More progress on my cookie-making machine. It's now dispensing flour, eggs, vanilla extract, salt, and white sugar accurately.

I've got most of the subsystems on my cookie machine working so that I can dispense desired quantities of one ingredient (sugar). I'm using a UI developed using processing.org, which sends serial commands to a Parallax Pro...

Here's an update regarding my cookie machine project.

I've always liked these bubble tube lamps that used to be built into Christmas tree ornaments, and were also featured in classic jukeboxes. I decided to make one in my own shop and here I explain how they work and how I bu...

This video is a response to Grant Thompson's water bottle challenge. Check out Grant Thompson "The King of Random"

http://www.thekingofrandom.com

You don't need much special equipment to blow mold plastic bottles in a hom...

Two of my cleaner laps at Sears Point. My team, Back to the Crapper (#82) placed fifth in our class, and 30th overall out of 180 cars. This is only my third race, and I have a lot to learn about driving.

I am building a machine that will dispense and mix ingredients to make a single cookie. The benefit is that each cookie on the sheet can have its own recipe, and the baker can sample all of the cookies to better understand...

For an upcoming project, I'd like to develop a dispensing system that can measure out a desired mass of material. The idea would be to use a microcontroller, dispensing valve, and electronic balance to provide feedback. I ...

My high-vacuum Penning gauge has been having some problems lately. The last time that I "fixed" it, I used lead solder to create a crushable metal seal between the parts of the gauge body. Eventually the rosin leaked out a...

I used microscope objective lenses coupled to my Lumix GH1 camera to get these shots. The crystal growth is surprisingly fast. Most of these clips are essentially 1 frame per 8 seconds, so at 30fps playback, 1/240 realtime.

I used my programmable turntable and camera control to create a timelapse video of crystal growth on a small novelty toy. I took one photo (1920x1080) every two minutes, and advanced the turntable by about 3/4 of a degree ...

I built a CT scanner from an x-ray tube that I bought on eBay, a stepper motor, a large ring bearing, and an Arduino. I used a phosphor screen and my camera to capture x-ray shadow images of a frozen chicken, while the Ard...

I built a system to synchronize the two color wheel motors in a Wurlitzer Model 1015 jukebox. Originally, the jukebox used two synchronous clock motors, and the designers assumed that the motors would stay synchronous and ...

I'll be presenting this work at EHSM: http://ehsm.eu/

I built an X-ray backscatter imaging system from parts found on eBay. This system works by scanning a very thin beam of X-rays across the target, and measuring the amo...

It seems strange that a single piece of glass can compute the Fourier transform of an image, but it is true (sort of). I explore an optical arrangement known as a 4F correlator, and note the practical considerations that a...

I built a large area detector that is sensitive to X-rays and will be used in an upcoming project. The detector is constructed from a "Lanex Regular" X-ray intensifying screen, and a Hamamatsu R6094 photomultiplier tube (P...

I bought a set of x-ray equipment on eBay, which included an x-ray head unit, 50KV supply, and filament power supply. The filament supply has a 25-pin connector, and no data or markings on the case or board. I spent some t...

I've made a series of wooden vases and similar items by laminating contrasting boards, then turning them on the lathe. I like to use walnut, maple and either bloodwood or padauk to create a white/black/red theme. I almost ...

I wired up a high-power photography strobe light to my oscilloscope and made some measurements of the input voltage, current and light output.

I built a small rocket engine for demonstration purposes. The engine is built from a 2" diameter acrylic rod through which I drilled a 0.5" hole. The oxygen at 80 psi or less is passed through the hole and then is forced t...

I used my DIY scanning electron microscope to view a 555 timer circuit while it was powered. The circuit is a simple oscillator with a very long time constant to make the changes easy to see. My plan was to view the silico...

I found an X-ray tube on eBay and fired it up with my Spellman high voltage supply. I ran the tube at about 35-40KV at 180uA. This required a filament current of about 1.5A at 2.5V DC. With the room very dark, I could cle...

This video shows my entry into the world of high-intensity flash tubes. I was inspired by the work done by the famous Doc Edgerton who built a strobe system for nighttime aerial photography. I've heard the biggest system h...

I thought it would be interesting to try decapping some chips. This involves using fuming nitric acid, which also seemed fun, so I thought I would give it a go. The process starts by milling a precise pocket into the IC us...

Some people were curious about what my shop looks like, so here is a video tour. It seems that I was really rambling, since this video turned out much longer than expected.

I made a puree of maraschino cherries and added 2.5g of calcium lactate gluconate. I then dripped this mixture into a solution of 2.5g of sodium alginate in 500g of water. A gelatinous skin is formed at the interface betwe...

In this follow-up video, I show that I was able to get a P47 phosphor disc to illuminate when unrolling tape in the vacuum chamber. The blue x-ray intensifier screen did not illuminate although it was also in the chamber. ...

A few years ago, a research group posted a video showing that X-rays could be created by unrolling scotch tape in a vacuum. The idea is that the static charge generated by the mechanical unrolling process would cause elect...

I forced an RCA 811A tube to produce some X-rays by operating the tube in cold-cathode mode at about 20KV and 150uA. The glass fluoresces nicely, but I didn't get any light from my X-ray intensifier cassette.

MightyOhm's...

I recently bought some Fluorinert FC-40 on eBay since it is such an intriguing chemical. This fluid is 1.8 times as dense as water, but has almost the same viscosity. It is also very inert, has a boiling point of 160*C, is...

I took apart my microwave oven and measured the voltage and current supplied to the magnetron. The device appears to start conducting current at 4KV, and will allow lots of current to flow once this threshold voltage is re...

I built a liquid level controller that senses the level of water in my aquarium and powers a water pump when necessary to compensate for evaporated water. This is known as an "automatic top-off" system. The controller is b...

Chris Agerton (http://www.youtube.com/user...) suggested that I try adding nitrous oxide bubbles to an avocado -- a wonderful idea since avocados are fatty, and the gas should readily dissolve in the fat. I placed so...

I made some whipped chocolate by melting standard semi-sweet morsels, and applying nitrous oxide at 250 psi. I then dispensed the melted, gassified chocolate into a chilled vacuum chamber, then applied a vacuum to create l...

A cloud chamber shows alpha particles being emitted from americium sources. The chamber works by creating a layer of supersaturated alcohol vapor which visualize the radation. The alpha particles trigger condensation in tr...

Some photos here: http://benkrasnow.blogspot....

Here's an interesting reaction where lithium metal is dissolved in anhydrous ammonia. I placed a couple small pieces of ...

I found some interesting materials at a local fleamarket (http://www.electronicsfleam... a canister of lithium sheet metal, and a bottle of fine zirconium powder (325 mesh). The zirconium is stored under water sinc...

Here I show how I made gassified candy (eg Pop Rocks) in my home shop. The basic procedure is to heat sugar water up to 280*F, carbonate it with 600 psi CO2 and vigorous mixing, then cool the mixture while it is still und...

A brand-new power strip emitted a loud pop and left a soot mark on my friend's hand when he plugged it into the wall. No devices were attached to the power strip. I decided to take the thing apart to see what failed. The c...

A liquid lens works by changing the shape of a water drop by creating an electrostatic field that pulls on the water molecules. I show how water can be affected by a high voltage supply and an electrostatically charged com...

I combined the High Intensity Discharge bulb and power supply from an old LCD with a desk lamp to create a 270W spotlight. I bypassed the power supply's interlocks and shorted an optocoupler to cause the power supply to al...

I built an improved cold trap from an aluminum pan and a stainless steel bowl. It held more ice than my original copper pipe cold trap, but the 100ml of water from the gelatin still managed to almost plug up the trap.

These bakers' yeast cells might be reproducing in the video. It's hard to tell if its just movement from the water under the cover slip

More photomicography:

http://benkrasnow.blogspot.......

In previous videos, I used supercritical CO2 to dry my homemade aerogels. This time, I soaked the aerogel in methanol, then raised the temperature and pressure of the methanol itself to make it supercritical. This allows...

In his recent post, Chris Gammell used astronaut ice cream as a fun example of how high tech innovation trickles down to consumer-level products. Seeing an image of astronaut ice cream in my G+ feed got me thinking about m...

In a previous video, I showed how to extract caffeinated water from green coffee beans with supercritical CO2. Here, I show how to extract dry caffeine crystals from the caffeinated water (ie coffee, in this case). I use...

I finally succeeded in extracting caffeine from green coffee beans by using supercritical CO2. I built a high pressure chamber from 2" steel pipe fittings, and poured in 200mL of water. There is an aluminum screen above t...

Every so often, internet news aggregator sites run a story about a research group that put an LED into a contact lens, then inserted it into a rabbit's eye. I figured that I would try the same thing, but put the lens into...

This is a description of a simple opamp circuit that will translate the variable resistance of a Flexi-Force sensor into an analog voltage and maintain linearity across the sensor's measurement range.

http://www.tekscan.c...