Other Projects
Custom Wood Desk
In May of 2020 with the world shut down over the Covid-19 pandemic, I took a few weeks of unexpected free time to create a beautiful piece of furniture to go in my college apartment. The desk sits at a standard 30 inches high, with a large 3' x 5' Douglass Fir top created using spline joints. The legs are made from leftover Sapele with a custom design and assembled with traditional mortise and tenon joints. The legs and drawer are easily detachable to allow for easy transport.
See more about this project here.
PLC Control Box
During my Fall Semester 2021 Co-op with Magnum Shielding Corp I had the opportunity to rebuild a control box for one of the production cells. I was tasked with researching the parts and pieces required, then the complete disassembly and reconstruction of the box. While the cell was offline, the old box was mapped, deconstructed, and rewired into the new enclosure. The task took just under two weeks and had zero errors.
See more about this project here.
Pumpkin Trebuchet
During a first year engineering class we were placed in teams of six and tasked with designing, constructing, and testing a device capable of launching a 3-5lb pumpkin a distance of 60 yards. We opted for a floating arm trebuchet as it best fit the criteria we had decided on as a team. After testing and troubleshooting issues, we were ready for competition. Our team was one of only two teams capable of throwing 60+ yards out of 25+ teams total.
See more about this project here.
MATLAB Lunar Lander
During Spring 2021 I took the class "Intro to Programming for Engineers" where we learned how to formulate, write, and troubleshoot MATLAB scripts. The final project for the course was to write a game with realistic physics modeled after the Apollo program. My game was one of the best written and actually led to my becoming a TA for the class the following year.
See more about this project here.
LED Prop Phones
A total of 124 LED phones were created to enhance the high school marching band show. These props were made from acrylic and had a custom made battery pack and LED strip insert. Hours were spent researching available components to fall below the $300 allotted budget, and with some fellow band members the props built and delivered on time. They were successful enough to get multiple offers from other bands to buy the props when we were done with them.
See more about this project here.
Timber Frame Pavilion
In April 2023 I travelled to Lexington Virginia to help create and raise a timber frame pavilion for the local community center. My job for the first 3 days of the event was to help cut joinery in the 4 main cross beams. We used the string line method of layout, which allows you to accurately cut the beam even when it's got a strong banana shape, because unlike a 2x4 it's a bit difficult to just go get another one. My raising day job was on the rigging team, flying the assembled trusses into place.
Party Table
Using the skills and knowledge gained from the LED Prop Phone project, I designed a table using the same principles. This time a 3'x7' table with 1/4" acrylic, again sanded for better light diffusion. The LED light strips are wired up underneath to two battery packs, which supply the necessary 24V of power from a combined bank of 16 AA batteries. It was built on a very tight timeline and around classes so it isn't the most 'polished' table out there, but it's still the coolest one in town.
Paracord Bullwhips
In 2015 I was looking for a project to do, and stumbled across a YouTube tutorial on weaving your own bullwhips out of 550 paracord. I acquired about 250 feet of cordage, a steel rod, some tape, and some BB's. About 4 days later I gave it its first crack.
Eventually it started to fall apart and I knew I could do better- so I made another one. Eventually I plan to make a third, though it may be made from Kevlar to be used as a fire whip rather than paracord.
Cutting Boards
Over winter break 2021-2022 I handcrafted two beautiful cutting boards. The first is an end-grain board with a checkerboard pattern that was finished with multiple coats of beeswax and mineral oil. The second board was smaller, simpler, and given to a friend of mine that loves to make charcouterie boards. Both boards are made primarily from an oak tree the fell in the neighbors yard multiple years prior.
Air Engine
Freshman year of college in machine shop class we made air engines. It's a single cylinder engine powered off compressed air, and runs anywhere down to about 16psi. It was constructed mostly on manual mills and lathes and took just a few hours each week. The grading rubric was deceptively simple: if it runs under 25psi, it means you machined it right and got an A on the assignment.
3-Seater Bicycle
I took a welding class and for a final project we decided to weld three bicycles together because it would be funny. It was in fact very funny. That's it; that's the whole project.
It's also surprisingly difficult to ride a 3-seater bike, but once you get the hang of it it's only a little harder than a normal one.
Bluegrass Album - Pride and Glory
While working at Philmont Scout Ranch in 2022 we played a nightly music show for the crews coming through camp. I recorded all our individual parts and over the fall produced an album, which is currently out on almost all streaming platforms. Despite all the recording and producing challenges I think it came out pretty good, and gave me a hands on experience in music production.