MSRaynsford

My 12 months are over. I failed to complete 12 very large projects which was entirely predictable from September onwards. It turns out having over 100 customers relying on you for laser installs and support really eats into your time. It's great that Just Add Sharks is so busy I just have to reconsider what I can actually achieve in my spare time now. Here is a round up of the 9 big projects from last year. Tomorrow I'll do the honourable mentions because I have at least a dozen large projects that didn't quite qualify for a monthly place (I'm still not sure what metric I was using to gauge that) Project #1: A 3D printer : assembled from a kit it wasn't the most complex build in the world but it did take a lot of time to get running correctly. Shortly afterwards the hot end died and no more was heard from it. It's still waiting to be fixed and it's gathering dust in the garage. Project #2: Open Source Laser Cutter : I made one of our Blackn...

My arcade cabinet is nearly done, it's just waiting for the screen and bezel which involves me buying super skinny perspex (1mm and 2mm due to a mistake in the drawing).  It's made from 6mm Poplar ply, skinned with 3mm Poplar to hide the finger joints . The back door and the monitor cross brace are both made from 9mm poplar to give them a bit more strength.  While I had the laser cutter cutting all the panels I used the opportunity to cut pilot holes for all the hinges and brackets and I also embedded the speaker grill between the layers so it doesn't have to have visible screws on the front. The player panel and the banner are made from fluorescent blue perspex. The pattern was reversed and engraved on the back. The side panels were stained dark brown to make them look a bit more like real wood. The central panels were all wrapped with vinyl that has a carbon fibre pattern, the vinyl goes under the perspex which really makes the details stand out. Next thin...

I'm falling behind with projects, possibly due to having 3 maker faires and 1 LRP event in a 5 week period meaning my August disappeared. This was a spur of the moment project for Brighton Mini Maker Faire at the weekend just gone. It went well though and the kids really loved it so it's now undergoing a complete redesign to make it stronger and sturdier, which I'll need in time for my Cambridge Hackspace workshop next weekend. I've taken my mini catapults to maker faires for quite some time now but they tend to get overlooked especially when we tell kids not to fire ball bearings at us. This time round I thought it would be cool if we had something they could actually shoot at, we could then cut mini catapults on the laser and hopefully sell a few more of both. I built a small range on a slope with 10 targets to shoot at, the idea being that the balls would roll back to the kids and a small motorised mechanism would stand the targets back up again. Testing and c...

I hadn't intended to do another coffee table for some time but we had Lego spread all over the coffee table and I was getting bored of rummaging around the bottom of deep storage boxes so I decided we needed some real Lego storage and lots of shallow trays to make it easier to find the parts. There was also a convenient gap under my Escher coffee table  so I figured I would base it around another Lack coffee table. If you're interested in making your own version of this table I've now attached the cut file. ( svg here ) The table consist of six trays that slide neatly between the legs of the Lack. The top four trays have six sections, the fifth tray has four sections for slightly larger parts like long beams and the bottom tray is twice as deep with four sections so that assembled models can be stored. Each tray is lasercut from 3mm mdf and faced with 6mm poplar plywood. The rack is made from 6mm mdf which has proven to be strong enough to be leaned on by small c...

May seemed to pass by so quickly, it's not as though I forgot to do a monthly project I just ended up leaving it quite late and I'm playing catch up with the documenting of it. For a long time people have been admiring this landscape  at maker faires and I've been promising to make one coffee table sized. This time round I decided to pixellate the contours and turn it into a minecraft  themed environment. There will be more to follow in the next few days but for now here is the half sized, non plastic prototype.

One of my 12 projects this year was/is going to be a retro gaming cabinet. While I was at the UK Maker Faire  I met Simon and I saw his awesome Clarkcade cabinets  and in particular 'the fighter'  which is exactly what I envisaged for my cabinet. These machines are top notch quality have all the right features and finishing touches, so I was keen to get some hints and tips. After a short discussion it turned out that Simon was keen to try getting a some parts laser cut which was very convenient, now just two weeks later I've cut my first cabinet for him and there will hopefully be many more on the horizon as we try to figure out the best way to laser these machines (such as yesterdays hidden joints ). My cabinet will still be put off till slightly later in the year but what a head start I'll have when I finally get round to it.

I thought I would close out this month with another new product and finishing one of my monthly projects. This is the 3rd and final kit that I was calling Project #5: a complete revamp of my useless machines. This kit is a smart useless machine, there is an arduino inside the box which allows you to program in different behaviours based upon how many times you flick the switch (or anything else you can dream of). Currently the box gets miffed if you turn it on too many times. Full sample code is provided and being based around an arduino there are dozens of amazing libraries already written for all sorts of functions. There is a small power circuit which allows the arduino to turn it's own power on and off, the only power consumed in the off state is the leakage current of the transistor. In testing the circuit ran for a whole week (2-3 tests a day). Here are just a few ideas of things you could add: Add some character to your box, with a real time clock chip...

With the new box design I was able to revisit the double useless machine , this was always a bit temperamental and so was taken out of the shop. This version solves all of the previous issues, it uses the same geared motors and the same brackets as the single machine rather than modified servos (which were the cause of previous issues). The box is the same glueless design so it's really fast to put together and although I haven't been able to squeeze a PCB into here yet but the electronics have been improved. The little switch on the side turns the machine of once both arms are back inside the box. The kit is available from my website as usual

My useless machine design has had a complete overhaul and this is now my best product to date. The new design features a PCB for the electronics which makes it quick and easy to solder, The box is a completely glueless construction and clips together in just 2 minutes, there are just 3 screws holding the components together. Back EMF braking stops the motor dead so the machine doesn't just use the limit switch as a mechanical end stop (unlike other designs) The new kits are available from my web store in 3 different flavours , "Soldering Required", "No Soldering" and "Assembled". There are also 2 more variations due out before the end of the week. This new design has some clever features. The lid hinge is now made up using the sides of the box, the flap rests on top of the sides which prevents it from falling back into the box. The motor mount is a single piece which stretches between the top and the bottom of the box. The PCB can accommo...

The Blacknose laser cutter has now been stripped down and deconstructed, all of the essential parts have been moved across to the new base plate and everything has been reconnected. This machine is now functional. It's mostly a good indicator to show that nothing was damaged in the transfer, it's still wired in using the Leetro controller but as we already know that's easily switchable .  The next phase is to shorten all the wires and find new places to mount all the separate parts of the machine so that they all fit back into the cover. The E-Stop is now conveniently located just on the floor down there, just in case of really bad emergencies.

Another productive evening on the open source laser and I managed to transfer all of the hardware from the Blacknose base to the new Blacknose plate. This is an exercise in drilling and tapping holes (putting screw threads in them). The XY gantry is across, the mirrors and the tube mount. Tonight I hope to move the existing electronics, I doubt I'll find time to turn it on as well but it's all good progress.