The book is for everyone who likes to tinker in their home workshop! In Section 1: Ideas and Approaches, the author looks at how you can develop new projects and inventions. How to think laterally, how to get advice, and when you should stop theorising and start testing! In Section 2: Projects you can build, there is everything from a solar-heated cat or dog kennel - to a jet-powered scooter! From a simple and very cheap seismograph that's sensitive enough to detect people walking up to your front door, to how you can build speakers into the walls and floor of your house. If you'd like to make an electric bike, you can see in detail how such a bike was achieved at home. There's also cutting-edge technology (including developing tuned-mass dampers to reduce driving light vibration); a very sophisticated, fully suspended pedal-powered recumbent trike; and an aerodynamic electric car. You'd like to make a drill press or lathe tacho? - that's covered as well. In fact, there are 19 different projects!Finally, want to know how can you get a whole lot of useful parts for nothing? In Section 3: Salvaging Parts, the author looks at the good bits you can find for nothing in discarded photocopiers, microwave ovens, cordless drills and air conditioners. The Inventors and Amateur Engineers Sourcebook has hours of entertainment packed into its pages. Browse it for an interesting read - or take it out to the home workshop and start putting the ideas straight into action!
About the Author: Julian Edgar started his working life freelancing for photography magazines. He then worked as a secondary school teacher for eight years, teaching humanities, before leaving teaching and becoming a full-time automotive writer. He edited a national Australian automotive print magazine before becoming editor of AutoSpeed, an online car magazine. Along the way he wrote extensively for Silicon Chip, an electronics hobbyist magazine, while contributing articles to publications in Australia, the UK and the US on cars, model railways, cycling and renewable energy. Julian lives in a hamlet 80 kilometres north of Canberra, Australia. He spends much of the week playing in his home workshop - for the rest of the time, he trains government Public Servants in high level writing skills. Other books by the author: 21st Century Performance, Clockwork Media, 2000 High Performance Electronics for Cars, Silicon Chip Publications, 2004 (co-authored with John Clarke) Amateur Car Aerodynamics Sourcebook, CreateSpace, 2013