Projects

Better base for Stomp Rocket

Andrew

Stomp Rocket with a beefy launch towerStomp Rockets for Christmas!

And the Stomp Rockets have lights to boot! Pretty awesome if it weren’t so cold outside…

One problem with the set is that the base is pretty flimsy. It would move all over the place as they used it, and it was hard to keep the rocket pointed more-or-less straight up.

Having no there really pressing projects to work on, I whipped up an Apollo era looking launch tower for the Stomp Rocket launcher/tube assembly.

Overkill?

You bet. When I showed the pictures at work someone commented “do your kids realize that most dads don’t do this sort of thing for toys?” Of course they don’t, but it’s fun for me so I do it anyway.

Everything was laser cut. Material was some 1/4″ MDF, but it cut really easily. The base was another piece of 1/4″MDF, but it was wayyyy different and required multiple passes, and had a ton of charring on the edge. I cleaned that edge up on a belt sander.

The basic shape came from the BoxMaker site, and the pattern was created in Illustrator.

Boeing 747 toy

Boeing 747 toy

Andrew

747 laser cut modelMy 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).

747 laser cut model

747 laser cut model

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).

747'ish Christmas ornament on a tree
Remixed 747 model, turned into Christmas ornament gifts for Chris’s company.
Camera Slider build – Part 1

Camera Slider build – Part 1

Andrew

Motorized Camera Slider – an introduction.

A while back I teased a project I have been working on for a long time: making a motorized camera slider.

Slider are all the rage lately, giving filmmakers the camera moves of a dolly shot with much less equipment, and also adding motion to time-lapse photography projects.

One of the first ‘cheaper’ motorized models I saw was the Stage Zero slider by Dynamic Perception. Soon after, however, I came across MakerSlide, an extruded aluminum rail with v-channels integrated into the profile. This made it easy to have linear motion components do double duty as structural pieces for small CNC mills or laser cutters. The inventor of MakerSlide, Bart Dring, at one point sold everything himself, including a basic camera slider kit.

I purchased the kit, which included a stepper motor, and got to work. Unfortunately, I had no experience with Arduino at the time, and I wanted to get using it for some projects ASAP…

First pass – Lego NXT

The solution was to jerry rig a Lego NXT motor and controller to the dolly since A: I had it, and B: I could come up with the basic code to get it to work.

It turned out that a Lego Technic axle was just a tiny bit smaller than the diameter needed for the shaft of the 5mm MXL pulley, so it fit well with just a wrap or two of clear tape. The ‘X’ profile of the Technic axles also gave a good space for the grub screw on the pulley to nest into.

MakerSlide camera slider and Lego NXT – a test from Andrew A on Vimeo.

The holes in the mounting plate were big enough for Technic pins and axles to pass through without too much play, and while a little janky, I didn’t have to modify or destroy any Lego parts getting everything hooked up.

Stay tuned for build post #2, upgrading the system to an Arduino and stepper driver.

Voyager gold record inspired playground accessory

Voyager gold record inspired playground accessory

Andrew

Voyager Gold Records on a playgroundWe 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.

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:

Room signs for kids

Room signs for kids

Andrew

Painted sign - EleanorEvery 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.” 🙂

Building the Micro Word Clock

Building the Micro Word Clock

Andrew

Word clock = expensive. Micro word clock = attainable.

Finished Micro Word Clock in an acrylic case.
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

Components laid out
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.

*Much of the following is pulled from the GitHub repository for the project, with some of my own notes*

Read more →

Carbon fiber money clip class build

Andrew

Carbon fiber money clip

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.

Pegboard ribbon/dowel holder

Pegboard ribbon/dowel holder

Andrew

Finished project mounted to pegboardWe 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.

Graphic of the dowel holder designed in Illustrator

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.

Single ribbon holderA pair of wooden dowel holders