View allAll Photos Tagged lasercutter
joined the local Tech Shop (san carlos, ca) and learned how to use their laser cutter. the front panel is 1/8" matte acrylic and I had the laser cutter do the shape, the holes and the engraved lettering. however, it only cuts the plastic; you have to do the in-fill yourself! that's still a manual job and its not a perfect job, either. but it does give passable results and I'm much happier with this kind of product than my purely hand-made stuff.
(I didn't color-balance the photo, so ignore that strong yellow background hue. my workroom lighting is not great photo lighting) ;)
also, some explanation about the led coloring: I chose to use several colors so that I can see which light is on, from even a far distance away. you do not need perfect vision to be able to make use of this kind of display and that's a plus, for me. as long as you can tell color and you can tell which general region of the display the light is coming from, you can know which value (such as the sample rate meter, top left) that represents once you get familiar with the values. same thing with input select leds: you only need to see which color is illuminated to know which input was selected.
there are no front panel knobs. this is a slave device and its controlled over an i2c connection via a box-to-box cable that uses firewire as its physical connector transport. the master box is a preamp that has an input select knob (and IR remote button) and when the user selects an input from the digital sources, one of these leds will turn on and the input will come from this DAC box to the preamp. the firewire is just used to carry i2c and sometimes power. its not a firewire standard protocol and can't be connected to a pc; just between this box and the matching preamp. firewire cables are great for carrying inter-box i2c and so I just used their cable type. I hate building cables and if I can piggyback on an existing one, I will sometimes do that.
Always fans of unusual requests we were tasked to see if we could come up with some interesting keyrings for a classy countryside retreat.
After having a good old look on t'interweb at what was generally available I eventually came across glass-look acrylic that can be laser cut. It has a slight green tinge to it and looks just like glass without being so fragile. Classy. Combine that with our symmetrical 'HH' design and you're good to go. Almost. Getting access to the laser cutter proved trickier than usual given covid precautions but I eventually managed to get it all sorted. Now they live in a house, a very big house in the country...
As a side note there was a couple of bits of scrap acrylic lying around so I cut a couple more - one from yellow and one from clear acrylic - and, I think you'll agree, they look cheap and plasticky by comparison to the glass look ones. My work here is done.
Cheers
id-iom
Our middle-school students at Tam High are building a City of the Future together, using arts and electronics to make a model of what our world may be like in 100 years.
In our sixth class, students worked in teams to make public spaces for their city: underwater mines, segregated neighborhoods, surface rubbles and gated skyscrapers for the rich. This week’s creations included a new city sign, more ladders, more mine workers, and tall, skinny towers scraping the crimson sky.
They also agreed on a final name for their city: 15A, named after its sector coordinates. In their post-apocalyptic city of the future, the rich are separated from the poor, who mine the sea floor and are oppressed by a government run by machines.
I am teaching this after-school class with Geo Monley and Cynthia Gilbert, and we are happy to see our students so engaged in this project. Through this course, they are developing a range of skills, from creative expression to science and engineering (STEAM). And they are learn to create interactive art with simple electronics, in a playful and collaborative way that makes learning more fun.
Learn more about our City of the Future course: fabriceflorin.com/2016/02/23/city-of-the-future/
Preview our City of the Future in these class slides:
bit.ly/city-of-the-future-slides-tam-high-1
View more photos of our Maker Art course at Tam High:
www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/albums/72157666710348841
Learn more about our Maker Art courses:
fabriceflorin.com/2016/02/14/teaching-maker-art/
Learn more about Tam Makers:
Come make your own gadget, robot or wearable art at Tam Makers!
We started a new ‘open shop’ program called ‘You Can Make It’, to help you create your own maker project with our community. This workshop for adults and teens takes place on Wednesday evenings in our makerspace at Tam High School in Mill Valley. Our first series was held on three Wednesdays in a row: June 29th, July 6th and 13th, between 6 and 9pm.
On the first night, we helped eight participants plan their projects, prepare their materials and develop new skills. They then built their projects the following weeks, with guidance from instructors and other participants.
Here are examples of projects they worked on: a garage door opener, an animated owl, an engraving, solar-powered lights, a theremin, a wooden frame, an illuminated art piece and more. They used a wide range of tools to build them, from Arduino boards to our laser cutter, oscilloscope, and radio transmitters and solar-power technology.
One of the great benefits of this open shop program is that you get a lot more than just access to tools: you join a community of makers who like to make things together and help each other. On that first night, we had three mentors on hand to coach participants: Geo Monley, Fabrice Florin and Donald Day, who also teach at Tam Makers.
Participants seemed to enjoy this ‘You Can Make It’ open shop and told us they got a lot from it. This is one of our first maker workshops at Tam Makers, and we’re really happy that it is going well; we look forward to offering more open shop sessions in the fall.
Learn more about You Can Make It:
www.tammakers.org/you-can-make-it/
View more photos of You Can Make It:
www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/albums/72157670867561896
View more photos of Tam Makers:
www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/albums/72157660433218276
Learn more about Tam Makers:
The display / IO board. There's a shift register on the other side of this board, which drives the 7-segment LED display. The soldering job is fairly terrible in part because the iron that I used for half of it couldn't get hot enough to do a good job melting the lead-free solder.
Project details and source: staticfree.info/projects/rfid_front_door/
The assembled control box. The LEDs shine through the wood. When the unit isn't being interacted with, they dim to be almost invisible. The (→) is the main UI button. A single press of it advances through the group numbers and a long press of it allows you to scan a card to add it to the current group. Of course, the control box is on the inside of the entryway.
Project details and source: staticfree.info/projects/rfid_front_door/
We had a blast at the first meetup for Tam Makers, our new makerspace in Mill Valley. We hosted this free event at the wood shop at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley on June 8, 2016.
A diverse group of people came to the visit the shop, learn about our classes and discuss how to grow our maker community. Participants ranged from experienced artists, technologists, makers and woodworkers, to people interested in learning new skills, as well as high school and middle school students and their parents.
We opened the shop at 6pm and folks started to connect right away, checking out some of our demos, showing off recent projects and touring the space. At 7pm, we gave a presentation on Tam Makers, and talked about our first courses, meetups and tools for adults and youth. We then discussed these programs as a group and received some really helpful feedback.
Most people were very interested in participating in Tam Makers and using the makerspace regularly. They also liked the mix of classes, ranging from maker art to technology and woodworking. Some people signed up for classes on the spot and most wanted to join more meetups. Many offered to volunteer as well. One person said this event had a great community feeling, unlike more commercially motivated makerspaces.
We’re really happy that this first meetup went so well and that so many folks want to participate actively. We look forward to collaborating with our new maker friends very soon!
Learn more about Tam Makers:
Learn more about this Welcome Meetup:
A large format 8x10 acrylic plate intaglio test using the Speedball black ink on card stock. The expanses of solid color are difficult to fill cleanly; perhaps cross hatches would be better suited for the intaglio printing process.
The image was commissioned by The Ada Initiative and created by Colin Adams.
Here are more details on the how the plates and prints are made: www.nycresistor.com/2012/01/21/laser-cut-letterpress/
Our second laser cutting class at Tam Makers, taught by Geo Monley and Chelsea Andersson. This new evening course for adults took place on June 22, 2016 at the woodshop in Tam High School, Mill Valley.
We started the class at 6pm, by showing students how the laser cutter works in detail. We then took turns cutting up photo frames and other simple projects, while the rest of the class took a certification quiz.
Students seemed to enjoy this class and told us they learned a lot from it. This is one of our first maker courses at Tam Makers, and we’re really happy that it is going so well; we look forward to teaching more classes in the fall.
Learn more about this Laser Cutting class:
www.tammakers.org/laser-cutting/
View more photos of Tam Makers:
www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/albums/72157660433218276
Learn more about Tam Makers:
We had a blast at the first meetup for Tam Makers, our new makerspace in Mill Valley. We hosted this free event at the wood shop at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley on June 8, 2016.
A diverse group of people came to the visit the shop, learn about our classes and discuss how to grow our maker community. Participants ranged from experienced artists, technologists, makers and woodworkers, to people interested in learning new skills, as well as high school and middle school students and their parents.
We opened the shop at 6pm and folks started to connect right away, checking out some of our demos, showing off recent projects and touring the space. At 7pm, we gave a presentation on Tam Makers, and talked about our first courses, meetups and tools for adults and youth. We then discussed these programs as a group and received some really helpful feedback.
Most people were very interested in participating in Tam Makers and using the makerspace regularly. They also liked the mix of classes, ranging from maker art to technology and woodworking. Some people signed up for classes on the spot and most wanted to join more meetups. Many offered to volunteer as well. One person said this event had a great community feeling, unlike more commercially motivated makerspaces.
We’re really happy that this first meetup went so well and that so many folks want to participate actively. We look forward to collaborating with our new maker friends very soon!
Learn more about Tam Makers:
Learn more about this Welcome Meetup:
I used a Seeed Studio Arduino clone for this. No reason, really - I just wanted to try it out. It happened to have a convenient socket for serial, which used to connect the Bluetooth controller. This lets me easily remove it to reprogram the board.
Project details and source: staticfree.info/projects/rfid_front_door/
A work in progress:
One year in temperature materialised in acrylic.
The height is the temperature values.
Each row is one week long, and with 52 rows, there's one year in temperature, in Helsinki, Finland.
The year covered is the one between may 2009 -> may 2010 . The winter was quite cold, to say the least.
This was just a test. Am hoping to do a bit of a skinned surface in the end, and use a more natural material, like wood.
... just need to get that coordinate points count down. Seems the CNC toolpath machinery doesn't like it too much.
__ Thanks to the Aalto University Media Factory, for providing resources to do this and other physical information visualisation research.
Everyday I deliver a new copy of the days New York Times with the words "Old News" laser cut. A stack of papers builds up over the course of the exhibition.
In the background is DATA BASE, an Oxford English Dictionary with the word "DATA BASE" cut into it with the laser cutter.
The front cover. The + is used to extend the travel of the button on the sparkfun dev board. The circular hole it's inscribed in is wide enough to allow the veneer to deform enough to push down on the + and thereby push the button.
Project details and source: staticfree.info/projects/rfid_front_door/
Tiny scale model for a potential large project that isn't going to happen. Used a laser cutter for the first time for this and it's a pretty nice tool. If you know Illustrator or Inkscape or anything similar pretty well, you can quickly print out a few test pieces and figure out how thick to make gaps that plug into each other.
The front cover, made of 0.5mm veneer. The circle in the middle is laser etched more deeply than the rest of the design. This lets the LEDs shine through. The (→) is the main UI button.
Project details and source: staticfree.info/projects/rfid_front_door/
Our middle-school students at Tam High are building a City of the Future together, using arts and electronics to make a model of what our world may be like in 100 years.
In our fourth class, students decorated their characters and wonderboxes, adding more color, light and motion to their homes of the future. We formed four teams to create these public spaces for their city: underwater mines, segregated neighborhoods, surface rubbles and tall skyscrapers. Students started designing these spaces together, preparing materials for next week’s construction. We also discussed names for their city of the future, with these finalists: A15, Moscow and Springfield (we will vote next week).
In their post-apocalyptic city of the future, the rich are separated from the poor, who mine the sea floor and are oppressed by a government run by machines. We are inviting them to invent solutions to that city’s problems -- and to dream up a better world.
Geo Monley and I are teaching this after-school class together, with the help of Cynthia Gilbert: it’s very fulfilling for us to engage students through art, technology and storytelling, combined in the same project-based course.
Students also seem to be enjoying themselves, based on what they and their parents are telling us. Through this course, they will develop a range of skills, from creative expression to science and engineering (STEAM). And they will learn to create their own interactive art with simple electronics, in a playful way that makes learning more fun.
Learn more about our City of the Future course: fabriceflorin.com/2016/02/23/city-of-the-future/
Preview our City of the Future in these class slides:
bit.ly/city-of-the-future-slides-tam-high-1
View more photos of our Maker Art course at Tam High:
www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/albums/72157666710348841
Learn more about our Maker Art courses:
fabriceflorin.com/2016/02/14/teaching-maker-art/
Learn more about Tam Makers:
Our middle-school students at Tam High are building a City of the Future together, using arts and electronics to make a model of what our world may be like in 100 years.
In our fifth class, students finished their individual art boxes and started to create public spaces for their city: underwater mines, segregated neighborhoods, surface rubbles and tall skyscrapers. Students worked in teams to build these spaces together, and this week’s creations included dozens of new characters with gas masks, rooms with ladders, a pile of broken robots, and a skyscraper base with a mutilated poster of Donald Trump.
In their post-apocalyptic city of the future, the rich are separated from the poor, who mine the sea floor and are oppressed by a government run by machines. We are inviting them reach past this dystopian worldview to invent solutions to that city’s problems -- and to dream up a better world.
I am teaching this after-school class with Geo Monley, and we are happy to see our students so engaged in this project. Through this course, they are developing a range of skills, from creative expression to science and engineering (STEAM). And they are learn to create interactive art with simple electronics, in a playful and collaborative way that makes learning more fun.
Learn more about our City of the Future course: fabriceflorin.com/2016/02/23/city-of-the-future/
Preview our City of the Future in these class slides:
bit.ly/city-of-the-future-slides-tam-high-1
View more photos of our Maker Art course at Tam High:
www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/albums/72157666710348841
Learn more about our Maker Art courses:
fabriceflorin.com/2016/02/14/teaching-maker-art/
Learn more about Tam Makers:
We had a blast at the first meetup for Tam Makers, our new makerspace in Mill Valley. We hosted this free event at the wood shop at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley on June 8, 2016.
A diverse group of people came to the visit the shop, learn about our classes and discuss how to grow our maker community. Participants ranged from experienced artists, technologists, makers and woodworkers, to people interested in learning new skills, as well as high school and middle school students and their parents.
We opened the shop at 6pm and folks started to connect right away, checking out some of our demos, showing off recent projects and touring the space. At 7pm, we gave a presentation on Tam Makers, and talked about our first courses, meetups and tools for adults and youth. We then discussed these programs as a group and received some really helpful feedback.
Most people were very interested in participating in Tam Makers and using the makerspace regularly. They also liked the mix of classes, ranging from maker art to technology and woodworking. Some people signed up for classes on the spot and most wanted to join more meetups. Many offered to volunteer as well. One person said this event had a great community feeling, unlike more commercially motivated makerspaces.
We’re really happy that this first meetup went so well and that so many folks want to participate actively. We look forward to collaborating with our new maker friends very soon!
Learn more about Tam Makers:
Learn more about this Welcome Meetup:
My partner Geo Monley has created a cool art box called “Le Puzzle de la Menuiserie” (“The Puzzle of Carpentry”).
This surreal object shows a jigsaw puzzle of an pre-industrial carpentry shop, represented in 3D, in different stages of development. The puzzle features a black-and-white drawing of an old french woodshop from centuries ago. A small carpenter figure cuts one of the jigsaw pieces, as if it had just stepped out of the picture for this job.
This art piece is to be showcased and auctioned at the Box Show in Point Reyes in August 2016.
All these shapes were laser cut at Tam Makers, a new makerspace that Geo and I are developing, to serve a growing community of makers, students and teachers in South Marin.
Learn more about Tam Makers:
View more photos about Tam Makers: www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/albums/72157660433218276
We've put together an Instructable to accompany our open source robot platform.
Taking you through the steps from boxes of bolts and 4'x8' sheets of acrylic to lovely kits ready to be shipped.
how to do it:
www.instructables.com/id/Open_Manufacturing_How_to_Build_...
or for more delightfully fun open source projects:
a sketch for Stencilano, a stencil font based off of Zapfino for laser cutting lettering. Check out this Instructable for an example: www.instructables.com/id/Laser_cut_Letter_Gift_wrap/
Our middle-school students at Tam High are building a City of the Future together, using arts and electronics to make a model of what our world may be like in 100 years.
In our fourth class, students decorated their characters and wonderboxes, adding more color, light and motion to their homes of the future. We formed four teams to create these public spaces for their city: underwater mines, segregated neighborhoods, surface rubbles and tall skyscrapers. Students started designing these spaces together, preparing materials for next week’s construction. We also discussed names for their city of the future, with these finalists: A15, Moscow and Springfield (we will vote next week).
In their post-apocalyptic city of the future, the rich are separated from the poor, who mine the sea floor and are oppressed by a government run by machines. We are inviting them to invent solutions to that city’s problems -- and to dream up a better world.
Geo Monley and I are teaching this after-school class together, with the help of Cynthia Gilbert: it’s very fulfilling for us to engage students through art, technology and storytelling, combined in the same project-based course.
Students also seem to be enjoying themselves, based on what they and their parents are telling us. Through this course, they will develop a range of skills, from creative expression to science and engineering (STEAM). And they will learn to create their own interactive art with simple electronics, in a playful way that makes learning more fun.
Learn more about our City of the Future course: fabriceflorin.com/2016/02/23/city-of-the-future/
Preview our City of the Future in these class slides:
bit.ly/city-of-the-future-slides-tam-high-1
View more photos of our Maker Art course at Tam High:
www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/albums/72157666710348841
Learn more about our Maker Art courses:
fabriceflorin.com/2016/02/14/teaching-maker-art/
Learn more about Tam Makers:
Using a motion stage (here, a laser cutter with the laser disabled) to guide the camera's built-in panoramic photo function, it's possible to take very long "photos" with substantial ultimate resolution, far in excess of the camera's native resolution.
Come make your own gadget, robot or wearable art with Arduino at Tam Makers!
We hosted a number of maker classes and workshops for adults and teens in our makerspace at Tam High School. During our Arduino 101 classes and ‘You Can Make It’ workshops, participants learned to build new projects using the popular Arduino boards, with guidance from our staff and other community members.
Many of our members are experienced makers, who are happy to share what they know. Some of the cool maker projects they built together include a graceful robot spider, an eagle god with creepy eyes, an Arduino-powered garage opener, a Wifi server on a chip, and more.
If you are interested in creating your own maker project with the help of others, join our Maker Clubs on Wednesday evenings from 6 to 9pm in the woodshop at Tam High School in Mill Valley.
Learn more here:
www.tammakers.org/you-can-make-it/
View more photos of You Can Make It:
www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/albums/72157670867561896
View more photos of Tam Makers:
www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/albums/72157660433218276
Learn more about Tam Makers:
Come make your own gadget, robot or wearable art at Tam Makers!
We started a new ‘open shop’ program called ‘You Can Make It’, to help you create your own maker project with our community. This workshop for adults and teens takes place on Wednesday evenings in our makerspace at Tam High School in Mill Valley. Our first series was held on three Wednesdays in a row: June 29th, July 6th and 13th, between 6 and 9pm.
On the first night, we helped eight participants plan their projects, prepare their materials and develop new skills. They then built their projects the following weeks, with guidance from instructors and other participants.
Here are examples of projects they worked on: a garage door opener, an animated owl, an engraving, solar-powered lights, a theremin, a wooden frame, an illuminated art piece and more. They used a wide range of tools to build them, from Arduino boards to our laser cutter, oscilloscope, and radio transmitters and solar-power technology.
One of the great benefits of this open shop program is that you get a lot more than just access to tools: you join a community of makers who like to make things together and help each other. On that first night, we had three mentors on hand to coach participants: Geo Monley, Fabrice Florin and Donald Day, who also teach at Tam Makers.
Participants seemed to enjoy this ‘You Can Make It’ open shop and told us they got a lot from it. This is one of our first maker workshops at Tam Makers, and we’re really happy that it is going well; we look forward to offering more open shop sessions in the fall.
Learn more about You Can Make It:
www.tammakers.org/you-can-make-it/
View more photos of You Can Make It:
www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/albums/72157670867561896
View more photos of Tam Makers:
www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/albums/72157660433218276
Learn more about Tam Makers:
Adam Cecchetti wanted a chess set and he wanted it now so he rapid prototyped one using inkscape to design it and a lasercutter to cut it out of acrylic.
We had a blast at the first meetup for Tam Makers, our new makerspace in Mill Valley. We hosted this free event at the wood shop at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley on June 8, 2016.
A diverse group of people came to the visit the shop, learn about our classes and discuss how to grow our maker community. Participants ranged from experienced artists, technologists, makers and woodworkers, to people interested in learning new skills, as well as high school and middle school students and their parents.
We opened the shop at 6pm and folks started to connect right away, checking out some of our demos, showing off recent projects and touring the space. At 7pm, we gave a presentation on Tam Makers, and talked about our first courses, meetups and tools for adults and youth. We then discussed these programs as a group and received some really helpful feedback.
Most people were very interested in participating in Tam Makers and using the makerspace regularly. They also liked the mix of classes, ranging from maker art to technology and woodworking. Some people signed up for classes on the spot and most wanted to join more meetups. Many offered to volunteer as well. One person said this event had a great community feeling, unlike more commercially motivated makerspaces.
We’re really happy that this first meetup went so well and that so many folks want to participate actively. We look forward to collaborating with our new maker friends very soon!
Learn more about Tam Makers:
Learn more about this Welcome Meetup: