MSRaynsford

I was at a point of zero stock for my useless machines with half a dozen back orders. It seemed to be the perfect time to upgrade the internals (A few of these had gone out before on workshops and other restricted events). This design uses marginally less wood but it also allows me to fit in a PCB under the switch. The PCB is a bit redundant when the circuit is so simple but it really does help when you're trying to get 10 kids finished in 2 hours (I've not succeeded yet). This kit can be purchased through my shop  here

These tessellating ghosts appear to have been designed by Mike Maloney . I redrew and recreated them as a series of interlocking tiles by third party request.

I'm stuck making stock for the Derby Maker Faire next week but I'd much rather be designing and making new and shiny things. We attended a local craft faire at the weekend and I saw this beautiful image on a greeting card drawn by Sam Lauren Smith . Most of her new 'inky' work would be ideal for translation to the laser cutter. This could have done with being a bit darker but I'll have time to correct it in the future, in the meantime I just wanted to share this because there's been a lack of making new things recently.  

I've been on holiday :) It was nice to get a week away. Before I left I'd managed to get the new cabinet built but as the laser is so heavy I couldn't move it on my own. I conned some friends into moving it at the weekend. It's not perfect because the chiller doesn't fit in the space but it can remain next to the frame like it did before, the extra storage holds full sheets of material and is great for purpose, a definite improvement on the old frame and the laser doesn't wobbly alarmingly during operation. I've also been making a few other improvements. The led lights in the lid were held in with hot glue, eventually that lost it's hold and they were gaffa taped down, that gave eventually too. I finally got round to cutting some plastic mounts that hold the lights down and fix into the screws on the lid. I also flipped the front led's into the lid so they point down with the lid is open and negate some of the blinding effects and I was abl...

As mentioned I cleared down and removed the standing bench from the garage and I replaced it with benches and shelves that match the other side. It's made a vast improvement already, the space feels much more open and it can still house the same amount of stuff just in different locations. I took the opportunity to move more things to the shed and I have boxes of stuff that need sorting out but I'm getting there. In other news I have acquired so new toys to go in the garage. A modela MDX-15 mini milling machine and a Roland CX-12 Vinyl Cutter. They seem to be functional but I need to figure out drivers and software for them before I can get them working properly. Looks like I'll be branching into more non laser thingies in the future.

Because of the rush to get project 52 finished the garage ended up being a very large dumping ground. The overflow ran into the utility room and onto the kitchen benches. I was literally stepping round things to get in and out of the garage so things had to change. My improvised standing height bench was largely full of junk and never got used, the crates underneath it were all full but most of them never moved so I've set about the task of sorting it all out.  The grand plan is to remove the standing bench and replace it with a bench that matches the other side, this should make the place feel more open while I'm sat down. Matching shelves will provide additional storage. While I'm making improvements there were a dozen little things about the laser that need to be improved too. The metal base that it stands on feels quite flimsy, it rocks alarmingly during some cutting operations. I've built a new solid base to go under it, it has room for the chiller . The ...

It's that time of year again so we made pumpkins, Eli was actually the one to decide that the useless store bought tools should be stabbed into the side of the pumpkin so that's where they now live, the rest were made with my ever faithful scroll saw blade onna stick and scalpel. If you delve back far enough into the archives you'll see pumpkins were on of the first things I ever posted, long before I even bought a laser cutter.