So I bought one of those SHARP IR Optical Range Finders and mounted it on a servo:
So here I was, trying to make an air pusher cart. Think of an air boat on wheels. I kept looking on-line at how all the R/C’ers make their airboats, and the linkages, etc. seemed finicky, the rudder size was trial & error. I wasn’t happy. But now I had several DC motors and a selection of propellers. What to do? Well, I’d been reading posts about the Tokyo Maker Faire, and specifically, about the home-made light-flyers.
I gots to make me one!
I was curious: could I bend balsa wood strips? I had some left over balsa strip from an experiment (failed) and decided to try. I cut the balsa strip into smaller strips—not terribly successfully.
A useful thing I made: a 9-volt battery adapter hooked up to alligator clips. Makes a lot of things very easy like testing the direction of a motor or test powering up a circuit.
So I cut my first circle in Sintra™ (Expanded PVC)
Not bad, eh? HAHAHAHA!
Oh man, cutting a straight line, let alone a circle, in 6mm Sintra is really hard with a Dremel.
Luckily I have more Sintra where that came from. 
I drove out to a small industrial warehouse complex in Surrey over the Christmas break. At home, cooling my heels, and it occurred to me: “I can finally go pick up some Sintra™ board!”.
Expanded PVC board, the generic name, is the PVC version of polystyrene foam, but PVC is wickedly rigid. It’s comes in a variety of colours and thicknesses up to 6 mm (about ¼ inch thick).
It cuts easily like wood, but is pretty resistant to many chemicals and water. It’s as hard and strong as a piece of plywood but for a lot less weight.
It also costs over $100 a sheet.
When I was 14, I got my first 30-in-1 Electronics kit. Within 24 hours, I burnt out my first transistor and burnt my finger tip. Since that day, I have been on-and-off again hacking electronics, software and making things, but I mostly let it slide until this past summer when I get an Arduino and my first issue of MAKE magazine.
I then went on a spending spree buying tools I always wish I had. Quickly spent several hundred dollars, and discovered some really useful stuff and some very useless stuff.
