Wooden Garden Tractor Update - Second Attempt at the Drive Train

A few weeks back, my attempt to connect the rear wheels of my tractor to the engine ended in a complete failure. 

Going back to the drawing board I decided that trying to do a 90-degree twist in the drive belt was just not going to cut it. 

Unfortunately, this meant that I had to go with the more traditional route and have the engine drive to be more in line with the wheels, and avoid that 90-degree twist altogether.

The issue I had was that I still wanted to avoid having any moving belts as close to my limbs as possible. 

Can You Mine Bitcoin With a Raspberry Pi?

A while ago I did a post on mining cryptocurrency using a Raspberry Pi.

While I was able to mine some CPU based alternative cryptocurrencies like MAGI or Bytecoin, the Raspberry Pi just didn't have enough horsepower to mine major coins like Bitcoin or Litecoin. Those coins needed significant computing power from either a high powered Graphics processor or a dedicated mining machine - something that the Pi didn't have.

While my Raspberry Pi kept chugging away mining MAGI, I kept looking into possible ways to mine something a bit more substantial without busting the budget. I realized that I would definitely not get rich mining on the cheap, but I consider it more of a challenge to see if it could be done.

CNC3018 Controller Board Repair - Or When Stupidity Strikes

I've been playing away with my CNC3018 router for a little while now with varying degrees of success. I still am learning the ins and outs of the machine but I have been able to make quite a few things with it,

I am definitely nowhere near the level of proficiency that I have seen other people have with the machine but as with any skill, that will come with time.

One thing that I do like about the router is that it's a compact design, making it very easy to move around the workbench whenever I need to make more space. Unfortunately, it was this very portability that got me in trouble.

Wipe Your Paws! - A Simple Laser Engraved Sign

After using my little NEJE laser engraver for a little while and not managing to permanently blind myself by staring at the laser as if I was a moth to a light bulb, I figured that I could graduate up to something a bit more deadly powerful.

After reviewing the offerings on hand on Amazon, I settled on a 2.5-watt engraver that had the magic mix of being cheap but having very good reviews by what seemed to be actual humans (though I do hear that the bots are starting to get pretty smart these days 😀) 

The laser also had a much larger engraving surface - which really opened up the project possibilities that I could consider.

Building a Garden Tractor Out of Wood - Trying to Power the Wheels

The last time I worked on the tractor, I had mounted the engine to the tractor. Now I was faced with the prospect of attaching the engine to the rear wheels so that the tractor could actually move under its own power.

As I mentioned at the start of the build, I wanted to keep all the moving parts of the tractor's drive train as far away from my limbs as possible, My idea was to use the vertical drive of the lawnmower engine to connect it to the rear wheels with a drive belt that would have a 90-degree twist to a secondary set of pulleys that in turn would be connected to the rear wheels. 

I got the idea for this arrangement from a set of plans for a wooden go-kart that has its wheels powered via that type of arrangement.

I'm not entirely sure how successful I will with this since I am not entirely sure how the belt will stay on the pulleys with that severe of a twist, but I am willing to give it a try. 

To start the build, I first gathered up the various parts that I needed to make the drivetrain.