The Value of DIY

There is a value in taking on Doing-It-Yourself projects from time to time. There is the obvious financial reason, but I am talking about more intrinsic values. Building a piece of furniture, your own computer, or your own website teaches you many things about yourself and others.

It allows you to learn new skills that are applicable across a wide range of applications aside from the particular thing you are building or working on. It provides you with experience, to tackle similar challenges later in life with more confidence. It gives you a better understanding of how things work in this world, and an appreciation for how good the professionals really are. Perhaps the most rewarding, is the satisfaction of putting together something functional with your own two hands.

It also provides you with a better sense of how the small ‘thing’ you are working on fits into the bigger picture, and typically does a pretty good job to get you excited to take on bigger and more challenging projects.

Weighted Sled & Welding Table

One of the skills I have wanted to learn for awhile now is welding. It is such a useful construction skill and also incredibly fun. I finally got around to purchasing a 115V Hobart 140 MIG welder, ideal for the beginner/hobby welder. Started out with two easy projects, but still lots to learn in improving my weld technique & quality. The weight sled will make a nice addition to the home gym!

Mini Quad Copter

Building a quad copter on a budget was a good quarantine project that thought me more about electronic speed controllers, circuits, and flight controllers. The frame was printed on my 3D printer, and the electronic components were ordered on RaceDayQuads.com. A HGLRC FD413 ECS/FC and a FS-RX2A Pro 2.4GHz receiver offered an economical package for under $100.

3D Printer

There are few (readily accessible) technologies that have the potential to shake up manufacturing quiet like additive manufacturing (also known as 3-D printing). Learning the ins-and-outs of 3-D printer is a valuable add to any engineer’s (or just doer/creator in general) toolbelt. Add to the fact that constructing your own 3-D printer is a fun DIY project to get your valuable experience working with control boards, stepper motors, etc.

There are many types of 3-D printing techniques on the market. Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is one of the more basic and affordable types, using a heated extruder to melt filament just past its glass transition temperature, and extruding it in a pattern and in several different layers.

 Although I was familiar with the concept, I had never had any hands-on experience with 3-D Printer in any of my previous engineering jobs. I took the plunge and decided to put together a Prusa i3 W FDM printer to learn more about this technology and to eventually use it to produce some useful constructions (more to come in future projects).

The Prusa i3 is a great starter Cartesian grid FDM printer that utilizes a single filament extruder with a .3 mm nozzle diameter capable of .1-.3mm layer resolution and position precision. All components needed to get started came out to about $180.

Kitchen Island

After building the picnic table and Adirondack chair, it was time for something more complex (i.e. lap joints & drawers!). We decided to build a kitchen island according to this plan but slightly modified, as we needed more counter space in our kitchen. Some of the kitchen islands we were looking into buying (general size, geometry, etc.) ranged anywhere between $450-1500 mostly depending on the quality of the counter top. The below was built for just under $400 in parts (including paints, stains, oils, etc.), including a $200 butcher block (2.5ft x 6ft x 1.5in) as a top to support food preparation.

Though no big deal for the accomplished furniture maker, adding the drawers was a big step up! Getting the frame cut and lined-up to support the ½” spacing on each side for the drawer slides to result in smooth engagement of the male and female ends was a small victory in its own. To date this is the biggest piece of furniture I have built, but as always, bigger things to come.

Adirondack Chair

The Adirondack chair was a good step-up in difficulty from the outdoor picnic table

After building our own outdoor picnic table, we decided it was time for something a bit more complicated. One of Liz’s co-workers really wanted a pair of Adirondack chairs so we decided to give it a go. The Home Depot has a very helpful instructional here, perfect for beginners like us. Total material cost was right around $50. Constructing the characteristic Adirondack curve on the back of the chair was a new element for us, requiring the use of a jig-saw. All in all, a fun project, and a good confirmation that woodworking is definitely a do-able skill and hobby to pick up even if you have no previous experience. You will be building pretty nice pieces of furniture in no time.

Outdoor Picnic Table

It looks pretty good from far away!

This was our first big woodworking project. It’s a simple design made from 2x4s and 3” deck-screws. We followed the example outlined here, making a slight modification to get stand-alone benches rather than having them attached to the table frame. A great first project for the beginner. Like most beginners, I felt like we rushed the process a bit too much, perhaps eager to finish our first build. The table-leg cross beam cuts could have been more accurate to avoid some of the larger gaps when stacking the two table legs. Overall though, it was a fun experience and the material cost was only $120. You will easily pay at least 3-4 times that at most online or brick-store retailers.

Computer build

I built my fist computer in 2017 with the main purpose of running XPlane flight simulator on it for use as a training tool in my Instrument Flight Rating training. I had never built a computer before, so like many, I turned to online forums and YouTube for guidance. I set out with a max budget of $1200, and ended up spending just under $1250 (not including the Logitech G Saitek PRO flight yoke and pedal system)

I decided to go with Aircooling to avoid the hassles (and price) of liquid cooling while still getting reliable CPU overclocking performance to allow for around 35-40fps performance on XPlane’s preset ‘High’ rendering quality for a 1920x1080 display.

The build below is composed of:
Cooling: 2x Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM CPU cooler
Motherboard: Asus Z170 Pro gaming ATX LGA1151
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4 GHz Quad-Core
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3200
Storage: Crucial MX300 275 GB2.5” Solid State Drive
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1070 8GB
Case: Corsair SPEC-02 ATX Mid Tower
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Fully Modular ATX
Keyboard: Logitech Wireless Combo MK270 with optical mouse

Some lessons I (re)learned include:
1) Actually reading the manuals that come with all the parts (especially for a  noob like me), or at least download the PDF version and ctrl+f at will. I usually never read manuals -_-
2) You can learn to build almost everything by following a YouTube tutorial, there are good and bad ones out there. My first build took nearly 5 hours to put together after a lot of pausing and rewinding.
3) Seemingly straightforward things such as motherboard standoffs and cable management are important!
4) Come prepared, have enough zip-ties, thermal paste, and an ESD free environment to work in
5) Some thorough research goes a long way, especially for a first timer. I scoured forums and YouTube videos for about 2 months before nailing down my parts list and starting my build.
6) Don’t do something you are not sure about. Use several different references if needed.
7) Pay attention to your power demands. Using tools like PCPartPicker comes in handy to estimate the total required power.
8) Assembly on the motherboard as much as possible before inserting it into your case (duh).
9) Like most PC builders will attest to, you have to set both a monetary and technological goal-post. If you are always waiting for the next best CPU, you will wait forever.
10) Building your own computer is not as difficult as I thought it was going to be!

Doggo Stairs

Our 8 year old Pitbull named Jackson is getting older, and needs the occasional help getting on the bed or into the car. What better project than building some doggo stairs! I built this using scrap wood during my 1x1x24 challenge. A simple design using cleats and spacers attached to a plywood siding. It was a perfect project to spread out across an entire day filled by running and other projects.

Yoke and Pedal Stand

To go along with my first computer build, I wanted to build my own yoke and pedal stand so I could start doing some proficiency work while working up to my FAA IFR checkride. Flying is not cheap! I figured for the cost of some PVC piping and wood planks I could not justify the $200 metal stands on sale. This was one of those not-so-successful attempts, as the PVC piping did not offer a sturdy construction, and there was no good way to fold up the stand when not in use. Still a fun experience putting it together though.

That is a lot of PVC!

Before the wood boards go on

Finished product, not ideal but gets the job done. Also proof my computer actually works.