Blast Furance

We made a blast furnace, following David Gingery’s The Charcoal Foundry. Here are some pictures of the firing process. We haven’t melted or cast any metal yet.

Slow initial burn to drive out most of the water

Blast furnace in action to completely dry it

You can tell we’re trained professionals by the fan setup

Blast furnace meat is best meat

Richard looking dubiously at the furnace

DIY Hard drive carrying case

Today’s project was a hard drive carrying case. I wanted something to securely store hard drives. When I looked around on ebay and amazon, I saw some nice cases and some crappy plastic molded ones. Even the terrible ones were at least $50, so I made my own.

HDD Carrying Case Exerior

I bought a used ammo case at the rather excellent local army surplus store. Then I padded all sides. I had spare EVA foam “puzzle piece” style mats from a gym setup lying around. I cut out the pieces with scissors. That’s it.  I was expecting more steps, but nothing needed glued in place. I was planning on adding inserts for the empty slots, but it seems secure enough. If you’re making one, you could also glue the top onto the lid, so you don’t have to take it out manually.

HDD Case Interior