Last year our team made (well, I made, but the team hosted the decorating party) slot-together Christmas trees for our internal clients.
We wanted to see if there was something else to make them in 2015, so we brainstormed over email. Someone presented a sketch of a Christmas ornament shaped item, and knowing I can whip out this sort of thing I went ahead and made the prototype. Plus, I hadn’t actually cut anything from this particular shade of red 1/8″ acrylic, so it was a good test.
In the end we didn’t do anything because of heavy workload in December, but that’s how it goes sometimes.
Oh, and I hope the Brand folks at work don’t see sad Inky made from the scrap cutouts. It is definitely not on-brand!
Cut out and waiting assembly.
Do not leave the extra pieces with a designer late at night.
My daughter had asked about making a plane at “your workshop” (aka Nova Labs) and I thought I’d test one method before I brought her along.
This Boeing 747 model started from a vector 3-view drawing I found online. I cleaned it up in Illustrator and prepared cutouts for 5mm wood.
Cut on the laser cutter at Nova Labs.
Definitely less than an hour start to finish.
I think the next try will be to make something a little more 3d by layering pieces of material (I can then get the relative position of the wings and horizontal stabilizer in the right place).
Remixed 747 from a reader
In November of 2020, I got an email from Chris asking if I had the file for this, as he wanted to turn into into Christmas tree ornaments for people at his company in the aviation industry. I sent it over to him.
He ended up remixing it a bit and making the following for his team (logos blurred at his request).
Remixed 747 model, turned into Christmas ornament gifts for Chris’s company.
We recently built a playground in the backyard (expect a separate post with some time-lapse photography we took during the process), but we had to make one modification to the plans; One of two slides was omitted since it would have required us to extend the new retaining wall further than we really wanted to deal with, and it was already plenty of work…
Fast forward to the ‘finished’ playground, and we had a big hole where the slide should have attached. Not good considering the platform height was 5′ and the kids are still little.
We discussed several options for covering the opening, but most were just too boring sounding. I had my mind set on laser engraving a clear acrylic ‘window’ and mounting it in some sort of frame. Eventually my wife said something about space (I’m not even sure what exactly anymore), but I was soon looking at Wikipedia for information on the Voyager spacecrafts, launched in 1977, and their Gold Records.
I’m glad I found the tongue and groove cedar planks at Loews as it made it really easy to mount the acrylic panel. Hopefully the rest of the photos and captions speak for themselves.
Tongue and groove cedar boards were ripped to the width I wanted, using the existing groove for the acrylic panel. I also used the router for the first time to clean up the edges!
This project was the first time I had used a router to put a rounded edge on the boards, and it was also the first time I used a biscuit joiner!
Notches were cut in the vertical parts to accept the cross pieces.
Test fitting the 4 pieces together after notching the verticals.
We had this at work from several projects I have helped worked on, and it matched the trim on the playground door pretty well.
A slightly wider “scan gap” than I I typically engrave with was used to speed up the engrave time. It was still close to 40 minutes…
Overview showing the engraved acrylic panel before cleaning it up.
Engraving after cleaning up the acrylic and removing its protective film.
Clamping the frame together overnight after gluing the biscuits together.
The tall-dad view from outside the playground.
The kid view from inside the playground.
The dark walnut matched the existing trim very well, and did not look all that out-of-place when installed.
Overall, an interesting and nerdy addition to the playground, and hopefully one that the kids will appreciate someday (my initial explanation of ‘there is a copy of this on the FURTHEST HUMAN THING FROM EARTH’ was met with puzzled looks).
Lastly, here’s a quick video showing the start of the engraving process on Nova Labs’ laser cutter:
Every kid needs a sign on his or her door, and while they are little, might as well make it cute (since there will be “Parents, Stay Out!” signs soon enough).
These are actually the second round of room signs – at our old place, and with one kid, we made a similar sign with the same decals. But now with two kids, I decided to make two brand new copies…
A scan of the dragon fly wallpaper decals was traced in Illustrator and each shape was incorporated into the background. Text was added, naturally. Check out a PDF of the file here: Room_signs
Cutting was performed on the laser cutter at Nova Labs, out of 1/8″ hard board.
I primed the pieces with white spray paint, and mom did the painting (including glitter spray paint) with some “help.” 🙂
Scan of the dragonfly wallpaper decals, later used to trace the shape and incorporate into the sign.
Word clock = expensive. Micro word clock = attainable.
Finished clock with letters printed on transparency film, mounted with double-stick tape, and in an acrylic case.
Back at the end of November, 2014, I saw a post on Hackaday about a word clock. However, not just any word clock, but a Micro Word Clock utilizing an 8×8 LED matrix that was 20mm square (~0.8″)! Despite the low utility of such a tiny clock, it seemed like a fun project to learn SMT soldering, and it was cheap enough given the low parts count. Also, the designer of the clock, Daniel Rojas, had good documentation and made everything available online, even putting the boards on OSH Park for super-easy ordering. I got to work buying components…
The parts
7 of the 8 components.
The video Daniel created showing off the project indicated just 8 components – I added a USB cable for power. I also created a laser-cut case.
You may have heard about a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign for a card game call Exploding Kittens. The designers are running a contest to get a pre-release copy of the game as long as you promise to playtest it in a public place, and give them feedback. They are calling it the #KittenConsul.
Vote for #KittenConsul by clicking “Like” on YouTube!
From now until March 24, please watch the video above and click LIKE (view it on YouTube to do so).
With your help we’ll get a copy and can play at the Nova Labs’ game night on Friday, April 17. All of those details can be found at www.meetup.com/NOVA-makers
As I mentioned in my last post, the second project of Composites 101 at Nova Labs was a group-build of a wine bottle holder. I didn’t really snap any photos of the build, but go past the jump for the general outline:
Back in October I attended a Composites 101 class at Nova Labs. Taught by NL member Bo (an aerospace engineer), the start of class was a short lecture about composites in general, including a show and tell of various bits and pieces he’s collected over the years (a piece of a prototype tail-rotor shaft for a large helicopter was particularly cool).
The second and third parts of class were hands-on where we got to practice working with carbon fiber sheet and epoxy resin. Everyone in class got to make a carbon fiber money clip, and then the class built a wine bottle holder where we utilized honeycomb in addition to many more sheets of carbon. That project also gave us a chance to prepare for vacuum bagging a part.
So, how did we make the money clip?
Prior to class, Bo cut several parts from lite plywood and pink foam insulation on the laser cutter. Everyone got a set of these and some nuts and bolts to hold it all together.
Stack the parts up and fasten them with the hardware.
Prepare the two sheets of carbon fiber, mainly by securing the edge with masking tape, and trimming it down to be just wide enough to hold the edges together.
A sheet of acetate (very smooth, thin, plastic sheet) is put on the table, and the mixed resin is spread in a thin layer on the acetate.
The first sheet of carbon fiber is laid onto the resin, and then more resin is added on top of it fully wetting out the carbon fiber.
Add the second sheet on top of the first, and add more resin to wet it out.
Lay the second sheet of acetate on top of your resin-infused carbon, making a goopy sandwich.
From here, we bent the whole thing into the jig, and clamped the assembly together to allow it to cure.
Due to the time constraints of the class, we didn’t get to finish the parts that day. Bo came in a few days later and cut them down on a bandsaw, and sanded the edges.
While the surface finish of mine wasn’t perfect (I had several little bubbles) I think it came out pretty well for a first attempt.
Lite plywood and pink insulation pieces before assembly.
The assembled jig for the money clip.
Jig and two sheets of carbon fiber, with masking tape holding the edges together.
Two layers of carbon fiber sandwiched between sheets of acetate, with plenty of resin.
The “macaroni” of acetate and carbon fiber inside the clamped-together jig.
We have a set of IKEA drawers in our basement with all of our wrapping paper and gift bag type stuff. On the wall above it was a pegboard that we have have hung all of the scissors, tape, etc.
My wife used hooks to hold dowels for rolls of ribbon, but they didn’t extend far enough from the pegboard (given the diameter of the rolls at least) so the hooks would often fall down when you pulled on the ribbon.
I whipped up these dowel holders in Illustrator to securely hold two 3/8″ dowels far enough from the pegboard to accommodate the ribbon.
Small tabbed feet keep the holder from falling over, and small holes were included to thread zip-ties through to attach it to the wall.
They were cut from scrap lite plywood at NovaLabs on their 100w laser cutter.
Overall, it is working great! Check out a vectored PDF here: Ribbon holder.
This past spring we bought new wall sconces to install on the exterior of our house. Unfortunately, the one in the back didn’t sit flush against the wood siding, due in part to the mounting tabs on the electrical box in the wall.
I wanted a spacer that would put the light a little further from the mounting plate, and have a cutout for part of the electrical box that was outside of the edge of the light. I also wanted to ensure it would stay in place.
The diameter of the plate that attached to the wall was measured, along with the inside height and width of the light. Additionally, I measured the outside width and height of the light and added a little buffer – this would form the shelf that the light would actually sit on.
A small notch was left in the bottom so that any moisture that might get behind everything could drain. Another notch was left in the top to accommodate the bracket already on the wall.
After cutting everything on the laser cutter, it was assembled with some Gorilla Glue, and then painted.
Everything fit as planned, and the large gap in the top was sealed with outdoor caulk.
Pieces on the laser cutter at Nova Labs (2 second layers were made in case I really needed it to set it away from the wall).
Cut components ready for assembly.
Spacer ready for glue.
Gorilla Glue was used since it is waterproof.
Spacer fit onto the light.
On the wall and ready to go.
Light attached and before caulking.
The top edge showing the bracket that was preventing the light from sitting flush against the wall.
Caulk applied sealing the top edge and sides (before cleaning it up a bit).
