Tag: electronics

CNC Mill designs

After seeing Green Demon Laser’s amazing work from Gallegher Designs, I keep thinking how awesome it would be to have my own CNC milling system. “Mill” actually wouldn’t be the correct word to use, because the accuracy is WAY off what a mill would offer, but it is still cool. Shapeoko offers a CNC setup, but the price of a mill ready to assemble is more than $1K. DIY LIL CNC offers plans and the resulting option is about $700, fully assembled.

I think it would be fun to grab my Craftsman router my parents-in-law gave me and mount it on some aluminum rods with a stepper motor.

Heineken engraved box Hatchet Nike Timbers Nike-GlobalFootball-JerseyDisplay

Controlling temp in Brinkman Electric Smoker

After picking up a Brinkman Electric Smoker for $10, I noticed it used a oven heater element at the bottom. My next thought was how to regulate the temperature? FinkBuilt suggests using a “bulb and capillary type thermostat”. (I found one under the name “New Thermtrol TS-320S-F Bulb and Capillary Thermostat TS320SF”. Supposedly, most oven thermostats will cover the temperature range that you need for smoking.

The other option would be a PID Controller, as mentioned on the Susan Minor forum’s PID Controller thread. The problem with using a PID is you normally have to mount it in an extra box.