Friday, August 26, 2011

When putting things in the blender

I started using Blender again this summer with surprising success. The new 2.5x layout and UI is much better IMO.  I just found this note about the keyboard layout and mouse theory for Blender.  I was actually trying to find a way to fix manifold problems in blender (water-tightness) after seeing people having issues with it on thingiverse.  That was when I found a tutorial from Shapeways cover exactly this issue.

Have a feeling this may prove useful.


Monday, August 22, 2011

PCB heatbed

Here is a very clever use of a PCB. You an buy them off the shelve and cut with a knife if you have to. I will probably use the SUMPOD itself to etch a PCB to make it all uniform an pretty. I can probably use an Pyrogel® XT Blanket (aerogel) underneath to direct the heat and hope fully lower power consumption.
A hot end I saw recently on thingiverse prompded the idea to use a aerogel thermal insulation to concentrate the heat and keep the exterior cool (as in not burning). Someone had even tried to use aerogel before and abandoned it. Will have to find a adequate seal to keep fine grained aerogel dust from the environment.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Wooden clocks, oh my!!

Clayton Boyer sure has been keeping himself busy designing interesting gizmos. He is selling design plans for some amazing clockwork based contraptions, including a few orrery designs. I'll have to secure my self one of these designs one day and try to print them. Or better yet cut it from wood. These constructions look gorgeous when built by the loving woodworker. And the mechanics are nothing short of spectacular.

How about a printable Orrery?

I just though of a wonderful project for my 3D printing adventures (still waiting for it).

I would love to build an orrery.

I found and excellent page discussing the construction of an orrery with diagrams, 3d sketches and even part numbers. These would serve as a great starting point to create a printable version.

Hakkavélin

Andri Mar told me about a local hacker group called Hakkavélin. They are currently in the process of building a pursa reprap. While I have hear of their existence I obviously didn't know a thing about their work. I'll have to make a point in checking them out and finding out if my endeavors have a place there. Meetings on Tuesday nights.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

My consumables are here!

I got my consumables today. 4 spools of PLA and ABS plastics along with a couple of steppers and drivers. Some kapton tape too as it seems to be useful. The printer will be arriving soon. I shall have to prepare the shrine and get me some paint to make it look pretty. That entails picking a color : S What to do?

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Waiting for my 3d printer

Can't wait to get my hands on my pretty Sumpod 3D printer I bought. Have been keeping myself busy dusting skeletons from my closet, playing around with OpenSCAD and sourcing some plastic to stuff into my 3D printer. Ended up buying from GRRF.de. It was the cost of shipping that was the deciding factor really, dropped all kinds of goodies in my basket while I was at it :P

So I did have a blog somewere

Second post after 4 years. Not bad. Can't claim to be an avid blogger. Well I got my old 'hoppy room' back after quite some years. Feels good to have some space for my projects and my self :) I'm currently working on my wheeled quadruped robot called Stikklar. A bioloids based robot inspired by a quadruped seen here by some Korean guy. Haven´t ever seen anything about that robot before or since. Pretty neat to say the least. I'll try to post some pictures.