Using LED Christmas Lighting for Night Lights

Hi Everyone!

This is a quick video of how I have used LED string lights for the purpose of night lighting at the house.

I have three dogs and a young daughter which tend to leave little surprises for me when I prance around through the night. I have cussed at many a stray toy [...]

Fresnel Give Away is Over!

Hi Everyone!

My Fresnel lens give away is officially over, so please watch your e-mail in the next few days.

I received 30 new sign-ups, so a third of you will be getting a Fresnel lens of your own! I’m starting to get convinced that there are folks really interested in old and new skills [...]

Fresnel Lens Demonstration

Hi Everyone!

In this post I show you how to use a Fresnel lens to start a piece of wood on fire.

I think most of us have memories about messing around with a magnifying glass as kids. Sure you could start a fire or burn a hole in a piece of paper with those, [...]

Solar Window Heaters

Here is a tour of my tinkering with solar window heaters. I have been messing around with these for a few months and am really very pleased with version #3.

There is a lot of speculation about how maybe these things don’t really do anything because they ‘block’ the sun from coming into the [...]