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# Thomas Jacquin Creations

DIY and Woodworking

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [All Sky Camera](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/all-sky-camera/) - During winter, when the sky is clear, we can often witness northern lights above Whitehorse, YT. I wanted to capture these aurora events and share them with family and friends so I decided to create a camera that would live stream a view the sky on the internet. I borrowed the idea from AuroraMax but I didn't
- [Multiplayer Arcade Controller](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/multiplayer-arcade-controller/) - I recently built some proper storage areas in my house and while I was opening boxes and moving things onto shelves I ran into a big stack of electronic parts. In another box I found some forgotten joysticks and buttons. I put two and two together and figured there was something nice that had to
- [Northern Lights timelapse](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/northern-lights-timelapse/) - About 10 days ago, we got some pretty good northern lights here in Whitehorse. I took some pictures using a timer remote control and stitched them together to create a video. Unfortunately, a hundred pictures usually result in a 5 to 10 seconds video so I added a few other pictures from that night to
- [Build your own telescope part 2: the tube](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/build-your-own-telescope-part-2-the-tube/) - I recently completed the tube of my 8 inches telescope. For this project, I didn't have any plans so I had to spend a lot of time figuring out the appropriate dimensions of each elements. While I was building the primary mirror, I used Mel Bartels's website a lot. It really is a very good source
- [Christmas Ornaments](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/christmas-ornaments/) - I recently created Christmas Ornaments to send to my family before Christmas. I created them using my CNC and a few software. Check this link for the pictures and more details about the process.
- [Build your own telescope part 1: The mirror](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/build-your-own-telescope-mirror/) - Building or buying? That's a question that often comes to the mind of amateur astronomers. This question is not always about money saving. Instead, if you consider getting a 10" instrument or less, you're very likely to spend more money building it than buying a commercial one. And I'm not talking about the countless hours spent making
- [Build your own Cloud Chamber](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/build-your-own-cloud-chamber/) - In this post, I will talk about my latest project: a Cloud Chamber. It involves woodworking, electronics and particle physics. But first, let me tell you what it does. It was originally invented by Charles Thomson Rees Wilson to study the properties of clouds. However, Wilson used it later to create cloud trails left after the
- [Make your own simple camera slider](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/make-your-own-simple-camera-slider/) - Following the construction of my camera slider, I thought I would share a bit more information about the materials and how to use it. First let's talk about the purpose of such device. The goal here is to capture images of a scene at regular intervals (30 seconds for example) from a moving point of view and
- [Greenhouse Update](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/greenhouse-update/) - So I built a greenhouse a few months ago and I think it's time to make a follow up and share some pictures of the plants growing inside. The plants were started indoors around march and moved to the greenhouse by the end of June as soon as the risk of frost was over. Here
- [Make your own sanding drums](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/make-your-own-sanding-drums/) - Woodworking always involves a certain amount of sanding. Unless you manage to cut your wood parts right on the line on the first try, there is a good chance you will have to sand a few millimetres from time to time. Sanding produces a clean and smooth surface but also create a lot of dust. It can
- [A Makerspace in the Yukon](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/a-makerspace-in-the-yukon/) - I always wanted to create a hackerspace. By hackerspace, I mean a place where people can meet, share ideas and learn new skills. Recently, someone from the Economic Development branch of the Yukon Government sent me an email to let me know he was trying to setup the first Makerspace in the Yukon. I was
- [From Concept to Product in a day](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/from-concept-to-product-in-a-day/) - Today, I will share with you the workflow I recently used to tweak my wooden clock's pendulum. The pendulum is an important mechanical part as it determines the speed of the clock. Every oscillation is supposed to last exactly one second. If the frequency of the pendulum is too high or too low, it will
- [Building a Strip Canoe](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/building-a-strip-canoe/) - A few months ago I purchased a book called "Build a Strip Canoe" by Gil Gilpatrick. It covers the construction of a traditional canoe made out of wood strips glued together. All the construction steps are well documented. The book also includes real size plans for more eight different canoes ranging from 14 to 21
- [First Post](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/first-post/) - Welcome to my blog. This space will soon be filled with construction steps, building tips, and other projects I would like to build. When a project is done, I will show it on the creations page. Thanks for reading.

## Pages

- [Contact](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/contact/) - Don't hesitate to contact me whether you have a question, need information or just want to be friends Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail * Email or Website WebsiteComment or MessageSubmit
- [About](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/about/) - I am originally from France. After travelling a bit, I settled in Whitehorse, Yukon in the northwest Canada. I am a software developer who loves to build stuff.
- [Thank You](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/thank-you/) - Thank you for the donation. I enjoy sharing my projects with the community and helping users when they have a question. I don't create projects for money but if you feel that one of my project has helped you, a donation is always welcome. Cheers, Thomas
- [Blog](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/blog/)
- [Creations](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/creations/)

## Portfolio

- [Paintings](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/paintings/) - I started oil painting in 2003 when my uncle showed me a few tricks. I started with still life models in order to practice technique and then tried a few portraits and landscapes. As a red-green colour blind person, I find landscapes to be the hardest so I tend to favour portraits and scenes with
- [All Sky Camera](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/all-sky-camera/) - This camera takes pictures of the entire night sky, uploads them to a website and generates a time lapse video at the end of each night. A website provides internet users with a view of the sky in real time making it an excellent tool for aurora monitoring. Hardware This device uses a high sensitivity
- [Hnefatafl](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/hnefatafl/) - Hnefatafl which translates into "King's table" is a strategic board game that was played by the Vikings between the 8th and 10th century. It was a popular game played in Nordic countries and it followed the Viking civilization through other parts of Europe. As chess became more popular, Hnefatafl was slowly forgotten. I learned about
- [Coffee Table](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/coffee-table/) - A coffee table made from western red cedar, pine and walnut. The joined legs provide style and stability.
- [Arcade Controller](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/arcade-controller/) - A multiplayer arcade controller built from random electronic components and scavenged computer parts. As an anti-consumerist, I am a firm believer in upcycling. Twelve years ago, when I worked at Computers for Schools, I started collecting a few parts (cpu fans, heatsinks, LEDs, switches, etc) that would otherwise had ended up at the landfill. A -
- [Equatorial Platform](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/equatorial-platform/) - I created this equatorial platform to motorize my Strock 250 telescope. The instrument has an altazimutal mount which makes it lightweight and well suited for visual observations. However, astrophotography can't be achieved if you don't have a motorized mount. This platform is moving like an equatorial mount but has a low profile which lets you
- [Tiny House](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/tiny-house/) - This project is a bit special because that's the largest and most expensive thing I have ever built... and also because I'm living in it. The overall design is loosely based on Tinyhousebuild.com's design for the exterior aspect. However, we increased the walls, floor and ceiling thickness to meet the minimum requirements for the Canadian
- [Wooden 8 inches Dobsonian Telescope](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/wooden-8-inches-dobsonian-telescope/) - The tube of the telescope has a Hexadecagonal section. It is built from 16 boards (1/4" thickness) of western red cedar glued together using bird's mouth joinery. This kind of joints has 2 advantages: it only requires one side to be shaped and it locks the 2 pieces together during the clamping process. The tube
- [Cloud Chamber](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/cloud-chamber/) - A Cloud Chamber is an instrument showing natural radiation. It works by showing the trails that charged particles leave behind them when they travel through the chamber. Here are the steps to operate it: A sponge soaked in isopropyl alcohol is placed high inside the chamber. At room temperature, the alcohol will soon start to evaporate, saturating
- [8 inches Telescope Mirror](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/8-inches-telescope-mirror/) - The mirror is made of Borosilicate which is very similar to Pyrex. It has a low coefficient of expansion which is important as you want your mirror to keep its shape once it has cooled down. To make a mirror, you need to first grind it with coarse silicon carbide to give it a curvature.
- [Camera Slider](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/camera-slider/) - This simple camera slider can be built during a weekend. It only requires basic tools and some common materials. The tripods and camera head can be found in photography stores or online and the bearings are available in any skateboard store. This prototype uses a .5 rpm DC motor which provides more than 2 hours
- [Greenhouse](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/greenhouse/) - Building a greenhouse has always been on my project list, so when I came upon this article entitled "How to build my $50 Greenhouse", I put my other projects aside. If you add the fact that it's currently spring and that I live in the Yukon, you'll understand why I really want to build it. Here,
- [Zephyr](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/zephyr/) - Zephyr is a spinning wheel designed by Clayton Boyer. It is made out of common materials you can find at your local hardware store. I made mine using 1x4 and 1x6 maple boards. Birch plywood is used for the wheel. Building Zephyr does not require specialized tools and the plans contain very detailed building instructions
- [Christmas Tree Ornaments](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/christmas-tree-ornaments/) - The good thing about having a CNC at home is that you can build all kinds of small items in a little time. I wanted to create Christmas ornaments to send to my family in France but I didn't want to do it by hand so I decided I would create them using the CNC.
- [Make you own peat](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/make-you-own-peat/) - Some plants need a particular soil to grow, others can grow pretty much everywhere. A peat is an interesting soil type. It is a humid environment essentially composed of decaying sphagnum which makes it a very acidic ground but also very poor in nutrients. Still as nature abhors vacuum, various trees, shrubs and flowers grow
- [Polishing station](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/polishing-station/) - This photo shows the polishing station used to build the Strock 250 mirror. You can also see the fake mirror and the mirror stand on top of the station. This stand is a very important part as it will hold the mirror while you're working on it. At the end of the polishing stage, the
- [Foucault instrument](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/foucault-instrument/) - Foucault Instrument Useful Links This tool is called a "Foucault Instrument" from french physicist Leon Foucault who amongst many other things invented it in 1858. It is used when you perform a Foucault knife-edge test. This instrument can tell if a mirror has a perfectly spherical shape or if it has non-spherical deviations on its surface. The instrument
- [Parabolic Mirror](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/parabolic-mirror/) - Building your own telescope is not always about saving money. It is about gaining knowledge and skills and pushing reflexion further. The build usually consists of 2 parts: building the structure and building the mirror. While the first one took me around month, the second one was definitely the most time consuming. Some people prefer
- [Webcam modification](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/webcam-modification/) - Back in the days when DSLR didn't exist and CCD camera where really expansive, the only cheap way to start in digital astrophotography was to use a webcam. But webcams usually don't take pictures for a time longer than a 1/4 of a second. The basic of astrophotography is to take long exposure images in
- [CNC](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/cnc/) - A CNC is a computer numerical control tool. It usually has a rotating cutting tool which can move on 3 or 4 axis. This is a common design that you can find from small milling machines to large 5 axis industrial CNC. Even 3D-printers share this design except that the cutting tool gets replaced by
- [Star Tracker](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/star-tracker/) - A star tracker, also known as barn door tracker, is a device that lets you make long exposure photography of the sky without star trails. To achieve this, it compensates the rotation of the earth by spinning at the same speed but in the other direction. The movement can be generated by hand or by
- [Igloo](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/igloo/) - The idea of building an igloo came shortly after the first snowfall. All the kids of our street started to build snowmen and forts. The problem with snow in the Yukon is that after the first snowfall, it's usually very cold and the snow is very dry and falls like powder when you try to
- [Spinning Wheel](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/spinning-wheel/) - Spinning wheels have been around for quite some time. Their shape and structure changed a lot throughout centuries of wood spinning. Today, their design has been pushed towards compact design and improved efficiency. This particular spinning wheel is not the most compact design out there but it still uses ball bearings to reduce overall friction.
- [Electric Guitar](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/electric-guitar/) - I built this guitar after reading the "Building Electric Guitars" by Martin Koch. The book details every aspect of the construction from choosing the wood to winding your own pickups. I purchased the wood at Langevin & Forest in Montreal. The body is cut in a laminated White Ash blank, the neck is carved in
- [Katana Sheath](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/katana-sheath/) - A friend of mine had a pretty nice Japanese sword but the sheath was poorly made. It was glossy and black but one day, it took a hit and revealed how it was made. The core was made out of some cheap light wood, roughly shaped and coated with plaster and paint. So when my
- [Wooden Clock](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/wooden-clock/) - This clock is named "Swoopy" and was designed by Clayton Boyer. It runs silently thanks to a double arm mechanism. An 8 pounds counterweight triggers the entire mechanism. A pendulum swings back and forth every two seconds. Building this clock requires some precision tools. A scroll saw is a really useful tool when it comes to
- [Strock 250 Telescope](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/build-your-own-telescope/) - Strock 250 More info This telescope was originally designed by Pierre Strock. The main goal was to create a large lightweight instrument that could fit in a carry-on baggage. It weights less than 10 kg but still has a 10 inches primary mirror. Building a telescope requires precision and patience. Basic woodworking skills are necessary to
- [Longboard Deck](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio/build-a-longboard/) - Building your own long-board is not difficult. Basically, you will only need some plywood, wood glue and a saw. To be more technical, you will need some birch or maple plywood. The best thickness is probably around 1/8" because you can bend it easily to give it the desired shape. If you can only find

## Categories

- [Astronomy](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/category/astronomy/)
- [DIY](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/category/diy/)
- [Gardening](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/category/gardening/)
- [Photography](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/category/photography/)
- [Woodworking](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/category/woodworking/)
- [Electronic](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/category/electronic/)

## Tags

- [astronomy](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/astronomy-2/)
- [aurora borealis](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/aurora-borealis/)
- [book](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/book/)
- [building](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/building/)
- [canoe](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/canoe/)
- [carborundum](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/carborundum/)
- [cedar](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/cedar/)
- [christmas](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/christmas/)
- [cnc](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/cnc/)
- [cold climate](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/cold-climate/)
- [diy](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/diy-2/)
- [garden](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/garden/)
- [Greenhouse](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/greenhouse/)
- [hackerspace](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/hackerspace/)
- [mach3](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/mach3/)
- [Makerspace](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/makerspace/)
- [mirror](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/mirror/)
- [north](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/north/)
- [Northern lights](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/northern-lights/)
- [ornaments](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/ornaments/)
- [parabolizing](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/parabolizing/)
- [plywood](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/plywood/)
- [polishing](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/polishing/)
- [pvc pipe](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/pvc-pipe/)
- [Sanding drum](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/sanding-drum/)
- [Slider](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/slider/)
- [telescope](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/telescope/)
- [timelapse](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/timelapse/)
- [tomatoes](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/tomatoes/)
- [Whitehorse](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/whitehorse/)
- [workflow](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/workflow/)
- [yukon](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/yukon/)
- [cloud chamber](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/cloud-chamber/)
- [particles](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/particles/)
- [cosmic rays](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/cosmic-rays/)
- [electron](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/electron/)
- [proton](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/proton/)
- [alpha particle](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/alpha-particle/)
- [atm](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/atm/)
- [wooden telescope](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/wooden-telescope/)
- [dobson scope](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/dobson-scope/)
- [woodworking](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/woodworking/)
- [western red cedar](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/western-red-cedar/)
- [Photography](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/photography/)
- [game](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/game/)
- [arcade](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/arcade/)
- [mame](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/tag/mame/)

## Portfolio Type

- [Astronomy](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio-type/astronomy/)
- [DIY](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio-type/diy/)
- [Photography](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio-type/photography/)
- [Woodworking](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio-type/woodworking/)
- [Art](https://www.thomasjacquin.com/portfolio-type/art/)