We have had a rain barrel attached to our garage roof for over a decade now, but a perennial issue is present. Due to the large cluster of trees and low-hanging branches near the roof of the building, the gutter and downspout often clutter with tree-debris. To combat this, we cut out some screen mesh to fit inside. While this did help, it was unreliable and often got covered in leaves and sticks, making cleaning it a routine procedure.

I have had this cheap 12V switching power supply that (claims) to be able to deliver 30 amps. It is a common power supply type, and are commonly used in consumer applications, especially in the LED lighting industry. In fact, the exact same model can be found mounted on my Creality Ender 3 3D printer. Background Personally, I find these power supplies perfect for many use cases, especially when one considers their pricepoint.

The lightbox has been finished! I designed the acrylic and manufactured it on our laser engraver/cutter. The end result was better than expected, although I had to condense (shorten) the acrylic overall to meet the max acrylic dimensions of 70 square cm. After the transparent acrylic was finished, I screwed it into the lightbox and “force fit” everything together as designed. Luckily my tolerances and dimensions matched perfectly. The acrylic had to be custom designed to fit the screw holes and the box geometry.

Paper bags are great. They are much more sustainable than their plastic counterparts and they are reusable and recyclable. I often keep or collect these bags because they have so many uses. The issue I have is that I don’t have a good place to put them. At the moment, they are stored behind my recycling bin, being propped up. When I take out the recycling they all fall down and make a mess.