Via dailymail.co.uk:

You can now turn your favourite music downloads into playable records made from materials you have lying around the house.

Amanda Ghassaei, 24, from San Francisco has created the world’s first laser-cut wooden records using songs from Radiohead and Joy Division.

And the software engineer has made the instructions available to download, making it possible to create your own at home.

Ghassaei previously used 3D printers to print records from her MP3 downloads.
She wanted to find a way for people without 3D printers to make their own records, and has designed a way of making records out of paper, acrylic and wood.

Ghassaei created a digital waveform file from the MP3 and converted into a PDF. Needles on a record player pick up vibrations based on the shape of the record’s surface. The waveform was then cut into the wood using lasers to create the ‘shape’ of the song.

Read more!

More messing around with realtime lasers. This time tracking bubbles. made with openFrameworks, etherdream DAC and ILDA

more info at instructables.com/id/Laser-Cut-Record/

Controlled flight of a robotic insect

From the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard:

Inspired by the biology of a fly, with submillimeter-scale anatomy and two wafer-thin wings that flap at 120 times per second, robotic insects, or RoboBees, achieve vertical takeoff, hovering, and steering. The tiny robots flap their wings using piezoelectric actuators — strips of ceramic that expand and contract when an electric field is applied. Thin hinges of plastic embedded within a carbon fiber body frame serve as joints, and a delicately balanced control system commands the rotational motions in the flapping-wing robot, with each wing controlled independently in real-time. Applications of RoboBees could include distributed environmental monitoring, search-and-rescue operations, and assistance with crop pollination.

Read more:

Check out this super handy web tool for generating laser cut cases for your projects with Flat, Dovetail, or T-slot edge joins from Jon Hollander:

MakerCase is a web-based application for designing laser-cut project cases.  It’s currently in open, quiet beta at www.makercase.com.

Read more.

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!

Brilliant flat-pack, eco-friendly lasered lanterns by Curious Customs, who’s slogan is “Artists and robots working for you.”

Epilog Laser Announces Fifth Annual Epilog Challenge Hosted on Instructables.

Golden, Colo. (April 15, 2013) Epilog Laser is excited to announce the Epilog Challenge contest is back for round five, and will be hosted on Instructables.com.  “Epilog Challenge V” opens today and runs through July 15, 2013. The lucky grand prize winner will receive a 30-watt Zing 16 Laser from Epilog.  

“We’ve always appreciated the tremendous support we’ve received from the DIY community, and no matter who wins this challenge I have no doubt that he or she will make great use of the Zing 16,” said Mike Dean, vice president of sales and marketing for Epilog Laser. “We’re excited to partner with the folks at Instructables.com once again and anticipate seeing some very unique and creative entries.”

“I’m always amazed by the fantastic projects the Epilog Challenge inspires,” said Eric Wilhelm, founder of Instructables.com and director of communities at Autodesk.  ”I hope to see even more mind-blowing projects this year!”

Previous Epilog Challenge winners include the DIY High-Speed Book Scanner, the 8x8x8 Animated LED Cube, Arduino Powered Chess Playing Robot, and most recently, Build a Laser 3D Printer – Stereolithography at Home.

Read more.

Bladerunner “neon” sign @ Laserbean.

At Laserbean, we love a good party.  When a great friend said he was going to throw a Bladerunner themed party for his 50th, we were intrigued and excited, knowing just how much effort he typically puts into these things.  Then we started pondering about what would make the perfect present to give to him.  We decided building him his very own lifesize replicant was probably out of the question (although maybe next time!).

Two new, extra challenging generative puzzles from Nervous System:

We’re continuing our efforts to enhance traditional jigsaw puzzle craft using new technologies. Today we’re releasing a new series of jigsaw puzzles that can be put together in multiple ways. Each one-of-a-kind puzzle is actually a puzzle in a puzzle!

These 2-in-1 puzzles are designed to be extra challenging. Believe it or not, we’ve had people ask us to make our puzzles harder, so this is our answer. We’ve taken away all the clues that people normally use to put a puzzle together. Like our Natural Puzzles, these puzzles have no image, so assembly is guided solely by the shapes of the pieces. We further intensified the difficulty by eliminating the edge pieces and whimsies that usually serve as helpful starting points for puzzle assembly. Finally, to make things even more interesting, we included a sub-puzzle embedded within the puzzle! Roughly 70 colored pieces distributed throughout the 400-piece rectangular puzzle can be removed to form a smaller, circular puzzle.

On Thingiverse: Pibow Belt Base for Raspberry Pi by pburgess:

Alternate ‘Layer 0′ for Pibow case simplifies wearable Raspberry Pi projects.

Instructions

REQUIRES PIBOW CASE – this is ONLY a replacement bottom layer. Laser cut from 3mm (1/8″) acrylic.

The belt is made from 1.5″ nylon webbing (better-equipped hardware, sewing or camping stores will stock this and related fittings), but it’s also perfectly suited to most camera straps if you have a DSLR + Raspberry Pi project in mind. The USB battery pack is an item from the Adafruit shop, held in place with cable ties.

Read more.

LaserOrigami via Wired Design:

When you own a laser cutter, careful calibration is key. Get the focal length wrong and, instead of a nice clean cut, you end up with a blurry burn pattern. LaserOrigami takes this problem and turns it into a feature. By aiming a de-focused laser at a section of plastic, it can heat it just enough to allow it to bend. By alternating between cutting, bending, and turning the sheet, the application can make remarkably complicated objects.

Nice round-up by Joseph Flaherty at Wired of some great examples of laser cutting. The table (above, top) is my favorite. He writes:

3-D printers are an exciting technology, but another hot new tool may have just as significant of an impact in real-world projects.

Laser cutters were invented almost 50 years ago, but only became part of the home workshop in the past few years. In that short time, however, the maker community has embraced the machines with creative enthusiasm. While these 2-D cutters don’t produce sweet 3-D Yoda heads at the push of a button, they do bring impressive versatility to a wide range of applications.

If makers want to experiment with creative ideas that need to be produced with engineering-grade plastics, wood, leather, metal, or even food, laser cutters are often the only appropriate tool. Most laser cutters, and their beefy plasma cutter brethren, can produce objects much larger than standard 3-D prints in a much shorter time, and usually for a significantly lower cost. One forward-thinking cafe in Japan has even installed a cutting system so makers can laser cut parts while sipping a latte — whereas waiting for a 3-D printout would require a seven-course meal.

Here’s an project from this past summer that is pretty cool if you missed it. Adafruit community member Paulo Sobrinho sent it in along with the question whether it might be possible “to implement such a cool solution with Raspberry Pi!”

From tsjiller:

Using a laser pointer, and mirrors harvested from an old disco ball, we created a rudimentary projector.

Read more.

The Fusion Laser by Epilog Laser. Launched today -

These two systems offer a 32” x 20” engraving table and a variety of features including: joystick control, job time estimator/recorder, large glass door with LED lighting and much more! And because it’s available in both a CO2 and fiber version, the Fusion or FiberMark Fusion can tackle almost any marking or cutting application!

One of our favorite tools in the Adafruit factory is our laser cutter. A laser cutter is a tool made of an XY plotter with a bed about 12″x24″ in size. Instead of a plotting pen, a laser beam is fired so that any shape can be cut out of a flat piece of plastic, wood, fabric, leather, etc. Even though laser cutters can only cut out of flat materials they are surprisingly versatile. By snapping together pieces and gluing or screwing parts together a full enclosure can be made.

Learn more!

Here’s a quick video of me engraving a Midnight Hacker Leatherman with the laser cutter here at the Adafruit factory!

LaserOrigami Turns Your Laser Cutter Into a Folding Factory on Wired Design:

When you own a laser cutter, careful calibration is key. Get the focal length wrong and, instead of a nice clean cut, you end up with a blurry burn pattern. LaserOrigami takes this problem and turns it into a feature. By aiming a de-focused laser at a section of plastic, it can heat it just enough to allow it to bend. By alternating between cutting, bending, and turning the sheet, the application can make remarkably complicated objects.

Dan Reetz demonstrates cleaning plywood adhesive and acrylic residues from the bed of his Epilog Zing laser.

3D Laser Cutting via Ponoko.

3D Laser Cutting or 5-Axis Laser Cutting. Northern Manufacturing is a sheet metal fabrication company that is experienced in 5-Axis laser cutting. This video shows an example of our capabilities

Below the Boat – Welcome via colossal.

Starting with a bathymetric chart (the underwater equivalent of a topographic map), the contours are laser-cut into sheets of Baltic birch and glued together to create a powerful visual depth. Select layers are hand-colored blue so it’s easy to discern land from water, major byways are etched into the land, the whole thing’s framed in a custom, solid-wood frame and protected seamlessly with a sheet of durable, ultra-transparent Plexiglas.

The result is stunning. It lifts the surface of the water back like a veil, exposing the often-overlooked, under-explored, awe-inspiring world that lies below. To those familiar with the floor of the ocean or the bed of a lake, it’s a beautiful reminder of the deep channels, sharp drop-offs, and mountainous landscapes that are hidden from normal view. To the uninitiated, it’s wonderfully eye-opening; as though the world suddenly took on a fourth dimension.

NEW PRODUCT – Fixed Laser Mounting Stand. Use this nice fixed laser mount to attach any of our laser diode modules to your desk, robot, shark, etc. A set-screw holds the laser in place. Has a flat mounting plate with four holes for easy attachment and adjustment. Fits all of our modules.

Laser not included

• Dimensions: 35mm x 30mm x 18mm
• Mounting hole diameter: 3.5mm / 0.14″
• Mounting hole pattern: Square 14.8mm (along the length) x 23.8mm (along the width)
• Fits lasers with up to 12.5mm diameter (0.5″)
• Weight: 22 grams

In stock and shipping now!

Constructable is an interactive drafting table that produces precise physical output in every step. Users interact by drafting on the workpiece using a hand-held laser pointer. The system tracks the pointer and implements its effect by cutting the workpiece using a high-powered and fast laser cutter.

More Information: http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/baudisch/projects/constructable.html

shoshanaabrass on Instructables writes:

This instructable is for my lasercut LED candle design that you can download from Thingiverse. It’s a simple but useful electrical circuit that you make out of wood and copper tape (or cardboard and aluminum foil – I’ll explain later about alternative materials). We make this at Ace Monster Toys in Oakland, CA for our Hacker Scouts program, where kids 7-14 put it together themselves. Young kids may need some help from their parents. A little manual dexterity is required to get the parts to line up.

Pete Prodoehl from Milwaukee Makerspace created this great Laser Kaleidoscope project using Adafruit components and 3D printed parts — and he will be adding in a few of our new lasers! From Pete’s write-up:

When I was at Maker Faire Detroit back in July I saw this laser spinner thingy called “The Interociter” and decided I had to have one. And by “have one” I mean “make one”… so I did.

(There’s some debate over whether it should be called a “Laser Kaleidoscope” or “Laser Spirograph” or “Laser Spinner Thingy” and while I do like “Laser Spinner Thingy” I also get sick of people thinking all my projects are Spirograph-inspired, so I went with Laser Kaleidoscope. Deal with it.)

So where were we? Oh yes, the project! It’s really simple: a laser is pointed at a mirror, and that reflects the laser onto another mirror, and that one reflects it onto another mirror, and then it shows up on the wall. You can make the motors spin by turning them on with a pushbutton, and then adjust the speed by turning the knobs. There are 3 motors (an earlier prototype had 4) and by setting them all to different speeds, you can get some crazy patterns going.

So how does it work? The laser hits the first spinning mirror, and creates what appears to be a circle. It’s really a single dot, but it’s spinning around so fast it looks like a circle. Add a second (and third) mirror, and since they all wobble just a little bit, you get much more than a simple circle.

Read more.

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has thrilled us at Adafruit with its passion and dedication to making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed that our community integrating electronics projects into 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you take considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless EL Wire and LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects!

The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you have a cool project you’ve made that joins the traditions of 3D printing and electronics, be sure to send it in to be featured here!

Here’s a great custom DinoClock from Steve Bullock that he created with the help of the Adafruit laser cutting resources. Thanks for sharing this with us, Steve!

A friend of mine had a birthday recently and I wanted to make her something cool and personal.

She’s a pretty special person – a Dino Ranger at Bristol Zoo! Not sure there’s anyone else in the world with her job title and skill set… palaeontology, science, teaching, presenting… look her up!

I was inspired by record clocks on etsy, but there was nothing that was just right for her, and they were expensive! DIY-making to the rescue! In the past I’ve ordered stuff cut at online services, but now I’m lucky enough to have access to a laser cutter at work! This is my first self-cut laser project, and the tutorials at Adafruit gave me some confidence to get started – but what to make?

I had an image of my friend running her first tour at the zoo, next to their giant t-rex animatronic dino!

Read more.

A laser cut treat from Ranjit of NYC Resistor!

I lasercut a map of the interstate highway system. Handy for road trips!

Here’s a short video from James Lehman about why he got into LASER, what makes LASER so unique as an effect and a note about his open source LASER projector control software, LASERBOY.  A few neat internal projector shots too.

Thanks Adam!

Awesome laser-cut owl lamp with magnet action!

This is an owl lamp I worked on with my girlfriend Sylvia. We are both students of design & technology in NYC and built this together as a fun soft circuits project. Our goal was to make a small nigh-lamp that was both cute and functional.

The project is very simple – anyone can follow this Instructable to build their own owl lamp. We encourage you to imagine other characters or animals that you can create with this design.

Great laser cut enclosure trick from Built to Spec.

So to make it easier to assemble some of the enclosures I make I recently experimented with making some clips to hold the things together instead of using the ubiquitous nut and bolt based T-slot construction method used in tons of laser cut assemblies. Some have integrated clipping mechanisms directly into the acrylic of the parts of the assemblies, and I really like that method, but I don’t really trust flexing acrylic to not become damaged easily through normal usage, so I opted to go with Delrin based clips.

Read more.

NEW PRODUCT! Adjustable Laser Mounting Stand: Use this nice adjustable laser mount to attach any of our laser diode modules to your desk, robot, shark, etc. A set-screw holds the laser in place. You can then adjust the tilt. Has a flat mounting plate with two slots for easy attachment and adjustment.

Laser not included

NEW PRODUCTS: Lasers! You have some frickin’ sharks at your lair, and you’re thinking “it would be really great if I could attach some lasers to them” and then you see these little laser diode modules: what great timing! These encapsulated laser diodes are Class IIIa 5mW, with a 650nm red wavelength. They can be driven from 2.8V to 5.2V so they’re great for your embedded electronics project. We are stocking 4 kinds, check them out in our new laser category!

Laser Diode – 5mW 650nm Red: You can use these for laser harps, electronic ‘trip wires’, laser-vision guidance, and more! Simply connect power to the red and black wires and you will be lasing in no time.

Please note: this is not a laser pointer. It’s a diode with integrated driver. You still need a 3 to 5VDC power supply. These diodes are 5mW output, and have a safety label marked on them. For more information on laser safety and ratings check out the Wikipedia page.

TTL Laser Diode – 5mW 650nm Red – 50KHz Max: This module in particular is designed to be modulated/pulsed via the yellow wire. So you can use these for laser light shows, laser harps, ‘wireless’ communications and data transmission, electronic ‘trip wires’, laser-vision guidance, and more! Simply connect 5V power to the red and black wires, and pull the yellow wire to 5V or ground to turn on and off, respectively. You will be lasing in no time.

Line Laser Diode – 5mW 650nm Red: This particular laser diode has a lens attached to turn the dot into a line. We think this would be particularly good for making a 3D scanner, but there are probably many other cool uses! Simply connect power to the red and black wires and you will be lasing in no time.

The line beam spread is 120° – so from a distance of 5cm the line is 15cm long. The line fades out and doesn’t have a sharp cut-off.

Cross Laser Diode – 5mW 650nm Red: This particular module has a lens attached that will turn the dot into a cross. This makes it particularly good for laser-vision guidance, targeting, and more! Simply connect power to the red and black wires and you will be lasing in no time.

The cross has a beam spread of approximately 60° in both directions. So from a distance of 5cm, the cross is 5cm tall and 5cm wide. The cross ends have a sharp cutoff so the shape is very clearly defined.

Check out these kerf bending patterns for your laser cut projects from Martin Breuer:

I recently discovered that kerf bending is perfect for building small cases.

Take a pice of plywood, cut out a pattern along the curve you want to shape and apply some hot water to the outside face of the bend, et voila. The cuts weaken the integrity of the material making it able to bend without snapping. Well, I tried some more patterns…

He isn’t kidding about small cases — check out these examples:

We’ve had an EPILOG 35W laser for almost exactly 5 years. It’s been a wonderful part of our company, we launched a laser etching business, open-source’d the business model (many companies sprung up) we worked with makers to help them get their business/hackerspaces going and we use the laser every day to make enclosures and products for customers. But after 5 years the laser eventually loses power so we replaced it with a 60W version over the weekend. We upgraded it ourselves, the are 3 pegs that needed to be removed to make room for the monster laser and 2 power supplies are needed. Then we needed to calibrate it. It’s about 3 times faster, we love it.

Special thanks to Brian and Joe at EPILOG for set up help (And Ryan our laser rep). Pictured above, the 35W laser that got us here – it will be sent back to EPILOG and recycled. Good bye old friend.

REPLICATING THE FUNCTIONALITY OF AN INDUSTRIAL LASER CUTTER ON A LOW-COST HOME-BUILT SYSTEM (PDF). Thanks Freddie!

I have just got the results from this project I submitted as an A-Level project in the UK and got an A* for it, so though I would share it here!

Lilikoi Laser @ Maui Makers.

Maker Ryan K showed up at our Thurs Aug 15 2012 meeting with what is one of the coolest maker projects I’ve seen in a while…
A Laser powered by Lilikoi fruit!

Lilikoi (aka Passion Fruit, Passiflora Edulis) is a vine that grows all over our wet Maui regions. It can produce LOTS of fruit – which can make a mess for owners, and a bonanza for bugs. Ryan was cleaning up a whole bunch of them at his home and tasting one, realized it was pretty acidic. Being a curious Maker, he thought “Hmmm I wonder if you could make a power source with this?”

Hackerbot Labs’ giant FAA approved laser – Photonic Beam: Safety and Regulatory Aspects via HaD.

The introductory post on this project mentioned most of the high level considerations for safety and compliance when shooting a laser into the sky. Here, we will go into the gory details.

Regulatory Process
When lasers will be operated outdoors in the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration must be given the opportunity to review the safety of the proposed laser operation at least 30 days in advance. Laser beams can potentially affect air traffic and distract or impair pilots during flight, so to mitigate this risk, the FAA reviews the details of the planned operation and responds with a letter of objection or non-objection. The details for how and why to provide this information to the FAA can be found in the Advisory Circular 70-1, with the attached forms “Notice of Proposed Outdoor Laser Operation(s)” and “Laser Configuration Worksheet.” Note that if the laser operations are for entertainment as opposed to scientific use, the Food and Drug Administration must be notified in addition to the FAA.

Beyond the basic information such as date and time of operation, site latitude, longitude, and elevation, etc., it is necessary to calculate and provide energy density values at various distances from the laser’s origin. Every laser diverges to some extent, so that its beam spreads out and becomes less bright over distance. The divergence of a laser is measured in milliradians, which is an angle measurement (1° ≈ 17.45 mrad). The amount of energy in the laser beam stays relatively constant over distance, so as it diverges, the density of the energy decreases. In other words, the amount of energy per unit of area in the cross section of the beam decreases as you take cross sections farther and farther from the laser’s point of origin.

Read more, cool to see there are ways to do cool stuff and work within reasonable rules.

I was recently jury captain in the DIY category for the Core77 Design Awards, and this project was very clearly the winner from an early stage of judging. The name says it all: it’s a laser-cut folding ukulele! Great job to Brian Chan, who documented the build on Instructables.

Replacing the laser tube @ Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.

One of the most useful tools in our shop is our laser cutter— or more formally, our low power carbon dioxide laser cutting and engraving machine.   We use it for all kinds of mechanical prototyping, cutting parts out of wood and acrylic, and even some production parts, like the cases for our clock kits, the custom cloth numbers on our d12 and d20 bag kits, and the pen arm on the Eggbot kit.

And while this has been a fantastic and reliable machine for the last several years, eventually the moment that we had dreaded arrived.  Our laser power began to droop, and it started getting harder and harder to cut through the materials that we regularly work with.  A visit from a technician confirmed that the power had fallen significantly, and that we needed a new tube.  The replacement process is actually managed as a swap: The factory sends us a new laser cartridge, and we send them back our old one.

Happy 4th of July! The folks at X-Laser write in:

We hosted a 4th of July barbeque for all the staff here at X-Laser and thought we’d have a little fun. After all, we make lasers, why not have a laser events on Independence Day! We lit fireworks with lasers, laser engraved burgers, steaks and hot dogs and of course enjoyed a few great laser shows in the warehouse.

We used an Epilog Helix 35W, I found that the sweet spot for hot dogs was 1200DPI, 14% speed and 100% power. We had less success rastering ground beef though, it seems to be better suited for vector engraving.

We just proudly added a Thingiverse button to every page of the Adafruit site, this is where we put up our open-source designs for our laser-cut enclosures and more!

Laser Cut Universal Joint, Rob writes -

 I need a cheap universal joint for a project I am working on so I have been playing with a few options. This is the one that seems the best so far. It is using a plastic ball from a wall track toy which is pretty far from a perfect sphere but it seems to work very well anyway. For the project I will use a cheap 1/2″ steel bearing and laser cut the pieces from Delrin which has low friction. I will probably use nylock nuts on the screws to be able to adjust how stiff the movement is.

Instructables user blhack posted up this guide to laser-cutting lace into a t-shirt (ala Diana Eng) — that’s his sister sporting the self-cauterizing cotton/poly blend tee.

theseeker writes:

Have you ever seen acrylic that’s been edge-lit using LEDs or similar?  The light normally just passes through, but wherever there’s a scratch you’ll find that the light refracts and it appears quite brightly.  People engrave messages and patterns onto plastic sheeting to make it really stand out when lit.  Well, what if you did the same thing, but instead of just etching the surface, you cut sections out of it and then scuffed up the parts that had been cut?  Now the entire thickness of the sheet begins to glow in those areas!

Although I used these techniques to create art, the real beauty of this is that you can create any 3D object you want with a laser cutter, whether it’s the object itself, or a negative of the object encased in a block, as I did. In essence, you’re turning your laser cutter into a 3D printer with a resolution limited only by the thickness of your material.

John Edgar Park has posted his plans for his Arduino GRANDE project on Thingiverse.

The Arduino GRANDE is a fully functional Arduino that is about six times larger than real life. These are the laser cutter plans for making a comically large, functioning Arduino for demonstration, comedy, and educational purposes. I built the GRANDE for 2012 Bay Area Maker Faire.

John has posted lots of great pictures documenting the build process as well.

Nervous System.

These puzzles marry the artistry of traditional wooden jigsaw puzzles with the possibilities of new technology. Custom software generates a different cut pattern and image for every puzzle. The images are printed on archival paper, mounted on birch plywood and laser cut at our studio in Somerville, MA.

Making a cardboard head with a secret hiding spot. via BB.

We made a box in the shape of my son’s head.  We laser cut pieces of taskboard (corrugated cardboard works well, too) and laminated them together. The heads pivots on a dowel and is held in place by two magnets.

That’s the CEO, of Autodesk, using Instructables (now part of Autodesk). There were a lot of naysayers about how and what would happen to Instructables once it was part of Autodesk… seeing the CEO use it and the site get better and better seems to be the actual outcome. As “maker” companies get acquired it would be cool to see all the CEOs use the tools/products like Carl is, perhaps that could be part of the terms

There are drawbots, and then there are drawbots. Tim Noble created this “semi-automatic” chalkboard drawbot, built around laser-cut plywood, 3-D printed drive gears, MakerBot electronics, and a lovely old oak blackboard frame. I’ll readily admit that this thing fills me with awe and terror at the same time. I’m not sure why. The idea of an automatic blackboard seems kind of ancient and sinister, and this one is exceedingly well done.

Bryan Duxbury’s Blog: Lasercut hinge mockup.

I’m designing a lasercut jewelry box for my wife and I want to make the lid sort of “float” open rather than just hinge open like usual. I made a little mockup of what I want to do (see the video on my blog) and it works, and I’m pretty sure I can adapt it to work with lasercut parts.

However, I’m positive I didn’t invent this, and I’d love to be able to learn what the pros have to say about it. The problem is, I can’t figure out what it’s called! Maybe someone in your audience can identify the type of mechanism and post the name in the comments?

As promised, I have attached the Requirement Sheet I use for my students to earn their Laser Cutter Skill Badge. My objective on the requirements sheet is to have the students familiar enough with the software and device that they can operate it independently. I was not interested in teaching them maintenance on the machine, or require them to build their own so by all means, feel free to modify the sheet to fit your needs.

Enjoy!

Laser Cutter – Requirements Sheet
Laser Cutter Setup Procedure (For AutoCAD 2008 and the Epilog Helix 50)