This is a parabolic reflector designed to enhance the directionality of a wi-fi router or access point antenna, and to increase the signal strength in that particular direction. It's cheap and easy to make, and involves cutting and glueing, which is always fun.
My router is in the corner of my house, and there's no point illuminating my street with my wi-fi signal since I'm not using it out there. This reflector will bounce all of that signal back into my house and increase the reception. The link (below) where I got the template says it will increase gain by about 9dBi, which is pretty decent. I never got round to doing a before/after measurement, but there was a noticeable improvement. In rooms on the far side of the house where signal had been patchy before, it is now much more reliable.
The antenna on the right with the reflector is set to cover the ground floor. The antenna on the left is aimed at the area where my wife uses her laptop in the bedroom upstairs. There isn't enough space for a reflector there, but the signal is good enough without.
Here is the link where you can download the template and make your own.
My router is in the corner of my house, and there's no point illuminating my street with my wi-fi signal since I'm not using it out there. This reflector will bounce all of that signal back into my house and increase the reception. The link (below) where I got the template says it will increase gain by about 9dBi, which is pretty decent. I never got round to doing a before/after measurement, but there was a noticeable improvement. In rooms on the far side of the house where signal had been patchy before, it is now much more reliable.
The antenna on the right with the reflector is set to cover the ground floor. The antenna on the left is aimed at the area where my wife uses her laptop in the bedroom upstairs. There isn't enough space for a reflector there, but the signal is good enough without.
Here is the link where you can download the template and make your own.
The pull-starter on my lawn mower is attached to the engine cover, the engine cover is bolted directly to the aluminium engine block in various places. When you pull the cord to start the engine, the engine cover pulls upwards on two bolts at the front. One of the bolts was missing already, and the other mounting point eventually snapped off, making the whole thing quite wobbly and very hard to start. With my wife in the background telling me to just buy a new mower, I broke out the socket set and got to work.
Four bolts around the starter mechanism and it just lifts off. This reveals the top of the crankshaft which has the blade attached to the other end and spins clockwise when the engine is running:
This is the pull cord assembly:
When there's tension on the cord, a little tooth pops out:
This tooth engages with the protrusions at the top of the crank:
Because there are now no bolts holding the front of the cover down, the whole thing lifts up when you pull the cord and the tooth fails to engage with the top of the crank. Here's where the mouting point broke off from the engine block:
I had read that Araldite (two-part cyanoacrylate epoxy adhesive, if you don't know the brand name) can be used to bodge broken aluminium engine blocks, so I used it to stick this piece back on, and found a replacement for the other missing bolt. It seems to be holding fast, and the mower is much easier to start.
Side note - if you ever break part of an aluminium engine block, take a moment to admire the crystalline structure.
Four bolts around the starter mechanism and it just lifts off. This reveals the top of the crankshaft which has the blade attached to the other end and spins clockwise when the engine is running:
This is the pull cord assembly:
When there's tension on the cord, a little tooth pops out:
This tooth engages with the protrusions at the top of the crank:
Because there are now no bolts holding the front of the cover down, the whole thing lifts up when you pull the cord and the tooth fails to engage with the top of the crank. Here's where the mouting point broke off from the engine block:
I had read that Araldite (two-part cyanoacrylate epoxy adhesive, if you don't know the brand name) can be used to bodge broken aluminium engine blocks, so I used it to stick this piece back on, and found a replacement for the other missing bolt. It seems to be holding fast, and the mower is much easier to start.
Side note - if you ever break part of an aluminium engine block, take a moment to admire the crystalline structure.
One of our neighbours moved to a new house, and needed to get rid of a bunch of stuff. She didn't have a car so asked me if I could help take some of it down to the tip. I suggested that I stick it all in my garage and try to find homes for the various things first. That's how I ended up with a coffee table, cupboard, suitcase, two venetian blinds, two DVD players, surround sound speaker system, freeview TV tuner, folding highchair, baby play mat, plastic baby bath, metal candelabra, two large metal candlesticks, two IKEA Storm lamps, and a pair of dissassembled under-bed storage drawers. My wife sighed when she saw what I'd taken on, bless her.
Everything found new homes via Freecycle except for the cupboard - which is still in my garage, holding some of my other stuff - and the drawers - which I thought might be useful.
We had acquired a sideboard for our kitchen via Freecycle a while before, and I decided to modify one of the drawers to go under the sideboard. It had to be made narrower and shallower to fit, so I measured, marked and cut the side and front/back boards. The base is made up of small sheets of hardboard, which also had to be cut down.
There are some holes drilled in the base of the front/back panels where I guess some rods would go to support the base of the drawer. There wasn't any suitable dowel to hand but I did have some scraps of wood which I used to make some braces. They're not pretty, but they do the job (and they're invisible when the drawer is right way up).
The cut edges of the boards were much paler than the faces, so I used some wood stain to try to mask it. The colour's not quite right, but it's much less obvious than it was.
Some of the original casters were damaged but between the two drawer "kits" I was able to put together a set of four casters.
So there you go, the finished article:
Everything found new homes via Freecycle except for the cupboard - which is still in my garage, holding some of my other stuff - and the drawers - which I thought might be useful.
We had acquired a sideboard for our kitchen via Freecycle a while before, and I decided to modify one of the drawers to go under the sideboard. It had to be made narrower and shallower to fit, so I measured, marked and cut the side and front/back boards. The base is made up of small sheets of hardboard, which also had to be cut down.
There are some holes drilled in the base of the front/back panels where I guess some rods would go to support the base of the drawer. There wasn't any suitable dowel to hand but I did have some scraps of wood which I used to make some braces. They're not pretty, but they do the job (and they're invisible when the drawer is right way up).
The cut edges of the boards were much paler than the faces, so I used some wood stain to try to mask it. The colour's not quite right, but it's much less obvious than it was.
Some of the original casters were damaged but between the two drawer "kits" I was able to put together a set of four casters.
So there you go, the finished article:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)