Posts on randomodbuild

Repairing an automatic watch winder

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 18:57:51 -0500

Background

If you happen to have a generic watch winder such as the one below, you might eventually run into the issue where it stops spinning.

The Problem

More often than not, these cheap winders will use a belt driven system such as the one below, and over time, these belts will crack and lose tension.

The Repair

Disassembly

To fix this, first, disassemble the winder. There are several good videos online explaining this, here is the one I used.

How I extended our home network to a detached garage for free

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

TL;DR

DSL

A bit more context

No, not really. Rather, the abandoned DSL infrastructure left on our property from ages ago. Before you rush to conclusions on the legality of this, let me explain:

Even more context

Background

In our neighborhood, power and telecom come in from the back of each property on a series of utility poles between the backyards. This has led to our neighborhood being one of the most prone to power outages in the area, but that’s a rant for another time. Back on topic, this means that our internet service travels from the telco patch panel on the utility pole out back, all the way to the center of our property, where it enters the house. Along the way, it passes by the detached garage. Now, I believe you can see where this is going.

Little Free Library Update!

Sun, 05 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Note: I started writing this post in 2021, left it for 2 years, now just finished it in November 2023. Hope that clears some confusion!

I’m happy to say that the little free library has finally been installed in a public place, and there have been some changes!

While I’m not pleased with the timeline (it’s been nearly 2 years!!), I am glad that the library is now being used by the community.

New Website 2023

Mon, 26 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

Hey everyone! I’m working on a new website, powered by Hugo. This new website will first run under the url hugo.randomodbuild.com and eventually I’ll change the www.randomodbuild.com domain to the new hugo site.

A Timeline

The Beginning

Over the years, I’ve had several websites, in various states of progress. I created a blogger website at randomodbuild.blogspot.com, and even a weebly website at randomodbuild.weebly.com, which are now both abandoned, and never really had any content in the first place. Finally, in 2019 I got started on my selfhosting journey.

Fixing my school's CNC router and saving $700

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 12:00:00 +0000

Background

My school had a broken Carvey. The Carvey is a (now discontinued) desktop CNC router made by Inventables. I convinced my school to not surplus it (effectively throwing it out) and let me try and fix it, and they agreed! I brought it home where it stayed for several months, until I finally had the time to fix it.

Diagnosis

Looking through the Inventables Community forum, I figured out what gcode to use to home individual axis and determined several problems. Someone at the school had attempted to replace the Y-axis stepper motor with a broken one, but thankfully they left the original stepper, which I reinstalled. This was really weird, I don’t know what that person was thinking. The other problem, much more serious, was that the Z-axis stepper was fried. When I tried to move the z-axis, the motor would budge slightly and let out a high pitched whine, but never rotate.

New Domain Name! randomodbuild.com

Fri, 30 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

If you are reading this, you have probably noticed that this website is now located at www.randomodbuild.com instead of the older www.randomodbuild.com. The reason for this is because my .tk domain lapsed.

Yes, I even made a point about this; how you must cancel a month in advance and then re-register your .tk domain if you want it to remain free. But, I forgot to remind myself, and the domain expired. Sure enough, when I went to renew it, there was a $9 fee.

Traefik + Docker-Compose Stack

Mon, 05 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been messing around with traefik and docker (using docker compose) for a while now, and I think it’s finally time for me to write out some steps on how to get it installed and working. In the past, I followed SmartHomeBeginner’s excellent guides, but the previous few times I’ve made some of my own changes, and it often helps to have a cumulative guide for others to follow. This will be frequently updated (probably) as I add more steps that I originally forgot, so feel free to leave a comment below.

P1 | Trying to create an open community mesh network on a shoestring budget

Fri, 21 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

Hey! In this series of blog posts, I am going to try and document my journey of attempting to setup an open community mesh network. What does this mean? It means that anybody can join and add to the mesh, (hence the “open”), and can expand the network for others, or just connect to it. This is not intending to be “free WiFi”, although in the future with internet gateways it very well could become that, but almost like a decentralized internet alternative. Read on to find out more about the network architecture.

Internet Connected Little Free Libraries™

Thu, 30 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

At the school I used to attend, a community service project was required to graduate. You could do it as a group or alone, so of course I was in a group with 2 of my friends. I originally wanted to do something related to 3D printing. I had purchased a budget 3D printer in 2017, the Tronxy X1. My idea was to go to my elementary school, get a 3D printer, and have a little class teaching kids how to use and maintain a 3D printer. It probably would have benefited the community (a requirement for the project), but there were too many variables. It would be hard to do as a group, because my friends lived 30 minutes away, and having classes about 3D printers would be a pain to coordinate. Plus, we needed money. And while 3D printers have gone down significantly in price and we could’ve just bought a few Ender 3’s, it would’ve been a hassle to rally parents into funding 3D printers that their student may not even use. So it could’ve worked, but would have been a huge pain to coordinate. Plus, Jake (one of the 2 friends) came up with a much better idea; to make a little free library. So we quickly decided to do away with the original plan.

New Website!

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Hey everyone! I am in the process of setting up a new website. I have been planning on making a website for a long time now, and I finally have gotten around to it.

Once fully up and running, this website will document many of my projects that I have been wanting to share but haven’t gotten around to editing and posting to YouTube. I hope that eventually this website can be a tool for me and anyone else interested in my projects.