Homemade earthed outlet

I live in an old house that has no grounding system. As I do many projects using considerable voltages, like vacuum tube amplifiers, I need at least a grounded wall socket for my own security and the security of my devices. So, as my house is rented, I don't want to request someone to make a full/proper ground installation for the entire house. Instead, I created my own grounded socket. Fortunately, the house as a backyard, so I bought a copper grounding rod and buried it into the backyard and then I took a thick wire from it to the inside of the house and made a connection to the ground pin of a "female" socket and I'm using it for my projects.

Below, there is a simple video showing the efficiency of that system I made:

You you have a similar situation as mine, you can do something similar.

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DIY mineral specimen storage box

There are several ways of storing rocks and minerals specimens. Some prefer to have them visible, other prefer to have them secured in boxes. Personally, I prefer to have them stored in a box, so they don't get dirty with dust, so I decided to build a simple wooden box. It is a simple rectangular box with small boxes inside like drawers that are pulled from top. Dimensions of the main box are 40cm length x 20cm wide x 25cm height. There is space for about 4 drawers inside. I have organized the smaller specimens into paper boxes, although the larger specimens are loose. You can see a small video of how it works to open and pull the inner drawers: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LhDBVJ7s5Vk I have used this style of box to store minerals but I can be used for any other kind of collectible.

Pressure lamp tank crack repair

I have an old kerosene pressure lamp, a Ditmar Maxim 520, but when I bought it, it come with some little cracks in the tank, so the first time I tried to turn it on, I noticed the kesorene leaking at the bottom. Searching in some forums for a possible solution, I have found a simple one: filling the cracks with tin solder. Here is a step by step if you also need to repair your pressure lamps: 1 - Identify all the cracks. 2 - With a dremel, open the cracks exposing the internal metal (make sure your tank is empty and dry of kerosene). 3 - With a torch and tin solder (the one used in electronics), fill the exposed metal crack with it. 4 - Test the pressure before adding kerosene. 5 - If the pressure keeps ok, you are ready to use your lamp again! Here is a small Youtube short video of the process: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0442OXCgXjc This is the final repaired tank:

DIY sheet metal brake

One of my hobbies is to build electronics projects, like metal detectors for treasure hunting. Usually electronics boards are hold inside a plastic or metal box. There both in the market, but usually they are not so cheap. One solution I thought about, was to build my own boxes using aluminum sheet as it is a soft metal. Although aluminum is soft, for the thickness I want to use (2mm) it is not so easy to bend it by hand, so I searched a bit how to make a tool to bend the metal with the less effort possible and with good results at the end, I came up with this, using only 3 pieces of wood, 2 screws with bolts and 2 hinges: This is known as a sheet metal brake, mine is simple, made of pine wood but I recommend you to use harder woods, specially if you need to bend metals harder tha aluminum. I think you can replicate one easily just by looking at the pictures above, so I'm not provinding any measurements but if you need, please write a comment below. For different sizes or formats ...

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