"The King of Random's" Melting Cans with the Mini Metal Foundry was the very first video of Grant Thompson's I ever watched. And it started a fire burning in me. Here I show you what I went through building out my furnaces on my journey to becoming a founder and casting my own metal creations.
       P.S. We still miss you Grant!

"The King of Random's" Making the Mini Metal Foundry was the start of my journey into melting aluminum at home. But even as cool as his design was, I wanted more. I knew i needed more air to get a fire hot enough to melt brass and copper. This project was when I started designing my own projects. The dual-feed, portable, blower assembly was for cooling server racks (ironically) but I intended it for a cyclonic, dual-air-feed system to make sure the heat was available for copper and brass.

"The King of Random's" How to Make the Styro-Slicer was a tool I decided I would like, to make foam models for lost-foam casting of things in aluminum. It would turn out to be the point at which I finalized the look of the JDG Industries paint design.

When making 3D models, they often have to integrate with real-world items. That requires a caliper to start with, perhaps a micrometer and other measuring tools. And when I started my modeling journey, I needed a way to transfer files between my phone, chromebook, desktop, and 3D printers. Hense USB adapters/cable, and microSD cards.

Finally one NOT based on a TKOR project, lol. Since I was a geeky highschool teen, I'd dreamed of having my own server rack. Then one day, the stars aligned. I was at Penn State's Lion Surplus outlet store at just the right moment... a 42u rack had been delivered, but had not yet been listed on the scrap list yet. And now the 300lbs rack is mine! And this is actually my third assembly. It started as a small networking wall-mount, and then got an upgrade (never deployed) before making it to the rack/cabinet.

Despite buying Ryobi because of the expansiveness of the single battery platform, I ended up with four battery types, Ryobi's 40v, 18, and 4v platforms as well as the new Craftsman 20v platform.