MSRaynsford

I wasn't really spending time creating an droid from a nearly 40 year old movie. I was tasked to make a moving head for BB8, I just realised I could make the same model applicable to both droids. The second servo controls the nod motion for the head. It is programmed to have several different movement pattern. Again the sphere body is just for representation and will ultimately be replaced by cake.

Rushing to be in time with the release of the star wars film I'm been drafted in to make some moving frames for droids. The cage for the body is a bit of a place holder as it's ultimately going to be made in cake. The head simply sits on top of the cake and is entirely self contained. An arduino nano drives a 9g servo to provide pan motion of the head. A 12cm plastic dome finishes of the top and is ready to be iced.

At the start of the summer I bought one of the uber cheap laser engravers from China. We wondered if it was worth stocking them on Sharks (it isn't). The acrylic plastic feet on the ends of the machine were cracked upon receipt, the screws were done up too tight. Now I started fiddling with it 2 of these feet just fell off, it was a simple matter to cut myself some new ones and I made them out of 6mm Birch so they're tough as old boots.

Here is the first place trophy for the war gaming competition. The trophies were all handed out yesterday which means I can show this today. I outsold myself, stretched the budget and spent a lot of time making a trophy as good as I could. The wings are made from wood veneers and are a remake of a previous item . The laurel wreath was redone with each leaf as a separate piece of 0.8mm ply. The wooden spoon was bought from the shop. The rounded base is a variation on my useless machine  and the plaque made from silver/black engraving laminate. The ribbon across the middle is two layers and engraved onto 1.5mm walnut.  

I finally released my Carcassonne tile set. It's gone out onto Thingiverse so I can see just how many people download it. Currently the images don't appear to be loading over there but I can't tell if that's just me.  http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1193400

This is a post about nothing. I meant to write it a while ago but I got distracted making lots of awesome things and posting about those. I used to write about my laser cutter all the time because there was always some way in which it was failing or needing improvement and I don't do that any more. The simple fact is that I don't have anything to write about. I've had my Whitetooth laser cutter for about 18 months now . We started our own laser cutter company, so using our own machines day in day out and posting all the awesome things seems like a no brainer. In those 18 months I haven't had a single problem with my machine,  The extractor fan draws all the dust and particles out of the laser so the machine stays pretty clean, the smoke actually goes out the back which was a shock having seen other lasers.  The fine pitched mirror screws and locking nuts make alignment very simple (no more allen keys for adjustments) and the machine actually stays align...

In the latest of weird cake things I've been making this one is a washing line. The washing line moves left and right carrying the clothes that are hung from it. It's mostly hand built rather than laser but but there is a very basic box over the electronics. The big challenge is that the 2 outfits hanging from the line could weigh up to 2Kg each. It's a massive strain across that span so I'm really hoping it holds out. The rope winds up on one drum as it winds out of the other one leaving the total amount of string on the line roughly the same. As usual more images of these things when they get covered in cake.