MSRaynsford

Way back last year I was asked to make a broken stone tablet for an Empire  player event. The event happened this weekend so now I'm free to show the prop here. It's made from chunky 6mm mdf, the tablet was painted base grey and masked off with paper tape to reduce the burn marks from engraving. The letters are engraved and outlined to make them stand out against the grey. Finally the slab was marbled using different shades of white and grey colour. As a prop to be passed around at an event the reverse was also coloured and marbled to the same effect.

I haven't seen any other double sided edge lit signs before and it's probably with good reason but I think this one came out well enough considering. ' Eldritch ' wanted an edge lit sign for an exhibition, arrows on both sides so that it can be pointed towards the stall from either side. Sounds simple enough, their logo is white lettering on black background so the idea was at least workable. I sprayed some clear acrylic sheet black and etched the logo through the paint to make it stand out. The colour contrast is good but you can kind of see the opposite logo on the other side and the arrows didn't quite line up which is always a disappointment. I used a paint can on the sheet for ease and after reading the instructions I used some fine sand paper to key the smooth surfaces of the sheet. The trouble is that this 'frosting' of the sheet absorbs light from the strip and prevents it from reaching the lettering. There is far less internal reflectio...

The race track for maker central  was built to race wind powered strandbeest against wifi controlled strandbeest , the trouble with the wind powered version is finding the wind indoors. This means letting people blow spittle all over everything, providing some kind of wafting device which usually ends up as a whacking device or an electric fan. I bought a few cheap hair dryers but they barely shifted any volume and couldn't make the blades spin. I've used these squirrel cage blowers before for other projects and know they can really shift some air. The fan runs off a simple 12V power supply which is passed through a microswitch in the handle. The lever for the switch bent into a button shape to form a trigger, that way the fan is only on when it is required and pointing in the right direction.

Maker Central happened in May last year, I used to enjoy travelling to all the maker faires and creating new and interesting projects for each of them. I did the same for Maker Central but for some reason never blogged about it. I'm clearing out my photo backlog so here's a few things from May. Because I was selling my remote controlled strandbeest kits I thought it would be a good idea to have a racetrack where people could try to blow the sail powered kits faster than the motor powered kits. Hacky Racers were also exhibiting at the event so I thought it would be fun to but a 'slacky racers' theme on it for people who didn't go to the effort of making a full sized vehicle. I expect this may make another appearance at future events, it's easy enough to rebrand due to the sticky labels and sellotape used around the edge.

It's Panto season and like previous panto seasons it wouldn't feel right without at least one crazy rushed cake contraption. This year the Theatre Royal  are putting on Cinderella so Dawn  decided to make a fancy carriage cake for them. Once I have designed a frame strong enough to hold a massive chunk of cake it only felt right to fit bearings into the wheels and have the cake able to roll along the table. It looks like the cake might have been trying to roll away in this shot. Cake and Public

We're a family of runners (which will always feel a bit weird to say). I've run 3 marathons, 50+ half marathons, 2 triathlons and a half iron man so far, 1000 miles last year but I still feel like a desk based geek. Recently the kids, Hazel 6 and Eli 9, stormed through the NHS couch to 5km program and are technically runners too. So now we have 4 sets of headphones dumped in a bowl in the hallway, whenever I want to get my headphones out I end up spending ages untangling them from the mess. I own a laser cutter so this should not be the case. Four simple hooks, made from 6mm Poplar ply, it took 2 minutes to draw and a minute to cut. The whole thing is glued to the cabinet that was already above the pot. These items are some of my absolute favourites from all of my laser cuttings. Simple designs that make daily life so much nicer, I honestly don't know why it took me 3 months to think of this.

I had a little run on parts for Eldritch, I've done these foam saw blades before but this time I was just squeezing as many parts into the sheet as possible. Where I was unable to cut full disks I cut some half disk instead to really optimise the foam usage. Simon turns them into great, futuristic/post apocalyptic LRP weapons.

Another custom Vale treasure chest . I like to make them all slightly different because it's still not a massive game and these boxes are likely to be in similar places at similar times. If they were identical it would be really obvious. This one has internal storage trays, utilising some of the space above the smaller resources. The trays secure into place with little dimples to stop them from sliding around on the shelf. There is the usual hidden compartment under the shorter trays too. This is the smallest box so far and has the most space so I'm quite pleased with it. The lid is cut from two sheets of 3mm poplar, the dragon pieces were removed and painted before being reinserted onto the top layer. There are fine dragon details carved into the black areas using a low power cut, it's hard to see in the pictures but they're definitely noticeable on the lid.

As part of the revamp of the vale machine, I was asked to make several new panels. I had an idea for a very large hatch that could be used to send big things in and out of the machine. I wanted it to have a sturdy metal feel so I decorated it up in metallic paints with rust effects. The whole hatch is hinged so it lifts up and allows things (or people) access to the inside of the machine. When/if this gets used it'll be fun to see what happens, for now it's bolted shut with a few hex bolts so it's not immediately easy to open.

I needed a lecturn to hold a book while I read from it. It would be nice to be able to take it into the field for EMF and Vale and other places I might use it so I came up with this simple folding frame design. The book board flips over all the way to the back and nestles amongst the legs so that the whole thing is almost flat. The hinges and book stop were laser cut and glued into place on the board before assembly. The whole thing worked well at Vale recently but I was a bit rough with it and snapped one of the cross bracers (6mm Poplar) so I shall be replacing that with 6mm birch before it's next outing.

I was commissioned to make another Vale Box  for a different group, it's nice to make them all subtly different so I made this one with an oak wood stain and changed the lid configuration again. The mana/coin tray sits on top of the box and locates into place, the lid is a cover which clips down over it. The lid and tray can be removed together or singularly to allow access to the usual array of resource holders underneath. Small feet underneath, built from the side walls, lift the box slightly off the floor and add strength to the base.

Ninja Warrior Button tied to wifi controller Over the last few weeks I've been playing around at Ape Index Leicester , it's like a ninja warrior training gym with a climbing wall. I'm mostly playing but I've certainly been getting fitter because of it, I was talking to the owner who discussed a big red button project like they have at the end of the ninja warrior course. Wiring one up is tricky because the place is so big so it sounded like a perfect match for some of my ESP8266 work . It's a simple browser based stopwatch app written with javascript, this is served up from the ESP8266 as an access point. A websocket is opened to transfer data too and from the browser without refreshing the page. When you press start on the screen the light on the button becomes illuminated, when you push the big red button the timer stops counting, so you can start the system from one end of the course and see what time they get at the other end. This is very much a fu...

I did say that this Oversized Chess Piece  was the start of something bigger and here it is. There are a few tweaks and changes such as the arrow points on the base to show the forward direction and these are about 20% bigger again. What good is an incomplete chess set I hear you ask? This one has been made specifically for one of the puzzles at Escape Asylum . We recently went to visit and completed Riiitual , escaping with time to spare. We've done a few different escape rooms and I think I liked this one the best, it was definitely challenging, the puzzles fit the theme of the room well.  The only thing that let it down slightly was a plastic chess set with some manhandled broken pieces. Being a local nerd with a laser cutter I thought it only fitting to offer some decent wooden replacements that can take the punishment. Once I got started there were quite a few things that could be upgraded so I've now made a few new props for them which I will never be allowed to...

I made this bishop as a sample piece, hopefully this is the start of something bigger and I don't just mean an oversized chess set. It's made from 6mm birch so it's nice and sturdy and it was finished with a lasercut disk of felt on the bottom. I can't decide if I should do the other pieces with black paint or brown wood stain but I'll probably try both.

6mm ABS inner core of shields This project turned out to be quite the collaboration between makers. I was asked by Eldritch to cut some thick ABS plastic that was going to go inside a pair of ballistic shields. There is a growing crossover between LARP  and Airsoft  and new rules being developed to cope with both. These shields don't have to follow the normal, foam rules, and actually need to be stiffer and stronger to withstand all the incoming ball bearings. The possibilities of windows in shields now becomes an option so I cut some 6mm perspex for windows and wooden surrounds to hold them all into place on the shield. The shields then went on to Eldritch who covered them in a layer of foam, bolted all the parts together and generally turned them into functional shields. Shields at the Eldritch workshop These shields look great however nice shiny shields don't really fit into the post apocalyptic style game they were destined for, that's when the owners too...