My office needed a stylish, modern clock—and I had just the tools to make one from scratch. In this episode of John Builds Things, I put my newly assembled, 3D-printed Dremel CNC machine to the test by crafting a custom LED wall clock that blends natural wood with vibrant, animated light.
In this episode of John Builds Things, we’re diving into a Back to the Future-inspired project that’s sure to spark your imagination! As a lifelong fan of the iconic trilogy, I’ve always loved Doc Brown’s timeless wisdom: “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.” That mindset inspired me to bring a piece of movie magic into the real world by building a miniature Flux Capacitor for my 2022 Ford Maverick.
I absolutely love film photography. From the moment I was first given a hand-me-down Nikon SLR in the early 2000s until today, the process of loading a fresh role of film into a camera excites me. Much like most working professionals I spend much of my day staring at a computer screen, and so digital photography lost its luster to me long ago because it ended up just being another screen based activity. Today's video on John Builds Things is about my latest project creating a custom print exposure timer for my darkroom.
I turned an old Lionel train signal from Ebay into something that announces arriving and departing trains with some model railroading flair.
A few weeks ago, I came across an intriguing article on IEEE Spectrum featuring a Raspberry Pi sky time-lapse project. The project utilized the standard Raspberry Pi HQ camera with a wide-angle lens, running an open-source program called AllSky to control and export time-lapse videos. Being fascinated by the intersection of cameras and astronomy, I couldn't resist taking on this project.