MSRaynsford

Ape Index  wanted some more quick and easy stencils which I'm happy to do, especially if the material is cheap. As these are only going to be used two or three times it doesn't make sense to do them in mylar so I recycled some of the cardboard boxes that my Kitronik orders came in to flat sheets perfect for this use. Free is a perfect price for a job like this, my only trouble will now be carrying large flat sheets into town as part of my daily exercise :)

The second set of stencils I cut for Ape index  were based on their logo. The design has a few islands though, parts that are not connected to the stencil, which made it trickier to cut. The solution in this case was to create a bridge piece that held all the islands in the correct place. The bridge was a little bit too flexible when made from thin card but could easily have been strengthened by folding the top over 90 degrees.

I was asked to make some quick stencils for Ape Index , given their limited use and number of variations simple card seemed to be the way forward. I ended up doing 16 different designs in the end (from supplied artwork) and I really did manage to do them quickly, I took them up to the unit the same day because I knew they had the 'clash of the titans' on at the weekend. I'm pleased I bagged the cut outs too because they also got used in the artwork creation process.

Simple helmet design covered in scales Homework last week was to build a helmet for the school battle reenactment. We joined a few strips front to back, left to right and around the circumference, filled in the quarters and then covered it all in cardboard scales. We cut a whole sheet of scales on the laser and painted them metallic silver, leaving them all connected at the top made them easy to apply to the helmet. Sheet of laser cut scales Handy head model

I believe these stencils were used to airbrush the logo on cub scout blankets. Given that there are lots of cubs and these stencils wouldn't be needed for more than a weekend it made sense to knock up a dozen from thin card instead of mylar.

This will give you some idea how far behind I am at blogging, World Book Day 2017 was on the 2nd March. Eli wanted to go to school as Rincewind  the wizzard because we'd just finished reading ' The colour of magic '. I modified some robes, painted them with occult symbols, scratch built a pointy hat from a scrap of red fabric and threw together the luggage as an accessory. There wasn't much laser cutting involved really but being able to throw out dozens of little feet in just a few minutes really helped this build come together. The rest of the box is just a normal cardboard box with the flaps bent over to make a curved lid.

While making samples for the vanillabox I was keen to experiment with new/cheap materials. I modelled this vase in 3D and sliced it with 123D make (which now appears to have gone), I cut each layer in corrugated card. I actually started life as a lampshade but it didn't let enough light through so when it was flipped upside down I realised it would make a nice vase. The petals for the flowers were all cut from crepe paper using a very low power so as to minimise the burning around the edges. The petals were wrapped with floral tape and wire to create the flower shapes. At the maker faire we had to label the item because people didn't realise the flowers were laser cut.

Eli and I spent the week slowly making a death star model. It's largely paper mache and paint but we did laser cut some cardboard baffles to go inside the middle of the sphere. We even wrote an Instructable about it.

There are a couple of laser sliced cardboard skulls online but none that seem to be sharing the files so I decided to make my own for the Kitronik teacher evening . I found a 3D model of a skull in the Autodesk library and used 123D make to slice it in the desired direction. The result was slightly lopsided because the software slices from left to right rather than the middle outwards so I took the first 14 layers and mirrored them to make sure my skull was truly symmetrical. The whole thing was cut from corrugated cardboard 5mm thick ( svg here )

Halloween feels like a long time ago, but I did make Eli a costume for the night. I copied the rocket man costume that's been floating round the internet. The rocket pack was made from 2 coke bottles and the turbines on the top were laser cut and painted. The fabric for the flames was all laser cut into flame shapes and then sewn onto a spare pair of trousers. For further house decoration I laser cut some eyes into cardboard and rolled them into tube shapes. A glow stick inserted into the middle of the roll illuminated the eyes and I placed them in the hedge row. Finally I programmed a string of neopixels to give a few flashing effects and that really brought the clown face to life.

It's nearly Halloween and I had an afternoon of building fun with the kids trying to make a new decoration. This scary clown will be mounted over our doorway on Monday night ready to greet the trick or treaters. It took about 2 hours all done, 45 minutes drawing, 15 mins cutting and an hour painting and assembly. The face was drawn and split into several different layers which made it easy to give the kids one part and one colour of paint plus adds to the 3D effect. It's just corrugated card and poster paint which makes it cheap and we'll hope for a dry night. ( svg here )

I have a lot of corrugated card floating around from my materials orders and I needed a large shark model for the basis of a new project so I quickly scaled up the small shark model  and  cut myself a new one over 1m long (there is a join around the fin). It quickly enabled me to check that the scale is right and I can carry on building.  The blue foam is a different project again and came rolled up so this is the easiest way to get is flat for cutting again.