4 ms·

If you like to work with your hands and have space, build something physical: big and complex, and actually finish it. I built a single engine two seat kit airp

If you like to work with your hands and have space, build something physical: big and complex, and actually finish it. I built a single engine two seat kit airplane in my garage, did all the flight testing, and now have an interesting way to travel/commute as a result. The "finish it" part is the most important bit. Computer people spend too much time working on projects that don't have a "done" state. Change that up.

bluGill 7mo ago
I would start smaller though. There are a lot of half finished airplanes (where the last 20% takes 80% of the time...) and the maker is dead. I've been working on a ukulele for over a year now and it isn't close to done yet, and this is a much smaller project. (Or maybe I should say I've been working on raising kids for a decade and there is another left?).
- codazoda 7mo ago
  Oh, yeah. I’ve been meaning to build an electric ukulele. I’ve built some handmade electric guitars, slide guitars and similar. Mine are rudimentary, more akin to a cigar box guitar (if not less complex). Examples: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPmHtIa9vAm8wNPeTXP4MoZjOAqssOaTW5XnmBqXmlcYdKhAPglQJTcoqSJI_fAcw?key=NXJHNmd6dUFRTVY2QklLcVVrZzdzYm5sQWp3YVd3 https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPmHtIa9vAm8wNPeTXP4MoZ...
  - exDM69 7mo ago
    Great looking instruments. I've built half a dozen similar box guitars, it's such a fun little thing to build. Do I see a piezo disk under the bridge in the 3rd instrument? Do you use some kind of preamp with it? I have been recently experimenting with different kinds of piezo pickups [0] and preamp electronics for them. I've figured out a pretty nice JFET based circuit for the preamp and ordered tiny 13x13mm PCBs with tiny SMT components assembled and it works pretty well (but needs a second revision). They mount directly on the volume potentiometer and fit in a small space. The one thing I haven't figured out yet is grounding the electronics. In a typical electric guitar you ground the electronics by touching the (grounded) strings, but that doesn't work very well (at all) with slide guitar when your left hand has got a bottle neck slide on it (made of glass or ceramic which is an insulator). Drop a message below if you want to geek out more about home made guitars and/or related electronics. Depending on your location I could also send some preamp PCBs your way. [0] https://hazeguitars.com/blog/piezo-pickups-evolve https://hazeguitars.com/blog/piezo-pickups-evolve (not my site)
    - codazoda 7mo ago
      Happy to stay in touch. I haven't build one of these in a long time. My website and email address are in my bio here on HN. To answer your question, yes, that's a piezo pickup, if I remember correctly. I don't think I had any kind of pre-amp. I wired it to a 1/8" stereo plug and then connected that to a very small portable guitar amp. It was all very rudimentary. A very distorted sound. I don't remember grounding to be a problem but I played the slide version of this with a slide made from a galvanized pipe, rather than glass.
jcmontx 7mo ago
How scary was the test flight? where did you land?
- ryandrake 7mo ago
  I was as confident as I could be. Had multiple tech counselors and A&Ps give it a good look over beforehand. Also had an emergency plan for every 100 feet of altitude post-takeoff. Did the first couple of flight tests in the vicinity of a minor (class D) Bay Area airport and then did the rest of them (including the riskier ones) over the central valley.
  - kacesensitive 7mo ago
    did you bring a parachute?
    - ryandrake 7mo ago
      Nope. Given the canopy style of the kit (RV-7A tip-up) and a few build decisions I made (modifications to the original design), actually egressing in-flight would have been infeasible anyway.
    - jagged-chisel 7mo ago
      In most failure cases, it becomes a glider. I think if it was gonna fall apart around the pilot, it would be obvious long before they got it in the air.
sashank_1509 7mo ago
How long did it take you to complete this project. How did you maintain motivation?
- ryandrake 7mo ago
  6.5 years. What helped most was doing a little bit every day. Taking time off the project would probably have slowed my motivation. Also, at some point, you have spent a lot of money on a project like this, to the point where you kind of have to finish it or you've lost a lot of sunk cost.

bluGill 7mo ago

I would start smaller though. There are a lot of half finished airplanes (where the last 20% takes 80% of the time...) and the maker is dead. I've been working on a ukulele for over a year now and it isn't close to done yet, and this is a much smaller project. (Or maybe I should say I've been working on raising kids for a decade and there is another left?).

codazoda 7mo ago
Oh, yeah. I’ve been meaning to build an electric ukulele. I’ve built some handmade electric guitars, slide guitars and similar. Mine are rudimentary, more akin to a cigar box guitar (if not less complex). Examples: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPmHtIa9vAm8wNPeTXP4MoZjOAqssOaTW5XnmBqXmlcYdKhAPglQJTcoqSJI_fAcw?key=NXJHNmd6dUFRTVY2QklLcVVrZzdzYm5sQWp3YVd3 https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPmHtIa9vAm8wNPeTXP4MoZ...
- exDM69 7mo ago
  Great looking instruments. I've built half a dozen similar box guitars, it's such a fun little thing to build. Do I see a piezo disk under the bridge in the 3rd instrument? Do you use some kind of preamp with it? I have been recently experimenting with different kinds of piezo pickups [0] and preamp electronics for them. I've figured out a pretty nice JFET based circuit for the preamp and ordered tiny 13x13mm PCBs with tiny SMT components assembled and it works pretty well (but needs a second revision). They mount directly on the volume potentiometer and fit in a small space. The one thing I haven't figured out yet is grounding the electronics. In a typical electric guitar you ground the electronics by touching the (grounded) strings, but that doesn't work very well (at all) with slide guitar when your left hand has got a bottle neck slide on it (made of glass or ceramic which is an insulator). Drop a message below if you want to geek out more about home made guitars and/or related electronics. Depending on your location I could also send some preamp PCBs your way. [0] https://hazeguitars.com/blog/piezo-pickups-evolve https://hazeguitars.com/blog/piezo-pickups-evolve (not my site)
  - codazoda 7mo ago
    Happy to stay in touch. I haven't build one of these in a long time. My website and email address are in my bio here on HN. To answer your question, yes, that's a piezo pickup, if I remember correctly. I don't think I had any kind of pre-amp. I wired it to a 1/8" stereo plug and then connected that to a very small portable guitar amp. It was all very rudimentary. A very distorted sound. I don't remember grounding to be a problem but I played the slide version of this with a slide made from a galvanized pipe, rather than glass.

jcmontx 7mo ago

How scary was the test flight? where did you land?

ryandrake 7mo ago
I was as confident as I could be. Had multiple tech counselors and A&Ps give it a good look over beforehand. Also had an emergency plan for every 100 feet of altitude post-takeoff. Did the first couple of flight tests in the vicinity of a minor (class D) Bay Area airport and then did the rest of them (including the riskier ones) over the central valley.
- kacesensitive 7mo ago
  did you bring a parachute?
  - ryandrake 7mo ago
    Nope. Given the canopy style of the kit (RV-7A tip-up) and a few build decisions I made (modifications to the original design), actually egressing in-flight would have been infeasible anyway.
  - jagged-chisel 7mo ago
    In most failure cases, it becomes a glider. I think if it was gonna fall apart around the pilot, it would be obvious long before they got it in the air.

sashank_1509 7mo ago

How long did it take you to complete this project. How did you maintain motivation?

ryandrake 7mo ago
6.5 years. What helped most was doing a little bit every day. Taking time off the project would probably have slowed my motivation. Also, at some point, you have spent a lot of money on a project like this, to the point where you kind of have to finish it or you've lost a lot of sunk cost.