Vintage Car Window Winder Trims
I was approached by a customer who restores vintage Bentleys and Rolls Royce cars. He supplied a sample and asked me to make 10 sets that were ready to be plated.
They were made from billet brass, with multiple turning and milling operations including screw cutting to be carried out.
Supplied sample and one of the finished articles.
HiFi Amplifier Case Design
I was approached by Nord Acoustics to design a case for their Alchemy range of HiFi amplifiers.
The brief was simple; they were to be machined from billet, and have a very high standard of finish to complement the very high quality nature of the amplifiers' output.
Two variations were designed - a stereo and a mono version allowing customers to bi-amp their systems.
I was also able to act as an intermediary between the customer and the machine shop who were making the cases, making sure the transition from a CAD file to finished product was smooth.
doorbell
A customer - (my wife!), requested a door bell that would alert us to visitors even when we were in the garden. I installed a disused organ pipe, associated air pump, and control electronics. This allowed a timed output to the air pump. We found three seconds to be optimal.
The “bell” is rung by pressing a spitfire starter button located next to the front door.
Welding Bench
I was asked to design, make and install a small, folding welding bench for carrying out small TIG welding operations on.
It needed to be compact and fold flat against the wall when not in use, so that maximum use of space could be made of the workshop when it was not needed.
Headphone Amplifier
I constructed this hybrid valve amplifier to listen to music whilst at my desk, with a view to overcoming the limitations of the audio hardware built in to laptops.
The case work is machined from solid oak. The unit, unusually, contains a DAC (Digital to Analogue Converter) that feeds directly into the amplifier. This means that high resolution audio files are digitally transferred to the device by USB, decoded to analogue and fed into the front end of the valve amplifier. This results in a significant improvement in audio quality over the PC hardware. I have built two of these now.
HiFi amplifier and cd player
I constructed this HiFi amplifier for use at home. it is point-to-point wired and fairly simple internally. It reproduces music with the typically warm character that valve amplifiers are renowned for. I also re-housed a play station one (an excellent CD player in its own right believe it or not) in a custom case incorporating a raise and swing to open cover and remote control.
To compliment the amplifier ad CD player, I converted this old valve radio into a music server, my high resolution digital music collection is held on here for transmission to a DAC. The screen is motorised, sliding down behind the unit when not required.
Vintage Car Horn Push Button
A requirement was presented by a vintage car club to reproduce a small batch of now unobtainable horn push buttons. the original was made from Bakelite.
With agreement from the club, a housing was modeled in CAD that would take modern, waterproof switch, and then 3D printed. I then made a set of dies to form and the domed steel button and then swage it over the 3d Printed part. outwardly the switch replicates the original part, only it benefits from having modern internals.
Marine Geophysical rig
These floating, self propelled sensor platforms were built for a customer to conduct geophysical surveys. They were fitted out with small thrusters and associated electrical system. They were designed to move very slowly through the water and fitted with survey grade GPS for highly accurate positioning.
Designed to operate in pairs (or more) this was a collaborative project between the customer, a software engineer, an acoustics expert and me. We successfully operated the rigs in Scotland.