When taking my R2-D2 to charity events or conventions, there’s always the risk of running into a broken elevator or losing power far from the car. I wanted an emergency hand cart that can even go up/down stairs, so I created one. It leverages the folding and stair-climbing ability of a commercial cart, and adds cross-bars and a longer base plate to allow R2 to switch from 3 legs down, into a 1 leg down position that's easier to stabilize. It’s only 6 kg and can fold to fit into a backpack.
When Covid-19 started spreading in Canada, I wanted to help by printing face shields for healthcare workers, but I didn't have the transparency sheets needed and stores were closed. I did have laminator sheets though, and was able to make them transparent by running them through the laminator empty (adding a little drag helped reduce bubbles from the lack of filler). I also created a template for 290mm laminator sheets so they could be punched with a fixed 3 hole punch. For others with transparencies, I made a template for 8.5x11" acetate/transparency sheets as well.
I like boardgames, but many are limited to 5 or less players, whereas I often had more folks wanting to play at the same time, so I made expansion packs for many of them (they're not for sale, but you can get details and tips on making your own here). I also had some fun replacing pieces and painting them.
Didn't take much to make but it's still a fave - a radio-control flying shark with a frikin' laser strapped to its head. The main challenge was lightening the original enough to accomodate the laser, and tap into its power source. Mwuhaha! It won the first (and only) ever Futurecon flying shark race.
This Rollerblade-to-Skate conversion was built to see if rollerblades could be used as skates with a simple replacement part instead of having to have a pair for each. The blade was purchased from a skate store, remodelled and reinforced with a metal plate to adapt it to the rollerblade requirements. Test skating with it was pleasant and without incident but did have a slightly different feel due to the extra height involved in this model (due to use of standard skate blade). Subsequent design with a single piece of metal as both blade and adapator reduced this height difference, but some will always be present to avoid hitting the brake or rollerblade edges.
This LED Bulb was created for a flashlight for my climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro. I needed something efficient, rain, snow and shock-resistant and that could be attached to my hat as a headlamp. Those are easy to come by now, but weren't available back then - so I built my own LED bulb and put it in a scuba flashlight case. The bulb consisted of three white LEDs and resistors. The bulb consumed one quarter the power of the original bulb and lasted for more than 20hrs on 4 NiMH AA cells. Currently it lasts 40hrs on NiMH, due to advances in battery capacity, or 100+hrs on Lithium.
All images copyright Rob Emery
