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Makers Central 2018 in Birmingham

05.20.2018 by rich // Leave a Comment

We were lucky enough to head over to England for the first Makers Central show in Birmingham in May 2018. @sliver_hand and I flew over on Thursday, to be ready in time for the Saturday and Sunday show. Amazingly, we packed an entire CNC machine in two suitcases, as checked luggage, and managed to man-handle it through the London Tube, as well as onto a train to Birmingham! It was exhausting!

The Makers Central show was excellent – an amazing accomplishment for a first-year event. Nick Zammeti did an amazing job organizing the event. We had HUGE 10×20 foot booth – about 4 times bigger then we needed – but we got set up quickly on Friday, and managed to create some test hockey pucks. Yup, we were two Canadian lads, in England, carving people’s names into hockey pucks! Special thanks to @Vectric, makers of the V-Carve Pro software we used to make the pucks – who managed to snag 200 hockey pucks for us at the show!

The event was great, with really good crowds – and just tons and tons of YouTube stars, like Laura Kampf and Jimmy Diresta, and about a hundred more! It was excellent hanging out in the hotel bar after the show, with all the folks from the show.

When the show finished, we headed down to London, touring the London Science Museum, a special tour of the Goldsmith’s Company, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as dinners with some London friends.

@silver_hand and I talk about the trip in Episode 17 of the Off Hours Podcast.

 

Categories // Makers Central, Making Pucks

A really great podcast: Off Hours

05.03.2018 by rich // Leave a Comment

A good friend of mine, Chris Manning, creates an excellent podcast called Off Hours.

Chris and his podcast partner Jon Edwards, release new episodes regularly, covering watch making, design, 3D printing, jewelry design and creation, along with interesting stories of their world travels. They can even make 10 minutes of talking about erasers interesting!

The show is slickly produced and edited, and is a delight to listen to. 

I particularly like the extensive show notes, which make it easy to follow up on all the things they talk about in each episode.

Highly recommended.

Categories // Uncategorized

On the way to Makers Central in Birmingham!

05.03.2018 by rich // 1 Comment

The bags are packed, and we’re ready to go! Chris Manning and I are heading to Birmingham for Makers Central with the puck carving machine. Our thanks to Vectric who have been a fantastic help to us, even buying 250 pucks for us to carve at the show! I use Vectric’s Aspire software on just about every project in the shop.

 

 

 

It has been interesting  figuring out how to pack an entire CNC machine into a suitcase or two! No room left for things like clothes.

I also had to contend with the 240V power in England. Luckily, all the power supplies that I used in the mill are 110/240V. I tested by making a batch of pucks here, with the machine plugged into a 240V outlet – and I found the ONE switch that I need to flip on one of the power supplies to make it work at the higher voltage. Luckily, just a fuse blew, and it was an easy fix.

Our flight leaves late tonight, getting into London at 5:30am. Then we make our way to Birmingham by train. We are scheduled set up our booth at 5pm Friday. We probably should have scheduled an earlier departure…

It’s going to be a long day on Friday, and a long weekend! 

But, it will be great to meet some cool people like Jimmy Diresta, April Wilkerson, Bob from I Like To Make Stufff, and Laura Kampf. I’ve made pucks for most of the big Youtube stars that will be at the show.

We’ll be posting lots of photos on my shiny new Instagram while we are at the show.

Categories // Uncategorized Tags // Makers Central

A Walnut Slab table – with 20 legs!

05.03.2018 by rich // Leave a Comment

My company has a cool tradition where every employee gets a pair of red Converse All-Stars when they start. We also give a pair to every customer!

IMG 4798

And, we needed a coffee table for a small meeting room at our office.

This was the result!

IMG 9320

I made two videos about the construction of this table. The first shows the whole process of building the table. The second shows how I used Vectric Aspire to make 20 soles to hold the shoes on the legs of the table.

The walnut slab started out like this – roughly finished at the KJP Select Hardwoods shop. I had to sand it to a nice smooth 320 grit finish, and remove all the debris and loose bits from the unfinished edges of the slab.

IMG 9311

I used Vectric Aspire to drill the holes for the legs. The dowels were all slightly different in size, so I had to make 5 different hole sizes to accommodate the differences.

IMG 9305

I finished the top with Rubio Monocoat, which is a two-part oil finish. It’s very easy to use – you mix the two parts, then apply the finish, and wipe it off after 5 minutes. There is no point in doing more coats, or letting the finish sit longer. The finish drys in 24 hours, and is completely sealed after a week. The finish is designed for use on floors as well, so it holds up well on a table.

IMG 9470

Here are some more views of the process and the finished table.

IMG 93150T5A02030T5A0204IMG 9319

Categories // CNC Router, Woodworking Tags // Aspire, Converse, V-Carve Pro, Vectric, Video, Walnut Slab

Falcon Heavy Test Launch

02.15.2018 by rich // Leave a Comment

I was lucky to attend the first launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral on February 6th, 2018. I have a yearly membership at the Kennedy Space Center, so I get early notification of ticket sales for viewing launches. I got a notification email at 8am, and bought tickets for the “Feel the heat” viewing area immediately. I flew down to Florida the day before the launch, then got up at 6am to drive to Kennedy Space Center. 

The line-ups started as soon as I left highway I-95. I was immediately stuck in a large traffic jam, all the way to Kennedy. There was a pretty big line to get into Kennedy, then once within there was a huge, really poorly managed lineup to get on the buses that take you to the “Feel the heat” viewing stands. This long lineup took about 2-3 hours to get through. Really not well planned at all.

The bus to the “Feel the heat” viewing stands took a long route – this was planned to limit crowds – stopping at the Space Shuttle landing runway, a display of an airplane and a helicopter, and finally arriving at the Saturn V display building at about 11:30am. They were serving lunch – but there were only dregs available when I arrived. Hot-plate after hot-plate of empty food.

The launch was due to occur at 1:30pm, but was delayed due to high altitude winds. The launch was repeatedly delayed throughout the afternoon, leading up to a final launch time set for 3:45pm. This meant hours of waiting at the viewing stands. I found an area with some shade (right by a rest room!, and waited there in a folding chair I had bought the day before)

Finally, the countdown went under the 2 hour mark, then 1 hour, and crept closer to zero. I found a seat in an empty section of the viewing stands, in the first row, right in the center of the whole viewing area. The stands were not crowded – plenty of space to find seats, right up to launch.

And then, we were in the final minutes, then seconds until launch. And the clock counted down from 10, 9, 8… Around 6 seconds, we could see a huge cascade of water flowing down to the launch pad. The water is used to cushion the blow, and absorb vibrations. At T-3 the main engines ignited, and huge clouds of billowing white steam could be seen. It seemed like forever, but then, at T-0, the clamps released, and the rocket started to rise. It was a tense moment, because I have seen many launches aborted, even up to this point, but then the rocket started to rise. And it cleared the tower, and kept going. It was incredibly bright. It almost hurt my eyes. But, you can’t look away. The rocket rose, quickly, accelerating, and before long was in the clouds, then behind the clouds. It even disappeared for a while, behind a dense cloud, but then broke free, and continued upwards.

It takes a long time for the sound to cross the 4 miles to the viewing area, but then it does, when the rocket is surprisingly high in its climb. The sound is subtle at first, and then builds into an unearthly sound of shear power. A strong low frequency rumble, and a crackling roar combine into a sound of power. What can only be described as incredible power. And, you feel it. A rumbling in your chest, shaking your very core.

After a few minutes, the side-cores separated from the central core, then boosted back towards the cape. The two flames were easily visible in the bright sky, though hundreds of miles away. And then the side cores disappeared, invisible to the naked eye when there is no flame.

Some time later, the side cores were visible again, as they did their re-entry burn, and then they disappeared again, into the blue sky. And then an exclamation from the crowd of 3000 viewers, and then following hundreds of pointing hands, the side boosters were visible again, plummeting from the sky at 1700 miles per hour. We were lucky to see them falling like that. As they approach the earth, at a surprisingly low altitude, they begin their final landing burn, visible as one, then two points of light. In an extremely lucky coincidence, I happened to be sitting at one of the few seats that had a clear view between the Vehicle Assembly Building, and a building to it’s left, of the two landing zones. The side cores, with engines firing, landed exactly between the two buildings, and touched down. 

It’s after they land that you hear the sonic booms – 3 per core, and then you hear the roar of the landing burns. Spectacular. The landing is as amazing as the launch. SpaceX has created a very impressive launch system.

After this excitement, people begin to gather their belongings and head off. They’re serving Champagne behind the stands, and are very picky about one ticket per drink. I just headed back to the Saturn V building, and got into the lineup within the building, under the enormous Saturn V rocket. Another 45 minute lineup to get on a bus, and head back to Kennedy Space Center. And then line ups to get to the car, and out of the lot, and lineups all the way out to I-95 and back home.

Here are some photos I took – not great, but they set the scene. I wanted to experience the launch more than photograph it, so the photos are secondary to me. I also recorded a video of the launch with my iPhone – I’ll upload that soon. [Read more…]

Categories // SpaceX

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