B.Light Design

I’m working on a pivoting mechanism that will have 6 positions, each position is held in place by magnets. I want to get the right “magnet feel”, not too much holding pressure, not too little. Also satisfying and fun to operate. Maybe a little addictive too.

I know the strength of a magnet can be measured, but I haven’t found much out there on quantifying how a magnetic connection feels. So my Magnet Feel Scale from one to ten: ONE being — getting your fingers pinched between two rare earth magnets, and TEN — the addictive snapping into place of the iPad Smart Cover.

Small button box, milled wooden housing, acrylic control panel, and 10 “clicky” buttons. It doesn’t actually do too much, but is surprisingly fun to play with.

Another CNC’d wooden car with some pink acrylic sides.

I’ve been working on combining a vacuum former and a CNC. The goal is that the machine can mill the buck, form the plastic shell, and then mill the shell — all in one. The hope is that some interesting parts can be created with the machine.

I’m still in early stages and the rig is basically a Frankenstein build of various kits, but I think it’s starting to go somewhere.

Mocked up a quick proof of concept for a kinetic piece. Mostly milled delrin, steel, and a stepper motor.

Canlactus, devourer of worlds.

My latest tin can toy is based on Galactus. The main feature are the antennas on the side of the helmet. And the parts that connect the antenna fins to the head turned out to be the trickiest pieces. I made a jig for the mill so I could slot the aluminum. Then I turned them to the correct size on the lathe.

Still experimenting with these simple wooden peg dolls.

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Finally got my 4 bar linkage “Block Pusher” proof of concept working.

Linkages are hard.  I think they are powerful mechanisms, I just find them difficult to visualize and time consuming to iterate. I’ve been thinking about a device that could turn and push a small wooden block over and over again, and I fear a four bar linkage may be the answer.

I saw a great video from Disney Research on creating animated mechanical characters. Their software appears to be proprietary, but it was a great starting point. Then I found an incredibly useful 4 bar linkage simulator from Mechanical Expressions. Thanks to this simulator, I quickly dialed in the desired motion and got my linkage dimensions.

Drew up some designs.

And milled some parts.

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A post shared by Ben Light (@blight_design) on Jul 23, 2020 at 7:54am PDT

The first prototype is a hand cranked 4 bar linkage built from aluminum and delrin parts. Linkages need to be built well in order to operate correctly. There can’t be too much slop in the mechanism and precision counts. Hopefully, the second prototype will actually move a block around.

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A post shared by Ben Light (@blight_design) on Jul 24, 2020 at 11:47am PDT