MSRaynsford

With my Whitetooth currently down , it's a good time to fetch out some projects I've not written up and what better place to start. I would like to introduce you to the Vanilla Box laser cutter , it's a pretty big project I've been working on and it has been eluded to several times on this blog with new tube mounts and box designs . A whole team of people came together over Easter weekend to build the first working concept of a new laser cutter that Just Add Sharks would like to manufacture. The intention is to build a no compromise laser cutter with all the essential parts but none of the costly frills and we would love to hit the £1000 sweet spot. So if this is something that would interest you, why not sign up to our low volume mailing list to be kept ahead of the developments, or come and see it in person at the.  Maker Faire UK on the 23rd & 24th April at the Centre for Life in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne . This case is obviously laser cut from 3mm acry

In case you don't know about these things, a laser tube half filled with water is not a good sign. My laser tube cracked and all the water fell out of the water jacket and into the tube itself. I have to admit I'm not entirely sure how this happened. The tube had 18 months of heavy use so it had a good life. This obviously explains why it's been a slow news week round here.

This bowl was made with 8 overlapping fingers that spiral around each other. 4 fingers were attached to one spar to hold the basic shape together, the other 4 fingers were inserted into the gaps to create the overlaps and make the bowl shape. It needs a bit of work around the middle and I'm having camera issues so I can't show you what I mean, but needless to say I'll be back on top of it soon enough.

The previous bowl  had to be made up from two sets of concentric rings, this was to provide an overlap between odd and even layers. I was wondering if it was possible to make a bowl using one set of rings and came up with this design. By having a wobbly outer edge and rotating the next layer a little bit there were overlapping segments that could be glued together. ( svg here )