MSRaynsford

I also wanted to make Phil a special card for his birthday. This spider man design came out really well. I was going to use a second colour behind the black but that seemed to make the image stand out too much, I much prefer the subtle play of light with the black on black. Funny how the left of the face seems almost grey against the background ( reminds me of this illusion ). ( svg here ) 244/264

It's a friends 30th birthday today and he's a big fan of spiderman. His wife wanted to make some spider man themed cakes and asked for some help (This is where the previous web came from). To simplify putting a web pattern into the top of his cupcakes she asked if I could make and cut the appropriate shape. Made from 3mm plastic, I etched 1.5mm away leaving a nice raised area that could be used to stamp cobwebs into the cakes. Not recommended for dishwashers or consistent use it's definitely been good for this one off. ( svg here ) 243/264

It's a box 80mm x 60mm x 20mm. Each of these boxes is slightly different internally, they all work but tabs changed sizes dotted lines moved this box was important to get right. It's a top secret project but bear with me because it will be posted eventually. 242/263 

I felt the rocket would probably look better with a tapered bottom so I re jigged the files. It's probably a bit ambitious for Saturday (I honestly don't know if we can get 1 made in 2 hours) but if anyone else has the time then they might prefer this version. ( svg here ) 241/262

There was discussion amongst Nottinghack today about mugs not drying correctly and needing some wire rack to put them on. Sounded like a laser cutter shaped nail to me so I drew up some plans and test cut them this evening. In theory the space can now have as many drying racks as it wants :P ( svg here ) 240/262 

Nottinghack is holding the worlds first Maker Playgroup  this Saturday. The idea is for hackers to take their children along to the space for a bit of a social, finger painting and playing with cardboard. I've seen cardboard rockets online before but now we get the chance to make one. This is a scale model so we can easily figure out roof angles etc on the day. ( svg here ) 239/262

I was designing some cards for birthdays and things and I came up with this, bit early for Halloween but it's cool so I thought I'd post it now ( svg here ) 238/261

I had a quick revamp of the laser cut useless box. I'm running a workshop at Nottingham Hackspace on the 24th of July where I'll be showing people how to assemble kits for these. Feel free to come and join us. http://uselessworkshop.eventbrite.co.uk/ This kit can be purchased through my shop  here 237/261

I saw a similar line illusion online somewhere and thought it was quite cool so converted it to put Eli's name into the image ( svg here ) 236/261

And a similar round up of the labyrinth files that I should have posted much sooner ( svg here )

I've now done all the images for the first part of the Joinery Article. I rounded up the patterns and put them into one file for you ( svg here )

Laser cutting items generates quite a lot of smoke. There is a great big fan on the back of the laser to suck this out of the casing but it's not the most effective thing in the world. Now that I'm in the garage with the door closed I'm noticing it more too.  There are no obvious entry points for air to get into the machine so my idea is to lift the lid slightly (not too high because of the magnetic safety lock) and then pump some air in from the front. I'm hoping this will create airflow across the work piece and straight out the back. So I started with these lid stand off's they lift the lid just a little and allow easy air entry. 235/259

This latch has the same locking effect but it is much harder to release. So we're halfway through the article now. I'll put this one to bed for a week or so before progressing with the other half. I'll have a quick round up post tomorrow and release the files to go alongside these cuts. (I expect I'll have a big session updating all the files for previous posts so if you want anything in particular now is the time to ask) 234/259

Locks can also be added to this type of joint. This one has the locks in the static section of the joint. (not very clear I know) 233/258

This rotating joint has a bias to ensure that is assembled correctly. 232/258 

With the two seperate cord stops the cord was still left dangling on the bench which was against the whole point of cutting the cord. So I made this double ended one that forms the cord back into a loop again.  231/258