I’ve been experimenting with different materials for small electronic project enclosures, and lately I’ve been into using scrap 2×4’s. Something about the look I really like.
A quick how to can be found here.
I got a cheap electric grill for the heating element of the build. Striped it down and ready to try some tests.
I CNC’d some MDF for the vacuum table part of the build. Glued and sandwiched it all together. There is a hole at the bottom that fits the hose on our shop vac.
Table before sanding.
I’ve been meaning to build a vacuum former for a long time. The first step is the Carrier Frame, the part that holds the plastic.
I made it from 1″ angle aluminum (1/16″ thick), 90 degree flat angle brackets, a piano hinge cut to length, and some counter sink screws and nuts.
More to come.
It’s all kind of a blur, but the DUMBO Arts Festival went great. Thanks to everybody who came out to see the Bots.
A bunch of the Robots will be on display at the DUMBO Arts Festival next week.
I’ll be showing along with the other ITP Residents, we’re calling it Office Hours.
Location
111 Front Street, Suite 216, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Schedule
Friday, Sept. 26 6:00pm to 9:00pm
Saturday, Sept. 27 12:00pm to 9:00pm
Sunday, Sept. 28 12:00pm to 6:00pm
Awhile back I made some props for No Strings, a group who weave urgent messages into puppet films and puppet play. No Strings works with some of the masters of the original Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock, reaching children in conflicts, disasters and poverty around the world.
One of the props was the Return Button that featured prominently in “Will This Be Your Life?”. It was a fun project for a great cause.
Things are fine in Daisy Johnson’s life, but growing up offers so many temptations. When walking home from school with her friend Frances and little brother Daniel, who she’s charged with looking after, she is flattered when Clifford, a guy on a motorbike, wants to talk to her. Ritah and Tanya are smoking cigarettes, watching. They’re the cool girls, slightly older. Daisy wants to be like them. When Kibing appears and offers her the amazing opportunity to choose between two futures, represented by Clifford and Frances and Daniel, she doesn’t hesitate. Luckily, she’s given a magical Return Button: at any point she can press it and return to the present with no harm done. It’s a good thing. At first, things seem great. Daisy grows up fast, smoking, drinking, hanging out in bars, and doing things better left until later in life. Then she gets pregnant. Worse, she has lost the Return Button! Much, much worse, she finds she is HIV positive, even though Clifford seemed so healthy. With only Clifford to turn to, she arrives to find him disgusted, flinging her old school bag outside. The Return Button! Daisy rushes back to the present, and to Frances and Daniel. She tells all her friends her story, and how she had a Return Button – but they wouldn’t.
Guess I’ve always been making magic buttons. Also, you haven’t lived until you get chewed out by a Muppet.
Lately, I’ve been making a lot of robot chest plates and bottom plates. I’ve been experimenting with modifying steel electrical plates, technically called universal crossbars. Machining, bending, and modifying them. Typically, I get mine from Grand Brass (and this one).
So far, I like the results.
I ran a Robot Recipes Building Class at ITP Camp last week. It was a of fun, very interesting to see all of the different designs.
I ran a toolbox building session at ITP Camp on Father’s Day. I CNC’d a bunch of parts and showed parents and kids how to put them together.
