HOWTO turn a cheap Chinese laser engraver into a pretty good laser cutter
…using only a computer, LinuxCNC, and lots of scrap cardboard.
Every hackerspace needs a laser cutter. Unfortunately, they can be very expensive. Deals like the one Hacklab.to got don’t happen very often. However, there are factories in China turning out laser engravers and selling them on eBay for relatively cheap. We found a local distributor that appears to buy them directly from China, make sure they work, and resell them.
Team Power Fist – Power Racing Series Update
Posted by trevyn in Team PowerFist on June 12th, 2010
At Maker Faire Detroit (July 31 – August 1 2010), the folks from Pumping Station: One have challenged hackerspaces around the world to participate in the Power Racing Series.
The idea is this: buy a Power Wheels car, mod it to make it MOAR AWSOME, and race it against teams from other hackerspaces. Very simple.
We got ourselves a used Extreme Dune Buggy, and let Jason go at it with the Sawzall.
There was much drilling, lathing, cutting, grinding, and welding.
The organising people announced the Early Bird Challenge a few weeks ago – post a video of your car driving 150 feet, powered by the motor you intend to race with. We didn’t quite get the points, but we did post a video:
Making Games at think|haus
The past few weeks have seen several members working on games at think|haus. Peter designed and made a lasercut chess set, I made some pieces for my travel Settlers of Catan, and JamesQ posted about his 3D chess idea below.
Peter took some really nice pictures of his chess set and posted them on the facebook. His pieces are really nice – very clean and sleek. Each piece is made out of two pieces of acrylic fitted together at 90°. Here’s the thingiverse link.
A few years ago, I bought travel Settlers of Catan so that I could bring it with me on trips. Even the travel set is fairly big though, so I just used the cards and port pieces out of the box, and made my own tiles and cardboard pieces. The cardboard pieces are pretty awkward though, and I’ve never really been pleased with them. Today, I made up a little gcode file to cut out tiny roads, settlements, and cities.
If you want to build your own, check out the thingiverse project.
Apparently Gilbert Held is a little bit racist
Posted by cybershoe in Uncategorized on May 22nd, 2010
Dictionary of Communications Technology, 2nd edition
Filling laser etched acrylic: wax vs polymer clay
Posted by Adina in projects, promoting think|haus on May 16th, 2010
I made some business card holders for think|haus a few weeks ago. They turned out pretty well, but there was one problem: the etching isn’t really legible from any reasonable distance. I clearly needed to paint/fill the etching with something. I tried two different methods: wax crayon and polymer clay. Photos below the cut. Read the rest of this entry »
3-D Chess pieces for 3-D printers
Posted by professorzed in projects on May 11th, 2010
In response to the Maker bot industries giveaway, I had the idea of making designs for pieces. Not just ordinary chess pieces, but 3 dimensional (Space Chess) pieces. Anyone who has watched ‘Star Trek’ the original series has seen this ‘Three-dimensional chess’.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-dimensional_chess
Unfortunately the contest closes tomorrow at noon, and I just started the project today. I don’t have any skill with using 3-D computer drafting programs, and I don’t think I will be able to learn Google sketchup proficiently in a matter of hours. So, I drew my designs out by hand and posted them here. Read the rest of this entry »
MIDI + Mini Piano
Recently I came across an Electron Echo Mini Piano that my brother and I played with many years ago:
I have no idea who made it or where it came from. The interweb mentions it a few times, but there doesn’t seem to be any information about it.
A moment of inspiration hit, and I decided it would be neat/fun/educational to build it into a sort of glorious MIDI-controlled monophonic electronic tinny-sounding synthesizer.
Annual Meeting on June 15th
Posted by Adina in Uncategorized on May 10th, 2010
think|haus has been around for almost a whole year! That means that it’s time to have an AGM. It will be on June 15th, at 7PM. This breaks the not-having-business-meetings-at-open-haus rule, but it’s only once a year. Members can check out the agenda on the wiki page: http://wiki.thinkhaus.org/index.php?title=ThinkHausWiki:20100615AnnualMeeting
Peace,
Adina
Peter’s 3D printer on hackaday
Peter and his dad designed and built a 3D printer which is got posted to hackaday: http://hackaday.com/2010/04/19/makerbot-clone/. Cool beans.
Popular Science Books now available
Posted by DragonDon in Uncategorized on March 9th, 2010
Back issues are now on Google
http://books.google.com/books/serial/ISSN:01617370?rview=1&source=gbs_navlinks_s
