Robot Sink Helps With The Dishes

November 2, 2020 by Lewin Day 16 Comments

The humble kitchen sink has remained relatively unchanged over the last century. While there are now fancier mixing taps and sleeker fittings available, for most of us, there’s a nozzle that squirts water of varying temperature, and a tub in which to soak dishes. Of course, this leaves plenty of room for improvement, as [Jake] found with his robot sink build.

The sink consists of a robotic nozzle, which he refers to as a “continuum manipulator”. In essence, it’s a nozzle that can be steered with a joystick to aim the flow of water throughout the sink. To move the nozzle, motors pull on steel cables attached to 3D printed collars fastened around the hose. Combined with an on/off switch for the water flow, the sink could be a useful assistive technology for those with disabilities, as demonstrated in the project’s demo video.

We could easily imagine such hardware being combined with a simple computer vision system to further automate the cleaning of dishes. The project actually serves as a proof of concept for work [Jake] is doing to explore 3D printing concrete with similar hardware, albeit scaled up to a more industrial level. We’ve featured similar technology before, too — in the form of a DIY tentacle build that’s perfect for Halloween. Video after the break.

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How Hot Is Your Faucet? What Color Is The Water?

November 6, 2016 by James Hobson 26 Comments

How hot is the water coming out of your tap? Knowing that the water in their apartment gets “crazy hot,” redditor [AEvans28] opted to whip up a visual water temperature display to warn them off when things get a bit spicy.

This neat little device is sequestered away inside an Altoids mint tin — an oft-used, multi-purpose case for makers. Inside sits an ATtiny85 microcontroller — re-calibrated using an Arduino UNO to a more household temperature scale ranging from dark blue to flashing red — with additional room for a switch, while the 10k ohm NTC thermristor and RGB LED are functionally strapped to the kitchen faucet using electrical tape. The setup is responsive and clearly shows how quickly [AEvans28]’s water heats up.

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Blacksmith Forge Made From The Bathroom Sink

November 4, 2015 by Bil Herd 57 Comments

The sweltering heat had finally moved on and Giant Tick season was coming to a close (not kidding, they are HUGE here), when I decided to fire up my hacked together blacksmith forge made out of an old bathroom sink and aquarium stand.

In the age-old formula I needed to supply an air source to a fuel to create enough heat to make iron malleable. I got the idea that this particular bathroom sink might be a good candidate for a fire bowl after I banged my shin with it and then cursed at it. It was clearly made of cast iron and as proof it was clearly unfazed by my tirade of words which I hope my son has learned from the Internet and not from listening to me remodel the bathroom.

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Natural Materials For Nature’s Call

July 11, 2015 by Dan Maloney 19 Comments

When it comes to picking out high-end fixtures and appointments for your bathroom remodel, there are tons of choices out there these days. Sure, that double-slipper tub or $2500 stainless steel toilet can make a statement, and even the local Big Box Home Store has some pretty unique stuff. But for a one of a kind sink, follow [The Samurai Carpenter]’s lead and carve a sink out of a boulder.

Starting with a stone he found off the porch of his house, [Samurai Carpenter] was able to rough out the shape of the basin with a diamond-bladed cutoff saw. A few plunge cuts within a hand-sketched outline gave him the room needed to hog out most of the material with a cold chisel and hammer. A diamond wheel on an angle grinder, along with a chisel bit on an impact drill, got him down to the final smooth finish. After the break there’s a video showing the final installation, including drilling out the drain hole and mounting the sink to the vanity, which is a beautiful rough-cut slab of what appears to be locally sourced wood. The whole installation looks fantastic and appears to function well; our only quibble is there’s no overflow in the basin, but it’s hard to see how he could have provided one without significantly complicating the project and potentially ruining the aesthetic.

Although they may not fit in with the natural vibe of his remodel, either this or this tricked out mirror could complete a high-end bathroom remodel.

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Saving The Planet One Flush At A Time

December 8, 2014 by Rich Bremer 88 Comments

Water is a natural resource that some of use humans take for granted. It seems that we can turn on a facet to find an unlimited supply. That’s not true in all parts of the world. In the US, toilets use 27% of household water requirements. That’s a lot of water to only be used once. The water filling the toilet after the flush is the same as that comes out of the sink. [gregory] thought it would make sense to combine toilet tank filling with hand washing as those two activities happen at the same time.

To accomplish this, a DIY sink and faucet were put in-line with the toilet tank fill supply. The first step was to make a new tank lid. [gregory] used particle board and admits it probably isn’t the best material, but it is what he had on hand. A hole was cut in the lid where a metal bowl is glued in. Holes were drilled in the bottom of the bowl so that water could drain down into the tank. The faucet is just standard copper tubing. The curve was bent by hand using a wire wrap method to keep it from kinking. The only remaining part was to connect the fill line (after the fill valve) to the faucet. Now, when the toilet is flushed, the faucet starts flowing.

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