Marcus Folkesson

Embedded Linux Artist

Restoring a power hammer

Restoring a power hammer I have bought myself a power hammer - something that I have wanted for a long time. It is a Abno nr1, a swedish made 25kg spring hammer. It has been unused for many years and is in need of a little restoration. The last Abno hammers were manufactured in the sixties, so it is at least 60 years old. I've seen 60 year olds in worse condition than this, although there are parts that need improvement.

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Posted by Marcus Folkesson on Saturday, October 19, 2024

Forge a kitchen knife

Forge a kitchen knife Another attempt to forge a knife. The metal I use for this project is part of a feather harrow that I collected from my father farm. I cut out a ~8x4cm long piece from the springs of the feather harrow: Bosse (the dog) never leaves me, so I got him a sack to snuggle down on at the outside of the garage. I used the gas forge for the entire project.

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Posted by Marcus Folkesson on Thursday, August 1, 2024

Forge a knife blade from a car spring

Forge a knife blade from a car spring I helped my friend to change springs on his car, so I kept the broken spring as forging material. The carbon content of spring steel is aroundd 0.6 to 0.8% which works well for hardening - so lets forge a knife! I cut out a ~10cm long piece from the car spring. I use the induction heater to straight it out and flatten it a little.

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Posted by Marcus Folkesson on Sunday, July 14, 2024

Knife making

Knife Making It's been a long time since I made knives. Knife making was actually the reason I bought my gas forge a few years ago and it's still something I intend to do. I forged a few knife blades back then, but it was way too much manual grinding to be fun and I didn't have the right tools back then, and I'm still missing a belt grinder in my toolbox.

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Posted by Marcus Folkesson on Monday, July 1, 2024

NOAA Weather satellites

NOAA Weather satellites Me and a friend started to talk about SDR (Software Defined Radio) and GNURadio [1], which reminds me of a old project I did for many years ago - reading out images from NOAA weather satellites using SDR, a QFH antenna and GNU Radio! I found some old pictures, but unfortunately, I do not remember the details as it was almost ten years ago. But I do know that we were using a HackRF [3] to catch the radio signals.

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Posted by Marcus Folkesson on Thursday, May 30, 2024

Building an owl house

Building an owl house I like owls. I always have. There are so many reasons to be fascinated about owls. For example, did you know that Owls has special flight feathers that makes them almost silent? That they can swivel their heads around (how cool is'nt that?) is commonly known, but that they can do the same with their toes too? Their eares are asymmetrical to make them better to pinpoint the location of sounds in multiple dimensions?

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Posted by Marcus Folkesson on Monday, May 13, 2024

Repair of an IC-211E HAM Radio

Repair of an IC-211E HAM Radio A friend of mine (SM7FWZ [3] ) gave me an ICOM IC-211E, a 2M all mode transceiver that I'm having a lot of fun with. When I got it, it had one drawback - transmitting on SSB (Single Side Band) didn't work very well, neither for USB (Upper Side Band) nor LSB (Lower Side Band). The signal that reached the antenna was really disturbed, so here is something that needs to be fixed!

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Posted by Marcus Folkesson on Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Bird counting

Bird counting I've been counting birds for couple of years now, but for the last past six mounths I have also recorded which species I see at bird table. I live in the middle of a bird sanctuary, so I think it could be good to know my neighbors. So the main reason for this was to learn to tell the difference between different species for birds. I must say that this was a success, I can name about 30 different bird species with a fairly high degree of certainty around my bird table.

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Posted by Marcus Folkesson on Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Watch repair

Watch repair Time for another watch repair! The watch can be winded up to max, but it does not move nor tick, so my guess is that the gear train is stuck somewhere. It is also the first time I use my microscope to something else other than soldering components (and looking at creepy bugs with my kids..). Take it apart I started to take everything apart as usual, starting with the balance wheel.

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Posted by Marcus Folkesson on Thursday, February 1, 2024

Leather fox pouch

Leather fox pouch I bought this [1] pattern to make a fox leather pouch to a friend of mine. I made some modifications to the pattern to make it more how I like it. I used Veg-tanned Bellies 5oz leather for this project. The steps The laser machine is not involved at all in this project. Stamp each hole is a time consuming pleasure. Beavel all the edges. Dye the leather and add a layer of shene.

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Posted by Marcus Folkesson on Friday, July 28, 2023