Engineering Fails

This page is a collection of engineering fails that I have seen or experienced.

Cracked nuts 

These were found inside the the wiring box for a small 3 phase motor. I guess this is what happens when you over-tighten poor quality nuts!

Engineering Hacks

This page is a collection of various engineering hacks that I have done: 

Emergency Thong Repair

My workshop foot protection (/thong) broke. But it was New Years Day, no shops were open, and I couldn't be bothered looking for another pair... 

The person who invented cable ties deserves a pat on the back every time one is used to solve a problem. 

Note: I do not condone wearing thongs in workshops unless you are prepared to take the risk. 

Electronics Workbench

This is the third iteration of my electronics bench. The first was a small shelf in my bedroom. The second was an old sewing machine bench. This iteration uses a custom-made, electric height-adjustable table with two Linak linear actuators. 

Bench space is approximately 1000x700mm. The height adjustment also makes it useful for many other types of work. 

Garden Trellis

A garden trellis is a lattice structure used to support climbing plants as they grow. I recently bought a passionfruit plant, and needed a trellis to grow it on. I was keen on trying to reuse as much scrap material as possible, as it was going into the garden anyway. I also did not want to use the pine lattices available at Bunnings / Masters, as they are made from Copper-Chrome-Arsensate (CCA) treated pine.

Floating Floor

I had two packs of 1.5m^2 Mahogany Floating Floorboards. These are "engineered" floors, which consist of tongue-and-groove boards with a plywood substrate and a 3mm Mahogany veneer. I bought them purely because they were 75% off at Bunnings, thinking that they could potentially make some nice storage boxes.

After being stored for years, I decided that they would make a good floating floor under my bed - it would make it easier to store things there (especially if I got some boxes with wheels). It also would be a good area to store plywood sheets flat - as this minimises amount of warpage compared to when stored upright.

Building a Cajon

A cajon is a simple percussive instrument which resembles an innocuous wooden box. Despite it's simple appearance, it can produce a wide variety of sounds depending on where and how it's hit. An internal snare and a loose tapa (the striking surface) further adds to the variety.

I thought I would put my table saw to a good (and first) use, and try building one!

Magnetic Hooks

Magnetic hooks tend to be rather useful - as a lot of workshop surfaces tend to be metal. 

An easy, but effective one can be made in a few minutes using a spare rare earth magnet from a hard drive. 

These come with a convenient backing plate, so it's a matter of finding a suitably sized screw, and bending it into a hook.