Category Archives: CNC

Screeching Cat Railing

Posted on by Royce

CNC Cutout of screeching cat inserted into porch railing

Recently we completely re-built our aging 2nd story porch. During the process I took the opportunity to add a little flair courtesy of the makerspace’s CNC Router. The idea was to place an emblem into the railing of the porch as decoration. After thinking about the emblem I’d want I decided that I’d never be happy with just one, so I incorporated spring hinges (look carefully below the cat in the photo) that allow me to pull back and replace the emblem at will with ease. With that done the only thing to do was decide on the first emblem. I decided on seasonal/occasion emblems.

Rich showed me a great site with free CNC artwork, some of which was Halloween themed. I downloaded that artwork, selected the screeching cat and had the CNC router cut the cat out of a 2′x2′ plywood. I installed the cat as part of the porch railing as you can see in the photo.  I’m now looking to round up a turkey for Thanksgiving, a snow man for winter, etc.

During the design process TomG had the bright idea to shine a light through the cutout. So I took a high brightness LED out of a malfunctioning flashlight and attached it to some sheet metal on a malleable aluminium boom. The result is that I now have a screeching cat projected down onto the sidewalk below. (It’s too dim for me to capture on camera)

I’m really looking forward to cutting out more shapes on the CNC Router!

Fun with 3D

Posted on by Pete Prodoehl

Milwaukee Makerspace 3D Egg

Here’s a recent Egg-Bot experiment, putting the Milwaukee Makerspace logo on an egg… in 3D!!!

Well, it’s not really 3D exactly, as I just plotted with blue, then again with red, and the fact that registration isn’t perfect makes it look like 3D printing. But you know, we do have a box full of 3D glasses at the space, so maybe we should test it out.

BarCampEgg

I also made this egg for BarCampMadison, which happened this passed weekend. The Sector67 guys were there, and gave a session on 3D printers which included the RepRap, and the MakerBot. Speaking of the MakerBot, we’ll be doing a demo of it this week Thursday, September 1st, 2011 at the space. The demo will start around 7:30, and it’s open to the public, so come on down. You can also RSVP on Facebook if you like.

Project Roundup 2011-01-27

Posted on by BrantH

Here’s a brief synopsis of two projects currently underway.

Ron is leading the construction of a CNC router.  A workpiece will rest on two platforms, salvaged from a defunct laser cutter, and stepper motors will drive them in the X and Y-axes.  Another stepper motor will move the a router up and down in the Z-axis from a mount above the work.  When complete, the device will be able to produce 3-D objects out of wood and some light metals.  So far, the two heavy platforms have been installed on a wooden frame and Ron is busy working on a carriage that the router will mount to so it can travel in the Z-axis.

Here we see Adam testing his latest creation.  Using an Arduino board, he has built a device that registers a ‘hit’ whenever a magnetic pellet strikes a sensor. The ultimate goal is to build a vest of sensors, lights, and buzzers that airsoft enthusiasts can wear.  Whenever a gamer is shot, it will light up and make noise.  Other possibilities include real-time score keeping and ways of recording who shot who, where, and how often during games.

More next time!