This was my first try at embedding a second color of acrylic into a box. I had pretty good luck with it. The biggest issue is I think I forgot to reset the laser height so it was cutting a little bit wider path than need be. This made some of the hearts fit kinda loose. I used acrylic weld to stick everything together. This time I left the top of the box open so that it could be used for a little bit of storage.

On February 11 and 12 we will be hosting a Prusa 3D printer build off at the space. Right now we have 7 people that will be building their printer on site and one more person that will be joining us remotely. We will be streaming the build off via ustream on saturday and sunday. The plan is to spend all day saturday building the printer. Then spend all day sunday tuning the printers and printing a variety of things. We will be grilling out and welcome visitors. If you are interested in coming to hang out contact ninja@someninjamaster.com

Box Maker is a useful little site that creates finger jointed box designs. Just input the dimensions and it spits out a pdf with each side jointed to interlock. Then just convert to SVG, laser cut, and glue it together! I started out making small arduino enclosures, but soon learned that with a few modifications the boxes could be made to have a functional top. Since then, I’ve made boxes in various sizes. The fun part is picking a design to etch into the top.

Projects today at the hc

Slurm worked on making more of his wooden boxes he has been cutting and etching on the lasercutter.

SomeNinja decided after seeing Slurm’s boxes to try his hand at it with acrylic.

Mudflap and Wrench both worked on brewing up a new batch of beer.

Smug Stacy continued to work on his robot tank project.

I needed a way to make consistent sized pics of hard drives. I also wanted high resolution pics, so that they could be blown up and retain the quality necessary to read and inspect them. I thought of using a webcam, but the best I saw that was decently priced was still only 1.3Mp. I decided to make a 1/4-20 mounting post, held 10.5″ over the surface of the platen. When the camera is turned on, the frame size is not completely filled by the drive, but leaves a little room for error.

The problem I have faced with my camera is getting it to focus from close distances. I found the right height/zoom settings that made sure whether I zoomed in, or stayed at the startup wide angle, the camera would focus razor sharp. It took a bit to mock it up, but some welding and some spare lexan we had sitting around and I have a piece of equipment that looks good on a desk, and does not look like it was cobbled together out of spare steel and lexan. Man it’s good to be a maker.

Wrench got some welding time in this Sat when he modded an old motorcycle frame and made an engine mount for the Yamaha 650 he’s prepping. Part of his new motorcycle build, wrench had bought an engine, wheels, and some other components, and is waiting on his frame to be custom built. Keep checking in to see what progress he’s making. From the pics and descriptions, it should be an awesome ride.

I built an iPad stand this saturday. I have looked at many different models in both the apple store and online. I have found a handful that look like good designs, but true to the reputation of apple products, they were way to expensive for what I was getting. I decided to build my own, out of 5/8″ stainless steel rod. It took a bit of sawing, grinding and welding to get it done, but I love the results. It will look killer on my desk at work. In a pinch, it can be used as a weapon!

-SkyDog

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All of the HC members will get the joke, but I just had to put it up here…

Todays workday was filled with: heating things up, cooling things down, and new projects.

To start off the workday mudflap began making final preparations to the waste oil heater. He has it almost completely installed now and it should be getting close to the first indoor lighting of the heater.

Next Mudflap, Skydog, and I, went to pickup the new vending machine that me and Skydog had bought. After we got it back to the space and put it thorough its paces it appears that everything on the machine should be functioning.

Finally with the help of everyone at the space we moved the RC Cola machine onto some sawhorses so we could start working on it. Skydog got everything hooked up on the machine and it appears that the compressor works and the unit was cooling down.

Todays attendees
ArafatM
Godar
John
Mudflap
Seeblind
Skydog
Someninja
Walmart
Wrench

I brought some extra wirefame shelves that I had at the house, and installed them in the secure tool crib area. We’re almost done with it, needing only to hang the door and install the mag locks. These shelves are to put tools and such on that don’t need to be left out in the common area, but not specifically for people’s projects. Those should be put into your locker, if size permits.