Monday, April 18, 2011

Scrap Attack 1

Since I am still out of town, so I don't have access to any of the materials for my Daft Punk project, I decided to make something else. This is a segment that I hope that I will be able to do every now and again. Basically the idea is that I make a project out of stuff I already have laying around the house. The only downfall is that I normally don't buy to much excess when trying to build things, so it will be a bit more of a challenge finding extra parts from previous projects. I saw this really cool DIY personal air filter on instructables.com, so I thought that I would try to make one. The following is my step by step process (sort of... at one point I forgot to keep taking pictures, so there is a chunk of time where there are no records, but I think that the concept still comes across nicely).

The list of materials that I used for the project in no particular order:
-Half a board of plexiglass (fairly small in size. I don't recall the dimensions)
-2, 4-inch computer fans
-8 included fan screws
-1, 47 ohm resistor
-5, red LEDs (standard)
-Hot glue
-About a sheet and a half of air filter
-Wire
-Electrical tape
-1 zip-tie (to keep the door shut)
-Old cellphone charger (power source)

Also, here are the list of tools I used:
-Dremel
-Screw driver
-Hot glue gun
-Wire stripper
-Needle nose pliers
-Scissors
-Box Knife
-Dry erase marker
-Ball point pen
-Ruler
-Electrical tape

Just to give fair warning, all of the photos were taking in really bad lighting conditions, and with my cell phone. I was too lazy to seek out a good light source d: Without any further ado... the pictures...

The Plexiglas that will be cut down to mount the fans/serve as a window

Drawing out the pattern of the vents that are to be cut out

The cut out cardboard that will be used as a vent

Since I didn't have an empty cardboard box laying around the house, I decided to make one from a larger box.  I was able to do so by cutting, then hot glueing the flaps of the box to the already cut out vents.

I dremeled out the area of the plexiglas where the fan blades would have to operate, then mounted them via fan screws

Action shot of glueing the sides to the back 

I made a hinge like door, cut out a square of cardboard, and then superglued the plexiglas to the cardboard. I also laid some air filter around the sides to help pad the entire thing down.

The finished project of my air filter 1.0. 

The back of the air filter

What all of the goodies look like on the inside. Personal motto, 'LEDs make anything instantly cooler'
All in all, I think that the project was a success. There are a few thing that I would have like to have done differently. The part that actually took the longest was constructing the box from scratch. So next time, I would have like to have found an old shoe box or something to build the entire thing in. I also have a on/off rocker switch or two, but it was about 4 in the morning, and I had been up for something like 30 hours at that point, so I was ready to call it a night. The cool thing about this, it that we actually built three. I helped my best friend Sebastian (click to check out his bog) as well as my cousin Alex (blog-less). I don't have any pictures of their's but if everyone asks really nicely, I might be able to get a few of the finished products. Below is a video of the fan in action.


As always I would like it if you all would leave comments on how you think I can better my blog/earn your respect enough to have you follow, facebook, twitter, digg or whatever. If feedback just isn't your thing, or you have a phobia of typing, then don't. It is ultimately up to you (:

Until next time...

3 comments:

  1. mine is better! lol, although i didnt really measure. mine has been running ever since we made them.

    ReplyDelete