powerful Wheelbarrow

July 10, 2021 by Zoe Skyforest 16 Comments

Sometimes you’ve gotta haul big heavy loads around a wide area. Regular wheelbarrows are fine, but it can quickly grow tiring when one has to make multiple trips. [Workshop from Scratch] instead elected to build a powered wheelbarrow, with plenty of grunt to shift loads about.

The build is absolutely from the ground up, welded up from sections of steel RHS, and given rear steering for plenty of maneuverability. The actual job of steering is handled by a rack repurposed from automotive use, set up with a single-sided attachment to the rear wheel assembly. It’s quite a neat and tidy way of doing the job, and seems to work well. Drive is sent to the front wheels through a hydrostatic lawnmower transmission. A 17-horsepower engine provides plenty of grunt for the job at hand, even coming with electric start already fitted for the ultimate in ease-of-use.

It’s impressive to see just how much of the rig was put together from raw materials; even the fuel tank was fabricated in steel. We’ve seen similar builds from [Workshop from Scratch] before, like this tidy bandsaw. Video after the break.

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Fractal Vise Holds Odd-Shaped Objects Tight

July 10, 2021 by Zoe Skyforest 29 Comments

A regular vice is great if you want to clamp rectangular objects, but it can fall down a little with more complex shapes. Inspired by an ancient vise [Chris Borge] whipped up his own 3D-printed fractal clamping tool.

The inspiration for this one comes from the [Hand Tool Rescue] video that shows of the clever mechanism. The vice uses a series of interlocking parts that can freely articulate to grip the object of interest via several protruding fingers. In reproducing the design, [Chris] had some issues initially with the joints, but settling on a dovetail similar to that of the original metal vice which got things working nicely.

[Chris] notes that while the design works, it could still use some refinement. Silicone or rubber tips on the fingers could give the vice better grip, and there remain some flexural issues that could be improved. Overall, however, it’s a useful table vice for small jobs on weird shaped things. We’ve seen 3D-printed vices before, particularly in the PCB vice space, but the grip scheme user here is totally unique.

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Custom Car Horn Makes Many Sounds

July 9, 2021 by Zoe Skyforest 29 Comments

A regular car horn is fine, but lacks finesse for more subtle communication. For example, some car horns aren’t particularly adept at short indicatory honks, and can only blare loudly regardless of the situation. For a fancier solution, [Tom Hammond] whipped up a custom car horn capable of playing a wide variety of sounds.

The system uses the Adafruit Audio FX board. This is a unique part, which is designed to enable people to build sound-based projects without the need for a microcontroller or any other similar hardware. Instead, the device can be connected to a computer over USB in mass storage mode, and its 16MB in-built memory can be loaded with sound files. It then plays these when buttons are pressed, hooked up to its 11 trigger inputs.

The Audio FX board has its output hooked up to a 120W amplifier, which then feeds into a pair of 15W PA-style horns. These are incredibly loud devices, though lack bass, so they’re really only good for throwing low-quality sound out in a noisy environment. For a car horn, that’s perfect.

The result is that [Tom] can press a number of buttons on his dash to play different sounds, from courtesy honks to animal noises and obnoxious sound effects. The great thing is that the sounds in question can be easily customized to the user’s tastes. [Tom] also deserves a tip of the hat for explaining in great detail how to actually install the project in the average car.

We don’t often see car horns around these parts, though they do make for an awfully loud alarm clock. If you’ve got your own nifty car accessories that you’re cooking up, be sure to drop us a line!