Sign for the laser cutter room

Sign for the laser cutter room

Andrew
The sign before lifting it from the laser. The stencil font kept was perfect for this type of sign.

In a shared space like Nova Labs, it is important to leave things better than you found them (you should read the listserv thread this past week about the router table being left messy).

The laser room suffers its fair share of mess, so I made a reminder sign for the wall above the workstation.

If it reminds even a few people to vacuum up their little dot cutout debris or gets them to put back the key, I guess it will be worth it.

All of the letters left over after lifting up the sign.
People always forget to lift up the honeycomb bed and clean up their little circle cutouts.

 

Wood milling demo (video)

Wood milling demo (video)

Andrew

A big log needs a big saw

On January 16, 2016, Nova Labs members were treated to a wood milling demonstration at Belle Grey Farm in Upperville, VA. The 51HP diesel powered, hydraulically controlled portable saw mill ran through the wood with ease.

Members were shown how entire trees were rough cut down to boards. The boards were then put into a solar kiln to dry for at least several months and sometimes as much as several years. Once dried the boards make it to the shop where they are used to make equestrian jumps.

Photos and source video clips courtesy of Fred Briggs. Video by me for the Nova Labs Facebook page.

 

Over-achieving embroidered party favors for kid’s birthday

Over-achieving embroidered party favors for kid’s birthday

Andrew

 

Custom embroidered wash cloths
Homemade, personalized, embroidered wash cloths were definitely overkill for a 2-year-old’s birthday celebration at school.

As a relatively new parent several years ago, I was shocked to learn that not only would the birthday kid bring cupcakes or a treat or whatever to school, but they would also bring party favors for the class. Presents for the other kids? And we’re not even hosting a party to get presents in return?

Our little one had a birthday later in the year, so we had several months of bringing home goodie bags of candy and small plastic toys; like we needed any more of those things… I wanted to do better. Up the ante. Go overboard.

We had recently purchased a new-to-us sewing machine with embroidery attachment, and I thought this was a great opportunity to go overboard with gifts for her classmates. Instead of junk, how about something personalized and useful? Every kid needs baths, and washcloths would be easy to embroider on since they are sturdy (I think I used a wash-away stabilizer just to be sure).

I came up with a design using an outline of a duck, and a font that was built into the digitizing software I had. It would embroider quickly since it had a relatively low stitch count.

Was it worth it? Meh…

Despite getting the washcloths for cheap at Costco, it still took a ton of time. But I’m sure they got more use than a plastic lizard, bouncy ball, or tiny rainbow Slinky, so at least there’s that!

Embroidered wash cloths and Brother ULT2003D sewing/embroidery machine
Assortment of embroidered wash cloths for a 2 year old’s birthday party/goody bag.

 

Slotted Christmas Ornament test

Andrew
Finished Christmas ornament
Finished and assembled Christmas ornament

Last year our team made (well, I made, but the team hosted the decorating party) slot-together Christmas trees for our internal clients.

We wanted to see if there was something else to make them in 2015, so we brainstormed over email. Someone presented a sketch of a Christmas ornament shaped item, and knowing I can whip out this sort of thing I went ahead and made the prototype. Plus, I hadn’t actually cut anything from this particular shade of red 1/8″ acrylic, so it was a good test.

In the end we didn’t do anything because of heavy workload in December, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

Oh, and I hope the Brand folks at work don’t see sad Inky made from the scrap cutouts. It is definitely not on-brand!

Cut out and waiting assembly.
Do not leave the extra pieces with a designer late at night.
Remains of the protective tape.
In disarray.

 

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.” 🙂