I'm Starting a Blog

By: Javier Valles

Published On: January 19, 2026

Why I’m Starting This Blog

I am making a commitment with myself of advancing my personal projects and sharing my progress on them here. The idea is this public assignment will keep me accountable to keep advancing my personal projects. I will report advancements on a monthly basis, sharing my learnings along the way. I plan to engage with my LinkedIn community on a weekly basis, reaching out to the community for problem solving advice, engaging in brainstorming sessions, and getting feedback on my ideas. It should be fun. This first blog will be the easiest to make, so I will publish it quickly. If you don’t see another blog a month after the publishing of this one, I am failing at my objective. How embarrassing.

The Projects

I think one could find an infinite list of projects to work on, and I personally have more ideas than I have time and resources to complete. This is why I am focusing on a few projects that I have already started and a few that will have a large impact in my personal and professional life. These projects vary in levels of complexity, the skills and tools required to complete them, and the timeframe for completion but they are all projects that will help keep me sharp at moving projects through a full product lifecycle. I will elaborate more on each project’s background and targets with each blog, but I will briefly describe each project and what I hope to learn from each one.

• Semi Automatic Film Developing Machine

  • Objective - Create a compact “coffee maker” machine using and Arduino board that automates much of the developing process for C-41 and B&W film.

  • Expected Learnings / Important Topics - Basic coding, mechatronic systems, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, sheet metal manufacturing constraints

• Queen Size ‘Murphy’ Bed Frame

  • Objective - Create a economical pull-down bed for my guest room to allow space to also serve as an office.

  • Expected Learnings / Important Topics - Mechanical mechanisms, spring / damper systems

• Baby / Toddler Furniture - Create furniture for my kid’s room

  • Expected Learnings / Important Topics - DFM, as I will be making this furniture myself with the tools I have available.

• E-bike Drive System

  • Objective - Put together my knowledge in battery packs and magnets together to create an economical drive unit and battery pack that can be retro-fitted onto economical bikes.

  • Expected Learnings / Important Topics - DFM, I will send parts to be machined for this. Electro-magnetic systems, thermal system design

The Rules

• I’ll publish a new blog entry on the 2nd Sunday of each month - Feb. 15 is next

• I will work at most 2 projects simultaneously

• I will disclose target completion dates for each project at each project’s opening blog.

Thanks for reading so far, this should be fun. If you want to get involved in any of the projects reach out to me at javier@valles-engineering.com