MakerThornhill
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syntheticfuture.bsky.social
MakerThornhill
@syntheticfuture.bsky.social
51 followers 88 following 100 posts
• Maker, tinkerer, biscuit lover 🍪
• Electronics, PCBs, CircuitPython, chocolate HobKnobs.
• Riding around on an old bicycle 🚲

https://hackaday.io/Maker.Thornhill
https://instagram.com/maker.thornhill
Posts Replies Media Videos
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
Rainy autumn days are for cycling to the bakery and only getting 50% drenched.
A close up of a person wearing a yellow rain coat, wet with rain. Over their shoulder a bicycle is propped up against a grey pillar. Yellow leaves cover the grass behind it.
October 28, 2025 at 1:13 PM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
Pros: Can jump pretty high, have feather fall, claws!

Cons: people keep picking you up because you’re just a baby! Oh my goodness look at him, he’s just a baby! Oh my-
A fluffy black and white tuxedo cat, cradled in someone’s arms. The cat has a grumpy expression (although he secretly loves it).
October 17, 2025 at 7:46 PM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
Normalise immediately voiding the warranty.
A wall-mounted fan, partially dismantled upon the floor showing some of its components.
October 14, 2025 at 9:37 PM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
Normalise carrying big ass boxes on a bicycle.
A large cardboard box (the length and width of almost an arms length), strapped to the back of a bicycle using bungee straps. The box overhangs the bicycle and is pushed right up against the saddle.
October 14, 2025 at 7:41 PM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
It’s a cycle to the bakery kind of morning
A silver and green bicycle rests against a bicycle rack on the pavement.
September 3, 2025 at 2:36 PM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
I’ve made a cabinet door. The entire world of furniture with recessed panels has opened up to me. I have “I-could-probably-make-a-interior-door” levels of confidence right now.
A 10 by 12 inch cabinet door, with rails and stiles of cherry wood, and a panel of maple plywood. A side view of the cabinet door, showing the routed joint between rail and stile
August 18, 2025 at 12:54 AM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
Celebrate the 18th anniversary of getting your bicycle by cycling it around a lake.
A green and silver bicycle propped up against a bench, overlooking a lake with trees along its banks. Battery, water bottle, and tool roll add a pop of orange on the bicycle.
August 8, 2025 at 8:04 PM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
Now I’m not a morning person… but I WILL get up to cycle to the bakery for bread.

I love cycling.
I love bread.
A loaf of bread pokes out from an open, red and grey bicycle pannier
August 7, 2025 at 2:29 PM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
Door bell installed!

As an introvert, no guests thank you, but also please press the marble door button, but also no solicitation, but yes do make it ring I’m very proud of it, but do go away, just press th
August 1, 2025 at 8:04 PM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
Door bell electronics that need a box 🤝 me needing an excuse to practice making recessed panels.

Just need to make a cover!
A four sided wooden box with recessed panel sides, made of oak, cherry, and birch. The box has no back or front, allowing it to mount onto a wall. The box mounted low on a wall, now full of wires and electronics
July 31, 2025 at 1:28 AM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
Wildflowers finally appearing in the field! I spread some of their seeds last year, in areas where I removed invasive Russian/Autumn olive
Several yellow flowers of Black Eyes Susan’s amongst tall scraggly grass & plants The purple blooming head of Milkweed A flowering yellow Partridge Pea poking out of a scraggly mass of grass and leaves Wild Bergamot with its pink spidery petals
July 27, 2025 at 6:03 PM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
And here’s it in action during an inside test, wired up to a microcontroller, a ringing generator, and a ringer bell.
July 24, 2025 at 9:03 PM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
The great thing about using a marble as a button is that you can put an LED behind it and it’ll glow with all the magic of a wizard’s orb
The constructed door bell button with the marble button illuminated. The once blue marble glows a fantastical swirled green, like a piece of captured magic stored in glass.
July 24, 2025 at 8:57 PM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
I have a door bell plate and no button.

But that’s ok because I also have a switch, a brass thing, a spring, and a marble I found in the garden.
An aged bronze door bell plate with a blue marble button. The plate is rectangular and mounted onto a 3D printed housing, which is painted to match the bronze patina. The bronze door bell plate (unmounted) next to a momentary tactile switch, a brass cup thing, a hand coiled spring, and a blue marble
July 24, 2025 at 8:53 PM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
More house treasure:

Mottled blue Old Bridge fireplace tiles, from a bricked up fireplace. How do I know it’s bricked up? Because I stuck a camera in there!
Rectangular fire place tiles scattered on the grass. The tiles are mottled light blue, some just fragments from when they were removed Inside the chimney, showing the dark spot covered bricks of the fireplace, and the red bricks that cover up the entrance. A hole in the top of the fireplace shows a 2x4 and the drywall of the wall that currently covers up everything
June 23, 2025 at 8:28 PM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
Slowly rebuilding our Hoosier cabinet and I’m pretty darn pleased with how these drawers have turned out.

Stained with coffee and conditioned with butcher block oil.
Two wooden drawer fronts with a dark golden lustre and brass pulls, within a Hoosier cabinet Unstained wooden drawer within a Hoosier cabinet, partially pulled out to show the internal dividers The drawers during construction, without drawer fronts
May 24, 2025 at 12:19 AM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
Two assembled drawers, scrap wood, and a thermos of tea… also no problem!
A red pannier bag on the back of a bicycle, full with wooden drawers and scrap wood that stick out of the top. On the other side a silver thermos is clamped onto the bike with straps.
May 13, 2025 at 9:12 PM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
My Royal Mail messenger-bag-turned-bicycle-pannier continues to be a frigging delight (…even if I’m still patiently waiting for fellow expats to comment on it)
A bright red Royal Mail bag as a pannier on the back of a vintage bicycle. The bag has a bright green-yellow reflective band on the bottom, with the words “Royal Mail” The back of the Royal Mail pannier, showing the metal hooks and loops that allow it to attach to the back of a bicycle rack The Royal Mail pannier on the back of a bicycle, with its freshly installed grey liner poking out of the top. The liner is made of a water resistant ripstop fabric
April 30, 2025 at 5:22 AM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
Today’s garden finds:

- Glass cabinet knob (circa 1880’s)
- Decorative wall or floor tile
Small glass cabinet knob with crystal cut edges, sitting on bare dirt Two fragments of floor or wall tile, with perhaps a yellow & purple floral design
April 24, 2025 at 12:58 AM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
It’s a dismantle-your-gear-hub kind of day
A bicycle gear hub deconstructed, its oily metal parts spread out on a piece of cardboard
April 22, 2025 at 6:59 PM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
Found a balloon.
A person grips a metallic pink balloon as they hold onto their bicycle handle bars. In the background trees and shrubs.
April 18, 2025 at 8:10 PM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
Cycling down a multi-use footpath, lined with old thick trees that send shadows and dabbled sunlight across the pavement
April 18, 2025 at 8:08 PM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
Look, I don’t have control of a whole lot of things… BUT I do have these plants I can encourage and care for and that feels nice!
A close up of a phlox plant with vibrant blue flowers and small narrow leaves A close up of French Lavender, with deep purple flowers and a heavenly scent that carries with the breeze. Reader, you really have to be there The small white flowering blossoms of a Nine Bark along its woody stem. Clumped together with stamens proudly raised, the blossoms form a delicate half sphere Lush green leaves and deep purple flowers of an Autumn Sage
April 16, 2025 at 5:15 AM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
Looks like it’s 1996 all over again!
A small square CRT television rests on top of a VHS tape machine. On the screen, a shot from the 1996 film, ‘Fly Way Home’, with Canadian geese flying in formation over orange trees.
March 18, 2025 at 12:53 AM
syntheticfuture.bsky.social
When I’m working on stuff past midnight, this is who finds me to tell me to go to bed.
A tuxedo cat sits on a desk in front of an open laptop. He stares into the camera with the intensity of someone who has one job in this world and that’s to get you to go to bed.
March 14, 2025 at 5:07 AM