- What’s Happening Now – December 2021
- I finished, the block-head/mosaic head project, and it came out looking great! A lot of nice comments on IG about it.
A scanned image of Rich, manipulated in Rhino and Grasshopper to obtain a height map, and then created by cutting quite a lot of small blocks of wood. - I mounted the logo from the sign for a company I founded (Ingenius.com) in the back corner of my shop, above the CNC router. It even glows!
Repurposed the old InGenius logo from a sign into a cool background thing above the CNC router. - I updated the sign outside our studio with a weird kind of insider message for some friends who drive by regularly.
- Fixing the floor! Not at all exciting, but a nice thing to tackle. When we originally moved in, we covered the whole shop floor with hydraulic cement, in order to level it, and then we covered that with garage floor epoxy. Unfortunately, the cement layer didn’t stick to the underlying floor well, and began to chip off, leaving large ugly patches of floor. This week we went around the 3000 square foot shop area and chipped off as much of the cement layer as possible, and then applied the floor paint directly to the underlying 50 year old garage floor. We’re about 1/2 way done, and things look a lot better already.
- Updated the sign outside our studio with a Talking Heads song reference. I like to think of people humming along with the song after they pass our studio!
- One last thing with the old InGenius sign… I put the “In” up on the wall at one end of the shop and I’ve wired it up so that it automatically illuminates when I arrive at the shop.
Rich looking at the In sign. The sign turns on automatically while Rich is at the studio. Rich looks oddly demonic.
- What’s Happening Now – November 2021
- Continuing on the Bell project – bought a pretty large (22 inch/56cm) cast iron bell this week.
- I’m switching from the Raspberry Pi Pico to either a full Raspberry Pi 4, or the new RPi Zero W which just came out this week. It has 5x the processing power of the old Zero, and they use the same RPi bus, so peripherals work better. I’ve got MQTT running, as well as a display. Another advantage is that the code is more compatible with OS X, where I develop.
- I’ve been setting up my new MacBook Pro as well, and I’m annoyed that Dropbox doesn’t work on it yet.
- I’ve been doing some background work on the QuickDraw project, playing with different stains on pine, and seeing how it machines in the CNC Router.
- Playing more with Rhino and Grasshopper
- Working on software architecture and electronics for the Bells Project
- Updated the sign outside our studio to read “It’s very squirrel nut zippers”, which is the name of a band.
- A quick project: I took a scan of my head, brought it into Rhino, processed it with Grasshopper and a spreadsheet, and then cut a bunch of blocks to match the calculated heights. Finally, assembled it into a grid. I think it looks like a robot.
- What’s Happening Now – October 2021
- I’ve been working with RhinoCAD again, which is like visiting an old friend (or enemy really) since it’s the first CAD software I used extensively for design. It’s nice because it leads you to more organic designs instead of square blocky designs. I’ve been exploring Grasshopper as well, which allows you to create parametric and mathematically driven designs which can be cut out on the CNC Router. It’s been an interesting diversion…
- Solidworks has an interesting deal for Makers. I might check that out.
- I redid the “Doorbell” sign which points people to the humongous doorbell button outside our studio. The original was done in cheap baltic birch plywood, which was not weatherproof at all. The new one is done in cedar, which will hopefully last a bit longer. It’s funny that delivery drivers can’t find our doorbell.
The new doorbell sign outside our door - I got a Prusa MK3S+ 3D printer, which I’m using to prototype some designs and ideas. It works well. 3D printing has improved a lot.
- More work on some methods for creating patterns using computer algorithms. In addition to using Rhino/Grasshopper I’ve been using the Processing computer language, which is designed for artists and creatives. There’s a web-based version of Processing called P5, which works in javascript on a web page.
Panels created using Rhino/Grasshopper and Processing. - I had big concrete pad installed at our back door. Our forklift got stuck in the loose, crumbling asphalt a few months ago when trying to enter the garage door back there. The concrete will provide a stable surface to move equipment and machines around.
Concrete pad at the back door of the studio - I refined the random circle algorithm for generating panels. Now it generates fewer circles at first, and grows them, then adds another batch of circles are grows them all. Doing it all at once meant that there were no larger circles. There’s a greater variety now. It deletes small circles that can’t be cut with the cutter in the CNC Router.
Generated algorithmically using processing (P5 variant) in a browser. Not the full image… - I added a page to the site with a gallery of projects that we’ve worked on.
- Got the Chain Drive Clock going more smoothly! Turns out there was a broken coupler on one of the sprocket drives. This provided enough resonance in the system that the Clearpath Servo motor would howl noisily and couldn’t be calibrated. It’s nice to have this clock working well again.
Clock built with servos and a large chain drive. - Back into the thick of the programming for the Bells project. A lot of Python on a server and Raspberry Pi. Lots of low level driver stuff at this point, trying to prove out the hardware and make sure it’s sufficient for the needs of the project.
- What’s Happening Now – Sept 2021
- Back from some travels out west. Built a cool lamp using the outline of my brother’s face.
Lamp fashioned from 16 profile images of my brother’s face. - @theGrantAlexander needed a Tesla logo for a project of his. I cut it for him on the CNC – the whole thing was just over 48″ tall. It came out great – I think it would look cool backlit.
- I ordered a Prusa 3D printer (MK3S+). It is really great actually. One of those “it just works” printers. 3D printers have come so far from the first ones – I used to have to spend hours tuning the machine before I could print something. Now, just walk up to it, and print – and it works! My first printer was this: Printrbot
- I updated the sign in front of our studio: By Grabthar’s Hammer!
- Back from some travels out west. Built a cool lamp using the outline of my brother’s face.
- What’s Happening Now – August 2021
- I’m taking a bit of time off in August – There won’t be as many updates as normal.
- Working on a big improvement to the shop compressed air supply. A proper air dryer is in progress, as well as automatic tank drainage.
- Working on tiles for the Quicktime project.
- Bells are arriving, which is interesting.
- Breadboarding a fairly complex Raspberry Pi Pico hardware system, and then to write some code. Excited to try MQTT on Raspberry Pi.
- Updated the sign outside our studio: Make Art Every Day
- Working on a silly little lamp. The Andy Lamp.
- Writing a bunch of code these days.