Thank you. Having an access to real CNC (not one of those 2D DIY routers) is a great thing. I wish I have better access too. No, my camera doesn't have any of those modern features - it's just very basic Olympus E-PL1, cheapest one from their first generation mirrorless cameras. Only thing I'm using...

Another addition to my portable power pack: https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5654/20806468690_7196440041.jpg It's some cheap Chinese indicator you can easily find on eBay by keywords "lithium ion battery meter". Most of them have pictures with bare circuit board, with no hint of this black plastic cas...

And speaking of damaging lens coating - usually, only way to do that is to use any acidic cleaner or ammonia (yup, I've seen that done to soiled add-on lenses with household glass cleaner). d-Limonene is also quite popular oil remover without properties of strong organic solvents, but it's hard to g...

I'd ask people who wear glasses, if they can lend me their microfiber wipe for a day or something.

g4lab Sure. But everybody have own reasons not to have one. $70 is enough to purchase another lens, for example.

Thank you! I'll try to explain it in details. Looking for dedicated Bridgelux cooling solutions I found one company, that makes heatsinks and offers complete solutions too, it's called Cooliance http://www.cooliance.com They actually have fully assembled systems with fan controller built in. But I h...

Oh, that "accent barrier" can be mutual. Good example is that British guy from Youtube with Photonicinduction nickname, famous for his high voltage experiments. Speaking of technology, education and kids - good colleges here in US still have fairly good industrial culture level, and they can teach p...

I agree, that to make it really good power source, DC-DC boost converter should be picked with particular input voltage and drain current in mind, because many converter ICs have fairly even voltage/efficiency curve, but quite uneven current/efficiency characteristics. But even using general rule fo...

I've been taught British English in school, but got used to American English later. Probably, I can still use British to please people living over the pond :) Centre drills are mostly used for metalworking, and usually metalworking means sort of equipped shop with, at least, drill press. But there i...

Pin-type heatsink with 40x40x20mm Scythe brand 12V 70mA fan, view from the rear end https://farm1.staticflickr.com/676/20781191718_eeb5906bf8.jpg Pin-type heatsink with fan, side view. Mounting threaded hole in LED bracket is also visible here https://farm1.staticflickr.com/667/20346551354_2b3d4bb4a...

May I share a couple of tips from my "limited resource machining" experience? There are certain ways to improve this method to get higher precision without sacrificing budget or simplicity. To improve hole location precision, the best way to go is to use center drills. They are also known as drill-p...

I will add a picture of heatsink and fan later. My stacking stage is full manual. I made it by replacing tiny original head with large Starrett micrometer head from optical comparator. It has 0.0001" non-vernier scale and way easier to operate even with single finger than conventional small heads. T...

Actually, it's not always necessary to purchase a new charger. Some universal chargers for cylindrical type batteries can also charge Li-ion. Nitecore, for example. And even if they don't have leads to be connected to to non-cylindrical cells, it's always possible to use wooden dummy. Also, cylindri...

Honestly, I wouldn't call 1.85kg (4.08lbs) battery "portable". It gives you about 55Wh (keeping in mind you don't have step-up voltage converter) and it's massive amount of power. And it costs about $15 (for new). But using single cell flat Lipoly battery intended for RC models, you can have 18Wh (y...

This is my first posting here and I'd like to share some information about building my own high power, high CRI LED light source for high magnification photography. This is still work-in-progress project, while I already have working assembled unit. I know, that it's not the most common approach to ...