Castle keep and walls

Here is an example of a configuration my nephews came up with:

I’m changing up the website.

I haven’t been very good about posting lately.  I’m working on a few changes to the site and haven’t had much traffic, so it hasn’t been very inspiring to update the posts when it appears few people are reading them.  I guess that’s the dilemma of a blogger.  I’m trying to reduce the amount of work, while increasing the content of the site.  To do this, I removed the cover page and changed the blog theme.  I’m going to make it more visual.  I’ll try to post at least one photo per post.  I’m also going primarily with posts, no pages.  This makes it easier to search for articles.  I’m also going to expand it to my family as well (since mostly family seems to be looking at the site).

That said, here’s a picture I took over the weekend of my son Charlie.  I used my Canon T1i with the 18-55 lens.  It was shady and I wanted the fastest shutter I could get, because he kept moving, so I used two flashes for fill lighting, one to the right and the other on the camera.  The picture was taken in RAW and processed with Lightroom.

The picture below was also taken with the same settings and two flashes.

This image was shot in the shade, no flash.  The wind was blowing and his hair flipped up and the low shutter speed caused it to be a little blurry, but his expression was so cute I had to keep it.

These pictures were taken in the sunlight.  It was suppose to be a cloudy day, but by the time we got to the location, the sun was out.   It almost spoiled the shoot.  We shot most of the pictures in the shade.

These pictures were taken in the shade with a 400ISO and a Tv setting of 1/100 sec.

More progress on the first CNC Router and 3D printer under $200

Things slowed down a little bit on progress.  I’m back in the design phase of the electronics.  I decided to redo the driver board.  I ordered some all-in-one stepper motor drivers.  These will eliminate most of the circuits on the board and replace them with four of these drivers.  I’m very excited, because less components means lower cost and easier assembly.  For now, I bread boarded a controller I had and wired it up to a driver board I designed a few years back that uses TIP120 darlington pairs.  I used it to test the X axis and it worked perfectly.  The wood rack and pinion is much stronger than I anticipated.  I also ordered connectors for the nema 17 motors I’m using to drive the rest of it.  I’m mostly researching and waiting for parts.  Here’s a picture of the progress to date…

A photo tour of my personal Hackerspace

Here I am in my workshop.  I built the Chesapeake 17 foot kayak from scratch hanging up in the picture.  I used my laser to cut out the final parts for the hatches.  I bought the plans from Chesapeake Light Craft and had a blast building it and want to build another.  The camera is sitting ontop of my Audi TT.  The poor car is stored for the winter.  My wife had the Canon T1i on a trip, so I’ve been using my old Olympus point and shoot camera.  I’m blaming the poor white balance and slow shutter speed on the old camera, but actually, I was too lazy to correct the pictures or retake them.

My Epilog Express 100 laser cutter with a 200watt Synrad laser tube, The latest electronics project with stepper motors, my non-technical cutting tools.

Here are a couple overviews of my workshop.  The XBox 360 provides video entertainment in the garage and a PS3 provides the same in the house.  The XBox was a broken Ebay item that I fixed, I wouldn’t suggest trying that.  The two I bought looked like they were dug out of a junk yard.  Oh, yeah, I can’t forget our chocolate lab, Bear.  He won’t let us forget about him, ready to play at any momentÂ

More progress the on the “First CNC Router and 3D Printer under $200″

I’m pretty much finished with the prototype gantry.  Next, the electronics.  I have a head start on this.  A few years ago I designed a stepper motor controller and driver board using 74 series flip flops.  Pretty easy and simple circuit (simple means low cost).  I plan to drive it with the Arduino controller, but for now I have a BasicX 24 that I’m using for testing  (it’s pretty much the same thing as the Arduino, only uses Basic instead of C).  Here are some pictures of my last couple of nights progress…

    

   

I created a gear box, complete with wooden gears.  I didn’t think the stepper would be able to lift the Dremel, so I geared it down 50% (1:2 ratio).  I have another gear with a 2:7 ratio in case it still can’t lift it.  I used brass tubing from the hobby section of the hardware store as bearings and a shaft.

 

The motors are all in and I have several switches installed.  I have one more switch to find the home position of the Z axis.

I didn’t like my first arrangement of bearings for the table.  It wasn’t sturdy enough, but with this new arrangement, it’s solid.

Here it is sitting on my bench, ready for electronics.  Not bad for a weekend and two nights work.  I’m so close to testing it.  I can’t believe how cheap it was to make.  The electronics will be the most expensive part.  I estimate the total bill for the chassis at $60 in wood and hardware.  The micro switches and motors I already had, but they were about $75 for all of them.  If I went with a cheap Arduino controller from Makezine.com at $20 and two motor controller boards at $20 each, I’m looking at about $80 for the electronics and extra parts/wires.  So, the entire machine is $215.  It’s still more than I think it should be, so I’ll work at lowering some of the costs with my cheap controller and possibly making my own bearings and wheels, since they were the largest expense with the chassis.  I’m shooting for less than $200 and closer to the $150.  My goal is to design a CNC router and 3D Printer for under $200.  About the price of a laser printer.

Todays Progress on the Cheap Wooden CNC Router

I made lots of progress on the CNC machine.  The goal of this project is to make a CNC Router as cheap as possible using the least expensive parts available from the hardware store and as few online sources as possible.  The key to this is to use as much as you can from local sources.  I’ll explain this in more detail next month in the first part of the wooden CNC series.  For now, here are a few pictures of my stopping point today…

My laser cutter making the first cuts…

 

The product of todays work, front view…

Back view…

Notice the wheels, can you guess what they are?  They cost $20 for all six at the hardware store.  I’ll bet Walmart has them for less.

So far the total bill is less than $30.

Top 10 Inspiration Links for Laser Engraving

Whenever I’m looking for some new idea or trying to find something to laser out, here are my favorite websites.  These aren’t in any particular order.

1. Make Magazine

I love this magazine, I’ve subscribed from issue 3 until now.  They have lots of DIY projects, including laser engraver projects.

2. Instructables

A great site, however I’m not sure I like what they’ve done lately with forcing membership to see some of the content.  They’ve also started charging for content and the ads are getting overwhelming, but very good content for the DIYers out there.

3. Ponoko

This is a nice site from New Zealand.  The name means something in the native tongue, I’ll let you explore the site to figure out what it means.  They do custom laser cutting and engraving for those without laser engravers.  They also offer a place to sell or give away designs.  I’ve considered using them for some of my designs.

4. Wood Marvels

This is where I got my Castle Wall plans.  I’ve modified it greatly from Jon’s original design, however I’m still sending him a royalty check if I sell my castle wall kit.  He designs in 3DS Max and exports to EPS.  He has lots of great plans and ideas on his site.  If you’re looking for the plans to Castle Walls like I have on my site, you can find them here.

5. Laserbits

I’ve used these people for cleaning supplies and laser upkeep, as well as products to sell.  They’ve also been very helpful in customer service.

6. Epilog Laser

OK, I think these guys have the best laser engravers on the planet.  I may be a little biased, since I own one.  My laser is way out of warranty, however I called asking questions about it and they walked me through a laser alignment and were very helpful.  Their customer service is top notch and  Brian in tech support is very knowledgeable and helpful.  When I’m ready to buy another laser, I’m getting another Epilog laser.  They use regular print drivers and are very simple to use.  They didn’ t pay me for that sales pitch, either.  Check out their site, they have lots of tips, resources and samples.

7. Thingiverse

Not sure what the name is about, but it’s like Instructables and it’s for laser engravers and 3D printers.  That’s the next thing you do when you get a laser engraver, you build a CNC machine and a 3D printer.  Makes sense, right?  You have an entire factory in your garage.  This site is growing with lots of new content.  I’ve created several toys from this site.

8. Craftsmanspace

This isn’t a laser site, but it’s got free plans and good ideas for wooden items.  I may talk about converting plans from pdf to eps to cdr and lasering them out in a later article.

9. Woodgears

Again, not a laser site, but lots of great ideas.  This site also has a tool for creating gears and exporting them as hpgl.  I then import the gears in Corel Draw and they work great.  Google for wooden clock plans if you want to build a wooden clock.  There are lots out there for free.

10. NYC Resistor

This is a club in New York City that is all about hacking and building.   They make things with lasers, CNC and 3D printers.  They have lots of ideas on their site.  When I visit NYC, this is on my list of places to check out.

Laser engraving a pinewood derby car

Tonight a friend came over to use my laser.   Apparently, adults are as excited about pinewood derby as the kids are (probably more so).  The scout leaders are having an adult derby tomorrow night.  He’s been researching and planning this car, however after visiting the Porsche museum a few weeks ago in Germany, he wanted to make a ’69 Porsche 908 Le Mans replica.  The problem was his carving skills, however the laser makes everyone a master carver.  So, we designed the engine, cockpit, decal and vents on the laser.

 

He had the basic shape already carved out, so we added the finishing touches.  The laser engraves deeper on dark colors and doesn’t engrave at all on white.  When testing, I use the lowest power I can on the laser and use blue painters tape to cover the item.  I can run a test run and see where everything lines up, then turn up the power and engrave.  Leaving the tape on the wood protects it from charring. 

He took it home tonight to finish, but I’ll take pictures to post tomorrow.

Working

This months issue is very light with content.  I’m working away with articles for next month.  Things to look forward to for next month are, Corel Draw 101 – Part 2, Corel Draw 201 – Designing and Lasering Corner Joints, Building an Inexpensive Wooden CNC Router – Part 1, Antikythera Mechanism – Part 1, and Tools for Designing and Cutting Gears.  Also, I’m almost finished with my Castle Keep and Curtain Walls.  I’ll also be posting some art pieces using outlined fonts and welding in Corel Draw.

Welcome

I setup the blog yesterday and have been working on the website.  It’s an overwhelming task that consumes large blocks of time.  It’s not an easy thing to share dreams and creations and find time to do them at the same time.  I’ll try though. I’m limiting this blog to my creativity and DIY projects.  I’ll use another journal or blog to write about the rest of my life.  I admire people that have the energy and elegance to write quickly and gather their thoughts without having to reread what they wrote.  I aspire to do this, but I imagine this will take practice and time.

What you will find here is a magazine with articles each month on DIY projects.  I’m constantly learning new things from making cheese and beer to building kayaks and CNC machines.  There are many failures and some successes along the way.  Hopefully you will find this amusing, entertaining and educational.